[adydula]

Just got the Vahalla 2 from Schitt Audio and been listening for about 4 hours....over several headphones from 35 ohms to 600 Ohms....

I will do some comparisons between it and my Bottlehead Crack,,,seems like these are two of the low end cost OTL tube amps and very well reviewed for higher impedance headphones..

The V2 has been re-designed to handle or drive a wider than "usual" range of impedances....the Bottlehead doesnt do very well with lower Z heeadphones, but it has worked very well with my Beyer T90 and Beyer T1's.

I havent done any side by side comparisons yet, just tried 4 headphones from 35 ohm, 80 ohm, 300 ohm and 600 ohm in the V2.

The shocking surprise of all these was the 80 ohm Beyer DT1350, small portable sealed headphones. Since I have had the T90's (my favorite until the T1's arrived) the 1350's have just sat there with little or no use. Tyl over at innerfidelity liked these a lot....wall of fame etc....

With the V2 these 80 ohm cans blew me away at the sound I was hearing! Absolutley stunning. For small cans the soundstage was always a bit "cramped" due to their small transducers IMO. But listening to the orignal Trinity Series from Cowboy Junkies, the bass coming out from these headphones rivaled even my T1's.....really shocked me. Also the soundstage was stunning as well they just seemed to disappear on my head..that good!

I will do some side by side comparison to my Bottlehead Crack, its hard to find a good comparison between these two OTL tube amps....stay tuned.

Alex

 
 

 

[adydula]

Well, I spent a few hours this morning setting up and level matching the volume settings on my Crack with Speedball and the new Schitt Vahalla2.

I have not done my usual blind AB tests yet, but I can tell you what I "think" I am hearing so far....

I use a 1Khz test tone and set levels to 80db and then 85db, the difference between the two isn't that much physically on the actual vol knobs but its a really "perceptible" loud difference to me actually listening.

The crack is a little more difficult to actually set this level at, 80db no issues,but 85 seem to be in a range on my Crack that takes some attention to setting it up. I use a SPL meter I have had for years and a home-brew acoustic coupler to set the levels. With both set to these 2 levels I noticed it was easier to tell differences IMO at the lower spl level. Weird.

Sometimes when comparing amps, there is the tendency to crank up the volume level to make u for deficiencies so setting the levels to match is really important.....

Listening to my ususal favorites and demo tracks there is an immediate wow such a difference....between the two....I bought the Vahalla 2 because I wanted to see what it sounds like and it has more power available at 300 and 600 ohms compared to the Crack. My headphones range from 35 to 600 ohms. The Crack of course is not designed to work with low impedance headphones but the Vahalla 2 is. Schitt doesn't state its the cats meow with the lower headphones but it should be much better than their first generation of this amp.

Like with many new purchases there is that "human" element that wants the new stuff to be "better"...or you might have just wasted several hundred dollars! I am no exception.

So I have only had the Schitt Vahalla2 for less than 2 days and about 4 hours of ply time with the stock tubes while my good old friend the Crack I have had for almost two years and a dozen sets of tubes. It has been my go to amp for my high impedance headphones.

Listening to the Vahalla 2 I was amazed at how clear and transparent it sounds, using the higher gain setting, recommended for higher impedances. It has more than enough power and doesn't strain at all driving the 300 or 600 ohm Beyers. The sound is very clear, open and its easy to articulate musical instruments. Very much like a solid state amp, than a tube amp. Really shocking in a good way to me. Most good amps IMO take some real listening and "straining" to hear differences which to me tells me that they are really close in performance.

Comparing to the Crack the immediate thing is the soundstage on the Crack seems more open and wider...but more recessed. The drum beats seemed to be "louder" or maybe more "boomy" not a bad or poor bass but just more fuller and "wider" in sound. The Vahalla 2 bass was less thick, but very well done too. My first and immediate impression was the Crack soundstage being so different and musical was startling. Depending on what material you play and how It was recorded they both sound very well.

Playing rock music like the remastered "The Doors" the drum whacks on the Vahalla 2 will make your ears bleed...they are really, really well recreated on my T1's a 10 out of a 10 IMO. The Crack is just a little behind a 9 out of a 10 to me. That said the overall presentation eeks out to the Crack...its just softer and more musical to me.

Now all this was with the higher impedance T1's....when I shifted to a lower impedance set of headphones the story changes quite a lot.

I have a set of Beyer DT1350's and they just sit there not being used much since I have had my T90s and T1's and several other headhones, Tyl over at innerfidelity liked these a lot, which is saying something (LOL). They have small transducers, don't fit over my ears and when playing with other SS amps they have a smaller soundstage and presence to me. The T90s and T1's blow them away.

