Schiit Loki Mini EQ Released

Discussion in 'Preamps' started by neogeosnk, Sep 26, 2017.

  1. Jerry

    Jerry Friend

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    Love this little thing. Now I am waiting for Loki's big brother. 6 knobs?
     
  2. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    Interesting to speculate. Schiit could increase the width of the existing Loki case and provide 6 knobs but they have 5 inch and 9 inch width cases standard. Rather than having to add another case size to inventory there could be a Loki max in a Bifrost case with 8 knobs. They could also go with the Gungnir 16 inch wide case perhaps twelve knobs. I would be surprised if they added a new case which would not match up with owner's existing stacks. My bet would be on the Gungnir case size FWIW.
     
  3. Jerry

    Jerry Friend

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    Then I would buy that and the Gungnir Multibit A2, and stack 'em. I guess I better save moar money.
     
  4. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    My main reason for buying the Loki was to get intelligible dialog in video without turning up the volume . Those car crashes and music peaks are just way too loud that way.
    PC hdmi to tv optical out gives me no DSP settings. Equalizing from pc playback software never got the job done. Streaming from the smart tv also gave me no options.
    Loki is performing exceptionally well for this. I use the same settings and get the same improvement no matter what amp or speaker/hf is in use.

    But occasionally and with no warning, the left channel goes out. It happens with every amp. Flicking the bypass switch several times brings it back. The left channel gets lost with and w/o the bypass in use. The Loki is a keeper, though. Anyone else having this issue?

    Edit: It was my wonky diy cables letting me down
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2018
  5. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    No problems with Loki here less than a month in use. Loki has a two year warranty, sounds like you need to contact Schiit about a replacement.
     
  6. monacelli

    monacelli Friend

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    Have you swapped RCAs to make sure you don't have a bad interconnect? If not, try switching the left and right cables. See if the dropout also switches channels.
     
  7. bilboda

    bilboda Florida boomer

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    Been listening for 4 + hours, no issues. Swapped the l/r rca's so I''ll catch it when it happens again. tbd
    Sunday evening with rca's swapped, left channel went out again when flicking the switch to enable the equalizer. A couple of flicks fixed it. I guess I'll contact Schitt
    Edit: 2 set of diy cables in chain, I needed resoldering. All is well.
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2018
  8. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    Anyone remember the Cello Audio Palette? Six adjustments at 15 Hz, 120 Hz, 500 Hz, 2 kHz, 5 kHz and 25 kHz and cost $6500 in 1992 (add $2000 for phonostage:)

    [​IMG]

    Consider the Loki the offspring of the Palette at a very reasonable price. Hoping for a Loki 2 with six EQ knobs.
     
  9. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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    The George Massenburg GML 8200 was a desirable high end studio outboard PEQ.

    GML-8200.jpg
     
  10. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    FYI Sweetwater still has the GML 8200 for sale for $6165 (XLR only.) I will stay with the Loki:)
     
  11. klyrish

    klyrish Facebook Friend

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    Got a Loki B-stock unit yesterday and I love it. It's made the Modi Multibit everything I wanted it to be and has added the only thing I really miss from the Chord Mojo: more musical sound. The Modi Multibit has blown me away with its clarity and depth of detail, but it's flat and honestly kind of boring.

    Throwing the Loki between the Modi Multibit and Vali 2 has given me the desired punch in bass and highlight in treble. I absolutely love this thing and it has made the new HIFIMAN HE-400i headphones I got a little over a week ago sound incredible.

    Damn, I love Schiit.
     
  12. westermac

    westermac Friend

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    When I was in school George Massenburg took a few days with my class to teach and critique our mixes; definitely one of the more intimidating situations of my life. He tore me a new one on my mix... I'll never screw up guitar tone again, that's for sure.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2018
  13. Hayo

    Hayo New

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    just want to put in my 2 cents.

    I have the loki.
    I was very enthousiastic about it.

    Until i noticed that my system was sounding a little too bright.
    Then i started to notice the sibilance. Was it always there?
    It must , because the system is just 6 months old.

