u/thaeyo reminded me that I probably should update y'all about this Schiit. So here we go!

Schiit did require an order #, thankfully my Amazon one worked just fine. All in all it started off good, the CSR I talked with made sure to notate that my headphones were damaged and that, if at all possible, I would like to exchange my Heresy for a Heretic since I was afraid of this happening again. They tested and found my Heresy to be malfunctioning (wonder what gave them that impression) and gave me.... Another Heresy, as you can see pictured above. Really annoying but I secretly expected no less. After receiving it back and seeing I was given a Heresy, I contacted Schiit's customer service again to ask if there was any way I can exchange this and was told, quote 'I'm sorry but we do not have a trade in/buy back program'. Aka, if you bought a Heresy and it blew up due to our poor design - that's on you. Not gonna lie, I'm still a little pissed about that.

My headphones leave me a little bewildered. Despite noting it in my RMA comment and even having their CSR note it too, I am uncertain if they actually did anything for my headphones. The only acknowledgement of my headphones is a little note that states what was received in the box and what was sent back. There is nothing else said about them. Before I sent them off, I noted that there was a channel imbalance and radio interference in the right ear cup. I will admit that the channel imbalance may have been my hearing, it took far longer than I would have thought to recover from what happened. I do have partial hearing loss in my right ear, however either through healing or compensation it has gotten much much better than it was. So the channel imbalance may have been my hearing. However what I do know for certain is that there is still radio interference in the right ear cup. I attempted to fix this by adding ferrite cores onto the cord but that did nothing, so it's the internal wiring itself that is no longer shielded. As such, I've sent it off to AKG for repair. I'm hoping they can do something but at this point I'm no longer holding my breath. I'm probably going to have buy another pair of K553's.

So in summary, Schiit is Shit. I'm severely disappointed in their handling of the matter and will probably never buy any of their products again. They refused to do anything but the bare minimum and apparently don't care about their customers. Furthermore, I now have an amp that I am not going to use. I would sell it to re-coup some of my money but I don't want the same thing happening to someone else.

Also, anyone have any idea's on a good amp to buy in the sub-$200 price range? Not a fan of the Atom's design but at this point it may not be as nice looking as the Heresy but at least my hearing is safe!!

Thanks to all the people who were concerned for my hearing btw!! Doing much better now, high frequency noise is still hit or miss in my right ear but thank God everything is no longer dramatically shifted to the left anymore!

Stay safe everyone!

I believe they recently updated their Heresy with DC protection, along with a price update.

Not sure if you got one of those, or how one would tell.

My Heresy blew up a pair of IEMs. It was just gone, probably because of how thin the voice coil wires are.

All of their non late 2022 products are utter garbage in terms or protection. It took them 12 years to fix their fundamental design failure. Time will tell if they actually fixed the issue or it was worded just to save face.

Thanks OP! Glad your ears are better, I didn’t read all the comments but did anyone recommend wearing earplugs at night to help your ears recover? Might be especially helpful if your house has a lot of background noise.

Needless to say, I won’t be buying a Schiit amp or certainly not used! There’s too many reports of this, meanwhile I can google “Atom amp dead or blown” and not get a single result. All that power is tempting but damn I don’t want to risk my cans or my ears.

Edit: I emailed Schiit and confirmed: they’ll only cover damage to other equipment for the original purchaser. So if you buy used Schiit you’ll be risking your other equipment.

Yea, the new Heretic model has protection - I have the Heresy sadly (easiest way to tell is the Heretic has the gain switch on the front, Heresy in the back). I believe it! I plugged a pair of earbuds in while I was trying to figure out if it was the Heresy or not and it got insanely hot in a short order. Had it been plugged in much longer they would have melted!

So the verdict is still out on their new stuff?

I was looking to buy used Schiit and their CS said they wouldn’t cover damage to headphones without proof of purchase.

Are their DACs reliable?

Ah, they gave it a new name. That's helpful.

Replacing your Heresy with a Heresy, not so much.

I don't know about yours, but mine is triggered by electrostatic discharge.

NO, they are in the same tier of bad but a tiny bit better.

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They have always been shit. They used to have terrible stuff, then they had measurabley better terrible stuff, then they had a few decent things from a terrible company.

Yeah doesn’t really matter to me. This has been an issue for years, and Schiit clearly didn’t care enough to fix it until now. A company that doesn’t care about their customers is not a company I want to buy from

I was lured in by all the Schitt stack posts on this subreddit -_-

/sigh/

You could look at the monoprice liquid spark which is around 100 usd. It has a nice knob lmao

i am not a fan of schiit. they have good warranty and their products have good value, but the quality of their amp and dacs are not so good. their amps smell like burnt plastic and their dacs are infested with QC issues

Ty! Actually that is a great idea! Thankfully my house is pretty quiet but I wish I would have thought of that sooner! Still might do it just to give my ears a rest at night!

