Post by Chris on Oct 25, 2023 10:03:44 GMT -5
The new Schiit Skoll is notable because it is a balanced input phono stage. Typically these devices would sell for thousands of dollars but in Schiit tradition it is only $399. Of course you have to have a phono arm that is wired in balanced mode. All phono cartridges are balanced by design. This is a rather rare in the phono world but seems to be gaining traction. Pro-ject also has balanced phono products. I would say the biggest advantage to have a balanced phono setup from end to end is the reduction in noise. The measurements that ASR reports confirm this feature.
Also, for those that wonder what the resolution of typical vinyl versus other formats are (e.g. digital) it is in the report. As ASR reports, you get about 13.5 bits (80db snr) of data from vinyl records. The music CD standard is 16 bits (96db snr). This is why it is kind of pointless to use very high sampling rates when ripping vinyl. When I used to do needle drops I used the native rate of my interface I was using which was 48k/16b.
Read review.