[szore]

My opinion: for $230 on Black Friday deal is low/no risk so why not get one and mess with it? My Lokius arrived today.

plus 15 day return

 

[bagwell359]

Here are the top 6 settings for my HEX v2. Take a shot.

 

[thefitz]

Nice. 800S needs less corrections. But the LCD-4 needs more doesn't it? How does the Lokius do with that?

That's the gag. It needs less corrections, but when you, say, boost 2kHz, it bleeds into the mids and low mids. The EQ is all wonky to compensate for itself, not necessarily for the headphone. The cut on the 400Hz knob is to basically compensate for the boosted 20/120/2000Hz knobs.

Here is my 6 band in parametric. Can the Lokius mimic that?

Also 20 to 120.is a long way. Say you have one of the cheaper HFM which start losing bass at 80 Hz and is down 3 db at 50, 5 db at 35, and 10 db at 20 but the bass resonance is at 32 Hz. Pumping 20 Hz way up to say +6 db at 20 is just going to make the driver flap more and probably create more IM. But how fast does the EQ drop per octave? 6 db? So if you set +6 at 20 it's 0 db at 10 Hz and 40 Hz? But the cans are down 3 db at 50 and 120 is way on yonder too far to do anything but pump up your mid-bass. So +8 at 20? Curve meets my criteria pretty well. But your driver is really flapping down low and those little but annoying +1.8 db bumps at 90 Hz and 260 Hz are not going to be dealt with

I can't really graph your EQ like that, but if I'm reading these graphs correctly, each band goes one octave (!) in each direction (!!). So yeah, boosting/cutting 120Hz will reach into 1kHz and beyond. 6kHz boosts 2kHz, 2kHz boosts 6kHz, and 16kHz touches 6kHz. It's wild. As you pass 3:00, the "Q increases" insofar as just the middle of the giant octaves-wide curve moves up but it's still very wide. Basically, anything between 9:00 and 3:00 is a two-octave band boost as far as I am concerned.

Here's my LCD-4 curve conforming to the same HD800S target:
20Hz: 3:00
120Hz: 1:30
400Hz: 9:00
2kHz: 3:00
6kHz: 3:00
16kHz: 9:00

I do find the Harman curve to be a little muted in the extreme treble, so feel free to set 16kHz to taste. 6kHz might even need extra juice. As-is, the cans don't have a drop of fatigue.

In my opinion, and important part of a headphone's sound signature is the wiggles and jiggles within the FR curve. With this thing, you can adjust overall timbre, but the sound signature remains.

 

[bagwell359]

That's the gag. It needs less corrections, but when you, say, boost 2kHz, it bleeds into the mids and low mids. The EQ is all wonky to compensate for itself, not necessarily for the headphone. The cut on the 400Hz knob is to basically compensate for the boosted 20/120/2000Hz knobs.


I can't really graph your EQ like that, but if I'm reading these graphs correctly, each band goes one octave (!) in each direction (!!). So yeah, boosting/cutting 120Hz will reach into 1kHz and beyond. 6kHz boosts 2kHz, 2kHz boosts 6kHz, and 16kHz touches 6kHz. It's wild. As you pass 3:00, the "Q increases" insofar as just the middle of the giant octaves-wide curve moves up but it's still very wide. Basically, anything between 9:00 and 3:00 is a two-octave band boost as far as I am concerned.

Here's my LCD-4 curve conforming to the same HD800S target:
20Hz: 3:00
120Hz: 1:30
400Hz: 9:00
2kHz: 3:00
6kHz: 3:00
16kHz: 9:00

I do find the Harman curve to be a little muted in the extreme treble, so feel free to set 16kHz to taste. 6kHz might even need extra juice. As-is, the cans don't have a drop of fatigue.

Yes maybe a little too comfy like sitting in a double sized leather recliner. But they would always have a place if I had a pair.

In my opinion, and important part of a headphone's sound signature is the wiggles and jiggles within the FR curve. With this thing, you can adjust overall timbre, but the sound signature remains.

Bingo. For a variety of reasons I never end up following any canned settings.

1. The bass settings of many of the best known outfits are bogus.
2. Unit to unit variability is very common, so just because the test unit works like X doesnt mean mine does.
3. I chase ringing issues in planars after my mods and FR EQ and about a 1/3 do not co-incide with a rise in the FR (in my ecperience).
4. Based on prior experience I never like to vary more than 3 db except under 100 Hz. Avoiding any phase issues.

All that keeps me in the area of maxing accuracy and my preferences as much as possible without molesting the sound of headphones that I liked enough to aquire and keep.

 

[bagwell359]

one thing for sure is that this item and it's brother are far better technically than 99% of tone controls on receivers and integrated amps.

