John
Schiit Audio has a strong track record for price-busting high-end audio hardware. Today the Californian and Texan company has announced the Mani 2 phono pre-amplifier, the successor to the Mani, first introduced in 2014, which went on to become this hi-fi enthusiast’s goto phono stage when putting together an entry-level vinyl system, especially when a moving coil cartridge was needed.
From the press release: “We took what we learned on the phono stages for Ragnarok 2 and Jotunheim 2, and extended them for Mani 2″
For its second round of Mani, Schiit has eliminated all coupling capacitors and two gain stages for a simpler circuit: “based on a TI OPA1612 with a DC servo, Mani 2 uses a passive RIAA equalization stage based on 2% film capacitors and 0.1% thin-film resistors. It is also fully DC coupled. Where (the original) Mani’s signal had to pass through three capacitors, Mani 2 doesn’t use any.”
Time for some numbers. Like the original Mani, the new version offers four gain settings (35, 45, 50, and 60dB) but adds switchable resistive loading (47k, 200, 47, and 38 Ohms) and capacitive loading (47, 100, 150, and 200 pF) for moving coil cartridges. Of course, the Mani 2 will also play nicely with moving magnet and moving iron cartridges. It covers all bases.
But wait, there’s more. Mani 2 offers passive 6dB/octave or 12dB/octave low cut rumble filters, centered at 15 Hz: “We chose passive because we didn’t want to run the signal through another active stage,” says Schiit co-founder Jason Stoddard. “And the low cut is fully defeatable—when it’s off, it’s completely out of the circuit.”
Also part of the deal is a 100% linear power supply with “dual-stage regulation, including a filtering stage that reduces power supply noise and contributes to Mani 2’s stellar performance numbers.”
Mani 2 is made in the USA (in Texas 🤠 ) and is available now for US$149.
Further information: Schiit Audio
Photos: Lee Shelly
