Schiit Loki DSD companion DAC $149

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Radiotron, Sep 9, 2013.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Bay, CA
    First Question.
    When I say the same recordings, I am referring to a transcoding from tape to either PCM 24/192 or DSD, and with excellent mastering jobs done on both. Invariably, IMO, the DSD sounds better than the PCM. That it is not to say the PCM does not sound excellent, it does.
    Just that the DSD equivalent sounds more like music.

    Second question (referenced in bold):
    Yes. IMO, native DSD played back on a DSD-capable DAC sounds better than PCM, all other things being as equal as it is humanly possible to make them.
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2013
  2. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    I found a pile of Schiit on my doorstep today: a Loki and a Wyrd. The Loki due to this thread. It sounds great when it plays, but I'm having some stability issues with it at the moment. I'm using Foobar2000 as my player and had to downgrade the SACD plug-in to 0.6.6 to get anything to play. Does anyone have some secrets or settings for Foobar that worked well for them? I followed the Schiit-y instructions exactly and things will play for a minute or two, but then I get a "Unrecoverable playback error: The process receiving or sending data has terminated" message and I need to restart Foobar to get anything to play again.
     
  3. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    Ok, I think I solved my issue: It looks like the downgrade of the SACD plugin didn't wipe it's associated ASIO DSD driver. I re-installed with the old one in the 0.6.6 package and things seem to be working well.

    The sound is outstanding from this thing! I really can't believe it was only $150. Right now I'm using it into a Headroom Maxed out Home driving Sennheiser 580s. I bought it for my work headphone setup, but now I'm thinking I'll try it on my main system and see how that compares to converting the DSD to 24/88 FLAC through my Transporter to Theta Va DAC.
     
  4. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    I've still been enjoying my Loki on my computer setup. Does anyone have any experiences with USB cables they would like to share? I'm curious about what people have found works well with it, and where they thought diminishing returns started to kick in. I've only tried the AQ Forest so far.

    Thanks in advance :wave:
     
  5. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    Try the Schiit Wyrd and a pair of PYST (Straight Wire) USB cables. I can't speak to the Loki, but the Wyrd sure made the Modi sound noticeably better.
     
    jfeldt likes this.
  6. Jack Flannery

    Jack Flannery Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I concur.
     
  7. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    Sorry, I didn't look back to your earlier post. Assuming you're using the Wyrd and two decent USB cables going in and out with the Loki, I'm skeptical that a better USB cable will make a huge difference. But you'll never know until you give it a shot. I would put the better cable between the Wyrd and the Loki, as opposed to between the Wyrd and the PC/Mac.
     
  8. jfeldt

    jfeldt Forum Resident

    Location:
    SF, CA, USA
    Thanks guys. I have a Wyrd, which I bought for a different DAC but haven't tried with the Loki yet. I'll try that out.
     
    gloomrider likes this.
  9. russk

    russk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse NY
    So I'm thinking the Loki might be a good way to allow me to down load whatever limited DSD music I might want. So I read through the Schiit page and its not making sense to me. It says I hook the output of my DAC into the Loki and connect the Loki to my computer and, by the pictures of the back of the Loki, connect the Loki to my amp. So if I'm running DSD I switch the Loki on and it decodes and puts out to amp. If I'm running PCM I switch it to that and it passes it straight through. The question is if my computer is hooked into the Loki where does my DAC get the digital signal from?
     
  10. Gabe Walters

    Gabe Walters Forum Resident

    It passes through the Loki.

    EDIT: I think I got that wrong. It looks like you plug both Loki and your PCM DAC into separate USB ports. You can pass the analog out from your PCM DAC through the Loki.
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2015
  11. Rolltide

    Rolltide Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vallejo, CA
    As best as I can tell, the pass-through feature is only there to prevent you from having to take up another set of inputs on your preamp. Because you still need the USB cable between your computer and the Loki, and either swap it between Loki and your PCM DAC. or have a second cable for your PCM DAC.

    In a lot of setups the pass through would actually make things more complicated and using a free input for the Loki might make more sense. If I listened to a lot of DSD I'd want to keep them both fully connected and switch between the audio interfaces on my computer.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine