Schiit Kara Review - Wow, this was unexpected

Kara vs PiMax - A super fun flexing of muscles from two solid amps.

Sources:
Aune M1S (if you can get past the shitty lack of gapless it sounds great.)
Sony NWZ-A17 > PHA-3 line out DAC duty (For fun)
PC Plex > Bifrost 2/64 SE > PiMax
BAL > Kara
Cans used: Audeze LCD-2 C, !09 Pro, HD6XX
I did the Sony gear to test with minimal swapping of gear and a common SE ground to work from. Sounded ok, the Kara won that hands down but both sounded good, if you like the softer Sony house sound. I do. PHA-3 the worst best portable amp I know of...The main difference between these two options is that the PiMax is a bit more in your ears face if that makes sense. There might be a greater sense of space with Kara, easier sounding. With the Kara I have almost expressly used hi gain, PiMax needed to be in mid to get a sweeeeeet sound from the 109Pro and there was better listening in mid on Kara with the Meze also, but the hi gain wasn't hard to listen to either, mid just came across as mo'better sounding. @HotRatSalad I listened to all sorts of music from multiple sources and had trouble stopping after a track or three to swap amps or cans. To be honest I am now going to do some listening to the headphone out of my Marantz Model 30 (class D done right @purr1n ...). For a headphone out of a flippin' pre amp, man it's right as rain. And hi gain with Daft Punk's Doing It Right from Kara to 109Pro is shitdammed hot. I hope I said anything worthwhile, I ahd planned to be moar scienctifical, but hell I ain't no @atomicbob and get lost in music and can and swapping to remember the notes I was told myself to take. I think between these two amps it's preference, use case and if you can have them both.....

Edited to say: I couldn't get more than a minute of great sounding music out of PiMax through Kara before I got some crazy ass noise and pulled the plug, hi gain into PiMax fro balanced Kara both at around 10:30 on the dial. Maybe too much from Pietus volume. Dunno.

@darmok I can't hear anything behind the music of the silence of tracks with the Meze,might not be sensitive enough.

 

Nah that’s all I needed to know since the 109 Pros are probably the most sensitive headphones I use regularly. It sounds like Kara by itself stacks up well against Pietus if I’m reading you correctly? If so, damn, a Gungnir 2 + Kara stack might be in my future.

 

Yes, it does. They both are really good to me.

 

PiMax might have a bit moar meat on the bone, depth than Kara, I have been sick and comparing the two on and off. Sheesh, I said that then swapped back to Kara and it sounds good. Jeeeez, I suck at this. I might be too slutty and just like it all......

 

IMO swapping back and forth like that is a good way to lose track of the big picture of how something sounds. Just relax and listen for a while, then think about how it sounds. It might just be that Kara and Pietus are good at different things.

 

Ya, I don't swap back and forth too often. An album or a few tracks, some tracks I will start over and swap to listen to it again to hear it from the other amp! I am not very scientifically minded....

 

Just finished reading this thread - I have a Freya S that I have been using for almost a year now in my system. I always run it in passive mode since I read the 4x gain mode which uses Opamps can remove some of the "magic" that my Lampizator GG2 tube dac provides. Foolishly, I have never actually tried my setup without the Freya S to see how it impacts sound, just because it is so damn convenient to hook up my 4 amps to it.

Seems like the logical thing to do would be to get the Kara! I think it was previously asked, but has anyone noticed a significant improvement in the RCA outputs from the Kara vs. Freya S?

Gonna have to start searching for one of these bad boys on the used market.

 

I use the RCA outs to my Nakamichi, it's fantastic. I have never heard a Freya so can't give you a comparison.

 

I use the RCA out to a pair of Tyrs, it's fantastic. Previously was using the RCA out of a Freya-S, but I had sold the Freya shortly after gettingy Kara.

 

Why would you go SE into Tyrs? What do you use your balanced out for?

 

I have a pair of very nice cables but they are single ended,maybe someday I'll switch over to XLR.

