[Slim1970]

Loki Mini+ arrived today, and Holy Schiit! [Genuflects toward Corpus Chrisi]

I used to run my 2-ch through an ancient GAS Thoebe, bumping bass and treble in a subtle way to liven up my DIY open baffles.

Then everything went to Schiit, Mimby and SYS, beautiful but not complete.

Today, instantly, Loki wakes the bass, dials out an annoying room resonance, puts sparkle back into the treble, all without screwing up anything else. At all.

Genius.

I wonder how much better is it over the original Loki? Is it worth the upgrade?

 

[BobSmith8901]

New Schiit Lokius

https://www.schiit.com/products/lokius

 

[G0rt]

I wonder how much better is it over the original Loki? Is it worth the upgrade?

I expect it's more a matter of matching requirements.

The Mini+ is perfect for my 2-ch, but a Lokius would be interesting between Gumby and Mjolnir2, for a couple of my quirkier cans that could benefit.

Loki Max? Hmmmmmm...

 

[squeakez]

I wonder how much better is it over the original Loki? Is it worth the upgrade?

I hate to have to say this, but the Loki+ is not better than the original version. I just got the Loki+ yesterday and was interested to hear the difference. The system I've been using lately is the Signature Zen Dac and Amp with the Ultrasone Edition 10 and Beyer T5P 2nd Gen. I listened for about 45 minutes and wondered where the magic went. I switched back to the original Loki and the magic instantly came back.

The music felt like it had a veil over it - slightly muffled sounding. I was shocked by this. Very disappointed. I suppose if you had never heard the original then you wouldn't know there was a problem. I will be sticking with the original.

 

[CaptainFantastic]

I hate to have to say this, but the Loki+ is not better than the original version. I just got the Loki+ yesterday and was interested to hear the difference. The system I've been using lately is the Signature Zen Dac and Amp with the Ultrasone Edition 10 and Beyer T5P 2nd Gen. I listened for about 45 minutes and wondered where the magic went. I switched back to the original Loki and the magic instantly came back.

The music felt like it had a veil over it - slightly muffled sounding. I was shocked by this. Very disappointed. I suppose if you had never heard the original then you wouldn't know there was a problem. I will be sticking with the original.

Interesting observations. Thanks. I do remember watching a video from Schiit some two or three months ago and they were speaking of the Loki+, how it's coming but they still have some issues to work out. So I was surprised to see it come out so quickly thereafter (I mean, first you workout the issues, then you do some extensive testing, then manufacture... I would imagine this take many months). So I am not overly surprised to hear that there are some issues perhaps.

 

[Slim1970]

I hate to have to say this, but the Loki+ is not better than the original version. I just got the Loki+ yesterday and was interested to hear the difference. The system I've been using lately is the Signature Zen Dac and Amp with the Ultrasone Edition 10 and Beyer T5P 2nd Gen. I listened for about 45 minutes and wondered where the magic went. I switched back to the original Loki and the magic instantly came back.

The music felt like it had a veil over it - slightly muffled sounding. I was shocked by this. Very disappointed. I suppose if you had never heard the original then you wouldn't know there was a problem. I will be sticking with the original.

Wow, interesting. I still have the original Loki as I didn’t make the move to the Loki+. I have mine sitting in between my Chord Dave and Luxman/GS-X MK2 when I need them for listening to my hard to drive cans. I don’t notice any drop off in sound quality. I plan on trying out the Lokius. It’s additional bands will suit me well. I just hope it‘s as transparent as the original Loki.

 

[Slim1970]

I expect it's more a matter of matching requirements.

The Mini+ is perfect for my 2-ch, but a Lokius would be interesting between Gumby and Mjolnir2, for a couple of my quirkier cans that could benefit.

Loki Max? Hmmmmmm...

The Loki Max sounds insane. If it‘s a PEQ with a true balanced design it will be better than all the current versions. PEQ is just a better type of EQ in my opinion.

 

[471724]

The Loki Max sounds insane. If it‘s a PEQ with a true balanced design it will be better than all the current versions. PEQ is just a better type of EQ in my opinion.

It's unlikely that the Lokius is a parametric EQ in the sense that you can set and adjust the various parameters, especially Q (filter slope and rise time/ringing behavior) but also frequency and filter type. These parameters must be fixed in the hardware of the Loki Mini and Lokius. Parametric adjustment capability is necessarily limited to digital equalizers and is one of their advantages in the tradeoffs between digital and analog equalizers.

 

[Luke Thomas]

Bummer the guy above didn’t like it. Makes me rethink the idea that this Loki could help with the lack of bass within the Sennheiser 800s

 

[Slim1970]

Bummer the guy above didn’t like it. Makes me rethink the idea that this Loki could help with the lack of bass within the Sennheiser 800s

It does, but don’t expect it be a huge deviation from the base sound. That’s what I like about the Loki. It doesn’t over emphasize the frequencies being EQ’d and distort the headphones.

 

[Luke Thomas]

It does, but don’t expect it be a huge deviation from the base sound. That’s what I like about the Loki. It doesn’t over emphasize the frequencies being EQ’d and distort the headphones.

So u suggest the Loki for the 800s

 

[Slim1970]

So u suggest the Loki for the 800s

I use it to tweak the sound all of my headphones

 

[Luke Thomas]

Thx

 

[tincanear]

The plan is for three models in the Loki EQ line-up: Loki Mini+ (4 bands), the new-this-week $299 USD Lokius (6 bands, mid-size Asgard3/Jotunheim 2 footprint), and the not-yet-released Loki max (based on the large dev green board that Jason previewed a while ago with remote control, motorized pots, and presets). none of Loki family have parametric EQ, but instead have variable-Q with a fixed center frequency for each band.

 

[471724]

I hate to have to say this, but the Loki+ is not better than the original version. I just got the Loki+ yesterday and was interested to hear the difference. The system I've been using lately is the Signature Zen Dac and Amp with the Ultrasone Edition 10 and Beyer T5P 2nd Gen. I listened for about 45 minutes and wondered where the magic went. I switched back to the original Loki and the magic instantly came back.

The music felt like it had a veil over it - slightly muffled sounding. I was shocked by this. Very disappointed. I suppose if you had never heard the original then you wouldn't know there was a problem. I will be sticking with the original.

Of course this is your ears and your system, but I would have to assume my impression would be the same, since I am very sensitive to this sort of sonic degradation. Just a guess, but it might be due to a parts change in going from California to production in Corpus Christi Texas. All it would take would be using some different brand or type of inductors and/or capacitors in the LC filters, or resistors/transistors from different manufacturers. Same or very similar parts values but different manufacturers. If some of the components in the original Loki Mini were "tuned" or specially selected for their sound in the unit, while the parts in the new production units were changed because of a new company doing the manufacturing and not doing the "tuning" of the now changed parts. One sign of this might be the measured change in the center frequency of the treble LC filter from 8kHZ to 7kHz.