Well that was until the Vahalla 2 arrived..

I have tried these 80 ohm headphones on the Crack and immediately I know this was not the amp for these headphones they played but well....not that well at all. So the Crack is relegated to the 300+ plus range for sure.

The Schitt Vahalla 2 was re-designed to work with a wider range of headphones and this it does very well IMO. Actually when I put the DT1350s into the V2, I was really blown away...playing the original Trinity Series of Cowboy Junkies the bass response and soundstage and ambient background reverberation was better than any presentation of these headphones on any other amp I have. It shocked me so much that I had to check to see if I had these on my head!! These were played with the lower gain setting. The really low bass was actually to me better than the T1's!

So I will next setup up a blind listening session and invite a few audio friends over and test them to see what they hear in a blind test environment. its the only way to me to see how they both stand up.

I like building stuff, and the Bottlehead Crack with the Speedball mod to me is one of the best tube OTL amps that is affordable and competes with higher priced amps and does so very well with high impedance headhones, if you have this amp you cant go wrong, its that nice. (speedball is a must :>).....).

That said if you like playing around with amps, and I do, I had to try this amp, it has gobs of power at 300 ohms (800mw RMS). The Crack volume knob has to be cranked up 3/4 or so where as the Vahalla2 is only cranked up to 1/3 of the way, but to be fair the gain has to be factored in here. But the Vahalla 2 will make most higher impedance cans dance very well.

If you don't like building stuff the Vahalla 2 is a good choice, its well built, solid and the stock tubes are to me just wonderful. I feel no need to go chasing NOS tubes. The price you pay for them is getting well, ridiculous IMO. Schitt will sell you a et of 4 for $40, now that's a great deal to me.

I am not going to get rid of my Crack for sure and the Vahalla 2 is also going to be around for a long time as well....both companies have real winners here....

All the best
Alex

 

[h2rulz]

@adydula
You pretty much mirror my thoughts on the two amps. They have their own strengths, which you pointed out pretty accurately IMO.
But, as you probably already know, both do change/improve with different tubes. The Brimar CV4003 improved the bass for the Crack/speedball, and the Bugle boys smoothed out the overall presentation, and added a bit a musicality to the Val2 (still not quite the Crack/speedball level).
 
Yes, both are winners. I'm keeping them both as well.

 

[yangian]

Well, I spent a few hours this morning setting up and level matching the volume settings on my Crack with Speedball and the new Schitt Vahalla2.

I have not done my usual blind AB tests yet, but I can tell you what I "think" I am hearing so far....

I use a 1Khz test tone and set levels to 80db and then 85db, the difference between the two isn't that much physically on the actual vol knobs but its a really "perceptible" loud difference to me actually listening.

The crack is a little more difficult to actually set this level at, 80db no issues,but 85 seem to be in a range on my Crack that takes some attention to setting it up. I use a SPL meter I have had for years and a home-brew acoustic coupler to set the levels. With both set to these 2 levels I noticed it was easier to tell differences IMO at the lower spl level. Weird.

Sometimes when comparing amps, there is the tendency to crank up the volume level to make u for deficiencies so setting the levels to match is really important.....

Listening to my ususal favorites and demo tracks there is an immediate wow such a difference....between the two....I bought the Vahalla 2 because I wanted to see what it sounds like and it has more power available at 300 and 600 ohms compared to the Crack. My headphones range from 35 to 600 ohms. The Crack of course is not designed to work with low impedance headphones but the Vahalla 2 is. Schitt doesn't state its the cats meow with the lower headphones but it should be much better than their first generation of this amp.

Like with many new purchases there is that "human" element that wants the new stuff to be "better"...or you might have just wasted several hundred dollars! I am no exception.

So I have only had the Schitt Vahalla2 for less than 2 days and about 4 hours of ply time with the stock tubes while my good old friend the Crack I have had for almost two years and a dozen sets of tubes. It has been my go to amp for my high impedance headphones.

Listening to the Vahalla 2 I was amazed at how clear and transparent it sounds, using the higher gain setting, recommended for higher impedances. It has more than enough power and doesn't strain at all driving the 300 or 600 ohm Beyers. The sound is very clear, open and its easy to articulate musical instruments. Very much like a solid state amp, than a tube amp. Really shocking in a good way to me. Most good amps IMO take some real listening and "straining" to hear differences which to me tells me that they are really close in performance.

Comparing to the Crack the immediate thing is the soundstage on the Crack seems more open and wider...but more recessed. The drum beats seemed to be "louder" or maybe more "boomy" not a bad or poor bass but just more fuller and "wider" in sound. The Vahalla 2 bass was less thick, but very well done too. My first and immediate impression was the Crack soundstage being so different and musical was startling. Depending on what material you play and how It was recorded they both sound very well.

