Schiit Rekkr: Not Quite Enough After All

After a change in my WFH setup, I ended up with a pair of Klipsch RP-160Ms that I wasn't using. I've had a Rekkr on my personal computer desk for some time, but it wasn't ever used for very much, and most recently it was driving a pair of Klipsch R-41Ms that I had sitting around for random YouTube duty. I figured that since there's no kill like overkill, I might as well put the RP-160Ms on the desk and set it up for listening in near-field.

I've been using a Soekris dac1421 as preamp, and that's running into a Schiit SYS that I carefully tweaked so that 0dB on the dac1421 was attenuated to 866mV on the output of the SYS, corresponding to 3W into 4Ω. After using this setup for about a week, I can say that the Rekkr just doesn't have enough power for me for listening duty. Hotter genres like electronic music are just fine, but on some classical recordings I found myself itching to turn the dac1421 up past 0dB, or past 3dB for SACD rips. (While SACD "0dBFS" is technically -6dB, the Scarlet Book allows instantaneous peaks of -3.5dB, which is where a 1-bit modulator tends to become unstable.)

While I'd considered getting a Gjallarhorn, this also established pretty well that another 7dB is still going to leave me setting the preamp at the top of its range at times, and I'd prefer to have a few dB left even when listening to quieter recordings at higher volumes. It's a shame as it's a cute little amplifier, and I definitely see how those with different listening tastes or higher impedance speakers could get away with it.

On the plus side, the Rekkr is an extremely clean sounding amplifier in near field. It's very unpicky about cables and it doesn't bring out any of the harshness from the RP-160Ms that I've heard with certain class D amps. If it does have enough power for you and you can stand having another giant Schiit brick on your desk, it's not a bad option. Just make sure you know what enough is for your listening material.

 

I like my Rekkr a lot, I'm sequestered to small room that becomes more cave-like by the day and the Rekkr serves its purpose in here. I liked it so much that I recently picked up a second from the used market to run my speakers in monoblock. While the used one has been running well, the LED is noticeably less bright than any of the other LEDs in the stack. It's a later serial number than the one I have, don't know if Schiit made their LEDs less bright recently or if this one is just a little weird.



I don't even know if it's as noticeable in pics (top one) as much as it is in real life.

Has anyone noticed their Rekkr with a dimmer LED lately? The other LEDs in my stack are extremely bright, this one is pretty laid back. Wasn't sure if Schiit finally calmed down with their LED's output.

 

I believe this did happen. My MJ3 has the dimmest LED of any Schiit I've owned. I assume it was in response to consumer complaints that the old LEDs were too bright in dark rooms. People putting tape over them, etc

 

What stands out for me is the low noise floor of the Rekkr. I will probably use it as a tweeter amp in an active speaker some day. Here's some measurements by Joseph Crowe:

https://josephcrowe.com/blogs/electronics-testing-and-reviews/schiit-rekkr

 

Interesting read which seems to match my subjective impressions. I tried the Rekkr again with a pair of RP-150Ms in another desk setup and the difference between the Schiit and an Emotiva BasX A2mini was huge. The Rekkr just couldn’t coax any bass out of the Klipsches.

It’s not clear to me that the Rekkr would be enough even behind a crossover and feeding only tweeters. Clipping at just 2V means It’s going to suck the life out of transients at even moderate listening levels.

it’s an interesting toy, but in the end I can’t figure out who this thing is for. A Magni can drive any price-appropriate headphones well, but the Rekkr would need both a high-impedance and high-sensitivity design to sing. Some experiments are better left on the bench.

 

I think it actually works best as a headphone amp for lower impedance planars. I like it more than Asgard. Not quite as good for high impedance though.

 

Which planars, out of curiosity? The lowest impedance ones I have are the Aeon Closed X at 12Ω followed by a couple of different Hifimen at 18Ω. The Moondrop Para is 8Ω but I haven’t picked one up.

 

I've been using Rekkr with a Vali 2+ (and Modi+) to give my headphones a bit more juice, and honestly I don't know much about how power changes the sound on headphones, and I'm not good at comparison especially because this setup is used in the office where is noisy and I can't blast high volume there.

At first I tried modded SJY Moonlight Planar Headphone (23Ω IIRC), the Rekkr made the bass firmer and the general imaging a bit tighter, which is good, but not by much, and this type of improvement speaks more power to me (again, idk...).

And then I tried Audeze LCD-XC (2021) and it sounded shockingly alive and detailed on this setup, but I believed 70% - 80% of the magic came from the Vali 2+ as the headphone sounded still pretty good plugged directly into the Vali 2+, but the Rekkr did brought tighter grip to the sound as I even felt that the setup sometimes just slammed the detail in front of me and shouted: "IT'S HERE!!!" But LCD-XC was too heavy for me so I ended up selling it (and I regret it now).

I'm now using Sennheiser HD250 Linear II (?) on this setup and I don't think the Rekkr brings as much difference as before (and again, the difference wasn't so big to begin with), and I do think I can just use the Vali 2+ alone without missing much, but hey, the Rekkr is still here so why not use it.

 

I've extensively used Edition XS out of it, but right now it's powering an LCD-2F at my work setup with a Motu M4 as DAC/pre.

I think it sounds meatier than the other budget Schiit amps, and as a bonus it won't melt if you want to go crazy with EQ on a Para or something.

I mentioned lower impedance because it's still going to be voltage limited at the other extreme (~4V maximum output vs 11.5V of a normal Magni). So particularly insensitive headphones might clip and run out headroom.

Also note that you can wire up a quarter-inch jack to it by only using one of the negative terminals, since those are tied to ground internally. Once you take the heatsink off, it looks a lot like a Magni inside.

 

FYI.. Rekkr is in the Last Call section for $99... it's being discontinued d/t poor sales

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...most-improbable-start-up.701900/post-18449796

 

My Rekkr arrived, literally within the last hour. I think I may have one of the more unusual applications for it... had my fingers crossed, and so far I'm over the moon.

Nearly ten years ago I got a pair of KEF x300a powered speakers (Amazon may or may not have inadvertently sent me two complete sets rather than two individual speakers... the matter is shrouded in mystery). I love them... they're not exactly room-fillers but they sound lovely and I don't normally listen all THAT loud.

Earlier this year it occurred to me that, in theory, I could hook up my old OG Advents (early 70s) which had been in my late parents' house and have been gathering dust for dogs' years. Using a Tisbury passive preamp which had also been in disuse I sent the signal from my Saga to the Tisbury and ran one of its outputs to the KEFs and the other to an old Onkyo TX-8210 receiver (parents'). The Tisbury allows you to use BOTH outputs simultaneously.

Lo and behold... it worked! Even my wife, who is wonderfully tolerant of my hifi-related eccentricities but does not share them, was genuinely and pleasantly surprised... not least of all because the sound is MUCH fuller at lower volumes.

I've been contemplating a Gjellarhorn ever since, of course, but when I saw the $99 close-out price on the Rekkr I thought "eh... gotta be worth a try." Oh boy, was it. DEAD silent.

So far I've been listening to "Milestones" by Quatuor Ebene, some Bach for Lute by Jadran Duncumb, and Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead" by the Berlin Philharmonic (whom I heard magnificently perform the same piece at the Kennedy Center about two weeks ago. I'd say that the crescendos in the Rachmanoff suggest the limits of the experiment, but that's at a slightly higher level than I'd normally listen to it.

Haven't rocked out yet.

I don't seem to be able to upload a picture, unfortunately.