Ode to Schiit: Vali Coaster

Great to see the spotlight shining on the original vali even after all these years. Bought it to replace the equipment I've sold in preparation for college and was pleasantly surprised at how well it sounded with my hd800 back in early 2014. In fact I was so surprised that it sounded much better than it did with my much bigger and much much more expensive Woo WA2 with upgraded tubes when I compared the 2 that evening that I remembered telling my audiophile friends that it was actually an upgrade to the wa2 despite costing almost 15 times less and he laugh it off saying it was ridiculous to even compare the two given the price difference and I was probably "hearing" things.

Only until recent months that I've ordered a DNA Starlett to move up from the vali.
6 years without an itch for upgrade. Hardy piece of schiit.

 

I am not sure about the timeline in regards to head-fi and head-case fallout, even surprised to see the two sites ever were friendly. My understanding was that all the people came from defunct headwize and I just assumed head-case catered to the diyers?

As for singlepower, I did attend the first meets where mickael showed up with prototypes circa 2002 (jude’s basement, other member place and even at wadia HQ). The amps really did look and respond to the tap like toasters and it was the original nickname for them. I almost got one for myself as it really sounded spectacular (i was coming from solid state gear from meyer audio so a rather huge gap). The flimsy panels scared me off (and the warning to not ever unplug phones as the amp was on), eventually, history caught up with mickael’s practices so that was that. It does seem like his business just wasn’t fit to scale.

I am suprised by singlopower having ever been popular at headcase, I do recall the people there raising flags when things went south but this wasn’t the first or last maker they did this too and it has the merit to weed-out dangerous practices imho.

arnaud

 

Before I found Changstar I used to hang out at Rock Grotto and HC. I was done with Hype-Fi.

HC was something of a temporary solution after Head-Wize crashed and/or shut down. Emperor Jude was also part of HC for a while. Thing was, Emperor Jude wanted something bigger than Head-Wize and HC, so Head-Fi became a thing. Head-Fi was basically Head-Wize with sponsors and advertisers (in short "commercial").

At the core HC and Hype-Fi are still friends and both still have their roots in Head-Wize. Unfortunately Emperor Jude and the veterans of HC had their disagreements (especially regarding DIY). DIY in audio tends to make advertisers and sponsors nervous because people who build their own things tend to be very honest about what they do not like in commercial products, rightfully so if you ask me.

Hype-Fi I could no longer stand: veterans in modifications and DIY disappeared. HC and Rock Grotto were actually charming places to be but sometimes you feel you simply do not fit in.

Either way, Hype-Fi used to be a good place to hang out until it became an echo chamber for FOTM products. Sometimes when people smell money they simply forget where they started.

Here, every day I discover new music. That is where I started.

 

I ended up with a Vali 1 when I was already a couple of years into this hobby, a buddy packed it in as a bonus when I was buying some gear from him. Really enjoyed using it at work for about 6 months. At the time I was using Jotunheim and Liquid Platinum at home, and never felt disappointed firing up the Vali 1.

A good friend was interested in trying something other than the Grados he has been a lifelong fan of, so I gave him a KISS modded HD 6XX and the Vali 1. He has loved the combo when hanging at home spinning records for the better part of a year. He still loves his grados as his daily driver, but enjoys kicking back and enjoying some recreational cannabis and tunes with the sennheisers.

A few days ago though he reached out to me and let me know the Vali 1 died. I assumed it was the tubes, but he said it won't even power on. Anyone have any tips on fixing it? I am not handy with a soldering iron, but know people who are. He caught the bug anyway and is looking to invest in another amp, so maybe I pass along this non-functional Vali 1 to a SBAF member to tinker with if not a simple fix?

 

Head-case actually started a few years later by old school Head-Wize and Head-Fi members who got banned from HF. From my recollection, it had a lot to do with the "amp wars" between the Singlepower fans and the RSA fans. A lot of that animosity was fuelled by Tuberoller, a former moderator who later got outed and banned from HF for having multiple HF accounts that he used to shill RSA gear.

 

Thanks.

That was too bad. At HC there are some music collectors with exquisite taste. Take care.

