[PHC1]

In yet another chapter of my Schiit adventures and discoveries, a line of products I am becoming quite a fan of, today marked the arrival of Schiit Valhalla 2, Triode OTL headphone amp/tube gain stage preamp.

In keeping up with what is becoming a tradition in my mini reviews, let's define "Valhalla"

Valhalla is once again from Norse Mythology and is the hall where the god Odin houses the dead warriors whom he deems worthy of dwelling with him. The dead who reside in Valhalla and are guided there by the Valkyries, live a life that would have been the envy of any Viking warrior. All day long, they fight one another, doing countless valorous deeds along the way. But every evening, all their wounds are healed, and they are restored to full health as well as dining on exceptionally fine food and wine and are waited on by the beautiful Valkyries.




Let's get on with the initial impressions.

Once again, the Valhalla was well packaged and protected and arrived to me without any incidents. Tubes are packaged in a separate foam lined box.

Carefully installing the 6N1P dual triode input and 6N6P dual triode output, 1 each per channel tubes, of which the 6N1Ps roll-able to 6DJ8, E88CC, 6922, 6BZ7, and similar types took a minute.

The Valhalla 2 was then installed atop of my rack and plumbed with it's stock power cord and the Bluejeans RCA interconnects. Schiit Gungnir aka "Gumby" DAC was feeding the Valhalla 2 with converted to analog bits of musical content.

I allowed the Valhalla 2 a few hours of warm up and stabilization time with music playing through my HD600 headphones. When I came back to give it a first listen, it was actually odd that the first thing I though to myself was, "OMG" this would probably make a FANTASTIC preamp for a smaller system or perhaps even for someone who wanted to try a tube gain preamp stage in their system for a first time!

Of course in my case, the Valhalla 2 mission is not a preamp in a 2 channel system but as a preamp/headphone amp. But the function of a tube gain preamp stage needs to be explored some time in the future!

The beauty of an Output Transformer Less (OTL) Triode amplifier is typically the incredible midrange but alas very often due to various impedance and difficult loads, all too often they can and do sound glorious in the midrange but lack the attack and drive down low and can lack some sparkle up top.

I was blown away that this OTL Triode headphone amp suffered from no such deficiencies! I have fond memories of my Brocksieper EARMAX and EARMAX PRO headphone amps that I used to use with HD600. Let's just get this out the way right now, the Valhalla ABSOLUTELY CRUSHES the EARMAX with the similar topology in dynamic contrast and sheer slam.

OK, so the first surprise was the sheer grip and control over the 4 different pairs of headphones I have on hand. The dynamic contrast and excursions into the bass regions is no sweat with this Triode OTL amp. What a surprise! The dynamic contrast only seemed to be variable by the headphone itself as I already have a good understanding what each pair is capable of.

The upper mids all the way up to the dog hearing region of the upper treble was just as extended as any of my Class A solid state amps such as the Bryston and the Asgard. This is not a rolled off sounding tube amp at all.

This left me with the all important midrange. Can this Valhalla Triode amp seduce me? Can it dance me to the end of love?? Will the beautiful Valkyries attend to me as they do to the warriors at Valhalla?

In one word, YES!

While the EARMAX is still burnished into my memories as the most romantic and euphonic headphone amp to date, the Valhalla opened up a new opportunity for me, forcing me to discover a different approach to euphony and "romanticism" one would typically expect or is at least hoping for in tubes.

Valhalla 2 is a very musical and engaging amplifier/preamplifier but it is not a one trick pony. The midrange is simply glorious by any definition but you get the incredible dynamic drive and control down low in the bass regions and the highs are rather nicely extended, airy and shimmer with the typical good tube design upper frequency "glow" and "delicacy".

While I am quite familiar with the Russian tubes deployed in the Valhalla, I don't remember them quite like this. Of course one is free to tube roll to one's taste and preference but I am honestly in NO HURRY to do so. Valhalla sounds fantastic with the stock tubes.

