Giving these Electro Harmonix EL 34 a try.
Nice, clean sound with very pleasing mid tones and smoothed highs.
I’m very satisfied by these little guys.
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Chatted with Justin about his different models this Sunday (on a holiday no less, sorry about that Justin I’m not religious and honestly forgot) and he was super helpful in explaining what differentiates each model practically. I decided on the Mogwai and I’m really looking forward to hearing it for the first time!
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worth it just for the cool logo
Honestly that green isn’t my cup of tea. But they sound like a dream
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Hey guys, I’m a long time lurker and this is probably my only review of any audio gear, while i’m new here, but i have been in this hobby for 15 years now.
Preferences :
I like a warmer than neutral sound with a small kick in the bass, a believable sound-stage, fast transients and I have a very low tolerance for peaky treble. As much as I love detailed sound from my gear, I value musicality, tone and timbre even more.
Preferred Genre of music is - Old school rock ( think dire-straits, AC/DC and Pink floyd) & Jazz
Gears used in this testing :
Roon - Pi2AES - YGGY A1 - Jensen Isomax transformer for Bal to SE conversion - Mogwai SE running KT88 tubes - Focal Utopia/ HD650 / Yamaha HP2 ( modded ) / ZMF Atrium / ZMF Auteur/ Hifiman Edition XS/ Hifiman HE-6 / Hifiman Susvara
Build :
i ’ d like to start by saying that i’m not the first owner of this amp and i got it used from a friend back home and i don’t think he is the first owner either. So this device has been around the block for a few years and I have been using this for the last year. It is still in great shape, barely any wear and tear. The volume pot is of very high quality and I have had no issues with it being noisy or any tracking issue.
I have legitimately used this amp everyday and have plugged headphones in and out countless times - again the headphone outs are rock solid. I have never had the luxury of owning speakers so the speaker posts to the back were never used.
Right from the wooden chassis to the metal top plate and the transformers have held up very well despite the amps age.
There are also two inputs one that is coupled with a transformer and one that isn’t . the inputs can be selected with a switch to the back… all the impressions are with the transformer coupled input
There are two HP outs as well one 32 ohm tap ( used for this review) and a 300 ohm tap that i use with ZMFs alone
I have the Rev 1. And it has two hp out and a speaker out to the back which can be used as a 8ohm hp out with an adapter. The Rev two comes with 3 hp outs.
So build - built to last the end of days
Support :
Justin Webber from Ampsandsound is an absolute sweetheart. Always ready to help with any queries and tech support. No, I did not know Justin before I got the amp, I started talking to him after and he has always been kind and polite. So in this day and age where even reputed brands find ways to not honor warranty , Justin provides lifetime warranty for his products. So anyone looking to buy these can do so with the utmost confidence that shud the shit hit the fan, he isn’t gonna leave u holding the bag.
Sound :
I hesitate to talk about the sound of an AMP in isolation because it’s about as useful as tits on a turtle. Synergy is everything. The yggy A1 is a fairly clinical dac that does pretty much everything well but sometimes can get a little bit too intense and “soul-less”. The Mogwai SE, though not the last word in ultimate resolution, has all the soul in the world.
It can be described as a rather full sounding amp with a nice kick in the bass and a fair bit of warmth with specific tubes like the EL34 ( mullards & Telefunkens) and kt88 . The 6l6gc tubes that Justin likes are a little more neutral .
This whole thing started as a quest to build a chain around the utopia & HD650 . The other amps i tried along the way include
Otomon 45 SET amplifier
KOTL - It’s a diy OTL amp based on PMillet designs
EC ZDS
Lyrita audio 2A3 SET amplifier
Auris Nirvana
Auris Headonia
EC x DROP ZDT Jr
BHC crack ( Speedball)
A variety of chinese SS & tube amps
They are all fine amps but they all missed the mark by a fair bit. Though neither of my headphones in question are exactly hard to drive, they are quite amp picky.
This chain I linked in the beginning of this wall of text is the best I have heard for these two particular headphones. With the hd 650 there was perfect control in the bass ( mine are modded and sound close to the JAR 650 , IMO) , a lush and thick mid range with no treble weirdness. The sound stage went from a typical 3 blob to moderately spacious ( come on it’s still a HD650, the mogwai ain’t gonna change that) . The timbre was just perfect.
There was a lot of engagement and musicality that made it frankly difficult to care about all the little things in audio and life in general. The dynamics were off the charts and since i chose to go with the tube rectifier instead of a SS plug the mogwai was just OK when it came to speed
With the utopia it was just an aural orgasm, Bass was punchy, textured with amazing extension and a sense of speed that is eerily close to ESTAT levels. The bass wasn’t muddy and it didn’t bleed into mids.
The mids of the utopia are as close to perfection as I have ever heard in the hobby, it’s liquid and transparent without being too forward like the HD650. The Fabled BE timbre of the utopia was just not present in the upper mids and treble on this chain, and i fully attribute this to the mogwai cos none of the other amps i tried/owned managed to do this. No biggie i know, but as mentioned earlier tone and timbre matter more to me than absolute resolution and ultimate detail.
A few other things to be noted with this amp is that it is very powerful and has a bit of a noise floor. With great power comes a slightly gray background. I have never needed to go past the 11 o’clock point on the pot even with the susvara and the HE6 ( 4 screw grill modded) . with the right tubes i think it is nearly 8W per channel.
The background noise goes away when using EL34 and a 6sl7 combo. The KT88 my favorites - do have a little bit of a noise floor
The sheer number of headphones the mogwai is capable of driving to potential is staggering and it makes this my “END GAME” ( god i hate that term ) amp.
There will be more headphones and dacs, but i think ill be sticking with the mogwai SE for a very long time. At Least until I hear something that knocks me head over heels like the mogwai did.
