Schiit Vali 3

I have been trying Russian tubes from the Ukraine with my Vali 3 and I found the 6N3P-E (which I got for 75 cents each) and 6N3P-EB (supposedly better for $2 each) and found both excellent and highly recommended!

 

how long is the warmup time on the vali 3?

 

Temperature warmup times shown here:
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...echnical-measurements.3810/page-3#post-434927

 

Anyone happen to be able to try a Lyr 3 vs Vali 3 on Grado Rs1x? All the praise of the Vali 3 with Grados is making me want to pick one up.

 

Man what is the high gain on this amp made for? I'm at like 10% volume at listening levels on low gain with my HD600.

 

Oh that is very weird. Are you able to measure your listening SPLs? I've chatted with a couple other folks who've heard Valis and it seems usable on HD6xx/HD600s even on high gain.

 

Don't think I have the capabilities to measure that. But it's easily at 90db on low gain with volume pot hardly at 9am with my 600.

 

I agree with you, the Vali 3 drives the mess out of my HD6xx. No need for high gain at all!

 

Been messing with the Vali 3 since it arrived yesterday, and I have to say that with the MMB2 and Clear OGs it’s a special kind of magic, particularly for electronic music. Not the last word in detail by far, but the combination of bass slam and stage works really well for ambient stuff like FSOL. I haven’t found it to be this special with other headphones I’ve tried: it’s a bit flat with the LCD-2Cs, and doesn’t pull the most bass out of the HD 800 S.

I’m about to stick a SYS in the middle just for a bit more attenuation, which I also do with the Piety. Without that I’m at 9 o’clock on the Clears on electronic music and into channel imbalance territory when listening at moderate volumes with more sensitive cans.

 

Can’t believe I hadn’t tried the MMB2 + Vali 3 combo with the HD 800 S until now. It’s got slam!

 

Does the Vali 3 use the tube stage when used as preamp?

 

schiit measures the preamp section as part of their AP reports they post, the distortion on the FFT looks the same for the low gain headphone out as the preamp, so I assume they're both going through the tube stage

 

I've been running this amp in my office setup for a while now. I've paired it with the FiiO FT1 headphones and I'm feeding it from an iFi Zen Dac V2. It's an excellent listen overall, definitely better than what I remember from the Vali 2 and IMO a step up from the Magni Unity. The Unity is really nice, but I find it has some issues with separation during busy passages. The Vali 3 is able to keep up with busy passages and cleanly presents everything without muddle. I keep it in low gain for more volume control, but also because I seem to prefer low gain more than high gain on Schiit amps.

As for tubes, I have 3. The stock 6N3P, a 6N3P-EB, and a GE JAN 5670W. I'm typically using the GE JAN 5670 with the FT1, it has a nice clean and open presentation that pairs well with the FT1. With my HD6XX and R70X I preferred the stock 6N3P for it's richness and tubey tone. Unfortunately the stock tube ended up going bad so I picked up a 6N3P-EB to replace it. It has a very similar sound to the stock 6N3P, maybe just a slight bit smoother and richer.

Something I noticed with the Vali 3 is that when I touch the top of the casing there's a slight hum or buzz. This is not a big deal since there's usually nothing touching the case (unless I'm specifically trying to recreate the sound) but I just thought I'd mention it for the sake of full disclosure.

Overall, I really like the amp and I'll be keeping it at the office for the foreseeable future.