Schiit Kara Review - Wow, this was unexpected

Discussion in 'Preamps' started by purr1n, Feb 3, 2025 at 1:25 PM.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I know some folks have asked about the Kara and I also know that a few members have already had it in their systems for a period of time. I've finally gotten to it. Honestly, not gonna bother with measurements because they are amazeballs per the Schiit APx555 report.

    kara.jpg

    In a nutshell: Super transparent (way more so than the Freya S it replaces) and provides some oomph (while not as overly rich and colored as prior Nexus amps and preamps). I didn't want to believe it, but high-voltage rails are the real deal.
     
  2. RestoredSparda

    RestoredSparda Friend

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    I dig the 'walking reviews'. Do more! Lol.
     
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  3. SofaSamuraiX

    SofaSamuraiX Almost "Made"

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    I own the Kara, it is hooked up to my Nakamichi PA-7A mk2. I use LS50's and no sub or DAC. I am saving up to buy a DAC with this setup. Thinking Soerkis 2541 or the Gungnir 2. Neither here nor there as I am light years from that money!! I bought a ragnarok 1 because I am stoopid curious and I have not spent enough time with it yet to really give a verdict on my preference. But as I said I don't have a sub in this room. My music and gaming room, but that isn't an issue with the KarAmichi, at all. Even just out of the LS50 which are more high pitchy by nature and come across like that hard AF on the Rag. I am still figuring out the Rag, the headphone outs I thought would be more instantly loved are giving me pause. Kara not so much, the head outs are quite good. I honestly love the KarAmichi a lot. Anyways, thanks for the video @purr1n . I love music through cans so much I forget about my speaker setups!
    Edited to say: some of the high pitchyness in the Rag might have been that I spent the weekend listening to old reggae and 70's African rock as Spoon's Lucifer On The Sofa sounds great with out sharp highs!
     
    Last edited: Feb 3, 2025 at 3:26 PM
  4. CEE TEE

    CEE TEE MOT: NITSCH

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    I have heard from a couple people that Kara feeding Pietus Maximus = fantastic with Modhouse Tungsten.

    @purr1n if you have a chance to try the combo could you please share any thoughts (good or bad)?

    Thank you!
     
  5. SofaSamuraiX

    SofaSamuraiX Almost "Made"

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    I have 2 out of 3, going to try with my cans! Oh fun.
     
  6. darmok

    darmok Almost "Made"

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    I'd be very curious to read more impressions of Kara's headphone amp, particularly with Gungnir 2 and high-Z headphones.

    Edit: lol, just noticed that a certain green claymation character is automatically corrected to "Gungnir Multibit".
     
  7. decompositions

    decompositions Facebook Friend

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    I've had a kara for a while and was pretty happy with it - I still have it in a box in my closet as a backup. I had swapped to it from using the pre outs on a jot 2 at the time and it was definitely an improvement, I liked the sound of it a lot more than the original Freya I owned way back when they first released that. For whatever its worth, my only gripe with it after living with it for a while was that it's hard to see where the volume knob is from a distance or in the dark, but I think forkbeard actually helps a bit with solving that issue provided you have an iphone since I believe you can control the volume and get a visual of it in that UI. I usually used it with a remote, so when swapping back from wasapi to system sound when I was done with music I would have to turn a light on or get up to go turn the knob to try and get the volume back to my "normal" setting. I ended up replacing that whole setup with an arcam a25 a while ago while trying to get rid of the ridiculous # of wires I had going everywhere and being able to easily see the volume at a distance as a number was definitely a nice qol improvement for me personally, but it's also hard to complain about extras like that on something priced so well.
     
  8. SofaSamuraiX

    SofaSamuraiX Almost "Made"

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    You say this and it makes me think I always turn my volume all the way down even before I turn off my systems! Huh. Am I strange!?
     
  9. SofaSamuraiX

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    @CEE TEE , would you say to crank the volume of the pmax and run volume from Kara, sort of like line out but backwards? Or try to strike some volume balance between the two?
     
  10. decompositions

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    Yeah I typically do the same when I'm actually powering stuff on/off, not sure if I wrote that badly but I never turned it off and just left it running 24/7, I'm referring to when I was switching the input mode on the dac that was feeding it so that it was going from 100% volume output (wasapi) to windows mixer volume which was very different and I wanted a different volume on the kara for that. This was for a stereo hooked up to my desktop computer and not just a 100% music dedicated arrangement so I was switching volume settings like that a lot, but again it was just a mild inconvenience more than a legitimate problem.
     
  11. eastboundofnowhere

    eastboundofnowhere Almost "Made"

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    I have had one of these since release but have not really used it since the $999 Ragnarok sale. Sort of just fell in love with the Rag as a really good headphone amp and speaker amp. With the Kara in high gain there is a sense of, I don’t know, muscularity to the sound but it doesn’t seem to give up any details when doing so. I really appreciate the passive side as well because you can hook up several headphone amps to the line outputs and switch between multiple sources without having to unhook a bunch of things. Can’t really comment on the headphone out though. I did hook up the hd650 to it when I got it and if I recall it sounded fine, but I have so many better options it would really be absurd to use that particular feature for me.
     
  12. SofaSamuraiX

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    That is awesome. Going to have fun with this.
     
  13. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I just turn it off -or- turn down the volume a bit and don't bother turning it off. I just use my iPhone as the remote using Forkbeard. Don't even bother with the regular remote.

    However, here's a Forkbeard idea for Schiit:
    • Remember last position before turn-off
    • Upon turn on, slowly ramp up the volume to where it was set previously
     
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  14. SofaSamuraiX

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    I bought mine right before Forkbeard...:(
     
  15. darmok

    darmok Almost "Made"

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    I'm assuming that this synergy involves using Kara in active mode, so personally I'd set the big P's volume pot to max and use Kara for attenuation, and set the gain switch on Pietus as appropriate for my headphones.

    There's a Forkbeard upgrade available now.
     
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    Last edited: Feb 3, 2025 at 7:34 PM
  16. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    So this sounds less Nexus-ish? I really didn't like the Freya S, I can't remember if I flipped it or outright returned it. I also didn't like the Jot 2 and felt it and the Freya S had a similar character that I think is likely attributable to Nexus. I loved the Freya+ in all respects except the loss of detail. My use case for this would be a living room system that would not be for critical listening, so maybe I should just reconsider the Freya+ F for that application since total detail won't be a priority.
     
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  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Oh, the vid was handheld with selfie stick. Pixel 9 Google AI whatever for the win
     
  18. Metro

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    The volume position is hard to see on all Schiit products. Some people replace the knob with one that has a more obvious indicator, or simply stick or paint a pointer on the front of the original knob.
     
  19. joch

    joch Friend

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    Your speech was clear. Did you attach a mic?

    And will there be reviews of the strawberry filled donuts?
     
  20. SofaSamuraiX

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    Do you leave amps on? There are those two main campus, the always ons and the always offs. I always turn off because I have gear fear! Just want it to live forever and ever. Not sure my way makes sense. For work we have banks of class D stuff on 24/7.
     

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