Schiit Audio: Audio Products Designed and Built in Texas and California

Yes, tone control. As in, equalizer. And yeah, we know that tone controls have kinda fallen off the planet for the last few decades. But we decided to bring them back with the original Loki Mini. And now, with the Loki Mini+, we’ve boosted the performance—pushing the boundaries super-high-fidelity, low noise, single-discrete-gain-stage, LC-filtered, affordable equalizers even further.

Making Imperfect Recordings Sound…A Whole Heckuva Lot Better
Let’s face it. Is everything you listen to recorded perfectly? Of course not. Some recordings aren’t paragons of tonal purity. And your system…let’s be honest. Some speakers and headphones are a bit bright or a bit dark. Loki Mini+ lets you adjust for these imperfections.

It’s OK to Want

Forget correcting for bad recordings or imperfect systems. Go ahead and make your system sound exactly the way you want it. Pounding bass? Sure. Crystalline highs? Absolutely. Don’t spend thousands on cables and tube amps—just turn a knob and make your system sound exactly the way you want it.

The Silent and Transparent Companion

Loki Mini+ transforms your system without getting in the way, or making itself known. Forget noisy, bad-sounding equalizers you may have used in the past. Loki Mini+ uses a single, discrete, current-feedback gain stage, coupled to passive LC filters for 3 bands, plus a gyrator for the bass. It also uses sealed Alps potentiometers with rational adjustment ranges to allow for fine control. Coupled with a 100% passive bypass setting, Loki Mini+ offers the transparency and flexibility you need.

Designed and Built in California

By “designed and built in California" this is what we mean: the vast majority of the total production cost of Loki Mini+—chassis, boards, transformers, assembly, etc—goes to US companies manufacturing in the US. Our chassis are made minutes from our facility. Our PCBs are done just over the hill from us, or done in NorCal. Yes, the wall-warts are made in China, but there's some give and take at this price point.

2-Year Warranty and 15-Day Return Policy

Loki Mini+ is covered by a limited warranty that covers parts and labor for two years. That’s 2x the coverage of most amps in this price range. And, if you don’t like your Loki, you can still send it back for a refund, minus 15% restocking fee, within 15 days of receiving your product.

Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, -0.1db, 2Hz-800KHz, -3dB

Maximum Output: 10V RMS into 10K ohms

THD: Less than 0.0008%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 2V RMS in/out, pots centered, active stage enabled, less than 0.005% at any potentiometer setting

IMD: Less than 0.001%, CCIF

SNR: Greater than 114db, unweighted, referenced to 2V 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 matched parts throughout, driver stage, DC coupled, and DC servo

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

Power Supply: “Wall wart” style 14-16VAC transformer, regulated +/- 15V rails

Power Consumption: 4W

Size: 5 x 3.5 x 1.25”

Weight: 1 lb

APx555 Report for Loki Mini+

Wait a sec. Equalization? As in, tone controls? Really? Why?
Wow, that’s like 4 questions in one.

You know what we mean. Just answer it.

Why EQ? 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 Mini+ provides a way to adjust for imperfect systems and imperfect recordings.

But…buuuuttt…is this true to the original recording? Is it what the artist intended?

If it sounds good to you, who cares?

Aieeeee! You’re making my head hurt! I don’t like options!

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

Well, if I do get it, can I bypass 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.

Wow, so I guess you guys really think this is transparent, if it’s that easy to A-B the input and output.

Yes, we do think Loki is very transparent.

Let’s talk tech. What kind of EQ is this? Parametric?

No. Technically, Loki Mini+ 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.

Whoa. Wait a sec, are you saying you’re giving us a discrete, single-gain-stage, passive LC-filtered EQ, the most purist approach to tone controls…for $149? Are you nuts?

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

What if I want a constant-Q EQ, or a parametric EQ?

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

What about software EQ?

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 Mini+…and once you get away from a computer source, an external hardware EQ is necessary if you want tone control.

So wasn’t there a Loki Mini, no “Plus,” that you introduced like 5 minutes ago?

Yep, if 5 minutes actually means “more than three years ago.” We decided it was time to make it even better—and keep the price the same, as we are wont to do. We brought out the original Loki Mini because we’re kinda contrarian. Tone controls have become virtually 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.

So how is this better than the original Loki Mini?

A number of ways. The biggest thing is a new gain stage with drivers before the output to increase linearity, as well as matched devices throughout. In addition, there’s a new power supply that dramatically reduces noise (already inaudible at like -100dB, but hey, let’s go nuts a bit, right? Plus some tweaks to get maximum THD down, even when you’re really tweaking the knobs.

Measurements are fine, but does this actually sound better?

Absolutely. Or at least we think so.

You guys are kinda smartasses, right?

You got us in one!

So this Loki Mini+ name…are there other Lokis coming?

Maybe. But who knows? We play with lots of stuff, and a lot of it doesn’t go anywhere. So maybe not. But to be a bit more serious, yes, we are open to expanding the line. It just has to make sense. Soooooo…we’ll see!

What about the name?

Loki is the trickster god in Norse mythology. And it’s a neat name for a tricky little product, don’t you think?

Schiit Loki Mini+ Review

Grant Gaines

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