This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Mani Phono stage/pre-amplifier. I was prompted to purchase it a while back due to its popularity. The Mani costs US $129 plus shipping.Naturally, the Schiit Mani adopts the look and feel of other Schiit desktop products:I was expecting gain and MM/MC switch but there is none. Instead, dip switches under the unit perform these functions.A 16 volt, 500 milliamp AC external transformer powers the unit.The back panel as you would expect:There is a stout grounding terminals which I did have to use. Lowest noise/hum was achieved with my Audio Precision analyzer with its unbalanced inputs and outputs fully floating.Back to the dip switches, there are two stages, each with a High Low setting. So overall, you have a choice of four gain settings. By experimentation, I used High on Gain 1 state and low on Gain 2 for Moving Magnet cartridge representation. And High+High on both stages for Moving Coil. Without any kind of standardization in the industry regarding gain, direct comparison of products becomes difficult as they differ from each other by a few dB.Let's start with MM representation using gain setting of H/L and 5 millivolt input level we have standardized on:Invariably, when testing output levels below 1 volt, the measurements of THD+N only represent the "N" designation (noise). Distortion products are lost in the noise in the FFT spectrum above. Even mains peaks at 60 Hz and multiples doesn't rise the same level as the general noise from the device. We can verify by digitally teasing out the THD and N components separately:We see that the harmonic distortion at -92 dB is well below the noise level at -74 dB which naturally sets the SINAD.When I started phono testing, I would opt for higher input levels (typically 8 millivolts) to garner and output greater than 1 volt. If we mess with the gain settings, we get that on Mani and the resulting SINAD goes up to 81 dB. So for better apple vs apple comparison, I used that value to compare to other phono stages tested:Performance falls in competent category now with no danger of unseating our best in class, Cambridge Audio Phono Duo One of the key measurements in phono stages is implementation of RIAA equalization as reflected in frequency response measurements:I like a very flat response from 100 Hz to 20 kHz and beyond. The rise in low frequencies is a bit unfortunate though as it will magnify rumble and other low frequency aberrations. Would have been nice to have this slope down, not up. Still, a good job compared to boutique products that have ups and downs in mid audio band.Spectrum of noise with no signal shows what we already know:The higher noise floor on Mani causes it to fall behind competitors in THD+N versus frequency:Testing the headroom level using output levels gives us this:The unit can't go above 3.2 volts or so and hence it clips. We can do the same comparison against Cambridge Duo:So there is a large gap in performance.Pops and clicks are inevitable in LP playback. Given their impulsive and high power nature (relative to music) a measurement called overload margin can tell us what happens to distortion profile of the phono stage should such a thing occur. The goal is that the phono stage will amplify it as well as it does any signal and won't go into hard clipping that causes distortion to add up to the energy of the pop/click, making it sound worse than it already is.Running the same test as above but this time, plotting the input level to the unit allows us to compute the overload margin:Overload margin is always in dB which means it needs a reference voltage. For that, I have used 5 millivolts for MM and 0.8 millivolts for MC as I have standardized in the rest of the measurements. Using those values, we get overload margins of 14 down to 12 dB for MM and MC respectively. Marketing department can use lower reference voltages and get any number they like.The above test is at 1 kHz but clicks and pops occur at higher frequencies so I tested for that effect:Up to 10 kHz, the knee in the curve remains around the same input voltage of 25 millivolts or so. Once we go to 15 and 20 kHz, distortion rises above noise floor much earlier making it hard to see any clear step function in distortion. Eyeballing values anyway, I am not seeing more than 1 dB or so in overload margin loss.This is rather low overload margin so there is value in getting other products with better measurements in this regard. But be sure to seek out proper parameters per above instead of trusting what the manufacturer has published.I am also working on a test to see whether the phono stage stays in clipped/overflow mode even after the click/pop has gone away. The preliminary results (not shown) indicates that the Schiit Mini happily recovers from the overload without any hangover. Once I have more confidence in the testing, I will start publishing those results.The Schiit Mani seems to be competently designed. I find no clear flaws in it. For sure, it sets a lower target then the Cambridge Duo and gets there. If you can save up US $299, my strong recommendation is for the Duo but otherwise the Mani does the job for a budget phono stage.I am going to put the Schiit Mani on my recommended list.-----------As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.Getting ready to go on a road trip. No, I don't need any money for that. How cheap do you think I am??? I do however need money for wild animal sitter to take care of the Pink panthers. So pleasegenerously using: https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview ), or https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054 ).