I really want to like Schiit, their designs are great, they offer amazing power for the money, and they're inexpensive. However it appears they cut corners to make that happen. Agreed!! The more I think about, the more I lean to just getting an Atom. Wish I had sooner tbh!

Such a shame to hear that, of course hearing health is top priority. I had a 3 year old Heresy with no issues. I do recommend JDS Atom Amp if you are looking for another amp, ifi zen can is also a good choice.

Yeah Schiit really is Shit. JDS Labs is better in every way, especially for international buyers

been meaning to get an entry level combo for my dt770 250oms

Oh, yes it does. People forget about the liquid spark. It's a solid $100 amp.

Oof. I’ve been mostly laying off my Heresy since all these reports have started coming out. I can survive damaging a pair of cans but I really do not want to damage my hearing.

Truth in advertising with the name I guess

If you’re in the US get jds labs atom

/u/Gaurdian23 - Jumping off the recommendation for the Liquid Spark, it's available for $80 through the Monoprice eBay store:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394296268204?epid=16026523499

can i ask is it the akg k553 mkii ?

Wow, what a crappy situation. Thank you for the detailed information. Sad to say (as an owner of a Heresy) that I have now read about a few things like this. Mine has been working well but I am not sure if this is something that it either has or doesn't have, or happens over time.

I saw the "Heretic" on their site around 4 minutes after I completed the purchase of my Heresy (in truth it was a day or so, but...). The first thing that hit me is that it has the headphone jack and volume control separated from each other. That is so far the only regular annoyance I am having with mine - is that they are so close to each other. No idea why they thought that was a good idea.

I always thought Schiit was the posterchild for good headphone amps, so this thread has been eye opening indeed

When I was looking for a New DAC/AMP I noticed that only Schiit had complaints about the AMP killing the headphones themselves. Yuck.

Fiio K5 is a beast too!

Good is not always reliable. JDS Labs and Fiio are IMO the reference for budget/midrange. Ifi Zen is good too but you need to purchase the power supply separately for high impedance headphones.

What about Topping? I'm aware they used to have an issue with a batch of L30 amps blowing headphones, but that's been long rectified.

Forgot about those, the DX3 and DX3+ are beasts.

Is anyone aware is this is also a issue on the Magni 3+ I just bought one?

If only it didn't have 2 clunky powerbricks.

Look at Chi-Fi, all of the performance without the corner cutting you get from stuff made in the US. Topping and Fiio have great options, I have a Topping A90 and Fiio K5 Pro myself.

The new Fiio K7 looks great for $199. I think it looks well worth it over the K5 Pro, balanced, much more power out of that output, much lower noise and distortion.

From Topping, the DX3 Pro+ for the same price loses the balanced but gains Bluetooth.

If you don't need the DAC portion, the Topping L30 II amp-only for $149 looks great, single ended only but 3.5W and it can even survive exploding and continue to work normally with no harm to amp or headphones.

I completely forgot about the K5, thanks!!

Thanks for the suggestions! Honestly the L30 II is actually looking pretty good right about now! I already have a DAC that I can use so it would be perfect. Looks to have great build quality and, apparently, can survive exploding lol!

If you read through the thread, it seems in the end that it was something else that "exploded" near the amp, as it has apparently no issues and no visible damage inside either. The previous generation of the L30 did have some issues, but they apparently did fix it in the II, and I believe it has DC protection so shouldn't blow up headphones at least.

Schiit was always the poster child for cheap american-made headphone amps (and overshadows JDS Labs which is the better company albeit they have less stuff)

Yea, I wish I had done my due diligence with researching the Heresy. I thought it was safe but a little while after getting it I saw several people suddenly posting about theirs exploding. Stupid me then thought it was just a bad batch!

Your right, it's not worth it. I wish Schiit would realize this and use it to their benefit, 'We care about your hearing, so if you have a Heresy you can trade it in for the safer Heretic!' however they're proving that they don't sadly.

Yes it is!

Yes it is

It depends, does your Magni+ have a gain switch on the front of it?

If yes, then it's the newer model that is suppose to have this problem fixed.

If no, then this is a potential problem for yours.

The FiiO K5 for example is kinda bad. In general, FiiO doesn't always make the best products, although plenty are fine.

The first few units of the L30 had issues, Topping recalled all of them and permanently fixed the problem. The L30 II is just a minor upgrade so you can get a L30 if it's cheaper without worry.

Sorry to hear that happened and they're being the way they are.

I would recommend:

JDS Labs Atom+

Topping L30II

Fiio K5/K7

Geshelli Labs Archel/ENOG (<-- these are extra cool bc made in USA and you can customize)

Yup I’ve got the older model gonna switch back to my other dac amp combo just so I know I won’t fry my sundaras. Thank you for making this public I hope your ears make a full recovery

Yeah, it’s a shame. Heck, even a DIY “solder this here” thing would help if that was technically possible. Most people have bought theirs directly from the company so they have our mailing addresses.