Or maybe he decided to do a short Head-Fi TV segment on it instead...
 
One can hope

defiant00 said:

  Or maybe he decided to do a short Head-Fi TV segment on it instead...
 
One can hope

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If he can fit the Rag on the camera. I mean have you seen the measurements of the Rag? It's Huge!

generai said:

  If he can fit the Rag on the camera. I mean have you seen the measurements of the Rag? It's Huge!

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it's not THAT big...bigger than the other schiit offerings, sure, but it's really not all that big compared to other flagship amps with heaps of power.
 
but yeah, jude will probably have to put a wide angle lens on...

Jude is probably still really busy. We may be lucky to have a very short impression before Rag is open for order.

One thing I wonder a lot is if the speaker part of the ragnarok (pardon my non-nerd language) is as good as the headphone part.
If it is, I am assuming that the speaker part should be better than many good stereo amps from companies like Denon, Yamaha, etc.
 
The question is, how good do your speakers have to be to actually notice the difference? I run Focals 714 from a Denon 710AE, and I was able to try different amps before I made my decision. The key thing here is that even Tube Amps didnt sound clearly different (you had to look for the differences to notice them), and In no way they sounded better, just slightly different.
Obviously subjective opinion.
 
I mainly see the Ragnarok as a End-Game All-in-One, and if that is the case, the price aint as high as I originaly percived it, but I cant help to wonder If it something I would even notice on my modest gear.

I do actually believe that jude is making a head-fi tv video on the Ragnarok Well at least I hope so!
 
If it turns out good for the LCD-3 or somewhere close, I might as well get this, the problem is that my setup is on my PC desk, and the Ragnarok is a bit big... and since people are saying that it's going to be a rather hot product, that might be a problem in my country as we are already at may suffering from a heat wave, lol.... But who knows, lets hope for the goods
 

catspaw said:

  One thing I wonder a lot is if the speaker part of the ragnarok (pardon my non-nerd language) is as good as the headphone part.
If it is, I am assuming that the speaker part should be better than many good stereo amps from companies like Denon, Yamaha, etc.
 
The question is, how good do your speakers have to be to actually notice the difference? I run Focals 714 from a Denon 710AE, and I was able to try different amps before I made my decision. The key thing here is that even Tube Amps didnt sound clearly different (you had to look for the differences to notice them), and In no way they sounded better, just slightly different.
Obviously subjective opinion.
 
I mainly see the Ragnarok as a End-Game All-in-One, and if that is the case, the price aint as high as I originaly percived it, but I cant help to wonder If it something I would even notice on my modest gear.

Click to expand...

 
The thing is with audio equipment, the old saying of "With sound, you reach the point of diminishing returns very soon" is true. Not in the sense of you can't get better sound, but in the sense that at a certain point, you reach a point where it's good enough, and to say things clearly: It's not the question of whether it sounds good, it's the question if you're happy, some of us want better, so we spend more money and we do get a bit better sound, and that bit of sound is very important to us. In short: It's not whether it sounds, it's how it sounds.

catspaw said:

  One thing I wonder a lot is if the speaker part of the ragnarok (pardon my non-nerd language) is as good as the headphone part.
If it is, I am assuming that the speaker part should be better than many good stereo amps from companies like Denon, Yamaha, etc.
 
The question is, how good do your speakers have to be to actually notice the difference? I run Focals 714 from a Denon 710AE, and I was able to try different amps before I made my decision. The key thing here is that even Tube Amps didnt sound clearly different (you had to look for the differences to notice them), and In no way they sounded better, just slightly different.
Obviously subjective opinion.
 
I mainly see the Ragnarok as a End-Game All-in-One, and if that is the case, the price aint as high as I originaly percived it, but I cant help to wonder If it something I would even notice on my modest gear.

Click to expand...

I've been thinking exactly the same. I have Cambridge Audio 840E pre / 840W power which is 200W into 8 ohms and my speakers are 4 ohms. Finding it hard to imagine dropping all those watts would be a good thing... but then again, how much better is the rag going to be? Hmm

I'm wondering how it'll compare to my 125wpc Emotiva. I imagine it'll be just as clean and seriously, I'm not using the extra wattage with bookshelf speakers 3 feet away from me

catspaw said:

  One thing I wonder a lot is if the speaker part of the ragnarok (pardon my non-nerd language) is as good as the headphone part.
If it is, I am assuming that the speaker part should be better than many good stereo amps from companies like Denon, Yamaha, etc.
 
