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

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

Works great! After a move, my Audio Technica MM turntable now lives across the room from my amplifier. I didn't want to resort to a kludgy Bluetooth setup, and running the signal 50' around the perimeter of the room gave it a nasty hiss. I used a 1' ground+RCA cable from the turntable up this Schiit Mani 2 preamp, and then the same 50' RCA stereo around the room, and it sounds perfect. Wiring is straightforward, the box is unobtrusive, as the instructions pointed out, at least for me, the settings were perfect out of the box without fiddling, and so this is a 5/5 stars for me. Compared to other offerings on the market, I'm trading about a $20-$50 premium for knowing it will work well, look good, and support American manufacturing and engineering.

The Mani 2 is a substantial upgrade from your turntable's or receiver's built-in phono preamp. Frequency response and dynamic response were greatly enhanced, as well as stereo imaging compared to my turntables built-in preamp. Volume was boosted too. Dark Side of the Moon now sounds like surround sound, only using two speakers in stereo. Tool's Fear Inoculum is mesmerizing, sparkling and rich compared to the built-in preamp. I suspect part of Mani 2's secret is it's 16v power supply. It's large. It wouldn't fit in the power strip underneath my media cabinet. A true wallwart. This preamp is high gain and is susceptible to interference. I experienced noise at first using some cheap RCA's. (modem, wifi6 router, 800w receiver nearby) I had to rob some higher-end cables from my DAW... Problem solved. Noise gone. If you buy this, have high-end cables or buy some. I like the extreme power light. I can easily tell that it's on. I do not like the rear mounted power switch. It's a toggle switch which is nice but it's just bizarre they put it in the back. Lame. You'll need to place this device accordingly. The underside has lots of dip switches for people with 4 figure turntables or moving cartridges. If you have a regular turntable, you don't need to mess with any of that.

The Schiit Mani 2 is absurd—in the best possible way. I don’t know what kind of dark magic they’re cooking down in Texas (or wherever those mischievous geniuses actually are), but this little box has completely transformed the sound coming off my Technics. I’ve heard friends’ $400–$500 phono stages that don’t even graze the clarity, punch, and sheer confidence this thing throws down. At $150, it has absolutely no business performing at this level. Zero. None. Don’t overthink it, don’t hesitate—just buy it. This is one of those rare products that punches so far above its weight class it should come with an apology note.

