Schiit Vali 3 Beautiful Tube Hybrid Headphone Amp and Preamp - Silver

Running through the tube pre out of a Maverick Audio Tube Magic D1 and this headphone amp really sings.Full soundstage with tight mids. Great unit!

I needed a headphone amp as I felt I was missing a little bass when at moderate volume playing from my Sony NW A55 directly into my headphones (AKG k240 studio). Tubes look pretty cool so why not, a tube hybrid! Amp sounds very neutral to me, which is great. Don’t expect tubey euphonic distortion with these headphones. I paired it with the Fiio bta30 pro, I stream FLAC ripped music using LDAC codec from my Linux laptop or my digital Walkman, so there is no noticeable quality loss while making it very convenient. Might connect to an amp with a pair speakers later…

I have a Fiio K11. This thing paired with a DAC is better and more powerful.

After watching videos containing the hype and hate surrounding Schiit products I chose this little tube amp.I have a phenomenal solid state headphone amp (JDS Atom) and was looking for a stable, reliable tube amp, for not much money that could drive all my headphone types with good power output ,( relatively speaking depending on phoneimpedance).Plus column: USA made.Great warranty. Very nice structure and tactical feedback. Cool design. Sound is “slightly colored “ within the tube stage…. If you squint… in other words they are very transparent, and they measure well , so not “syrupy “ ,”buttery” , simply put, they don’t introduce audible distortion that is equated in some human brains as warm, fuzzy and more natural sounding than solid state devices. But they are warmish ( maybe expectation bias) and non fatiguing. Powerful. Price.Negative column: more like a solid state amp. Power switch is on the back? Fumbly until you get a system to turn on and off.Conclusion: the designer is a funny dude. Watch his interviews. Schitt has a niche and frankly everything they are producing fulfills that niche. American made, high quality, reasonably priced, specs are pretty phenomenal for price, build is better looking and feeling than the manufacturing process should allow (stamped metals) impressive in its own right. I love this amplifier. The glow of an audio tube is magical. Great company, keep it up Schitt.

Absolutely glad I got this! Not a huge difference but it seems to give more depth to vocals, especially acoustic and vocals. It’s hard to describe and I’m not going to throw a bunch of technical terms your way.Bottom line is there is improvement in my system and for such a modest price , happy customer!

its good

First off, the sound is great, along with the price. You do need to invest in better tubes. Raytheon 5670 or the pricey Western Electric 396A.

Schiit Audio is a simply fantastic company. This is a simply wonderful, great looking and great sounding tube based headphone amplifier that will drive almost anything. Its compact size makes it a great addition to a desktop or cabinet-based audio setup.