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Schiit Lokius Review (Equalizer)

Lambda

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That's a digital mixer, though. I thought we were talking about analog PA gear.
Professional PA is (almost) exclusively Digital those days.
You have System Amps with DSPs calibrated to the speaker (or activ speaker) this Amps Normally take AES3/EBU.
the AES/EBU normally comes out of a "stage box"
12300_0.jpg

A audio interface with "network" ,Danke, Dsnake, AES67, AVB...
Its a mess! right there is no widely adopted opens standard... that's why AMPs and speaker still use AES3 for audio and Ethernet just for configuration and monitoring.

TL;DR its all Digital this days
these days in analog is a fetish.
That's why you would find it in the professional Fetish/Recording Studio.

But 10-15 Yeas ago this was totally Different
Every monitor channel head some thing like this:
a0d92558-f1fc-4491-89e6-4aa986a68a7d-1.jpg

It was a pain!
Back in the days i saw a lot of BSS and DBX EQs, dbx where considered not as good as BSS.

PA stuff is generally of poor quality by ASR measures
So i don't think this is true at all.

Maybe if you look at 10-20 Year old Low end hobby level stuff From company's like Behringer.
But if you look at professional gear from for example "l-acoustics" i don't think this statement is true at all!
 

beefkabob

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Maybe if you look at 10-20 Year old Low end hobby level stuff From company's like Behringer.
But if you look at professional gear from for example "l-acoustics" i don't think this statement is true at all!
Let's find out! Please send in some for our glorious leader to test.
 

PeteL

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Behring is a meme in the event Industry the name is synonyms with cheap unprofessional low quality gear. (not always rightfully)
Motu on the other hand is respected in the industry
I think that when Behringer went and purchased Midas and Klark Teknik, they really did step up their game in many ways. When they released the X32 about 10 years ago it was really a game changer. Having all these feature in a mixing desk under 3000$ really made a difference in the industry, all these small show bars concerts actually started to sound decent, really it was a big thing. Behringer still bring amazing value in the pro audio industry, my problem with them is more ethical. It seems nowadays their business model is just reverse engineering and plagiarizing stuff. I know many musicians do like all these crazy cheap vintage synth and stuff. They are good really, it gets you 90% there. But now they'd just not care and not only tackle oldies with expired patents, they'll just copy anything that sells. I know you can't really have patents on things like a microphone, but why copy industrial design and even model number maybe changing just one letter. We don't need this.
 

PeteL

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A audio interface with "network" ,Danke, Dsnake, AES67, AVB...
Its a mess! right there is no widely adopted opens standard... that's why AMPs and speaker still use AES3 for audio and Ethernet just for configuration and monitoring.
That’s not what I’m witnessing. I see Dante everywhere. Maybe it’s different in other markets.
 

CrankyRat

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I like to listen to music in the morning while in bed with headphones (not sitting next to a computer and even less so in my living room with speakers). The use case was a Hiby R6 linked to a Topping A90. The R6 has a lousy EQ app (up the base and muffle all other frequencies) and all the other EQ apps on Android I have found equally wanting. The Lokius gives me the V shape sound I want with headphones like the HD800s and Arya. It worked perfectly and I appear to be immune to any added distortion it produces. Dialing in the right correction on-the-fly is easy with my piano player thin long fingers.
 

mj23pj

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I have the loki mini+ which is the 4 band version. I use it with my hd800s to add sub bass and I find that it works wonderfully with no audible distortion. The headphones sound much better with it.

I also use it sometimes to cut bass when listening to my regular system at night as I live in an apartment building.

And while you can use a digital eq for digital music, you obv cannot for analog. I have used it numerous times when listening to vinyl.

I agree the controls are too close together but it doesnt bother me much at all.
 

beefkabob

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And while you can use a digital eq for digital music, you obv cannot for analog. I have used it numerous times when listening to vinyl.
Quality AD, software EQ, then quality DA. Superior sound.
 

mhardy6647

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Someone less lazy than me can compute the Q.
I knew there was some reason that I really liked you, @amirm! ;)
Smart and lazy is the way to roll, IMO (and, frankly, IME).

EDIT: So, correct me if I am wrong, but this is basically an old graphic EQ with funny passband parameters for the EQ bands and poor(er) ergonomics?

I mean... you know...

1634572214715.jpeg


Just remember, cats and kittens...

no smilies by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

:cool:
 
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bravomail

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seeing how there are hardly any options at this price range available.
Thx for review, Amir!
My cheap (bought on sale for ~300 usd) Yamaha AVR 683 has PEQ - u read that right, Parametric Equalizer. Just don't be lazy to go under Setup->Manual->Equalizer.
So there r cheap alternatives, though not as performant :)
 

coolajami

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Great review! I'm sure many of us here are fan of physical, boxy stuff like a tone control device.

