Schiit Lokius anyone?

Will do, but have houseguests so may take a few days.

Ordered a Lokius July 14. Shipped via FedEx from Schiit TX. Was supposed to arrive Mon July 19 but got held up in TX over the weekend at a FedEx facility. Arrived yesterday the 22nd.

Got it installed yesterday. Ran the XLO test and burn in CD track 9 for about 4 hours before doing any listening. Equipment involved: Prima Luna Prologue integrated, Gungnir MB, Aries Mini, TEAC CD-3000, Silverline Prelude Plus speakers. Some observations...

1) In my system/to my ears the Lokius is completely transparent. Whether processing signal or not, can’t hear a difference [of course that’s so long as the tone controls are at ’0’ (i.e., straight up 12 o’clock position) when in the loop!]

2) No hum. Given space constraints in my equipment console it’s sitting on a small bamboo cutting board atop an APC power conditioner. With nothing playing and with the Lokius in the signal path, there is NO hum to be heard with ear just a few inches from the speaker drivers. And that’s with the volume knob of the Prima Luna Prologue turned all the way up (not something I like to do for any length of time). Dead silent.

3) If you don’t like the "power on" LED of other Schiit components you ain’t gonna like the LED on the Lokius. Same as on the Freya, Gungnir and Eitr I have. Doesn’t bother me at all but some find it annoyingly bright.

4) The Lokius allows two inputs (one XLR and one RCA). Worked well for me as I was able to run an XLR cable out of the Gungnir (easily listen 80+% to ripped CDs and Tidal) and an RCA cable out of the TEAC using both as inputs to the Lokius. Flip a little toggle to select between them. During this listening the RCA outputs to the Prima Luna (has RCA jacks only) were used but XLR out is also available though I’m not certain whether this represents a true balanced signal (see the Lokius FAQ on the Schiit website).

5) It won’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse as witness some of the atrocious sounding tracks (e.g., Wah-Wah) on All Things Must Pass. Some (not all) sound like they were multi-tracked waaaay too many times resulting in music embedded in a thick layer of white noise and distortion. Lokius couldn’t fix those although reducing high frequency and treble made things a little less aggravating.

6) Older digital recordings that lack bass or were recorded (remastered!) with the treble a little too hot is where the Lokius shines. Found listening to Genesis’ Wind & Wuthering more enjoyable and engaging after applying a little reduction of treble and a little addition to bass and lower midrange with Lokius.

7) It provides a good measure of fine tuning capability and most often the desired effect was achieved with less than a +/- 90 degree rotation of any given knob from the 12 o’clock/neutral position. It is possible to be ham-handed and over do but I found the Lokius effects easy to manage and appropriately subtle.

8) The lines marking the position of the adjustment knobs in a lighted room were tough to see without the help of a flashlight.

9) You can make yourself crazy jumping up and down to A-B and make adjustments rather than just listening to the music. Hoping with more experience, the necessary adjustment will be arrived at with less experimentation.

I think it’s a keeper. I’ve other recordings in mind that are candidates for sonic remediation and am looking forward to learning about how best (and more efficiently) to use the Lokius. It seems a reasonably sharp scapel offered at a great price.

Maybe, just maybe, a few of the "no tone controls" manufacturers will pick up on this. A few, like Luxman, have been doing this a long time and I'm sure at least some of their sales were because of the inclusion of tone controls. Viva tone controls!

Hi secretguy, I would say ghosthouse’s excellent description of the lokius more than covers anything that I could ever write.

Big ditto on it is invisible to your system when on and all the tone controls in their neutral position, just wonderful.

My main reason for getting it was because I wanted to add just a "touch" of extra highs to my speakers presentation on some music. I really do mean just a touch, as I dislike anything approaching an excess of treble. My speakers are an unknown brand in the U.S., they are made by a Danish company called Avance International. They use all Scanspeak "classic" series drivers, including the silk dome tweeter. I now have the ability to add just the right sparkle to my highs at will. Hope this helps.

@jetter 

I'd certainly be interested in reading about your experience with the Lokius if you are ever inclined to write something up.  I share your aversion to "an excess of treble".