From our March 2022 newsroom: Maximum loco – that's Schiit's new Loki Max [$1'499], a remote-controlled multi-band EQ with pure LC filters executed fully discrete and with a balanced output stage. Bandwidth is 2Hz-1MHz -3dB so insertion will cause zero related losses. Max output is 10/18Vrms on RCA/XLR respectively. Output impedance is 75Ω. There are six inflection points at 20Hz, 120Hz, 400Hz, 2kHz, 6kHz and 16kHz. Adjustments range from ±6dB to ±12dB depending on the band. Each is independently adjustable with a motorized 31-step front-panel pot or by 18-button remote. Inside are four nickel-core chokes, 72 relays and Schiit's single gainstage Nexus™ topology with ±32V rails for good headroom. Even bypass is available by remote and microprocessor control automatically turns all the pots back to up to three user-settable presets for easy comparisons from the chair. Go loco, Loki or low key. Your call.
DDD. Here it means not domain-driven design or digital format + recording + mastering but deep-dive doodoo. That's if you're a puritan who can't see that the entire recording process is one endless chain of EQ applications. Now an outboard EQ applied by the end user is heresy. Not since Mark Levinson's Cello Palette have we seen another ambitious high-end purely analog EQ. Of course high end and $1'499 sit on opposing table ends unless one is Schiit. Yet even the high-brow Cello didn't talk remote.
So the Loki Max deserves a shoutout for venturing where few dare go; then doing it with full couch-potato functionality plus properly puritan out-of-the-signal-path bypass. That's some serious doodoo…er, Schiit. It'll be far more effective and surgical than pursuing room-based compensation with cables, footers even main hardware. It could even end upgraditis. But then who really desires that? By that metric, Loki Max could just be too far out even for Schiit. On the other hand, even detractors couldn't dispute the most excellent educational aspect of playing around with this thing to learn how and where our personal hearing responds to even very small frequency-domain tweaks; and what wrinkles we favor the most. So perhaps it's really something to think about and consider trying?
Steady on, old chap. Your entire audiophile cred could flame out in smoke should you go that way!
What if I hid it behind my rack and never mentioned it?
Hey, that's the sticky ticket. None will ever be the wiser. Gentlemen don't tell and all that…
