Schiit Introduces Affordable, Discrete, LC-Filtered Hardware EQ
Schiit introduces Loki Mini, a compact, high-performance, 4-band hardware equalizer designed for excellent sound quality.
“It’s time to bring tone control back to high end,” said Jason Stoddard, Schiit Audio’s Co-Founder. “No transducer is perfect. No recording is perfect. And some listeners want to tailor their sound to their preferences. Now, they can do that with maximum transparency.”
Unlike old-school EQs of the 1980s, which and frequently had problems with noise from stacks of op-amp gain stages and open-frame slider controls, Loki Mini is designed for superior sound. A single, fully-discrete gain stage and a single discrete buffer per channel is coupled with sealed Alps potentiometers, a 100% linear power supply with +/-18V rails, and LC (inductor-capacitor) filtering to keep performance high and noise low.
Loki Mini also features gentle control and rational ranges to allow for precise and subtle tonal alterations. Potentiometers are progressive, so that a full 30 degrees is needed for the first dB of boost or cut. Loki Mini offers adjustment center frequencies of 20 Hz, 400 Hz, 2kHz, and 8kHz. 20Hz and 8kHz offer +/-12dB of adjustment, while 400Hz and 2kHz offer +/-6dB.
Loki Mini also offers a true bypass switch—one that simply connects the input to the output, with no intervening circuitry. The front-mounted switch allows users to compare the processed output to the “flat” output instantaneously.
“We understand that many still consider tone controls anathema in the high end, but we feel that Loki Mini provides meaningful control and flexibility, without significantly affecting transparency, ” said Jason Stoddard. “We decided to start the Loki project when we introduced our first preamps. A surprising number of prospective customers asked about tone controls, which we initially dismissed. And then we started thinking, ‘wait a minute, once you start dismissing things out of hand, it may be time to reexamine your prejudices.’ So we developed this product, tested it internally and externally, and found many people were thrilled with it. So, now tone control is an option again.”
Note: “Loki” was once used on a defunct Schiit DSD DAC, produced in 2012. The Loki Mini tone control is an all-new, analog product, named for the Norse trickster god.
The Loki Mini is available now for $149.