Playing rock music like the remastered "The Doors" the drum whacks on the Vahalla 2 will make your ears bleed...they are really, really well recreated on my T1's a 10 out of a 10 IMO. The Crack is just a little behind a 9 out of a 10 to me. That said the overall presentation eeks out to the Crack...its just softer and more musical to me.

Now all this was with the higher impedance T1's....when I shifted to a lower impedance set of headphones the story changes quite a lot.

I have a set of Beyer DT1350's and they just sit there not being used much since I have had my T90s and T1's and several other headhones, Tyl over at innerfidelity liked these a lot, which is saying something (LOL). They have small transducers, don't fit over my ears and when playing with other SS amps they have a smaller soundstage and presence to me. The T90s and T1's blow them away.

Well that was until the Vahalla 2 arrived..

I have tried these 80 ohm headphones on the Crack and immediately I know this was not the amp for these headphones they played but well....not that well at all. So the Crack is relegated to the 300+ plus range for sure.

The Schitt Vahalla 2 was re-designed to work with a wider range of headphones and this it does very well IMO. Actually when I put the DT1350s into the V2, I was really blown away...playing the original Trinity Series of Cowboy Junkies the bass response and soundstage and ambient background reverberation was better than any presentation of these headphones on any other amp I have. It shocked me so much that I had to check to see if I had these on my head!! These were played with the lower gain setting. The really low bass was actually to me better than the T1's!

So I will next setup up a blind listening session and invite a few audio friends over and test them to see what they hear in a blind test environment. its the only way to me to see how they both stand up.

I like building stuff, and the Bottlehead Crack with the Speedball mod to me is one of the best tube OTL amps that is affordable and competes with higher priced amps and does so very well with high impedance headhones, if you have this amp you cant go wrong, its that nice. (speedball is a must :>).....).

That said if you like playing around with amps, and I do, I had to try this amp, it has gobs of power at 300 ohms (800mw RMS). The Crack volume knob has to be cranked up 3/4 or so where as the Vahalla2 is only cranked up to 1/3 of the way, but to be fair the gain has to be factored in here. But the Vahalla 2 will make most higher impedance cans dance very well.

If you don't like building stuff the Vahalla 2 is a good choice, its well built, solid and the stock tubes are to me just wonderful. I feel no need to go chasing NOS tubes. The price you pay for them is getting well, ridiculous IMO. Schitt will sell you a et of 4 for $40, now that's a great deal to me.

I am not going to get rid of my Crack for sure and the Vahalla 2 is also going to be around for a long time as well....both companies have real winners here....

All the best
Alex

Thanks, enjoy reading them. But VW's stock tubes are really bad.

 

[adydula]

 I moved the Vahalla 2 to a different room, using a different pc as the player with Foobar 2000 and Jriver (an older MC18 version). Tried two different dacs, one asynchronous, on not, both USB of course. Reason I did this at first was with the Beyer DT1350's 80 ohms, there is an audible hiss on high gain, and Schitt suggested trying a different source, so i did that and went as far as moving out of the area, in case there was any RF interference etc.
 
The DT1350's at 80 ohms really should be played in the V2 in the low gain position as designed. In this position there is NO hiss or hum. So this is a minor thing IMO, but being anal I wanted to make sure the new toy was indeed ok. (5 year warranty..so this becomes a really moot point).
 
The reason I bring this up is the pc latop in the other room is a HP I7 Spectre with SSD and its internal dac is 48khz, but I use external 44.1Khz dacs so there is no re-sampling etc...what the source is, is the ouput.
 
I was listening with Foobar 2000 and then tried JRiver...there shouldnt be any audible difference, even Foobar folk state this all things being equal....BUT there are so many settings and adjustments that you need to be careful setting your player...
 
The JRiver side really stood out to me as open, clear, transparent, that old adage, the veil is removed thing....in spades IMO.
 
I spent three hours just being immersed in the great sound I was hearing with my T1's...its that holographic sounding playback that many of us look for in presentation...It was so good with the DAC and V2 and the T1's its hard to imagine anything better sounding.....yeah I know....theres always that desire to see what if...
 
The result here was this was even better than my Bottlehead Crack with Speedball, which is a very nice pairing with the T1's....
 
I was thinking of updating the dac to a multibit, but honestly right now there is no need...time to just enjoy this new amp with the T1's and smile!
 
