[Bugler]

I received a new Schitt Valhalla last week for my 60th birthday. I'm getting a pretty persistent clicking out of the headphones with volume on Valhalla turned all the way down. As I'm typing this I just realized it appears to be happening only when my cell phone is near it and charging. Is this pretty common? So far I really like the sound of the amp. I'm using either Sennheiser HD360 pro or my old Koss HV/1 from the 70's. Source is typically analog (don't like digital much) either ReVox turntable or one of several RTR decks (ReVox A77mkll, B77, Teac A-1230 etc) or cassette decks (TASCAM, Nakamichi, Carver etc). Also will use a Sangean FM HD tuner or Pioneer Elite CD jukebox on occasion. These are all fed into a Carver C-5 dual zone preamp. I'm feeding the Valhalla from the zone 2 out of the preamp with its volume set to about 75%. Does this sound about right? How do others hook up their headphone amp? Obviously power amp and speakers not included in this equation. I do plan on adding a pair of Grado's soon. Probably SR225 or 325
Suggestions appreciated

 

[Incompetency]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the electricity is discharging from your phone and interfering with either the magnetic parts in the system or the analog tapes just don't like cell phone signals. This is most likely not a usual happening, as few people use that exact setup.

 

[tomb]

I received a new Schitt Valhalla last week for my 60th birthday. I'm getting a pretty persistent clicking out of the headphones with volume on Valhalla turned all the way down. As I'm typing this I just realized it appears to be happening only when my cell phone is near it and charging. Is this pretty common? So far I really like the sound of the amp. I'm using either Sennheiser HD360 pro or my old Koss HV/1 from the 70's. Source is typically analog (don't like digital much) either ReVox turntable or one of several RTR decks (ReVox A77mkll, B77, Teac A-1230 etc) or cassette decks (TASCAM, Nakamichi, Carver etc). Also will use a Sangean FM HD tuner or Pioneer Elite CD jukebox on occasion. These are all fed into a Carver C-5 dual zone preamp. I'm feeding the Valhalla from the zone 2 out of the preamp with its volume set to about 75%. Does this sound about right? How do others hook up their headphone amp? Obviously power amp and speakers not included in this equation. I do plan on adding a pair of Grado's soon. Probably SR225 or 325
Suggestions appreciated

Most Schiit amps use unshielded transformers.  I'm not saying that's bad - just that you have to be aware of it and take proper precautions.  Keep the amp away from cell phones, other equipment with transformers, wireless ethernet routers, etc.  Your equipment will thank you for it.
 
And hey - if something can't pick up that stuff and seems to work fine despite it, it probably doesn't have the detail and nuance you want for headphones anyway.

 

[Bugler]

  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the electricity is discharging from your phone and interfering with either the magnetic parts in the system or the analog tapes just don't like cell phone signals. This is most likely not a usual happening, as few people use that exact setup.

It's definitely not the source as it will happen even if my preamp is turned off.  Apparently the interference from the cell phone when placed in very close proximity to the Valhalla is the problem.  It only happens when the phone is charging.  I might try a different phone charger just for the heck of it.  FYI my headphone amp is quite a distance from the rest of my HiFi.  I have a good quality RCA cable running from the preamp to the headphone amp

 

[Makiah S]

  It's definitely not the source as it will happen even if my preamp is turned off.  Apparently the interference from the cell phone when placed in very close proximity to the Valhalla is the problem.  It only happens when the phone is charging.  I might try a different phone charger just for the heck of it.  FYI my headphone amp is quite a distance from the rest of my HiFi.  I have a good quality RCA cable running from the preamp to the headphone amp

It's the celluar device, I have a giant solid state that does the same thing when my celluar phone is near by, the best thing to do is move your celluar phone charger to another location and swich to a ehternet cable,
 
Mono price sells 50foot Cat 5E cables for like $13 [Shipped] if your desering to switch to hard line over wireless 

 

[Bugler]

  It's the celluar device, I have a giant solid state that does the same thing when my celluar phone is near by, the best thing to do is move your celluar phone charger to another location and swich to a ehternet cable,
 
