Review and Measurements of Schiit Valhalla Amp

[Ron Texas]

Wow, a new high in lows.

 

[August]

This review is like a "阴阳怪气", I like it. People can get a sense of humor from the comments that amirm likes.

 

[amirm]

But in terms of your large backlog of gear, how do you prioritise which gear gets measured ahead of others?

In general, products that are sent earlier get priority and I try to review them in order that they come (more or less).

Exceptions are made though:

1. Sometimes a person has told me in advance they have to have to get the gear back by certain time.

2. Something new comes in with very high interest such as the Purifi amplifier. Or Grace Design DAC.

3. Sometimes a product is a pain to test so I procrastinate.

4. Sometime I take owner feedback into account as far as wanting/needing the review done.

5. Sometimes I am interested in the outcome a lot so I try to review it sooner than later.

While on this topic, I routinely turn down discontinued products that were not popular. If however a product is popular like Schiit audio gear of all sort, I will accept them.

Even though I review gear at much higher rate than anyone, my pace has slowed down during the amazing summer we are having. To wit, we are about to go on a few day road trip so no reviews until I get back.

FYI, this product was sent to me in middle of May! It took longer than I like to get it tested. I strive to get reviews done in 4 to 6 weeks but I am unable to keep up with that promise right now.

 

[CheapskateCCAOwner]

It would be nothing but fair to all the other mfr and diy'ler like neurochrome etc who made these efforts from the beginning without having to be forced by no one. Let's skip them for 2 yrs and start testing once their products matured (actually I'll skip them for life!).

Look, I get it; Schiit deserves a lot of criticism, both for the crappy test results from some of their products and, as JJB70 pointed out, for the objectionable posturing and semi-lewd invective often spewing out of the mouths of its founders, Mike Moffat and Jason Stoddard.

But purely from an engineering perspective, the fact that Schiit can (and actually does) improve their products is heartening to me, and I hope I am not alone in this feeling. There are plenty of other manufacturers who don't listen to objective criticism and don't implement improvements to their products; perhaps they deserve your disdain even more so than Schiit.

To be clear, I am not a "Schiit-head" for the reasons mentioned above. But if they continue on the path of "engineering redemption", and stop with the objectionable posturing and insulting invective from their founders, I might just consider purchasing one of their products, if it fits my needs. Schiit products do tend to be reasonably priced and given that I am a cheapskate, that's a factor in their favor.

 

[BDWoody]

Look, I get it; Schiit deserves a lot of criticism, both for the crappy test results from some of their products and, as JJB70 pointed out, for the objectionable posturing and semi-lewd invective often spewing out of the mouths of its founders, Mike Moffat and Jason Stoddard.

But purely from an engineering perspective, the fact that Schiit can (and actually does) improve their products is heartening to me, and I hope I am not alone in this feeling. There are plenty of other manufacturers who don't listen to objective criticism and don't implement improvements to their products; perhaps they deserve your disdain even more so than Schiit.

To be clear, I am not a "Schiit-head" for the reasons mentioned above. But if they continue on the path of "engineering redemption", and stop with the objectionable posturing and insulting invective from their founders, I might just consider purchasing one of their products, if it fits my needs. Schiit products do tend to be reasonably priced and given that I am a cheapskate, that's a factor in their favor.

Well, my guess is that 'they' (the higher end subjective crowd) are going to have a harder and harder time keeping the cat in the bag.

People with the money to buy these products may be ignorant, but they aren't stupid for the most part, and ignorance is cured with education, which at least this site provides.

Word is spreading that there is accountability in the a(m)ir, and maybe as more and more buyers are looking and actually finding reviews of these products that amount to more than an exercise in self aggrandizement, more and more manufacturers can actually tune things up and pay attention, or continue with the snake oil BS, and hope they don't and up suffering when their customers find out they've been sold a schitty product.

I'm sure there will always be outrageous claims made, but maybe fewer can get hoodwinked before they've spent $13,000 (or any amount) for the koolaid.

 

[AndrovichIV]

I find a bit of humor to the chasing inaudible differences based on specs and shaming those that chase differences that aren't supported by specs. To a certain extent it could be said that both sides are just looking for things that make them feel better about the listening experience.



It really doesn't seem fair to publish tests of malfunctioning equipment. To me it tends to hurt the credibility of the site.

Clearly it had known functional issues:


Sure, maybe it wouldn't have impressed when new either but it is a bit like Motor Trend publishing a test of my old car with a slipping transmission. Many people are going to come away from reading the review with an even more negative image of the company based on the review when that isn't what they are shipping now or even when the product was new.





At first I was thinking that if they were that up front with the limitations of the first one when it came out then I couldn't fault them with it. From the wayback machine Schiit said of the oiginal Valhalla "Valhalla is a Class A, single-ended triode headphone amplifier with no overall feedback and noninverting circuit topology. It provides classic tube sound and can drive headphones with impedances as low as 32 ohms. "

From what I understand one of the channels is working properly, as shown by the fact that Amirm's measurements match quoted specs.