Even though I mainly use DSP these days, I still have a soft spot for my JDS Lab EQ box (I forgot it's name). Thing is pretty neat and useful when you're listening to some songs and just want slight change to some aspects of that song. Hope you can measure it too if someone send it, although I doubt if we'll truly see a "SOTA" EQ box.
JDS Labs Subjective3 : 3-band analogue equaliser, that apparently started as a side DIY fun project from the lab staff. i find it fun to use as well, even though that I would expect to perform worse than the Lokius in test conditions.

On another note, was there a previous version of Lokius with "dancing LEDs"? I cannot find any reference to a previous version of the device in Schiit website, or anywhere, and got curious if I missed something.
 
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SDX-LV

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JDS Labs Subjective3 looks good but I am afraid to see the measurements. Not only added noise, but the pots also can introduce channel imbalance.

Why can't someone make a DIGITAL 3-band tone control for PC? I seriously researched a lot to implement a practical, physical remote control for tone controls as advocated by Dr. Toole, but there really is no hardware to do it, and then there is no software either. My best find so far is Native-Instruments Traktor Kontrol Z1, but it is too complicated, a bit big, comes with probably garbage sound card and I guess would not work with Foobar2000. So I would love to get a box like JDS Labs Subjective3 that does all the changes digitally (USB-in - USB-out or SPDIF in-out) ?

Correction: RME ADI2 is the one and only perfect DAC, with perfect tone controls. Even remote with tone controls. All is cool about it except the price which I can not accept for my non-primary setup where it can fit in. At least not if does not run Dirac Live and does not support multiple Subs :)
 

nyxnyxnyx

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JDS Labs Subjective3 looks good but I am afraid to see the measurements. Not only added noise, but the pots also can introduce channel imbalance.

Why can't someone make a DIGITAL 3-band tone control for PC? I seriously researched a lot to implement a practical, physical remote control for tone controls as advocated by Dr. Toole, but there really is no hardware to do it, and then there is no software either. My best find so far is Native-Instruments Traktor Kontrol Z1, but it is too complicated, a bit big, comes with probably garbage sound card and I guess would not work with Foobar2000. So I would love to get a box like JDS Labs Subjective3 that does all the changes digitally (USB-in - USB-out or SPDIF in-out) ?

Correction: RME ADI2 is the one and only perfect DAC, with perfect tone controls. Even remote with tone controls. All is cool about it except the price which I can not accept for my non-primary setup where it can fit in. At least not if does not run Dirac Live and does not support multiple Subs :)
I haven't seen the measurements anywhere but I'm 99% sure it will indeed add distortion to the system depending on how far we turn the knob(s). Though, I believe the purpose of that device is to add "fun" as in changing sound to how you see fit, so I think not having a stellar measurement is more forgiving this time.
Others also noted that it's also especially hard to make a proper EQ device and it won't be cheap, let alone something that is only priced at $100 :)
 

SDX-LV

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MiniDSP SHD has computer-setup for digital EQ and Dirac.
... and I use the latest revision of SHD in my 2-channel setup with 2 subs.
And, it is terrible for tone controls - everything is there with PEQ, but the user interface is very far from turning a knob. You are better off using Equalizer APO in terms of usability. Difficult to use tone controls are useless.
 

coolajami

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I haven't seen the measurements anywhere but I'm 99% sure it will indeed add distortion to the system depending on how far we turn the knob(s). Though, I believe the purpose of that device is to add "fun" as in changing sound to how you see fit, so I think not having a stellar measurement is more forgiving this time.
Others also noted that it's also especially hard to make a proper EQ device and it won't be cheap, let alone something that is only priced at $100 :)
JDS Labs published some measurements in their blog when they first introduced the Subjective3 here (plus some independent measurements here and, more recently, here). They make it very clear that performance is both dependant on the VRMS levels of the DAC and the max input of the AMP that is connected with, and they generally favour the subtractive equalisation rather than the additive.

In any case, I think they introduced it originally as a DIY kit before start selling it as an assembled unit. I will agree that for a fun kit performs very well and it is priced fairly. FYI apart from Subjective3 and the Schiit Loki+ mini, Rolls Bellari has also a 4-band EQ in the market, the EQ570.

Despite their performance, I like analoque EQs, and I’ve start becoming fond of Lokius as it's the only analogue EQ with balanced input/output; I would really consider it if I ever get the money to swap my (aged) current setup with a balanced one :).
 
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