Alex

 

[fredmad]

I've been flailing about trying to find a way to improve the sound in my current pairing of Cayin N5 source with Beyerdynamic T51p.  I know this sounds strictly portable but it's mostly for my nightstand.  I perked up when I saw @adydula mention the 1350 pairing with the Valhalla 2 since these headphones are often compared to the ones I have.  Do you think the V2 would make sense with what I have?  I know sound is subjective and improvements are relative but if you have a sense of how this might work then I'd really be interested.  
 
thanks,
Jonathan

 

[r2muchstuff]

  I've been flailing about trying to find a way to improve the sound in my current pairing of Cayin N5 source with Beyerdynamic T51p.  I know this sounds strictly portable but it's mostly for my nightstand.  I perked up when I saw @adydula mention the 1350 pairing with the Valhalla 2 since these headphones are often compared to the ones I have.  Do you think the V2 would make sense with what I have?  I know sound is subjective and improvements are relative but if you have a sense of how this might work then I'd really be interested.  
 
thanks,
Jonathan

The Beyerdynamic DT 1350 does work well with the Valhalla 2, especially with less warm tubes.
 
However, it works great with the Vali 2 also, same tubes or adapted to 6SN7 tube.  For bed side, a great choice.  You could spend a bit more and add a Modi Multibit
 
JMTC,
r2

 

[fredmad]

One reason the Valhalla 2 caught my eye was the part about playing nicely with lower impedance headphones.  The Beyer 1350's mentioned are 80 ohm and my 51p's are 60 ohm.  This feature seemed to distinguish the Valhalla 2, at least in what I've read so far.  I was also attracted to the idea of true tube vs. hybrid (and so was looking at the DarkVoice and Little Dot mkiii).  I'll look more closely at the Vali 2.  Not sure if I'm ready to double upgrade though so I might look/click away if I see anything related to Modi Multibit : )
Thanks @r2muchstuff 

 

[r2muchstuff]

  One reason the Valhalla 2 caught my eye was the part about playing nicely with lower impedance headphones.  The Beyer 1350's mentioned are 80 ohm and my 51p's are 60 ohm.  This feature seemed to distinguish the Valhalla 2, at least in what I've read so far.  I was also attracted to the idea of true tube vs. hybrid (and so was looking at the DarkVoice and Little Dot mkiii).  I'll look more closely at the Vali 2.  Not sure if I'm ready to double upgrade though so I might look/click away if I see anything related to Modi Multibit : )
Thanks @r2muchstuff 

Valhalla 2
Output Impedance:  , 3.5 ohms (lo gain), 14 ohms (hi gain)
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 180mW RMS per channel
 
Vali 2
Output Impedance: 1.2 ohms in low gain mode, 5.8 ohms in high gain mode
Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 650mW RMS per channel
 
Valhalla is OTL so yes all tubes and Vali 2 hybrid so your point is taken.
 
On playing well with lower impedance headphones, the Vali 2 specs suggest that it is a better match.  Lower out put impedance and more power at 50 ohms.  The Valhalla 2 on high gain is over the "1/8 suggestion" for out put impedance for both the 1350 & 51p. Valhalla 2 low gain at 180mW RMS is fine for these phones , so high gain is not necessary.
 
Either way you should be happy.
 
My night time chair rig is iPod (ALAC) digital via Pure Dock > coax > Modi multibit > Vali 2 (6SN7 tube) > DT 1350, Sennheiser Amperior (18 ohm), Grado SR 325e  or various other higher ohm phones.  Really enjoy the 1350/Amperior/Grado from this kit.
 
YMMV & IMHO,
r2

 

[adydula]

Sound pressure level:		109 dB (1 mW / 500 Hz)
Max. SPL:		129 dB (100 mW / 500 Hz)

 
 
Even with 180 mw you can max out the capabilities of the 1350's....
 
I listened again last night and they work so magical with this amp...
 
If your going to stay with low impedance cans then maybe a different amp should be in your auditioning.....most of mine are 300 ohms or higher, hence
the Vahalla 2 and BH Crack...the 1350 pairing was a total surprise and with 8 head amps here in house this is the best one yet!!
 
Alex

 

[gug42]

So, for you, the Valhalla 2 is the amp to go because of it's versatility  ?
 
Thx in advance

 

[Mr Rick]

So, I'm considering adding a tube speaker amp to my system. I thought the Valhalla 2 might be a good preamp for such a system.
 
Is anyone using the Valhalla 2 as a preamp for a tube speaker amp??

 

[vocalstrance]

I am currently using the Valhalla 2 as a preamp for my Bob Latino M125 monoblocks. Works great sounds great. If only it had a remote, but I rarely desire to adjust the volume, so getting up to do so is rare.

 

[stuck limo]

Here's a shot of what I enjoy listening to at night now:
 

 

[Jacobh]

Looks like the Valhalla 2 is available again in black on the Schiit site.  I don't think the option was there a few days ago.  I'm not sure if I prefer it in silver or not.