 

[invaderzim]

From what I understand one of the channels is working properly, as shown by the fact that Amirm's measurements match quoted specs.

In theory, if the clicks and buzzing he mentioned were also only in the bad channel the other could be fine. But to me it is still questionable to test it without finding out what was wrong. If we are going to be scientific about things than i would think we should avoid assumptions.

 

[AndrovichIV]

That's another way to say that you can criticize this product based purely on Schiit's published specs alone!

 

[Music1969]

If however a product is popular like Schiit audio gear of all sort, I will accept them.

Thanks amir. Others have noted you may be directly responsible for Schiit sharing measurements of their own new gear. If reviewing even discontinued products helps with that, that’s definitely a good thing for future consumers.

 

[invaderzim]

That's another way to say that you can criticize this product based purely on Schiit's published specs alone!

Or, pretty much anything with tubes.
Since the 2nd harmonic distortions that the tube fans enjoy is still a distortion they will all tend to fall pretty low on the non-distortion scale, right? I would think anyone that buys the Valhalla does so largely because they want those distortions.

Sure, it has other issues with the power output but we haven't eliminated the possibility of bad or failing tubes in the chain either. Or dirty or loose tube sockets even.

 

[LTig]

The tubes were purchased in 2014 from Schiit and were in use for about a year before I stopped using the Valhalla, partly due to the issues in one channel that Amir saw. Those manifested at the time as clicks and buzz, and I had actually forgotten all about that until seeing the abysmal measurements here.

One channel is clearly broken, but the other should be fine if the tubes were used for just one year. Or did you leave the amp switched on all the time?

 

[amirm]

The one channel was solid and as I noted, its distortion specs matched that of Schiit. As I noted in the review, I used the measurements for that channel in comparison tables.

 

[JohnYang1997]

This review is like a "阴阳怪气", I like it. People can get a sense of humor from the comments that amirm likes.

No i don't think so. And I don't sense sarcasm either like some other ones.

 

[filo97s]

it's a classic to have such measures with tube amps, all quiet on the western front.
Still, interesting that with high impedance cans (read: the headphones that this amp is built for) the atom and the valhalla are quite indistinguishable, this support my thesis that our ears are too inaccurate to spot any difference even with a quick A/B under 1% THD (even if when I pay for something, i prefer that the thing i'm paying for measures well indipendently of what i could hear).
1% THD was for years the standard to reach for Hi-Fi products and no one complained about it. I'm ready to bet that everything that doesn't go past 1% will sound more or less the same.

 

[NDRQ]

What garbage?
There is no audible difference between the Valhalla and the Atom. Yes, the Atom has great measurements but who cares if you cannot hear it?

I think theres probaly audible difference with high quality audio files and good hearing.
This level of Sinad is just very bad, you cant even reproduce the dinamic range of a simple CD, theres no way that there isnt any difference.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I do think maybe with a clear broken channel maybe this should have been investigated, and perhaps not published. The fact you come in around the spec in one channel means it may be working. But with tube gear with a few years on it, maybe not. Perhaps you should get a tube tester when you review second hand tube gear. It does seem fair to see the tubes are basically good on such units. I like the B&K Dyna-Jet 747 if you can find one, but there are other good choices.

Could have also swapped the tubes between the two channels and remeasured. But in any case it seems clear this unit is and was a piece of crap even when new. I think it's useful to review it if for no other reason than to show how far the science of headphone amplification has progressed in just a few years.

 

[graz_lag]

The modi isn't bad at all. The SYS is actually good. The mani is all right.
Their new pre-amps look pretty decent considering they're actually measuring them

So it seems they have hired @amirm as product development consultant ...

 

[phoenixdogfan]

When I saw Darko going on and on about the company, I knew they were truly shit right then and there...

P.S. I think I just partially answered your query in a 'round about way, but to be more direct: via subjectivist reviewers.

And that's another reason to measure something "old and discontinued" like the Valhalla--to compare Amir's objective review against the contemporaneous subjective reviews of it. Be interesting to google Schiit Valhalla reviews and read a few of them just for laughs.

 

[onslash]

All the half-way praise for schiit is faro more damning than anything I'd say. A company of mediocrity it would seem.

There are other more interesting things to test, if our glorious tester (no sarcasm) can get his hands and the time for them. From his own Levinson amp to half the stuff from JDL Labs. Fusion amp. Ice power amp. Emotiva. Crown. ACT. There are all kinds of products from all kinds of companies that have better track records and often lower prices.

Aamir has found a few next big things, upending the industry. He could do it again and again. Will probably do it.

But saying, "Oh look, Schiit is less Schitty than before," doesn't exactly get my heart aflutter. Also tubes are clearly meh and will always be clearly meh. They're just a styling fetish. Unless Aamir is going to come up with measurements of pleasant distortion, distortion we want to see, then why bother? Also, if there is such thing as pleasant distortion, a DSP plug in could add it in spades.

+1 to emotiva and amir's mark levinson

 

[spigot]

It looks like amps and dacs are much of a muchness, not worth thinking about for more than a couple of minutes. Buy once and buy cheap.