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 recently upgraded my turntable to a Pro-Ject Pro X2 with a Sumiko Moonstone cartridge. I listen through Elac Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 speakers driven by a Denon AVR4500 receiver/amp/pre-amp. I suspected the AVR's phono pre-amp was not on par with the turntable and speakers so I decided to add a dedicated, but affordable, phono pre-amp. I narrowed the field down to 2, the Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 and the Schiit Mani 2, based on price, various reviews, MM/MC capabilities, etc. The two pre-amps are very similar on what they offer and very nearly the same price. I was a little biased towards the Pro-Ject because I figured they made my turntable so they should offer an affordable pre-amp to match it. I could not have been more wrong. We set up the Pro-ject pre-amp first and listened to Miles David Kind of Blue. The sound was way better than that through the AVR, so my wife and I were very excited. "How could it get better than this", we asked ourselves. The improvement was enough to put smiles on both of our faces - there really is a very noticeable improvement in sound stage, instrument separation, etc. We almost decided to end the test there and just send back the Schiit, but we didn't. When the needle came down on Mile's record and we heard the sound of the Schiit, our jaws dropped - again. The difference between the two pre-amps was about as noticeable as between the AVR and the Pro-ject pre-amp. We could not believe our ears, so we A-B'd the same album 2 more times. I even did a blinded test with my wife, who is no audiophile, and she unhesitatingly picked the Schiit. We went on to A-B against, Pink Floyd's DSOM, Beethoven's 6th, 5th and 9th symphonies (2 different orchestras), a Moody Blues album, the Eagles Hotel CA, John Coltrane's A love Supreme, Creme and, wait for it...KC and the Sunshine Band. There was a noticeable difference in all albums except the KC, Eagles and Creme albums. There was still a preference to the Schiit, but the difference with these albums was not as notable as the difference in the jazz and classical albums. In no case did the Pro-Ject impress better than the Schiit. We tried several impedances on the two pre-amps (both are adjustable with dip switches) but could not get the Pro-Ject to impress as well as the Schiit. What we heard: there was clearly an improved sound stage with the Schiit. The sense of "being there" was so much nicer. The upper mids were noticeably more pronounced with the Schitt while the base was brought out more without being boomy (we do have a 10" SW on our system). The highs were more...sparkly... with the Schitt, a little more, though, and they would have bordered on too sparkly and cause ear fatigue. This did not happen and while those highs and upper mids were well defined and present, we did not experience any ear fatigue during our extensive A-B testing or the album-listening frenzy of the ensuing days as we began gong through our collection. Look, I'm no audiophile and our overall system is only solidly mid-tier, maybe verging on upper mid-tier, but these are only $200 pre-amps but we know when we hear differences and there were clear differences between the AVR, Pro-Ject and Schiit. One might say the Pro-Ject was more rounded, but I think that's another way of saying it's muted. The Schiit sound was more open, present, balanced and makes the bands/orchestras feel the most "in the room". I will stop far short of saying he Pro-Ject is not a nice pre-amp. In fact it might suit some people's tastes better than the Schitt. But for what I think a pre-amp is supposed to do for your music, the Schitt, to us, does it far better.

I have no comparisons to make with other pre-amps, other than the built in one that comes in the AT-LP60. I have tried a few little things to make it sound better (though it sounds pretty good out of the box considering the price). I've changed out the mat for a cork one, upgraded the stylus to one of those LPGear ones, got decent cleaning solutions, have an okay pair of Edifier speakers, and been diligent about keeping it free of dust and static. All of those things made minor "audiophile" improvements. That is - I don't know if they improved the sound, but they made me feel better. Then I got this. Out of the box, factory settings, it sounds 10x better than it did before. Really better bass, cleaner sound, more presence. These are all words I have read from audiophiles that seem to be applicable here. In my own words, it sounds much more bitchin'. So if you're like me, want a better sound out of cheaper gear, and are wondering if a pre-amp is worth it for your LP60 than YES YES YES. This little unit is excellent. Warning: it doesn't come with RCA cables so get yourself a decent one (you only need one, assuming your output from the turntable ends in dual RCAs). It also has an external transformer, so the plug is a brick thing and cumbersome. Finally it's about half the size you think it is. 5 stars except for volume control because why.

I've had this bad boy for a number of years and it sounds great. Keep in mind you'll want to tune the overall capacitance from the player to the input of the Mani 2. In my case for a Beogram 8002, for optimum performance, B&O targeted ~250pF and 47k-ohms from the MM cartridge to the input to their original receivers phono input (so says the internets). From the needle to the 8002 output connector is about 90pF, then 42pf in my case (measured with a multimeter) for my cable from the player output to the Mani 2 input, then setting the Mani 2 for 100pF get's things close enough to the 250pF. The exercise will be similar for your cartridge. The big "knob" is cable length from the player to the Mani 2. RCA capacitance ranges from ~12 pF/ft to ~40 pF/ft, so if you use a long cable you can see how capacitance can get pretty high. Usually you'll want capacitance set to what is best for the cartridge but around 400pF, total, for MM cartridges seems pretty high. You don't want the Mani subsonic filter on unless you have audible subwoofer issues or want to reduce the bass. I set the Mani 2 gain so pre-amp volume levels downstream are all 3/4 full scale (when possible) during normal listening for best SNR. Hope this helps.

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.

Excelente producto, estoy muy feliz porque se escuchan perfectamente mis Vinilos.

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.