 

So i have remote control of volume. And the mute. And I can locate the Koss’ energizer more conveniently “remote” from the rest of the equipment and thus closer. But, I may try the RCA route if it can “stretch”

Edit: Oh, and the MAIN reason? Because I have the other outputs (balanced) going to my speaker amp which is in the basement…. If I used the RCA variable line outs to the Koss energizer, then I’d have both speakers AND headphones playing. I don’t want to schlepp down to the basement to turn off the amp, nor deal with disconnecting/reconnecting it…. The auto mute/switch of Kara’s HP jack solves it all for me.

(As I just ordered Stjarna two hours ago, my brain is thinking through all the component and cabling re-arranging I’ll need to do, and remembered THIS aspect)

 

Just picked up Kara. Initial thoughts compared to Freya S are that it does indeed present more drive, more spacious and deeper soundstage but also a little more intimate and forward with center-mixed content, while not losing instrument size and delineation of edges/space between. But Kara is a little more midbass pronounced. 4x gain is a little too much vividness/body, but it's nice to have depending on the recording, kinda like a loudness button from olden days. Kara is less confused sounding compared to Freya S in hi gain. Both Freya S and Kara thoroughly trounce the old OG 6SN7 Freya; much less editorializing and less sugary/saccharine count chocula flavoring. I'm getting a touch better overall macrodynamic rendering with Kara, too. With Freya S, I used (pretty much exclusively) passive gain, so it was more or less a switch and volume control. With Kara in all gain modes it's a distinctively peppy, very synergistic companion to Yggdrasil MIB, like butter cream icing (not sour cream). No need for any added tanginess, but the additional body without plodding bass is great in my speaker set up. Will dick around with headphones later...

 

Someone better than me at reviews! I am excited to hear your thoughts!

 

Spent a few hours listening to headphones through Kara today, but not a ton of comparisons. Kara into ZMF Auteur Classic and black screen HD600. I have to say, with Freya S I'd fiddled with different gain structures with headphone amps and my Elekit 8600, and always came back to passive output as the least invasive/most transparent. Or maybe I'm just lazy and passive out minimizes my nervousa. In my speaker setup, Kara's 4x gain is just a touch too rotund, but good goddamn, running 4x gain into HD600 is getting damn near close to MIB --> Elekit --> HD600 (sans either Freya S or Kara in preamp duty). I say close, meaning in technicalities and cleanliness, micro/macrodynamics and overall authority, especially in the frequency extremes. Don't get me wrong, the 8600 and Kara via headphones are different presentations, tonally. Kara in 4x gain doesn't get the midrange density and palpable vocals that the Elekit does with HD600. The Auteur Classics seem to be a little more agnostic of the different gains, and through Kara it's a distinctly lively sound, and pleasantly energetic. But in any case, Kara is surprisingly competent, bordering on a screaming good value considering it already excels as a preamp. I may need to do some comparisons with MJ3 and Pietus Maximus, if I can get around to moving some gear around.

 

Well shit, I mean well Schiit. I believe I know where a piece of my next bonus is going.

 

Thanks for that.

 

Disclosure: I am not trying a flame war, just a naive question. Last time I had a "preamp" was >>15 years ago when I had Arcam Delta 290 integrated amp. It's still dusting in the closet. Since then I am running various passive volume controls. Right now I have an autoformer based DIY stepped attenuator and it sounds end-game to me. I am also slightly changing the volume from Equalizer APO windows app, mostly leaving autoformer in the same volume dial. What I am missing?

 

If it is end game to you, than nothing but satisfied curiosity maybe? That is the best answer I can give you. Honest reply, no flames!!

 

I never tried a good preamp for more than 5 minutes, not counting poor preamps that are worse than volume control. I have no idea what it gives. And the autoformer does just that - volume control, nothing else. It does its job standing between Bifrost and Purifi.

Update: to some extent I do have a preamp because all purifies come with various op-amps for gain. I've tried to turn the opamp off for the minimal gain setting but it sounded too dry, however maybe I'd get used to it if I tried for longer. Don't know what opamp it is, probably not important. But at any rate I suspect that any decent preamp have a lot more inside than a $10 chip.