In some circles of hifi, utilizing an EQ in your rig’s chain is nothing short of heresy. However, fans of the budget-friendly Schiit Audio are usually far from the traditional audiophile types that often populate the outer reaches of the hobby. Today the company announced a replacement update to the popular EQ station, the Schiit Loki Mini+.
What are these illustrious updates, you may be wondering to yourself? According to Founder Jason Stoddard “we took what we learned from Magni 3+ to improve performance, added a super-quiet, two-stage regulated power supply, and used higher quality inductors to tweak the bands a bit, and came up with a new, quieter, lower-distortion, better-sounding Schiit Loki Mini+.”
While in a technical review setting EQ settings may not be appropriate, that doesn’t mean that including the new Schiit Loki Mini+ into the extremely popular “Schiit Stack” comprised of Schiit Audio’s $99 Magni headphone amplifier and $99 Modi DAC won’t be helpful for small headphone adjustments, it will likely be downright fun for a lot of personal audio enthusiasts. More features and specs from the press release:
In addition to the “purist” LC-filtering approach, Loki Mini uses extremely high quality parts, such as genuine Alps potentiometers, 0.5% thin-film resistors, 2% precision film capacitors, and premium low-DCR inductors. In addition, Loki Mini’s power supply is 100% linear, with no switching regulators. Loki Mini is entirely DC-coupled throughout, and offers a completely transparent bypass switch that connects the inputs and outputs together with a relay—no active components in the signal path at all. “It may be a small, inexpensive product,” added Jason. “But you shouldn’t underestimate its performance. It’s built to the same high standard as our products that cost much more, and it’s the only example of a single gain stage, LC-filtered equalizer you’ll find anywhere near its price.
The new Schiit Loki Mini+ is currently available for purchase from the company’s direct-to-consumer website, and will retain the price of the original Loki at $149.
More info: Schiit Loki Mini+
If you would like to hear more from Schiit Audio, check out this interview with co-founder and digital designer Mike Moffat on a recent episode of The Occasional Podcast, available on iTunes and the embed below. Mike’s interview starts around the 23:30 mark.