[billbishere]

Does anyone know what the bass tone control on the Loki actually does?

The Loki specs are
Bands: 20Hz, 400Hz, 2kHz, 8kHz
Adjustment: +/-12dB at 20Hz and 8kHz, +/-6dB at 400Hz and 2kHz

It doesn't make sense that the bass tone is centered at 20hz, so this doesn't provide any useful information. I contacted Schiit to see if they had any frequency response graphs of the tone effects, like JDS Labs has for the Subjective 3

Schiit customer support just quoted the specs back at me.

Perhaps someone knows where the tone control is centered and what slope it has?

Sorry if this question has already been answered. I did skim through the first half of this discussion thread, but didn't see any relevant information.

The position of the knob:

Full clockwise
Quarter turn clockwise
Eighth turn clockwise
Center
Full counter clockwise
Eighth turn counter clockwise
Full counter clockwise




Bass



Treble



Lower Mid Knob



Upper Mid Knob

 

[cel4145]

The position of the knob:

Full clockwise
Quarter turn clockwise
Eighth turn clockwise
Center
Full counter clockwise
Eighth turn counter clockwise
Full counter clockwise




Bass



Treble



Lower Mid Knob



Upper Mid Knob

Thanks! So what is the bass tone control doing below 20hz? Or is there some kind of low pass filter to keep it from boosting too far down?

 

[GuyM82]

Bonjour,

Que fait le contrôle de tonalité en dessous de 20 Hz ? Pas grand chose ...
Je pense que seul le tuyau 32 ' d'un orgue descend aux environs de 16 Hz. Mais l'oreille humaine n'entend quasiment plus rien en dessous de 20 Hz.
Au-dessous de cette fréquence il ne subsiste plus que des infrasons que certains peuvent néanmoins ressentir mais à la condition d'avoir un niveau de volume musical très élevé.

Guytou

 

[Bern2]

Bonjour,

Que fait le contrôle de tonalité en dessous de 20 Hz ? Pas grand chose ...
Je pense que seul le tuyau 32 ' d'un orgue descend aux environs de 16 Hz. Mais l'oreille humaine n'entend quasiment plus rien en dessous de 20 Hz.
Au-dessous de cette fréquence il ne subsiste plus que des infrasons que certains peuvent néanmoins ressentir mais à la condition d'avoir un niveau de volume musical très élevé.

Guytou

Xlating for those that are French illiterate...(like me mostly).

Hello,

What does the tone control do below 20 Hz? Not much ...
I think that only the 32 'pipe of an organ goes down to around 16 Hz. But the human ear can hardly hear anything below 20 Hz.
Below this frequency there remains only infrasound that some may nevertheless feel but on the condition of having a very high level of musical volume.

 

[GuyM82]

Désolé, je ne le referai plus ... :clin d'œil:

Guytou

 

[mab1376]

I got one of these for Christmas and it's a godsend for live tapings of concerts, bumping the mid-range makes it seem like a live album somewhat.

e.g.

https://archive.org/details/ween2018-12-15.cd2go

 

[florence]

If someone gets Loki to use with 007mk2 + mjölnir kgsshv, would it be wasting money or does it reveal anything better?

 

[JTori]

I'm a latecomer to this thread, but here are my impressions after having the Loki in my system for four days.

First, a few system particulars:

Synology NAS > Ethernet > iMac Pro > Audirvana 3.5 > Benchmark DAC3-DX > Loki Mini > High-Quality DIY Switchbox > Bottlehead Mainline or Bottlehead Crack/Speedball or Teddy Pardo PS + Koss ESP-950 > Focal Clear or HD800S or ZMF Auteur or Beyerdynamic T5P2 or HD600

Impressions:

After considerable research, I decided to buy the Loki. While I couldn't find any negative reviews, I was skeptical about adding a component (especially a budget-priced one) to my signal chain. Turns out my concerns were unfounded. The Loki, while small, is a nicely spec'ed device. It's dead quiet and transparent. To verify this, I A-B'ed it in and out of my chain using my switch box and Mainline amp. I could detect no difference in sound quality.

When in EQ mode (not bypassed), it does exactly what I wanted it to. I had planned to use it only in the signal path to my ESP-950s, however, in the last couple of days I hitched it up to enable EQ'ing all the aforementioned amps. The bands are well chosen, and it's extremely helpful to be able to add just a bit of boost to low and lower-mid frequencies (especially on the Koss'). On the Crack, I'm dialing back the 20Hz band ever so slightly or boosting it a bit (on all amps) when listening at very low volumes (like when I'm writing).

Overall, I'm very pleased with the purchase. I can see no downsides to the component, except for maybe the cheap wall wart, which I induced ever so slight a hum to my Mainline, even though it was plugged into an Audio Power Power Pack II. Once, I plugged it into a different isolator, all was golden.

So, bottom line: A nicely designed and implemented piece of kit. Does exactly what I need it to do without any introducing any nasties. Highly recommended .... especially at $149.

BTW, for reference, here are a few pics of my desktop equipment as it stands today:

Best,

Joe.

 

[Shane D]

For those considering a Loki, there are B units on the Schiit website for $129.00.

Shane D

 

[Outaphase]

Just got it. There's that moment when you first fire things up and wonder "did I waste my money?" Heck NO!

At first, I couldn't get any of the 4 presets to work. No matter how hard I pushed, I couldn't get the "smoky jazz club" to function.

(That's a joke lurkers!)

Seriously, I was ecstatic that there seemed to be no sonic-penalty for using it. In other words, it just did it's job without any gotcha's to be heard. All I want to listen to is the first-mile source, and last-mile cans, with nothing in between. The Heresy amp and Loki combo help me achieve that. (other than the Loki doing what it's supposed to do with EQ). If there is a problem, I'm going to concentrate on the first and last mile of my chain.

