Maximum Output: 10V RMS into 10K ohms

THD: Less than 0.002%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 2V RMS in/out, pots centered, active stage enabled, less than 0.01% at any potentiometer setting

IMD: Less than 0.002%, CCIF

 

SNR: Greater than 109db, unweighted, referenced to 1V RMS

 

Crosstalk: -80dB, 20Hz-20KHz

 

Output Impedance: 75 ohms
Input Impedance: 47K ohms

Bands: 20Hz, 400Hz, 2kHz, 8kHz

Adjustment: +/-12dB at 20Hz and 8kHz, +/-6dB at 400Hz and 2kHz

Topology: fully discrete, all-bipolar, symmetrical current-feedback design with no capacitors in the signal path and DC servo

Filtering: capacitor-gyrator for 20Hz, capacitor-inductor (LC) for all other bands

Power Supply: “Wall wart” style 8VA 16VAC transformer, regulated +/- 17V rails 

Power Consumption: 4W

 

Size: 5 x 3.5 x 1.25”

Weight: 1 lb

Right. And, as you’ll note, it’s a standalone product. You can add it to your system if you’d like, or act like it doesn’t exist. It won’t add itself to your cart if you happen to buy, say, a Modi Multibit (or anything else.) 

 

As with the previous question, there’s nothing stopping you from assembling a minimalist, no-tone-control system from our extensive product line. Adding Loki is a choice you can make. If you’d like. No pressure. 

 

The world changed, and we decided to experiment a bit. That’s it in a nutshell. The longer explanation includes the fact that tone controls have pretty much become verboten over the last three decades in high-end audio. For those of you who remember some crappy tone control and EQ implementations, including dull, veiled, nasty-sounding knobs on the front of receivers and noisy, truly awful-sounding banks of 10 to 30 sliders (usually fixed in a death-grin), you know that there’s a good reason tone controls went away. But we decided to take a look at it and see what we could make with a single gain stage (rather than 10-30 op-amps in a row) and using passive LC (inductor-capacitor) filtering wherever possible. And we found that we could create an extremely transparent equalizer that allowed for some very nice control over tonal characteristics, without the downside of traditional tone controls or EQs. So we decided to make it and see if you find it interesting as well.

 

Because we live in an imperfect world, and because individuals have individual preferences. Nobody can say their speakers or headphones are ruler-flat. Nobody can say that all of their recordings are audiophile-quality. Loki provides a way to adjust for imperfect systems and imperfect recordings. 

 

If it sounds good to you, who cares?

 

Cool. Then don’t get a Loki. Nobody’s making you buy it.

 

Yes. There’s a switch on the front to completely bypass the tone control stage—as in, a relay connects the input and output directly, no active devices in the signal path at all.

 

Yes, we do think Loki is very transparent.

 

No. Technically, Loki is a single-gain-stage active EQ with non-constant-Q passive filtering. In more English-y terms, that means that each band varies from broad to narrower as its gain is increased—small turns of the knobs result in broad, shallow changes, and bigger turns result in more narrow-band changes. 

 

It’s similar, yes, in that it is a fully discrete, current-feedback topology, but it is single-ended. 

 

We do like high value, but we’re not crazy. At least not as an official diagnosis.

 

That’s cool. There are some of those out there. They just won’t be Loki.

 

If you’d like to use software EQ (supplied with many playback software packages these days), that’s certainly an option—and you can probably get your parametric EQ there, if that’s what you want. However, you may prefer Loki…and once you get away from a computer source, an external hardware EQ is necessary if you want tone control.

 

Yep! Loki is the trickster god in Norse mythology. And it’s a neat name for a tricky little product. Now that we’re off the DSD train, it’s perfect for reviving a whole new category of products.

 

Come on, now, you know we don’t discuss future products. However, we’re always open to expanding the line in meaningful ways if this model does well—including coming up with a family of Lokis with different capabilities and at different price points. After all, Loki is a trickster, ever-changing.