    I thought my sonos connect was the weak link (still looking into an upgrade to SotM).
    Then i thought it were my tubes. Or maybe the DAC.

    After dissecting the system the first thing i did was taking out the Loki.
    And guess what, no more distortions in the upper region. No more nasty 'S'-es.

    i can really hear distortions (harmonics?) in the upper band with the Loki.
    I wanted to use the loki to drive down the bass in my room.
    However i dont want the distortions.
    (and driving down the highest band does not get rid of the distortions it just attenuates them)
    The loki clearly colours the sound.

    That is a big no in my book.
     
  14. allegro

    allegro Friend

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    You are the first to complain of sibilance (distortions or harmonics) with Loki or claiming Loki colours the sound AFAIK. Perhaps contact Schitt customer service for a replacement to confirm?
     
  15. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I am deliberately not editing down your... poetic post. I'm not a complete monster.

    Did you observe the old (overly simplistic but still useful) mantra "trim, not boost", before complaining about artifacts?
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2018
  16. Hayo

    Hayo New

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    I am sensing some sarcasm in your post.
    Don't .. it is not necessary.
    I guess, i am a poet and i didn't even realize it.

    I am certainly not boosting! I am trimming bass.
    But mid upper region is just too bright.
    (i can tell by focussing my ears on the S-es of vocals)
    Overall (besides the distortion) i was really happy with what the Loki did to my sound.
    Of course i keep open the option that my sonos connect might be of influence.
    Although i don't know how that would be logical.

    If you have ideas i welcome them..

    I used the schiit PYST cable (the shortest) to connect the multibit to the Loki.
    But i cant believe such a short cable would be the cause.
     
  17. E_Schaaf

    E_Schaaf MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    I'm experiencing an issue with the Loki I have on loaner from @Vansen -

    The leftmost two adjustment knobs (lowest frequencies) don't make an audible difference whatsoever, but the top two do.

    Even with them completely turned and with direct A/B comparison using the Loki's pass-through, there is no audible change.

    Has anyone else experienced this issue?
     
  18. dmckean44

    dmckean44 In a Sherwood S6040CP relationship

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    No, there's someting wrong.
     
  19. E_Schaaf

    E_Schaaf MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    Paging @schiit for help on this issue. Have you heard something like this before? I believe the unit is still under warranty - again, it belongs to @Vansen - he says it hasn't been used once since he got it, just sitting in a closet.

    Thanks
     
  20. slankoe

    slankoe Tongue tastes of LH butthole

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    Just throwing in my $0.02 here. In short, I liked the Loki Mini quite a lot. I owned it for a few months only, in that time three things stood out: it is useful for analogue sources, brilliantly simple, and exceptionally transparent.

    Firstly, I don't listen to vinyl very much as most of my music is acquired digitally, but a lot of masters or certain releases in general just cannot be bought - or are unavailable - on CD or digital files. You can't digitally EQ an analogue source, of course; that's where this little gizmo shines bright.

    A thing of beauty is the sheer simplicity of Loki. I thought I'd want more knobs and independently adjustable "Q," but ultimately I was quite satisfied. I came to realize that I'm really not a fan of parametric equalizers when it comes to recreational music listening. As someone who composes music as hobby, I already obsess over that enough - to this Loki whispers "just enjoy the music."

    Finally the other aspect I really appreciated, is it's transparency. There really is no noticeable hum or buzz at any listening volume or beyond. For this aspect alone it is worthy of consideration to be stuck in between audio components. When I briefly owned the HD800, nothing was more satisfying than bringing the 20 Hz knob all the way up and turning them into bass-cannons. It worked fine with other cans I tried also such as the HD650 and Utopias, all that without sacrificing sound quality even at the extremes. Big plus in my book.

    Having said that, I was not using Loki much after I sold HD800. Partly responsible for this is that I had chosen my cans for their stock sound long beforehand. Given this and that I'm not using my vinyl library as often as my digital, the value proposition wasn't really valid for my use case. I am happy to report that it's new owner has expressed much satisfaction for some of the very same reasons that inspired this sort review. If it suits your use also, this is a rather good purchase. Another job well done by Schiit. Cheers.
     

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