Schiit KARA Preamp and Headphone Amp Review

[raif71]

Kara is getting her karatene from the carrot.

 

[GianDi]

Will ever be exist a product with these measurements, which integrates DAC and STREAMER functions?

 

[groovybassist]

Will ever be exist a product with these measurements, which integrates DAC and STREAMER functions?
View attachment 313522

Yup - the Matrix Audio Element X

 

[Highvolt60]

Would be great or something I would be interested in if they had a digital display of the volume and a trigger output !
I really don't understand why so many Pre-Amps don't have a trigger out ?
The RCA performance screams quality issues too.
Wonder if it was the RCA input or the output acting up (if you went bal in to RCA out or the reverse) ?

 

[Travis]

I gave Kara a 10+. Quit reading after that, how can you possibly top that?

 

[Sal1950]

Quit reading after that, how can you possibly top that?

But what about the tubes ???

 

[GD Fan]

Fantastic dog and a nice product too. But I must confess slight disappointment when I saw a review thread locked after only 20 replies... and it was just for more data.

My thought had been, "What sort of dumpster fire did that set off??!"

 

[Stoutblock]

Does anyone know if the Schitt relay volume control is a Shunt, Ladder or ? circuit?

 

[amirm]

But that hair! Glad I don't have to keep your house clean. LOL

It is insane how much they shed. You look at them and hair falls off! We joke that they constantly eat just to make hair! We have central vac and have to empty the canister after just one vacuum! On the positive front, their hair is never dirty. It lacks oil so stuff doesn't stick to it.

 

[restorer-john]

You look at them and hair falls off! We joke that they constantly eat just to make hair!

Our Bernese only walks through the house, from his elevated back deck. He doesn't stay in the house (unless it's super hot and he need the air con) and yet we have Bernese Tumble Weeds of hair that end up in places he never has even been in. A bit of a breeze and I sometimes see them rolling around on the wooden floor swirling into a corner!

 

[Sal1950]

It is insane how much they shed. You look at them and hair falls off! We joke that they constantly eat just to make hair! We have central vac and have to empty the canister after just one vacuum! On the positive front, their hair is never dirty. It lacks oil so stuff doesn't stick to it.

The sled dogs are all great breds. I had a Husky for years and an old buddy raised Malamutes back in the 70s. All big teddybears IME.

 

[gvl]

elongated Schiit products

Jason should add this combo to his marketing vocabulary.

 

[gvl]

<--- Tuns out Rhodesian Ridgebacks shed a good amount, but light colored flooring helps

 

[Hipocrates]

Oh wait... that is the picture of our dog, Kara!

Golfing panther for Kara!

 

[Mnyb]

Great aside from the RCA performance which is forgivable as its's a preamp in 2023 ! and it's not expensive , but I don't expect to hear the distortion which seems very clean only 2nd and 3rd harmonics , but it's still a quiet amp , that i will hear .

However how is the volume control tracking ? that's an important aspect of a preamp ?

I could whine about the lack of obvious features ( as i do ) but still a reasonably price good preamp in 2023

 

[gvl]

I don't quite get the idea of full sized products that have a headphone amp. Sure, you can use them on your desk, if you have a huge desk, but more often than not they sit on a rack or the like which is far from your seating position. Like many AVRs have headphone outputs. Who uses that?

 

[steve f]

The preamp performance is quite good, but I want a balance control too.

 

[TonyJZX]

in the year of our lord 2023 i cannot fathom someone with a set of cans (!!) tethered by a headphone cable the length of a car to their hifi rack while they sit down on their sofa

but yeah i guess this is what atmos 7.2 avr owners do according to the manufacturers. I've been told many companies do a "kitchen sink" approach so as not to miss out on ANY sale (eg. my AVR has a phono input!)

do full size owners really sit this close to their pieces of equipment?

but I mean if its a few bucks to add then i guess so?

 

[solderdude]

I don't quite get the idea of full sized products that have a headphone amp. Sure, you can use them on your desk, if you have a huge desk, but more often than not they sit on a rack or the like which is far from your seating position. Like many AVRs have headphone outputs. Who uses that?

Well... there is plenty of room inside. Saves you from buying an extra headphone amp.
Schiit states the following about it:

Because you shouldn’t have to buy a headphone amp if your primary system isn’t about headphones. It’s totally fine if you listen to headphones only occasionally. So, in the same way that our headphone amps have preamp outs too, we decided to add a headphone out to our Kara preamp.

The amp inside seems to be the familiar low feedback 'continuity' design which Schiit (and their followers) seem to prefer over 'lowest SINAD' amps for some reason and explains the higher distortion in low impedances.
The design of the headphone section is in line with their 'philosophy' but seems to be a bit like the Magni+ amp section in performance and is not the most important aspect of this amp. The pre-amp (and volume control) is. It is not a headphone amp with pre-amp out function but a pre-amp with an additional (but not as high quality) headphone out section as a bonus.
It seems to have DC output protection which might be a good idea ...

 

[GianDi]

Yup - the Matrix Audio Element X

schiit has separate boxes
matrix digitizes via internal ADC the only analog input, and costs 3k more