Budget audiophile darling Schiit Audio announced two new products today to kick off its latest round of updates to their headphone and loudspeaker lineups. While the California & Texas based company is typically known for their $99 DACs and amps, this week’s announcements fall more squarely onto two products from the more premium end of the product line produced by the company.
The first is a new flagship headphone amplifier with a limited run, the updated Mjolnir 3 ($1,199). According to designer Jason Stoddard “It’s a real, absolutely, 100% no-kidding Class A no-feedback, dual-mono, choke input, fully discrete headphone amp that’s probably too big or too hot for most people. It’s $1199, and after this run, it’s gone.” The limited run is a jump up in pricing from the rest of the line which starts with the Magni+ at $109 and runs through the single tube based Lyr at $599. Previously Schiit had done another high-end limited run with the 18-tube Folkvangr ($1.8k, now sold out).
The second is a previously unannounced replacement for the Schiit Audio solid state preamp originally dubbed The Freya S. The shiny new thing is now called the Kara and sports “discrete differential solid state preamp–now channeling the high voltage rails (64V!) of the best preamps of the golden age of solid state, separate single-ended stages, near state-of-the-art performance from its Nexus discrete, differential current feedback stage, and…a headphone jack. And not just a headphone jack, but one that’s connected to an excellent discrete headphone amp. Like all of our preamps, it uses a 128-step relay attenuator and comes with remote control standard. Kara is $699, and it’s a regular production product, none of this limited run silliness.”
The new Schiit Kara is available direct from the company site along with the Mjolnir 3 starting today.
More info: Schiit Mjolnir 3 | Schiit Kara