Yes, remote control. As in, you can adjust the frequency response of your system from your listening chair—and save presets. And this thing is as crazy as you can get—relay potentiometers for precision matching between channels and repeatable settings. All discrete, with no ICs in the signal path, including our own Nexus™ balanced differential topology. And pure LC—inductor-capacitor filtering from the highest to the lowest band, including 4 custom 80% nickel-core inductors as big as 1.5 Henries.
Or, in English, this is our shot at making the best EQ possible, with maximum transparency and minimum compromise. It’s an EQ that can look straight at the storied EQs of yesteryear and say, “Yeah, we got that…and remote control.”
Remote Control—and Relay Potentiometers
Go ahead. Try to find another remote control equalizer. If you succeed, look at what kind of potentiometers it’s using. They’ll probably be motorized slide pots. We decided to go all-out with Loki Max, though, and create our own 31-step precision relay potentiometers using 0.5% thin-film resistors and 60 relays, together with custom firmware. These aren’t just relay attenuators—these are relay pots, a very different thing. What relay pots buy you are 15 perfectly defined steps on either side of the knob, for precise control of your EQ settings, as well as perfect matching between channels.
Pure LC Equalization
On our more affordable tone controls like Loki Mini and Lokius, we use gyrators to simulate an inductor on the lower frequency bands. This is because big inductors—and we’re talking 0.5H and 1.5H in Loki Max—are physically large and expensive. To get the performance we needed, we had to specify 80% nickel cores, making things even more exotic. But the result is that every band of Loki Max—from 20Hz to 16kHz—uses nothing but LC filtering.
Fully Discrete, Nexus™ Topology
For Loki Max, every stage is fully discrete—from the dual-stage superbuffers and balanced summers, to the current-feedback gain stage and Nexus™ balanced output. These stages are fed by a 4-stage power supply with two rail levels, up to +/-32V. This allows us the large output voltage swing necessary for an equalizer with lots of gain. You’ll never need to worry about overloading Loki Max with any standard source.
Ease of Use and Fingertip Control
Forget complicated UIs and indecipherable screens. To adjust Loki Max, just twist a knob…or press a button on the remote. All bands are independently accessible on the front panel and on the remote. You can define your presets from the front panel or the remote, select from balanced and single-ended inputs, and bypass the EQ completely (as in, just a relay and resistor in the signal path, no active stages). Enjoy adjusting your EQ from your listening chair—no need to go back and forth to the rack.
Designed and Built in California
By “designed and built in California" this is what we mean: we design, assemble, test, and QC Loki Max in our Valencia, California facility. And the vast majority of the total production cost of Loki Max—chassis, transformers, inductors, PC boards, etc—goes to US companies manufacturing in the US. Our chassis are made in California. Transformers and chokes are done in NorCal. Our PCBs are done in Simi Valley. You get the picture—this is not just a “put the final screw in it in California” product.
