Schiit buyers buy the fantasy (Jason's newest designs that acc to the 'knowledgeable' reviewers sound 'better' than SOTA stuff.
New to Schiit and Kara was my 1st purchase from them, so not a fanboy but disagree with the universal blanket statement above. Below are Amir's measurements of this device and
ALL descriptions in the (parentheses) comes directly from the testing guru Amir himself and
NOT from any Schiit buyers.
Acvtive mode:
XLR balanced input 4v in/out with distortion at -120 dB (Excellent performance)
Adding a bit of noise and SINAD becomes 117 dB (Excellent noise performance )
SNR XLR In/Out (4v) 20+ bits dynamic range (Excellent)
SNR RCA In/out (2V) 20 bits dynamic range (Excellent)
Frequency response (flat and extended)
Intermodulation distortion (basically limited by noise)
Wideband distortion+noise (quite good, very low noise & distortion)
Channel Balance (Always perfect)
Passive Mode:
XLR In/Out (4v in) Measurements for passive mode basically conveys the analyzer performance sans impedance loading by the volume control (WOW!)
SNR XLR In/Out (4v) 22.2 bits dynamic range (Superb)
SNR RCA In/Out (2v) 21.2 bits dynamic range (Superb)
Frequency Response (Extremely flat & extended)
Intermodulation Distortion (Stunning low noise, Excellently low distortion)
Cross talk (Excellent)
Channel separation (Excellent)
THD+N vs Freq (Incredibly low noise and distortion)
Headphone:
Performance as far as dashboard (Very good)
SNR XLR (4v) 20 bits dynamic range (Excellent)
SNR 50mv, 600 ohms Dynamic range (Good)
Freq response (Flat and wide)
Distortion vs Power @ 300ohms Max power High gain 1.1W (Superb)
Distortion vs Power @ 32ohms low gain (Extremely low noise)
High gain Max power 4.1w (Excellent)
"Measured upwards of 27 volts output before the preamp shut down in high gain mode! So you have plenty of headroom to drive Any amplifier regardless of what gain it has."
Amir, the king of testing overall rating for the preamp "Golfing Panther"
As already stated, this is not a SOTA product across all areas and is not for everyone (headphone amp not ideal for low impedance headphones) but I find no 'Fantasy' required to buy this product with confidence if it meets your needs.
"Buying the Fantasy" may be for someone who thinks that buying an inaudibly better measuring piece of equipment means it's better engineered and 'sounds' better.
I have both the Topping A70 pro and PA5 and both developed issues after the 30 return window (as documented by others) and both had to be shipped back to China for warranty repair which was slow with costly shipping and insurance. Once returned they both worked without issue and Topping/Schiit both coexist happily in my systems.
Topping makes SOTA measuring products that many are happy with but it doesn't mean it's universally a better product across the board.