Schiit Lokius Review (Equalizer)

[PeteL]

By my reading, the test tone was boosted by 5.3dB relative to flat. The 3rd control is centered at 500Hz, so it adds less gain at the harmonics than at the test tone. However, the 3rd harmonic went up relative to the test tone by about 28dB. It's generating distortion, not just amplifying what was there.

Thanks, that makes sense now, that's the kind of explanation I was looking for. How do you get that the test tone was boosted to 5.3 dB relative to flat?

 

[ebslo]

Thanks, that makes sense now, that's the kind of explanation I was looking for. How do you get that the test tone was boosted to 5.3 dB relative to flat?

2V input (from caption) generated 3.7Vrms output (from "RMS Level" measurement just below the plots, on the left).
20 * log10(3.7 / 2) = 5.3dB

edit: I'm assuming all knobs centered is unity gain and the input was equal to the measured RMS output for the other plots.

 

[Kachda]

Thanks for the reviewing this. It's very interesting.

Can this be used to mimic the "Loudness" button to boost low frequencies when listening at low volume through the loudspeakers?

Sure. Just turn the 500hz control and everything is louder

 

[witwald]

Home audio non-parametric EQs like this just strike me as kind of silly. They're not versatile enough to be useful for actually dialing something in, and their performance is often lacking. That said at $300 beggars can't be choosers, good pro EQs cost a freakin' lot more than that.

How about this one, the DBX 231s Dual Channel 31-Band Equalizer? It doesn't seem too bad for the price and appears to be quite flexible. 31 bands evenly distributed (logarithmically) across the 20 Hz to 20kHz frequency range allows for a lot of moderately precise equalisation.

 

[PeteL]

2V input (from caption) generated 3.7Vrms output (from "RMS Level" measurement just below the plots, on the left).
20 * log10(3.7 / 2) = 5.3dB

edit: I'm assuming all knobs centered is unity gain and the input was equal to the measured RMS output for the other plots.

Thanks, Amir Would have to confirm these assumption (2V caption may be generic and is normally the reference for unbalanced but I don't know). Me I see the first measurment at 4.1V and a second at 3.7V and was assuming arbitrary output compensation from the AP to avoid clipping, but I admit I don't fully get the full thing. what we know is a quarter turn at 500Hz represent about 2.5 dB Gain at 1K, so 5.3 dB make sense, but if the sent signal have been lowered to avoid clipping it's a bit difficult to have a real metric of the induced distortion. But yes I get your point, at the very least the 3rd harmonic should not have been increased less than the third so something is induced. I think the actual Sinad increase is not a hard number to conclude tough, bottom line the gain changed unequally over the spectrum, and the test tone itself had to have been to be reduced by some dBs because the result is .4 dB less after a relatively big boost, so distortion should still be higher because it brings the signal closer to it in all cases. I would still want to see what happens with a cut instead of a boost.

 

[AluminiumEar]

Beautiful piece of Schiit

 

[wwenze]

Instead of treating it as an EQ, treat it as a tone control that can be used with a wider range of issues.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

As a fan of analog recordings these can be a lifesaver. Many of the old records are very out of wack and this kind of broad fix is easy to use and I like having the smaller version in my chain. But for most, eq is probably what you want. It's free and it's much more precise.

I like this since the precision of a digital eq isn't something I'll actually bother using.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

The switch marking/legends are head scratching. And why not just put the centre frequency on each knob like a normal Eq

There's only six channels and most of their customers are able to memorize 'em.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Thanks for the reviewing this. It's very interesting.

Can this be used to mimic the "Loudness" button to boost low frequencies when listening at low volume through the loudspeakers?

Loudness buttons were variable, so the boost was higher as low settings and less or zero at 11. At least that was the idea. This would not be variable, seems to be designed with a more general use case than Amir has in mind. I've had the smaller one for a few years and I find "less is more" to steal the name of one of their dacs, with respect to eq with the Loki.

 

[AVKS]

There's only six channels and most of their customers are able to memorize 'em.

Exactly. The whole point is to turn a bit until you're happy, not really to surgically analyze. 6 bands, especially not fixed-band instead of parametric, is not near enough for that.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Exactly. The whole point is to turn a bit until you're happy, not really to surgically analyze. 6 bands, especially not fixed-band instead of parametric, is not near enough for that.

Amir thinks playing with your tone controls is on the level of playing with your food, but the fact is, this is an excellent value for the price. Not to recommend it seems like sour grapes. He's rejecting the concept, not the execution. The knobs are too small?

 

[dfuller]

How about this one, the DBX 231s Dual Channel 31-Band Equalizer? It doesn't seem too bad for the price and appears to be quite flexible. 31 bands evenly distributed (logarithmically) across the 20 Hz to 20kHz frequency range allows for a lot of moderately precise equalisation.

These are live sound reinforcement hardware. They're pretty noisy and pretty grungy sounding.,

 

[PeteL]

These are live sound reinforcement hardware. They're pretty noisy and pretty grungy sounding.,

• Dynamic range of greater than 108dB

OK reading further SNR lower than that but I wouldn't assume bad sound. THD +N at 0.003% is decent.

 

[ebslo]

Not to recommend it seems like sour grapes. He's rejecting the concept, not the execution.

Regardless of concept, when has such a distortion factory every been recommended on this site?

 

[Blumlein 88]

The old Quad pre-amp controls that introduced tilt always seemed more sensible than this sort of control for end users wanting a simplified interface.

With those you had a variable center frequency, and then the option to tilt the FR up or down around that pivot point. Simple neat and if you bother to pick a good center frequency they end up being on par with say a 31 band graphical EQ or quite often even better without all the complexity.

You might notice on those Cello preamps the high and low band can be made larger or smaller than can be middle bands. That was because well chosen the Cello would implement what was effectively a tilt of the FR.

I'll take a good multi PEQ setup myself.

 

[amirm]

Thanks, Amir Would have to confirm these assumption (2V caption may be generic and is normally the reference for unbalanced but I don't know).

That's correct. I initially kept the same 4 volt input and when I saw the distortion, I thought it could be due to level which had shot up to some 8 volts. So I pulled the input back to 2 volts but it made little difference. Still, I thought that was the right thing to do.

 

[amirm]

Not to recommend it seems like sour grapes. He's rejecting the concept, not the execution.

The choice of frequencies is wrong as is usability of the device. All of these are execution issues. I am actually OK with a concept of a properly designed EQ with good physical display and controls. I noted this in the review.

 

[amirm]

The knobs are too small?

Why is that hard to grasp? You can't turn the bloody things, they don't have indicators you can easily see, and are slippery to boot. This is a type of box you mess with a lot if it is for music equalization. So it better have good controls. I don't care how cheap it is. If it doesn't work for me, it doesn't work for me.

 

[amirm]

Instead of treating it as an EQ, treat it as a tone control that can be used with a wider range of issues.

It doesn't work well as a tone control. It has too many bands for simple treble and bass boost. I would actually take a simple box that was just tone control over this. As it is, if you want to boost the bass, you have to fiddle with two knobs and get that combination right with no memory or gradation to remember it. Treble is worse as that is spread over four dials.