John Darko
Schiit’s latest wallet-friendly headphone amplifier, the Vali 3, reportedly began life as a cosmetic redo of the tubed-up Vali++. The new and stylishly dipped chassis pattern lends the product a classier look and better assists with dissipating the heat generated by the tube. The factory-fitted 6N3P is juiced by a whopping 100V – up from 60V on the Vali++ – for 1.5 Watts into 32 Ohms (or 200mW into 600 Ohms) of headphone drive.
The power supply brick is a linear varietal with the internal circuit DC-coupled at the input and output. This does away with the high-pass filters demanded by AC-coupled circuits that can (but not always) mess with an audio signal’s phase.
However, the Vali 3, like its predecessors, isn’t an all-tube headphone amplifier. It’s a hybrid design where Class A/B bipolar transistors dominate the output stage, showing the door to the op-amps we’d normally see in products of this stripe. A current domain feedback loop helps set gain and stabilises circuit operation.
On the front panel, we note a quarter-inch headphone socket and a hi/lo gain switch. On the back, RCA inputs for your source device and RCA outputs for optionally using the Vali 3 as a pre-amplifier for a power amplifier or pair of powered loudspeakers.
Some strict FTC stipulations don’t allow Schiit to say that the Vali 3 is ‘Made in the USA’ but its boards are made in Utah, the chassis are cut/pressed in California and unit assembly takes place in Texas. All that’s missing from this picture is an apple pie cooling on the window sill.
The Vali 3 is selling now for US$149 — the same price as the previous Vali. Your choice of silver or black.
Further information: Schiit
Photos by Lee Shelly