Mono price sells 50foot Cat 5E cables for like $13 [Shipped] if your desering to switch to hard line over wireless 

not sure how an ethernet cable would benefit me

 

[Makiah S]

  not sure how an ethernet cable would benefit me

wireless creates interfearance, the router and the recicer on your pc both create inter ferance, your tube could be picking up on the signal being sent between your router and your Nic Card, using a Ethernet cable reduces the interfearance 

 

[Bugler]

  wireless creates interfearance, the router and the recicer on your pc both create inter ferance, your tube could be picking up on the signal being sent between your router and your Nic Card, using a Ethernet cable reduces the interfearance 

my laptop & router are pretty far from my HiFi.  My HiFi doesn't use any laptop or wifi connection.  I never had this interference till I added the headphone amp and only if my cell phone is placed directly below the amp.  And the clicking only happens if the phone is charging.  I solved the problem by simply placing the phone elsewhere.  What is a Nic Card?

 

[tomb]

 

  wireless creates interfearance, the router and the recicer on your pc both create inter ferance, your tube could be picking up on the signal being sent between your router and your Nic Card, using a Ethernet cable reduces the interfearance 

my laptop & router are pretty far from my HiFi.  My HiFi doesn't use any laptop or wifi connection.  I never had this interference till I added the headphone amp and only if my cell phone is placed directly below the amp.  And the clicking only happens if the phone is charging.  I solved the problem by simply placing the phone elsewhere.  What is a Nic Card?

Network Interface Controller.  It's simply an Ethernet PC expansion card.  Of course, motherboards have had Ethernet RJ45 connectors built in for many years, now, so "card" doesn't quite describe the present.

 
He's right about the rest, though - a wireless router in the proximity of your unshielded-transformer headphone amp will pick up noise, for sure.  Again, you can't really blame the headphone amplifier.  There's plenty of equipment that will react this way in the proximity of transmitting devices.  The amount of shielding that Schiit would have to incorporate in their amps to prevent this would simply price the amp out of anyone's range.  Compared to simply moving the amp away from the disturbing source, it's a no-brainer.

 

[Makiah S]

  Network Interface Controller.  It's simply an Ethernet PC expansion card.  Of course, motherboards have had Ethernet RJ45 connectors built in for many years, now, so "card" doesn't quite describe the present.

 
He's right about the rest, though - a wireless router in the proximity of your unshielded-transformer headphone amp will pick up noise, for sure.  Again, you can't really blame the headphone amplifier.  There's plenty of equipment that will react this way in the proximity of transmitting devices.  The amount of shielding that Schiit would have to incorporate in their amps to prevent this would simply price the amp out of anyone's range.  Compared to simply moving the amp away from the disturbing source, it's a no-brainer.

yup, and NIC Card is kinda a useless term... most mobo's have a NIC Card built in to them now a days
 
but yea  I noticed my Vali was sensitive to my cell phone and Wireless Nic Card... so I moved it a few feet and viola! 

 

[Billheiser]

You don't want 2 volume controls involved. Do you have a line-level preamp output? That would be a fixed ( not variable) output and that's what u want going into your headphone amp.

 

[Billheiser]

Also - those Grados you have in mind are excellent - but they do not match well withe the Valhalla. The V is made for high impedance headphones, and the Grados are low impedance (32 ohms). You will handicap the performance of both the amp and the headphones. A much better match for Valhalla are 'phones with 150- 600 ohm impedance, such as many of the best sounding home-oriented modells from Sennheiser and Beyer Dynamic.

 

[Makiah S]

welll actually... Schiit just released the Lyr 2 which now has a gain switch, the Valhalla might be following behind it shortly 

 

[Billheiser]

welll actually... Schiit just released the Lyr 2 which now has a gain switch, the Valhalla might be following behind it shortly 

Yes, Schiit just released the Valhalla 2 with a gain switch. However, the poster just got the "old" Valhalla which does not do well with Grados.

 

[Makiah S]

Yes, Schiit just released the Valhalla 2 with a gain switch. However, the poster just got the "old" Valhalla which does not do well with Grados.

eww indeed 
 
you know schiit might offer to upgrade it for a small fee, they seem pretty gracious with their customer service