Other positives include the number of tubes that can be rolled and the fact that most of these tubes don’t cost an arm and leg, total tube replacement is under a 100$ if you are patient enough to wait for a good deal.
The amp itself is a little expensive but I think its well worth the asking price.
I hope you guys enjoyed my ameteur attempt at verbalizing the virtues of what I consider one of the best amps. If you din’t enjoy it, Please don’t hold it against the mogwai .
Cheers and happy listenin
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Cough… don’t demo a Nautilus…cough. Lol.
Great write up! I used to own a Mog SE and it was awesome! It worked really well with my Verites. I think down the road if you ever get a chance to try a BiggerBen or Nautilus you will have a hard choice to make but in the end for the MogSE for it’s price point vs. sound quality i’d probably pick it up rather than the more expensive brothers. I miss having an A&S amp sometimes…
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Great first post Ramesh. I was a great writeup and thoroughly good read.
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Thanks brother. I appreciate it.
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Haha I think I eventually wud try those. But for now truly satisfied with the chain I built.
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Nice first post! Kudos and welcome to the forum.
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After doubting myself about the difference in amps/dacs I got a A/B box switch custom made by a friend and then volume matched all my sources at a set frequency response of 500hz and 1000hz with a sound level meter to be sure.
I can now confidently say that A LOT of my previous comments about the comparison with SS Amps (Rebelamp) etc vs Mogwai SE listening with LCD-5 and Radiance are purely placebo.
That doesn’t mean everything I said was incorrect just a lot of what I thought I was hearing is simply placebo.
Also I am not saying there isn’t a different sound coming from the MOGWAI SE compared to SS Amps just not a AS BIG one as I thought.
I still need to do further A/B Testing but so far this is my finding as this was all tested using KT88 and 6sn7 with stock rectifier tube. Except for the roll of test that was using stock tubes.
Will be further testing with different tubes in the future.
The biggest difference for me is the bass of the Mogwai in the sense that it is slightly thicker and punchier.
The next is the treble just sounds slightly less aggressive. Not sure if this is a bit of roll off or just the edges being slightly smoothed out.
But again what I am describing from the BASS and TREBLE is very slight by like a few % if I had to put a number to it.
After A/B all of my solid state amps( I have 3) I couldn’t tell a difference in tonality, soundstage, imaging, timber, dynamics etc etc.
I also tested for possible FREQUENCY RESPONSE ROLL OFF from the Mogwai SE as some tube amps are known for this.(this test was the only test using stock tubes so may be different using kt88 etc)
Again volume matched at 500hz and 1000hz.
After testing Mogwai SE vs Rebelamp vs Cayin Iha-6 to see if I could perceive any sort off roll off from 20hz up to 15k hz+ from youtube sweeps(probably not a good method for testing this) I detected a slight roll off in the highs (about -1db more or less and no roll off in from bass. But further testing and proper method would need to be done to be certain.
EDIT: Justin has confirmed that the very slight treble roll off may be caused by using 6sn7 instead of stock 6sl7.
In fact I have changed my mind about how the LCD-5 pairs with the Mogwai and would say its a great pairing. The very slightly thicker/punchier bass works great with LCD-5 or any headphone in fact as that attribute is the thing I enjoy the most in a headphone personally.
My previous comments about the Mogwai SE soundstage being worse/different(more closed) to the Rebelamp was completely placebo and after A/B’ing comparing with SS AMPS no change could be detected to my ear in this regard. Edit: maybe the slight treble roll off was giving me the impression or less soundstage?
Having the A/B Box has mostly changed my perspective about ss amps and dacs in general and feel completely different about a lot of reviews of amps/dacs on youtube etc.
The difference is so insignificant that watching some “audiophile youtubers” views/comments about this stuff makes me so much more sceptical. Specially when they talk about synergy with a headphone with a $30000 equipment to sound its best when they probably sound just as good with equipment of $500 approx.(to give a number).
I think all this stuff as been blown out of proportion due to certain reviewers.
Someone correct me if I am wrong but this is my findings from my basic testing methods.
I would like to know if anyone has tried this and what experience they have had.
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Could you provide a list of all the gear you used to compare and the music you used to test? It would be good to understand what all the variables are.
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17 posts were merged into an existing topic: Do DACs/Amps matter?
Keep the feedback coming! If I got an Amp&Sound, the Mogwai would be pretty high on my list!
So, although there was a mention of the Mogwai now and again, the majority of posts that I just moved were really a discussion about differences between amps in general, ways to test them and the fact that reviewers might be making it all up.
Those posts are now in the “Do Amps/DACs Matter” thread.
My apologies if there are snippets of info that are relevant to this thread and have been moved, but you can easily find them by clicking on the link two posts up.
Thanks for your understanding 
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Just recently found a fault with my Mogwai SE 2021.
I have tube rolled quite a bit and never any issues.
But recently found out that if I replace the stock rectifier tube with a 5ar4 after say 20/30 seconds of power up the Mogwai the 5ar4 starts sparking till eventually it blows the fuse.
I suspected it would be a defect tube as this same tube has worked before. Ordered new one received today did the same, replaced stock rectifier with the new tungsol 5ar4 and after 20/30 seconds sparks inside the tube and blown fuse.
Any help please
Trying to run jj 6sn7, golden lion kt88 and 5ar4 but no joy.
Runs perfectly with same setup but stock rectifier.
Yea, call A&S about that.
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Quick question
Can I use the speakers taps of the mogwai as a pre-amp to another ss amp?
Cosmic no no. For a whole shot of reasons.
Could use the 32ohm tapp but would need to be attenuated a ton.
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Definitely won’t be trying this then. Thanks Justin 