Other than sweetening or deemphasizing trouble spots or merely adjusting for personal taste, I see the Loki as kind of a tool as well as "audiophile insurance", especially if one is going solely by forum impressions without any possibility of trying things in person.

1) You just spent $3K blindly online, and uh-oh - yeah, too bright. Or too dark. Boring. The LOKI eq is your insurance.

2) With the bypass, you can congratulate yourself on totally nailing it perfectly, not needing any eq.

3) Bring a little more sanity to V-shaped cans, or just give them a taste of what you really want and help you better decide in the future.

I love the "shape" of how the controls work. Discussed earlier. At this stage, 4 controls is just fine for me.

But to be sure, it won't drastically alter the overall character of the cans - that is, it tamed my bass-punch AKG K240's into something much more musical, but despite hitting it with sub-bass - it just won't sprinkle sonic-dust on the drivers to turn them into an EDM-party set of cans which the drivers just weren't designed to handle loudly. But it did give them a taste. Sure, I tried to turn the 240's into my K712's, and got close, but at some point, FR alone won't change the character of the other variables. Cool.

Overall, I think the Loki is a "you can't lose" proposition. Maybe it will fix a problem area. Or just confirm what you already know. Or perhaps make a self-discovery about bright/dark/boring environment that turns you on to make a better decision with your next pair.

Sanity-check: The only thing I did to it out of the box and powered on, was run the nice Alps pots through a sanity check - merely doing a full rotation back and forth a few times. No problems.

The biggest thing is that I don't want to hear that Schiit - other than the eq job it was supposed to do cleanly. Just first and last mile in my chain. Yeah, I've got the biggest Cheshire-cat grin going on.

 

[Outaphase]

For you sharp-eyed lurkers:

You'll notice my location is very near Schiit - but I'm so busy that I'll be like those who live in NYC, and have never visited the Empire State Bldg.

I've never been the the bat-cave, or whatever it is, although I have passed by a few times. I get my stuff with my own cash, and even choose Amazon to do so. Yeah, I need some socks, electrical tape, oh yeah - toss in that EQ, box of pens. Sealed factory tape is reassuring.

Although I'm close, I might as well be 3000 miles away. Heck - they might as well be in Omaha. I just report on works for *me* and get stuff like the vast majority does.

Enough of that - time to put Jim Svejda's classical show on KUSC to the test. Instead of the 712's, tonight I'll use the new Loki and the 240's. For 5 hours! I can't listen to prog-rock *all* the time!

Update 11:15pm - I think Jim Svejda is a closet Head-Fi reader - taking the hint, he's playing Gustav Holst' - The Planets - to help me test my new Loki. Thanks Jim!

 

[Gazny]

Anyone use the Loki to tune the HD650's? I finally heard the veil everyone always seems to talk about. Wondering if anyone has experimented and can share their results.

 

[greenblured]

Anyone use the Loki to tune the HD650's? I finally heard the veil everyone always seems to talk about. Wondering if anyone has experimented and can share their results.

Got the Loki 18 days ago. Why? To try to tame/tune bad recordings. Like Rory Gallagher, Motorhead Ac/Dc etc. Not to mention Stones 'some girls'. Gear is Hd800 &650<Qutest<Beyer A20<iPad Pro<Qobus. Never heard a veil with the 650. But with the Loki in the chain i can hear it as a lack of resolution. The Loki imo does impact the sound in a negative way when listening to hires tol recordings . That said; for lesser recordings it is ok tool. ime The Loki do not like a too hot input signal. Much better sounding with 1v insted of 2v from the Qutest. As re. the 650 and Loki. Dont'h bather. It just do not take eq as the 800. Tried it with the Beyer 990-600 ohm. No good. The 800 though responds good. But Some Girls still is a crappy recording.

 

[greenblured]

Got the Loki 18 days ago. Why? To try to tame/tune bad recordings. Like Rory Gallagher, Motorhead Ac/Dc etc. Not to mention Stones 'some girls'. Gear is Hd800 &650<Qutest<Beyer A20<iPad Pro<Qobus. Never heard a veil with the 650. But with the Loki in the chain i can hear it as a lack of resolution. The Loki imo does impact the sound in a negative way when listening to hires tol recordings . That said; for lesser recordings it is ok tool. ime The Loki do not like a too hot input signal. Much better sounding with 1v insted of 2v from the Qutest. As re. the 650 and Loki. Dont'h bather. It just do not take eq as the 800. Tried it with the Beyer 990-600 ohm. No good. The 800 though responds good. But Some Girls still is a crappy recording.

Obs.. the dac before the amp oc.

 

[Gazny]

Got the Loki 18 days ago. Why? To try to tame/tune bad recordings. Like Rory Gallagher, Motorhead Ac/Dc etc. Not to mention Stones 'some girls'. Gear is Hd800 &650<Qutest<Beyer A20<iPad Pro<Qobus. Never heard a veil with the 650. But with the Loki in the chain i can hear it as a lack of resolution. The Loki imo does impact the sound in a negative way when listening to hires tol recordings . That said; for lesser recordings it is ok tool. ime The Loki do not like a too hot input signal. Much better sounding with 1v insted of 2v from the Qutest. As re. the 650 and Loki. Dont'h bather. It just do not take eq as the 800. Tried it with the Beyer 990-600 ohm. No good. The 800 though responds good. But Some Girls still is a crappy recording.

Thank you for the reply, I have a hd650 and a beyer 880 600 ohm. cheers.
I'll use it for something else maybe the vinyl collection.