The Valhalla 2 has no right to sound this good at this price range. It simply does not disappoint anywhere in the frequency range or drive capability.

I briefly compared the Valhalla 2 to Bryston BHA-1 and Asgard 2 Class A MOSFET amps this evening and I was seriously impressed that Valhalla refused to fall behind in any one category or parameter of performance. To my ears and preference it boiled down to the following:

1. Valhalla and HD600. romantic, relaxed, sweet, musical, engaging. Get your favorite violin or relaxing piano music out, dim the lights and let that combo lull you to sleep. You'll be sleeping with the Valkyries by your side.

2. Valhalla and HD650. a bit less romantic and heading a bit closer towards neutrality where any good recording will capture your attention and hold it there for hours on end with no fatigue and nothing but enjoyment. Not such a great recording? Like classic Rock? It is forgiving enough to smooth over the dynamic range compression and distortion that can irritate the ears and fatigue them otherwise. Valkyries are telling you to wake up and smell the coffee here.

3. Valhalla and Focal Elear. Dig out your better Rock, Jazz, Blues, Classical or just about any genre music. This combo will seriously impress but is less tolerant of the crappy or heavy handed remastered and butchered music that seems to be prevalent these days. Don't blame the amp or the headphones, find a better recording of the same if possible and all is right in the world again. Odin is angry with the butchered music. The Valkyries are beating the war drums.

4. Valhalla and Focal Utopia. My, My, what do we have here? The biggest surprise of the evening. Least expected outcome was this combo. Get your good to great or your personal reference recordings out and prepare to fall out of your chair. Can you say goose-bump city??? You have just fought the most epic battle among the Viking Warriors and you absolutely crushed your opponents. You are welcomed by Valkyries from the battlefield and dragged straight into bed where you are rewarded for your heroism and fighting skills with most passionate love that only Odin's Valkyries are capable of.

In all seriousness, what Valhalla and Focal Utopia create together is nothing short of amazement and goose bumps. You know the kind where it is even hard to breathe for a moment???

You are dumb founded by the sheer dynamic range and contrast, the absolute resolution where you can hear so deep into the recording that the subtle echoes bouncing off the studio or live hall walls become so evident that you wonder why you have never heard that before.

Unfortunately, only the Utopia was able to recreate the sheer beauty of the most important trait of the Valhalla's beauty and that is the complex harmonic structure buried in all the musical instruments on a good recording.

Imagine being legally blind and suddenly being able to see? Imagine being color blind and suddenly seeing all the beautiful colors?

The Valhalla and Utopia opened a window, no a portal into another dimension where the harmonic content of a recording is laid bare in front of you. The Gordon's knot becomes unraveled before your eyes string by string of harmonics. The fingers gliding over and picking at the strings of stringed instruments, the subtle to forceful strikes of the piano keys and every note that follows the action opens up and blooms into others that were not appreciated before but are suddenly there unraveled for your ears to discover. The strikes of the kick drums not only energizing the acoustic space but telling you about the tightness of the drum head and resonating with all the colors of that drum's body. The cymbals are not just splashy, the brass resonates from the initial strike and the resulting harmonic structure unravels into shades and overtones of the complex action that seems simple at first. You are treated to a whole other world of the more subtle, often buried somewhere instrumental sounds here.

The harmonic palette the Valhalla opens up as it paints the sonic picture is indeed a breath of fresh air and a glimpse into the unseen beauty. That my friends is what tubes can do given the chance. As good as the Bryston and Asgard 2 is, the brush strokes on the sonic canvas are broader, less defined and colorful when it comes to harmonic structure and open, airy presentation with Utopia headphones. Tubes is the clear choice for me when it comes to Utopia. Valhalla and Utopia are indeed in the hall of the Gods and warriors when it comes to the completely unexpected synergy. As I put the Utopias on and listened to the Valhalla, I felt as I am completely restored after my daily battles, victories and losses in the Midgard (mortal human) realm.

Incredible...