New Schiit Vali 2 Discussion Thread

I'm assuming you mean 6BZ7 and not 6CG7. The 6CG7 isn't interchangeable with anything in the 6922 family.

 

Life is so much simpler with Vali1! No parts to fiddle with, no temptations. Too many options become a major PITA. Thanks you guys for talking me out of trying this one

 

The simplicity of the Vali 2 is why I chose it. I'm able to get a tube experience without going off the deep end of bigger, more complex tube amps.

 

What I mean is... JJ and EH both make a gold pin 6922 (E88CC, etc) and they sound very similar (and good; crisp) from what I remember though I'm not comparing them right now.

The EH 6CG7 sounded bad to me.

 

Newbie question for you guys using the Vali2 with a Modi2U and HD650s: are you running it in high gain and if so, at what volume level?

For me on high gain I can't seem to go higher than 8:30 before it feels too loud. On low gain I usually set my volume to about 10:30 or so. Source is my laptop through USB usually running Spotify. Could it be that the volume is set too high on my laptop or somesuch?

Thanks.

 

Vali2 has a lot of power, I hardly got past 9:00 on my Magni for any of my older headphones, even my HE-500

 

The Modi 2 Uber outputs at 1.5vrms. My GOV2 at the 450 setting should output very close to 2vrms, so should be louder. I use the Vali2 in high gain with my HD650s and typically listen between 9 and 11 depending on the recording. I don't think I listen very loudly. Not sure about Spotify and whether or not you can boost the volume digitally through it. I am using Foobar.

 

New guy here, trying to decide between Vali 2 and Valhalla 2. I currently have Vali / Modi combo paired with Senn HD 800 phones.

Both amps are tempting but it would be a lot cheaper to roll tubes with Vali 2 compared to Valhalla 2 so is the Valhalla 2 big enough upgrade compared to this to warrant the cost increase?

 

I have been lurking for a while but have to come out of the shadows and ask a question. This was my christmas present to myself and am really enjoying it. I have a very difficult time keeping anything 'stock' so first was a paint job and some tubes. Then I started looking at how it worked and if there might be any components that I could upgrade to get a little better sound out of it. To keep the form factor small and keep price down they had to go with surface mount and that really limits what can be upgraded. They did an amazing job though for this price range. It has solid sound as is, but for the price I am willing to do a little more adventurous 'adjusting' to see what happens and who knows?!? Looks like it has a 470uF Nichicon FW series coupling caps on the output. These might be the first to get pulled and replaced with some ELNA Silmic's or other higher grade cap. I have some 330uF Black Gate standard series caps I bought a while back for a project and ended up not using them. They have been in my desk in a climate controlled (temp and humidity) clean room at work for about 2 years now so I dont see any reason why they would not still be good. Would these be too small of a capacitance?

The other large caps on the power supply are 470uF Nichicon PS series caps so i might swap them out first. I cant decide where I would get the most bang for my buck with a replacement. what says the guru's on here? It might sound crazy to be trying this on a 170 dollar amp but I am sure I have had worse ideas. Plus putting those black gate caps to use is bound to be better than them sitting in my desk drawer in an ESD bag. Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I will be updating my improvements and might even start another thread if it goes well. Thanks in advance for your help!

Oh, BTW, I am driving Seinnheiser HD600's, HD650's and my beater Audio Technica ATH-M40fs that I have had for a very long time with it. They sound like doodie compared to the seinnheisers but they were my first 'good' headphones so I get them out and give them some love occasionally. They are about as analytical and flat as you could ever want so i usually throw a little EQ at them to liven them up a little so i still enjoy them. They are 65ohm I believe. I had always used my headphones through my stereo receiver but bought this on a whim and am loving it. I would recommend it to anyone.

Based on the coupling cap calculators i have seen it looks like generally the higher the capacitance the better and would work with most impedances. Knowing that, why not just but a nice 1.5mF cap on there and enjoy? Is there a downside to having too large of a cap? I am going to stick with 470uF or the 330uF BG's unless there is a good reason not to but was just wondering why you cant just put a big cap on there and have them work with pretty much any impedance? Is it because big higher voltage caps are big and expensive?

 

Hello, I just bought Vali 2 since I have some NOS 6922 tubes lying around and why not Vali 2 is pretty cheap for a tube amp anyway. However, my tube doesn't fit snugly when I insert it to my Vali 2. If I push it down enough it might fit, but I'm afraid I will break either the tube or the amp. Anyone else has the same problem as me?

 

The amp won't break, Schiit has some of, if not the very best build quality of any audio manufacturer in the business. If you are afraid the tube might break or not fit, you can get a socket saver or whatever they're called and it should pop right in.

 

Make sure the pins are all properly aligned. I had one tube where one pin insisted on going in strange directions. But as long as, say, half of the pin in terms of its height are making electrical contact inside the socket, that's more than you likely need. Think about what a small volume spot soldering fills to maintain electrical contact.

 

Thanks for your advice. I'll try to take some photos of my unit and some of my tube. And no, I think All of them are in contact electrically, its just that they are really wobbly, and doesn't stay in place. I mean, once they are in contact, I played my music for 1-2 hours, once I turn the unit off, it come loose immediately. They are that wobbly.

Do you mean something like below?

http://www.ebay.com/itm//151027969922

 

Aye

 

Hey all, looking for some newbie advice on this: I have a He-400i (thank goodness I pipped the deal when I did) but as this is my first proper set of headphones, I literally have no idea what I'm doing ... and it doesn't help that living in SA the only halfway decent audio shop available locally only stocks Pro-ject amps, and even then they said that they don't normally sell amps (blasphemy!!!).

So I wanted to ask: Vali 2 vs Magni 2U vs Garage1217 Project Starlight? They're all within spitting distance of each other price wise so it's up to your advice really.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hey @BushmanJams, welcome to the forum! You can check out this thread for a comparison between the Magni 2 Uber and Vali 2: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-schiit-modi-2-uber-magni-2-uber-vali-2.1455/

I know @Luckbad is our resident Garage1217 expert, so he can probably also give you some insight on the Project Starlight.

 

Just bought one of these as a hold over amp until BW is released. Any updated impressions now that people have used them for a while?

Contemplating seeing what I can do with this and a LPS. Has to be better than the inexpensive wall wart right?

 

The wall-wart/plug on the Vali 2 is pretty unique, not sure you can use just any LPS without significant modifications.

 

It is an dual voltage AC adapter made specifically for the internal linear regulators of the Vali 2. You would have to some pretty serious modding to add an external LPS.

From Schiit:

So how can you deliver those high volts? I bet it’s a switching supply!
Think again. Vali 2’s power supply is 100% linear, with regulation on every voltage rail. A unique wall-wart with 2 AC voltages allows us to provide for the needs of the tube heater, the low-voltage rail for the output, and the high-voltage rail for the tube. You may have noticed the funny DIN-plug connector on the amp. Hey, at least you won’t mistake this wall-wart for anything else!

Outside of that, I still think it is an incredible value, especially for those who have both orthos and dynamics. The Valhalla 2 outresolves it, but otherwise, it holds up pretty well, at least with my setup. I am actually mixed on whether to sell the Vali 2 or the Valhalla 2.

 

Schiit doesn't use any DC wall wart power supplies, repeat after me...schiit doesn't use any DC wall wart power supplies.

This comes up constantly, they just have external mains transformers, the linear supply is still inside all of those tiny devices, they just don't have room for the mains transformers in there.