Schiit Audio Imp Impedance Multiplier and Balanced Output Converter

Imp
Impedance Multiplier and Balanced Output Converter

Have a tube amp that can’t drive your difficult headphones? Want to use your tube amp with your balanced cans? Add Imp and you’re ready to rock!

Help When You Need It
Imp reduces the load of hard-to-drive headphones by 8x, making that crazy 20 ohm planar look like a comfortable 160 ohm load to your OTL tube amp. And, when you switch to 300 ohm headphones, you can easily bypass Imp by pressing a button.

Nothing in the Way of Your Tubes
Imp doesn’t stand in the way of your tubes, even when switched on. Your tube amp is still directly connected to your headphones. Imp simply helps out, in parallel. It’s not a buffer. It exactly maintains the distortion characteristics of your tube amp.

Based on Valhalla 3 and Folkvangr

Our 10-tube Folkvangr debuted our impedance multiplier several years ago. We also included it in Valhalla 3. Imp is solid, proven technology that has allowed our tube amps to drive headphones you never thought possible—now available separately.

Balanced…For Real
Imp also includes a 4.4mm balanced output, which delivers 2x the voltage of the ¼” jack, for some serious, serious drive. Got some crazy thing with relatively high impedance but needs a ton of volts? Yeah, here you go.

Designed and Built in the USA

By “designed and built in the USA," we mean it. We even do our own PC board assembly on a state-of-the-art robotic assembly line in Corpus Christi.

Specs:
Impedance multiplication ratio: 8
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, +/-0.1db
THD: <0.001%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 2V RMS
IMD: <0.001%, CCIR
SNR: >110db, A-weighted, referenced to 2V RMS
Crosstalk: -80dB, 20Hz-20KHz
Connections: one TRS input, one 1/4" TRS output, one 4.4mm TRRRS balanced headphone output
Output Impedance: less than 2 ohms
Input Impedance: 8x the headphone load
Maximum output: 10V RMS via ¼” jack, 20V RMS via the 4.4mm
Power Supply: 16VAC wall-wart (ahem audiophile linear power supply ahem), regulated +/-15V rails
Power Consumption: 6W
Size: 5 x 3.5 x 2.75”
Weight: 1 lb