Schiit Audio Announces Loki Max High-End, Remote-Controlled Equalizer

Listen to music as you (not the artist) intended. Schiit Audio announced the availability of Loki Max, a 6-band equalizer designed to meet the needs of the highest-end systems. Featuring remote control with relay potentiometers, a pure inductor-capacitor topology, and a fully discrete design with high voltage power supply, Loki Max was designed to be one of the best home listening EQs, ever - available at schiit.com for $1499.

The new Niimbus US5 Pro adds an additional balanced headphone connection. Since the 4.4mm Pentaconn connector has gained popularity as a new balanced headphone connection standard CMA Audio decided to add this feature and renamed his popular US4+ as the US5 Pro. All other features and specs remain the same. The US5 also adds the 4.4mm Pentaconn connector along with every other feature from the plus model except for the 256 step relay volume option.

OMRON Corporation of Kyoto, Japan released its new MOS FET relay module G3VM-21MT, the first electronic component in the world to adopt a "T-type" circuit structure, consisting of compact-size and longer-lifecycle solid state relays that output signals using no physical contact, therefore minimizing the leakage current that has long been a problem with semiconductor test equipment. The new G3VM-21MT relay contributes to reducing maintenance frequency of test equipment, allows high-precision measurements, and improves productivity of electronic components.

In this high quality project, Robert Nance Dee designs a potentiometer for accuracy and flexibility. A pot with 64 levels and precision metal film resistors that is hard to beat for sound or facility, as he describes it. The project started with a clean sheet, looking to address potentiometer design with a quality that rivaled existing designs while maintaining a reasonable cost. This article was originally published in audioXpress, September 2011.

Here’s the final section in our series on parts reliability, how to choose them and how to estimate their life expectancy. In the third part of this article, the author continues to examine electronic components, and discusses what we can do about reliability. This article series was published in audioXpress, from November 2001 to January 2002.