This Affordable Amplifier Is the Perfect Desktop Upgrade for Serious Audiophiles

The desk-friendly tube amplifier can drive a wide variety of headphones.

Published May 5, 2025

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Schiit Audio — yes, it’s pronounced “shit” — is an American hi-fi company known for making high-end desktop audio components that are significantly more affordable than they probably should be. (It’s also known for naming its products after Norse mythology.)

The company’s newest headphone amplifier, the Valhalla 3, isn’t just a new-and-improved version of the Valhalla 2, which had been the longest-running product in the company’s history. Instead, it borrows a lot of tech from the company’s Folkvangr ($1,799), its most powerful and expensive headphones amplifier to date.

“[The] Valhalla 3 is essentially a mini-Folkvangr,” says Jason Stoddard, the company’s co-founder, via the press release. “It’s the same idea, made much more desk-friendly.”

Schiit Audio Valhalla 3

Direct tube power

The Valhalla 3 is a pure triode headphone amplifier and preamp with fully modern features that’s designed to drive virtually any kind of headphones, including hard to drive headphones with high impedances.

Like the Folkvangr, the Valhalla 3 has an OTL/OCL design, which stands for Output Transformer-Less and Output Capacitor-Less, meaning that the headphones are directly connected to the cathodes of the tubes. No transformer or capacitors interrupt the audio signal path — it’s pure tube power.

According to the brand, this “extremely uncommon topology is usually reserved only for cost-no-object designs.”

High-powered headphones

The Valhalla 3 is decked out with modern features that allow it to work in a variety of setups and drive most headphones.

It has a switchable impedance multiplier that allows it to work with both low- and high-impedance headphones; you’ll need to use it to drive headphones with lower impedances.

The Valhalla 3 can serve as the centerpoint of an entire desktop system, including headphones and active speakers.

It has three switchable gain levels, including a no-feedback setting. The brand says this allows for greater compatibility with a wider range of headphones, “with the zero-feedback setting giving the highest gain for high-impedance headphones.”

The Valhalla 3 packs modern features, including delayed start-up, fast shut-down, and continuous analog-computer style DC sensing and disconnect. When using its preamp out, Schiit says the Valhalla 3 “can serve as the centerpoint of an entire desktop system, including headphones and active speakers.”

Price and availability

The Valhalla 3 costs $499 and is available from the company’s website right now. It comes in two finishes: black or silver.

Schiit Audio Valhalla 3

Schiit Audio’s Valhalla 3 is a high-end tube headphone amplifier primed for the desktop. It borrows a lot of tech from the company’s larger Folkvangr ($1,799), including its OTL/OCL design, which has the headphones directly connected to the cathodes of the tubes. It’s also decked out with modern features that allow it to work in a variety of setups and drive most headphones. “[It’s] essentially a mini-Folkvangr,” says the company’s co-founder Jason Stoddard. “It’s the same idea, made much more desk-friendly.”

$499 at Schiit Audio

About the Author:

Tucker Bowe has been on Gear Patrol’s editorial team since 2014. As a Tech Staff Writer, he tracks everything in the consumer tech space, from headphones to smartphones, wearables to home theater systems. If it lights up or makes noise, he probably covers it.