 

I gotta say I love the vali 1. For the rest of this I will simply call it Val1. I think it is just a cute little amp. One of the few amps I can safely say I am in love with. The Val1 is by no means the end all be all hybrid amp. What it is to me a a time machine. That to me is great audio, gear even. Something that can take me from today, this moment...to the past and future.
Lets travel to the past briefly. The Val1 was announced on changstar October 09, 2013. Here is the link for the curious
(https://www.changstar.com/www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,1160.0.html)

I won't go over every detail, but I will say I was skeptical of the initial post in this thread. I remember reading it a few months ago. Simply passed it off as nostalgia. Now this may seem like some half arsed comment section rebuttal, but some things take time to fully comprehend.

Yes it rings a bit, at first I couldn't appreciate other aspects of the Val1 but it has grown with me, or rather I have grown to appreciate it. One specifically is the finish, with rose tinted glasses, I actually get a hammer tone quite lovely.


What does it remind me of a much bigger and badder hybrid. That also had issues, for one it had to be on its own plinth and weighted down to prevent ringing, when doing anything. Keyboard on my desk, walking through the room, and especially when plugging in headphones. It was as if it the biggest gong known to man. Imagine a sperm whale was hitting a gong bigger than it self underwater calling me to the sound. It has some of that but much less than you would expect and while the criticism is cogent. I will consider it bearable and worth the cost of admission. This is something I actually enjoy. It gives a nice sense of liveliness, not for the sound, but the ergonomics, livability factor. I like feeling like my gear changes between sessions, days, and can feel me and its surroundings as lame as that may seem to some.

This is by far, considering it's expected price, the most impressive piece of Schiit I've heard yet.
This quote I read just a few days ago on changstar. As @tommytakis mentioned it could power an Abbys headphone. Why am I writing this, well it simply rules, but I had a hard time pairing it with my desk setup. Graciously a friend had lent me a tvc to pair some of my equipment together kinda important in terms of some of the enjoyment and reasoning to move the Val1 to be combined with the desk system. (more about this in the passive preamp thread https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/passive-volume-control-for-dacs-sources.860/)

And now that brings me to why the Val1 was too good for this world. 1, it is too small to be taken seriously. The hole thing is about the size of a 6080. It rings a bit, but what do you expect for a directly heated tube hybrid that sits on your desk?

Worth the cost of entry. but what makes me believe this product is so far beyond what many remember it for. This has 2 separate dampening schemes. One is a foam piece in the chassis. I couldn't believe this. Really material to control microphonics? That is hifi. 2nd would be these foam pads on the pcb. what does this do? well it tries to take some of the vibration away from the tubes. Just like many have asked in the past, "why dont my tubes stick to the foam" well the trick here is this was once adhesive. Now the tubes float up and the foam doesn't as much. Well this is part of the sin of commission. The heat had evaporated the adhesive thus making it slightly more microphonic. So what you might be wondering. but why all of this.


Well the additional material takes time to apply. the heat peeling the tube away added serviceability issues. Real shame, this is just a great little tube amp. I couldn't imagine the emails about the noise. Even the relay click can cause a tube to ring. but its fine. all part of the warming up process. So we have a ringing tube amp, at least temporarily, but something was done to help. Weather or not that is worth it. It will be up to you to decide.


Where does that leave us for tomorrow. Well with difficulty in some tube types I would love to bring back this 6088 tube. a hidden benefit of it was, you can't roll it(read nervosa proof). 2nd would love a setup with 4 of these bad boys, doesn't have to be balanced but just more output. With some space between the relays and the tubes.

To conclude the Val1 is awesome, so much thought and care went into this thing. No wonder schiit has grown so much in the last 9 years. Real shame more people don't have these. It leaves me want something with a bigger budget, even if all that is really needed in the end is a cnc chassis. as Marv once said

I was thinking wood for personal project. Another 6088 product would be amazing, but beggars can't be choosers. and I will continue to love my val1 for how ever long the tubes have left. Ill guess 15k more hours, I'll let you do the math.

It was just too good for this world. and nearly everything about it is charming to me. I would love to see another product like this in the future, even if it's cost is more than its original introduction price.

 

We do have about 33,000 of the Vali 1 tubes left. Not sure if I want to do anything with them, since it was such a supreme pain in the rear end to make the first ones kinda-sorta quiet. The real trick would be floating the leads on a sub-board, and using very flexible wires to connect to the main board, while floating the tubes themselves in a custom-molded Sorbothane girdle. I'm not sure it's worth the cost...