Schiit Mani 2 Phono Preamp for MM, MC, and MI Cartridges (Black)

Fast delivery. Great packaging. Item worked well. Came 5 days earlier than expected . Seller emailed about why tracking would not be available. Excellent delivery and communication.

Noticeably quieter background blackness between notes. • Sharper stereo imaging with instruments more precisely placed. • More “sparkle” on top and solidity in the low end. • More “life” in recordings you already know well. Tighter, more controlled bass — kick drums and bass guitar have more definition instead of blending. • Clearer midrange — vocals step forward and separate better from instruments. Drums sit behind vocals center stage • Crisper highs without harshness — cymbals and guitar strings feel more “alive.” • Flexibility — multiple gain and loading options, so it works with a wider range of cartridges and lets you “dial in” the sound, but Once it’s set, you can forget it! (Note I found run 6db plus 6db (12 total) on the dip switches for filtering on my system using a subwoofer, best for tighter, more defined bass) • Overall presentation is more dynamic, lively, and spacious-the sound stage expands and is defined

I bought this pre amp to see if it would improve the sound over my Yamaha AS801 onboard phono stage. It is a slight improvement. It took a while to break it in and for the sound to really clean up but it offers a slight improvement over what I had before.

Sound quality is a very subjective thing. What sounds great to one person might sound bad to another and vice versa. My review of this product is based on my personal audio tastes and does not reflect the quality of the Schiit preamp. The build quality overall seems good, it's extremely low noise and low distortion, has appropriate gain for a MM cartridge turntable, a good set of features overall with configurable options, and sensible out of the box defaults. For context my setup is: Technics SL1210GR turntable running to the Schiitt Preamp, preamp running to a line level input of a Marantz PM7001 integrated amp. The amp is driving a pair of Revel Concerta F12 floor standing speakers and a Revel B120 powered sub. High quality interconnects and speaker cables throughout. Music styles include; country and classic rock played from good quality original pressing LP's or 180gm new release vinyl. To my ears the sound from this preamp is excessively bright, lacking in bottom end, and with a dry, "brittle" timbre that was completely lacking any tonal warmth. I found that at higher volume levels the music became uncomfortable and even annoying to listen to after only a short time. I swapped the Schiitt preamp out of the circuit and ran the turntable direct to the Phono input of the Marantz. The warmth and listenability of the music improved dramatically. The Phono preamp stage in an integrated amp such as the Marantz is generally considered ok but not great. I was expecting the Schiit Mani to be a step up over the inbuilt pre-amp but it was a step backwards to my ears. My next step is to introduce a vacuum tube based pre-amp between the turntable and line-level input of the Marantz such as the Pro-Ject Tube Box S2, or Vincent Pho to add the warmer tonal characteristics suited to my music style. It is possible that if your musical taste runs to dance, hip hop or electronic where a brighter, crisp tone works better, the Schiit Mani may be the preamp for you!

I purchased this phono preamp for use with a new turntable with a Nagaoka MP-110 cartridge. The previous preamp I used worked but lacked the sound I desired. The supplied manual was clear and concise and setup was very easy. The ultra quiet and clean, uncluttered appearance of the Schiit Mani 2 makes it an ideal match to my system restoring the missing clarity of sound of my record collection at a very reasonable price!