Schiit Valhalla 2 Review: Pure tube joy 

I’m viewing this episode in 2024. Your observations & musings align with my V2 experiences. Curious to see what its replacement will be!

These have been out of stock for months now. Can't wait to get my hands on this amp.

I prefer the V2 with warmer tubes than stock. Schiit audio doesn't design their tube products to be too tubey sounding out of the box. They sound on the safe, cool side, just a step from ss. Tubes like sylvania, EH, mullard and others warm the character up significantly. Audio bliss through high impedance cans.

Nice review.Looking to set up a headphone system.Your review clarified several questions i had.

I don't know I've heard that the Valhalla two as good a headphone amplifier as it is it also makes a fantastic preamplifier. The only negative of course is it's one input

Nice videos! Can I use this with my Akg q701 Headphones?

would this also pair well with Hifiman Sundara? i heard the sundara with Vali it sounded fantastic

100% on the visual experience (as long as it sounds good) being important and also why I love the tubes. Not sure if it’s a noise thing, but I do wish they added some leds like some of the crap Chinese models. While the tubes glow, some other Chinese brands have added orange/blue leds to the mix under the tube which really bring out the ambiance. Again, more electronic components usually means more noise, but the whole visual aspect of the device counts to me too. I like the ones with the wood panels too, visually though the brand that does that style for a reasonable price (Rockville) kinda sucks. Dayton makes a quad for about 1/3 the price but it’s a hybrid with a transformer. I own the Douk P1 (duel tube hybrid) and it’s noisey as hell, especially for BT/USB, but on RCA as well. Not when playing as much but it’s uncomfortable noise when nothing is playing. I think some of it has to do with the crap AC adapter, because after I put a ferrite bead on the cord and it was slightly better. Others have reported replacing the transformer altogether solves a lot of the problem, but the box certainly has a grounding issue because if you hold the metal box, most of the noise goes away. How does this product (USA made begin a plus for it) do with noise? Does it have a grounding issue too? Easiest way to check is pick up the entire unit while you’re listening to nothing but with the unit on and headphones attached; If it’s noisy, just sitting there on a table, but when you pick it up, the noise gets less or goes away altogether, it’s a grounding issue. It’s best to put a ferrite bead on any wine going into/out of these things anyway, given that they’re usually around a lot of other electronics like a Wi-Fi tower or computer equipment, which adds noise. The mesh WiFi network I have at home is the worst for audio equipment and adds a crap load of very noticeable and consistent pattern noise. On the HF ham radio I have, if I don’t unplug the WiFi, I get a tick-tick-tick and a fixed interval/frequency over almost every HF band which makes coms incredibly bad to impossible if I run the unit with the WiFi tower anywhere near the radio. The biggest problem I’m seeing with the Chinese ones is noise and mostly from grounding. Hope this one does better as it’s on my shopping list. Thanks for the review.

Have you tried other pre-amps with the crown? Did the Valhalla compare nicely? Looking at the schiit headphone amps with pre's as a basic way to play with tubes on my stereo rig.

Can this be used with a Cayin A-88T tube integrated amp? I have the Puffin DSP pre amp, but I want to use pure tube sound and not digital or solid state...

Hey how is this unit as a preamp? I am trying to save some money on a preamp and since this is a headphone amp and pre amp in one I am interested. Going to buy the Schiit Vidar to pair it with it but just wanted to see how it was doing in your system as a preamp and if you ever wanted to upgrade from it.

could I essentially use this as a tube buffer from a digital source into a set of active speakers? Just to pull in some warmth.

HI, would you say Vali is not even listenable? If I can afford Vali, thinking should I spend $200 more to get the Valhalla ? My birthday is coming, with some hints here and there, I might get a groupfund. :D I listen to many pop songs -- really love listening to drum beat, including deep base sounds like 'Every breath you take' beginning part. :D Hope you can give me some suggestions. Thanks.

Nice job

Hey Tim, what DAC were you using to drive your Valhalla?

would this work well in my setup with a Project debut carbon espirit > Yaqin ms33b? and would it work with an ifi mico idsd dac so I can use it with my IMAC?

How is it as a preamp ?

Thanks for ur all videos bro.. it teach a lot.. I'm subscriber as well as I like ur video plz suggest me from where I can get genuine tube preamp kit below $500 Thanks again..

Tim do you recommend the Freya s with maggies

This video has the worst audio signal of any RU-vid video I have every watched, which is pretty ironic considering the subject matter.