It somehow feels like this is the wrong Circle to post some comments on the Schiit Loki Max equalizer, expecially as it's a $1,500 box and it's more than a year since anyone has posted here! Nevertheless, it's worth writing about, and this seems like the most logical place to put it...
I recently bought a Schiit Loki Max EQ and I've become very smitten by it.
My assessment is that the Loki Max is a highly effective sound quality solution for many of us who who have real-world constraints on our listening spaces and budgets. I'm quite sure that there are many alternative approaches to the eternal search for a "straight wire with gain" outcome, and some of those may outperform any kind of EQ. However, for those whose listening room cannot be ideally configured dimensionally, with treatments, aesthetically, and in terms of speaker placement, I believe that the Loki Max is a very good way to custom-tailor the sound that reaches our listening chairs.
The Schiit Loki Max was specifically designed to add (or take away) nothing that is not intentional on the part of the user. If you want to boost or cut a frequency range, you have excellent options for doing so, but you won't be adding noise or distortion. I found no negative effects on imaging or tonality, and transparency remains just as before. The reason for this is the reason for the Loki Max's high price (for an EQ): good design and build, and expensive, top-quality components.
The Loki Max accepts one set of balanced inputs and one set of single-ended RCA-style plugs. I have the single-ended outs from my Modwright PH9.0XT phono stage going into the Loki Max via Hapa Audio Embers, and the balanced outs from my Okto Research dac8 Stereo DAC also feeding the Loki, also via Embers. From there, I just have a single pair of Hapa Audio Ember interconnects outputting the signal to my Modwright KWH 225i.
I've been surprised by how small my adjustments via the Loki Max have needed to be in order to get me to where I'm happy (one cut frequency band, one boosted band). That one EQ profile suits the large majority of my recordings, and that essentially corrects most room deficits and matches my speakers to the room. I've had Roon since it came out and have not been able to use its EQ to the same effect. I was also not happy with the profiles I created on a miniDSP (which I felt added some congestion or veiling). I'm sure that I'll also create additional profiles on the Loki Max to try to address various types of poor recordings, but I haven't done that yet.
The Loki Max includes a remote control, which I haven't found as useful as I thought. One reason is that it's difficult to see the set positions of the individual EQ knobs from my listening chair, so it's not easy to confirm the magnitude of any changes I make. The other reason is that I want to be conservative in making small, iterative changes, rather than the kind of big swings it's easy to make with a remote.
For those who have greater resources, it would of course be preferable to stay as "pure" as possible by focusing on the room and making no compromises in gear. For the rest of us, I believe the Loki Max is a wonderful asset. While I can't hear any transparency or imaging loss after many hours of careful listening with the Loki Max in my system, I couldn't argue with people who have better ears or gear and claim otherwise. For me, however, the improvement in frequency balance that the Loki Max provides gives me such a pleasurable and revealing listening experience that everything from soundstage to tonality sounds better. I highly recommend it.
The rest of my system:
-Clearaudio Performance DC turntable with Tracer arm and Hana ML cartridge
-Modwright PH 9.0XT phono stage
-NAD M50.2 digital player/server with dedicated custom NUC running Roon ROCK
-Okto Research dac8 Stereo DAC
-Modwright KWH 225i hybrid integrated amp
-Custom 2-way tower speakers with ScanSpeak and Morel drivers and high-spec crossovers, supplemented by TakeT Live supertweeters and TakeT WHDPure woofer enhancers
-REL S/5 subwoofer
-Hapa Audio, M101, and Audio Art cables.
Room: 20' x 20' x 9' with built-in tv, sofa, love seat, two chairs, coffee table. Windows at opposite end of room to speakers.
