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Schiit Loki Mini+ Equalizer Review

Rate this Equalizer:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 61 32.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 82 44.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 33 17.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 10 5.4%

  • Total voters
    186

JRS

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Would it make more sense to show those values as absolute values instead of relative to 1K for readability? Here's how my Loki Mini looks if i do that:
View attachment 287916

Admittedly, i should have aimed for 100dB as my baseline.
Here I was thinking 1K was inviolate, in spite of the fact that it is centered at the most important octave. TY.
 

Pio

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Would an XLR I/O version theoretically have less noise when the eq is engaged?
 

shuppatsu

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I don’t think the distortion would bother me at all—although if we admit this gewgaw into our signal path what other things might we be using as well?

EDIT: Most of my reaction was based on my misreading the chart showing the effects of various knobs turned up, relative to 1KHz.@IAmAlwaysSerious' chart gives a better impression of the product.

My problem is that each knob affects the entire frequency range, with the middle knobs affecting the other parts of the frequency range much more than the parts of the range they are supposed to adjust!

How do you dial something in when making an adjustment in one range makes a significant difference throughout the band? Seems like a painful process of adjusting and readjusting. Or more probably, just not caring.

I imagine if I was very dedicated I could get used to these peccadillos. But there are much more capable, completely free, alternatives, that do much less unintended violence to the signal. I see the value in having four rude knobs to tweak rather than a menu on an app, but that convenience quickly drops away when each knob’s adjustment interferes with the next.

I don’t see how this could ever be preferable to simple treble and bass controls. Even there treble likely affects bass, and bass likely affects treble. But it’s vastly easier to account for this with two knobs than four. Whatever supposed flexibility you gain with the middle knobs pales in comparison to this IMO.
 
Last edited:

AaronJ

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Would it make more sense to show those values as absolute values instead of relative to 1K for readability? Here's how my Loki Mini looks if i do that:
View attachment 287916

Admittedly, i should have aimed for 100dB as my baseline.
What do these bands look like with only 1 or 2db of boost/attenuation instead of turning them to max? It obviously looks incredibly broad when you're boosting one end by 12db. I can't imagine anybody is going to like the sound of their system turning any of these knobs to their extremes.
 

Ajax

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Or even better value with some open source convolution software?
1. have you an example of such software?
2. can you suggest a piece of hardware that is user friendly does not require a computer and can be set up for easily access by our families
 

Berwhale

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1. have you an example of such software?

 

PeteL

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What do these bands look like with only 1 or 2db of boost/attenuation instead of turning them to max? It obviously looks incredibly broad when you're boosting one end by 12db. I can't imagine anybody is going to like the sound of their system turning any of these knobs to their extremes.
But Broad is much more subtle than narrow. The 4 bands has to cover the whole spectrum as a general tone control.
 

kemmler3D

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Um, am I crazy or are we looking at an EQ that only does (at most) +/- 3dB? Coming from the DSP / VST / ITB mixing/production world, (or hell, just using EQAPO) this seems like a joke.
 

Moderate Dionysianism

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Damn, so still no solid offering in the compact hardware EQ niche:( I was considering the JDS Subjective3, but that device also has a problem with high distortion in the bypass mode. What's even more annoying is that JDS have a fix for that, but they would only retrofit it on request if you purchase directly from the US. That's a no-go for me as shipping to my location is like 70% of the price of the unit itself (see thread).
 

mhardy6647

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I can't imagine anybody is going to like the sound of their system turning any of these knobs to their extremes.

What [H.L] Mencken (1880-1956) did write, in the Sept. 19, 1926 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, was: “No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
source: https://www.courthousenews.com/the-stupidity-of-the-ages/

;)
 

Saponetto

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Heh.
Have to admit, I'm so curious... it's over 30 years I don't have something like this thingy thing! :)
 

jbattman1016

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Damn, so still no solid offering in the compact hardware EQ niche:( I was considering the JDS Subjective3, but that device also has a problem with high distortion in the bypass mode. What's even more annoying is that JDS have a fix for that, but they would only retrofit it on request if you purchase directly from the US. That's a no-go for me as shipping to my location is like 70% of the price of the unit itself (see thread).
have you checked the used market? Some ten band eqs there for not much, but I'm in the US.

I'm planning to measure the one I have, just saving up for equipment.
 

Beershaun

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I'm confused about the actual function of the middle two eq bands. Are they broken or do I not understand how they are supposed to work? This seems like a thing that has one job and it's only doing it half way. The bass and treble eq clearly work as expected but the other two bands don't seem to actually move the middle frequencies, rather than counteract the high and low eq frequencies. Someone please help me understand if this is acting properly and I just don't understand or if it's broken?
 

shuppatsu

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I'm confused about the actual function of the middle two eq bands. Are they broken or do I not understand how they are supposed to work? This seems like a thing that has one job and it's only doing it half way. The bass and treble eq clearly work as expected but the other two bands don't seem to actually move the middle frequencies, rather than counteract the high and low eq frequencies. Someone please help me understand if this is acting properly and I just don't understand or if it's broken?
Looking at the graph at Post #17 and having someone refer back to it was helpful. The review showed the charts relative to 0dB at 1kHz. Since the middle bands are relatively close to 1kHz, it makes it look like the positive adjustment only raises it by a tiny bit while moving everything else down. But in fact the adjustment raises the respective band.
 

AaronJ

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But Broad is much more subtle than narrow. The 4 bands has to cover the whole spectrum as a general tone control.
True it is much more subtle, but these bleed into each other too much at their extreme ends. I'd like to see what the graphs look like with +/-2db instead of +/-6 or 12.
 

dasdoing

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Schiit Loki Mani+ Equalizer Analog Tone EQ effect filter measurement.png

it does make sense in a high-fidelity setup, though. You wouldn't want to increase the volume when you enhance the midrange frequencies.
 

PeteL

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True it is much more subtle, but these bleed into each other too much at their extreme ends. I'd like to see what the graphs look like with +/-2db instead of +/-6 or 12.
Schiit states that it's a simple LC Bandpass which don't have constant Q. The slope will be even softer as you decrease it's gain. So relatively speaking, even "broader" I personally don't think a Higher order filter would work well considering there is only 4 bands to cover the spectrum and those are fixed, You want to raise a region, not a specific frequency, Again, It's tone control, not frequency response correction, you can't emphasize to much a narrow region It will be weird. It is how it is, purely analog, To fix specific problems you need parametric or many more bands.
 
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