Analog parametrics tend to be costly, but digital parametric tend to be cheap and good.

 

[nomis3613]

After about 6 months with the Lokius, I'm still very happy with it. Six bands does seem to be a good sweet spot for making tonal changes, without needing to be an audio engineer to avoid creating a spiky monster. I now appreciate why Schiit didn't feel the need to add more bands to the Loki Max (which is quite ironic, since a big part of why I "skimped out" and got the Lokius instead was that the Max didn't have extra bands)

Santa brought me a Modius (to replace a Modi 3 non-MB). The main reason was so that I could run its RCA outputs directly to the pre-amp (Saga S) and the XLR outputs to the pre-amp via the Lokius. This lets me enable and disable the EQ via remote control (by switching pre-amp inputs).

Interestingly, the Lokius path loses a small amount of top-end compared to the direct RCA path, so the top two bands are now at 1 o'clock to compensate for this. This difference could be 1) XLR vs RCA outputs on the Modius 2) the extra cables in the Lokius signal chain or 3) the Lokius's conversion of XLR to RCA signals. #1 would mean that one of the Modius outputs isn't flat, which I think is unlikely. A few extra short cables haven't ever made an audible difference for me in the past, so I think #2 is also unlikely. Therefore, without any evidence, my guess is that it's something to do with the balanced to unbalanced conversion.
Edit 1/1: I now think that the roll-off occurs when the Lokius's bypass switch is on (passive mode, so without the buffer perhaps?), but not when the eq is active and set to flat. So perhaps the roll-off is actually caused by something like cabling capacitance. Also I'm making a mountain out of a mole-hill here, since even the short ramp time used by the Lokius's bypass switch is enough to make me not notice the difference. It's only with an instantaneous step-change (eg when switching between pre-amp inputs) that I can (possibly...) hear a difference.

(As an aside, the Modius does a lot of relay clicking, perhaps to mute the outputs when there's no incoming signal. I really like it, as it makes it feel more "alive" )

 

[Barone Birra]

With a 4V XLR input, what's the voltage of the RCA output? 2 or a too hot 4V?

 

[nomis3613]

With a 4V XLR input, what's the voltage of the RCA output? 2 or a too hot 4V?

I haven't measured it, but the output seems similar to other line-level devices. Schiit's product page talks about the RCA output using a single phase of the balanced signal.

 

[thefitz]

With a 4V XLR input, what's the voltage of the RCA output? 2 or a too hot 4V?

FWIW my Schiit Valhalla is much louder out of the Lokius than the SE output of my Yggy directly.

 

[HIRESfan]

I'm going to be sending my Lokius back. I just got Hifiman Arya and noticed the Lokius collapses the Soundstage which is just not going to cut it.

I am experiencing the same (collapsing of soundstage) with my speakers and it is becoming frustrating/unacceptable. Could it be that Schiit sent me a faulty unit? Perhaps the same unit you returned?!?! I don't see many others with the same complaint.

 

[nomis3613]

I am experiencing the same (collapsing of soundstage) with my speakers and it is becoming frustrating/unacceptable. Could it be that Schiit sent me a faulty unit? Perhaps the same unit you returned?!?! I don't see many others with the same complaint.

That's a shame, I hope they look after you with the return.

Are you using the RCA inputs and outputs? Does it also happen when it's in bypass mode?

 

[emorrison33]

That's a shame, I hope they look after you with the return.

Are you using the RCA inputs and outputs? Does it also happen when it's in bypass mode?

I don't notice any difference in the soundstage with either my headphones or 2 channel...in bypass or engaged. I don't have the most "resolving" 2 channel system, but it's decent. The headphones I typically listen use to listen are the Empy's. Do I notice a difference int he soundstage? Possibly...but then my ears are 53 years old and I'm a drummer, so my hearing ain't so good anymore LOL

 

[OldRoadToad]

I don't notice any difference in the soundstage with either my headphones or 2 channel...in bypass or engaged. I don't have the most "resolving" 2 channel system, but it's decent. The headphones I typically listen use to listen are the Empy's. Do I notice a difference int he soundstage? Possibly...but then my ears are 53 years old and I'm a drummer, so my hearing ain't so good anymore LOL

So long as you can hear and enjoy your soundtrack that is all that matters, brother! Play on and enjoy it all!

ORT

 

[HTSkywalker]

I would say that the shortest most direct bridge between the player and your ears is mostly the purest one but we can't deny the need to buy new components especially with sexy names

 

[DJ LP]

^^^ Probably. I have the Loki, and prefer it over software. The additional 2 bands make the Lokius more desirable. An 8 or 10 band EQ would even be better.

I'm with you. I'm leaning very heavy on purchasing one of these. I don't play my music from streaming or a computer. If companies made these more available, people would purchase them.