The question is, how good do your speakers have to be to actually notice the difference? I run Focals 714 from a Denon 710AE, and I was able to try different amps before I made my decision. The key thing here is that even Tube Amps didnt sound clearly different (you had to look for the differences to notice them), and In no way they sounded better, just slightly different.
Obviously subjective opinion.
 
I mainly see the Ragnarok as a End-Game All-in-One, and if that is the case, the price aint as high as I originaly percived it, but I cant help to wonder If it something I would even notice on my modest gear.

Click to expand...

 
I think you're looking at it from an angle that might not be most suitable to tackle the situation.
 
Is the speaker part as good as the headphone part? I don't think anyone can answer that as there is no such thing as a speaker/headphone pair that are said to be equivalent. If you use a mediocre pair of headphones and a really awesome pair of speakers, I assume the speakers will sound better and vice versa. There's no base line from which to judge the two relative to each other. The price scale for headphones end at the Abyss, but for speakers, well... All we can reasonably expect is that they will be similar in topology and thus in sound signature. Each will probably have a better time with one range of impedance and not be so happy with another, and each will have its limits.
 
I think the question you're really asking is how will it compete against headphone amps of similar costs and how will it compete against speaker amps of similar costs. Obviously I cannot comment on this as I haven't heard it through anything, but Mike and Jason have been at this a long, long time and while a lot of folks have gone tired of waiting, I think they're mature enough to wait and perfect their products before selling them and that to me is a sign to expect good things. For some reason, I seem to recall Jason saying that he doesn't listen to other people's products which sort of means they do the best they think they can possibly do for an amount of cost available. They also run a very lean operation, so I expect the performance vs. cost ratio to be very high, as is usual for Schiit products. They don't have like a PR campaign to run or any celebrity to hire and they sure as Schiit don't "position" their products price-wise.
 
As for how good the speaker have to be, that again, is an unanswerable question as there is really no gauging system. From your description of your speakers, they seem to be sufficiently transparent to let you hear differences in amplifiers and from there I don't think there's any reason you'd fail to hear what the Rag is doing. Besides, I'd keep changes to just one component at a time.
 
Also, I do not think tube amps should sound and different to ss amps or vice versa if they're properly done. Remember that tubes were not invented just for audio but for a whole bunch of other applications like guiding missiles. I've never heard of a missile flight path being described as tubey. More often than not, their implementations require that they are different from one another but the ultimate goal is the same so results should be the same. The real problem lies in people have this concept that tubes = better, so we have manufacturers trying to incorporate tubes in their designs sometimes for no better reason than to have something glowing. If they don't take sufficient care doing it, they just end up making a poor amp. The sad fact is that people too readily chalk that up to the 'tube sound' thing. So I think if what you hear is just 'different' you probably heard right. (not that there's any 'wrong', but you shouldn't have been expecting more just because it's got tubes.)
 
So, I think you'll find that the Rag will be a contender as both a headphone amp and a speaker amp. And your speakers will confirm that. Only you can decide if it's better than what you've got. 

jchandler3 said:

I'm wondering how it'll compare to my 125wpc Emotiva. I imagine it'll be just as clean and seriously, I'm not using the extra wattage with bookshelf speakers 3 feet away from me

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Dunno. Look at the power rating on the mjolnir. Who needs all that power? Probably those who don't need their hearing. But it sure does work good. For me power ratings are like mpg ratings. It depends what you use with it. The amp won't insist on pumping watts through your system unless you ask it to via the volume knob. I mean unless you have some obscure, painfully low sensitivity speakers and you want to fill a ballroom with them, power rating isn't going to be all that important. Even single digit power ratings can fill reasonably sized rooms quite fine. And unless you have a really hiss-prone, uber sensitive system, I doubt you need worry about too much power.

x838nwy said:

   
Dunno. Look at the power rating on the mjolnir. Who needs all that power? Probably those who don't need their hearing. But it sure does work good. For me power ratings are like mpg ratings. It depends what you use with it. The amp won't insist on pumping watts through your system unless you ask it to via the volume knob. I mean unless you have some obscure, painfully low sensitivity speakers and you want to fill a ballroom with them, power rating isn't going to be all that important. Even single digit power ratings can fill reasonably sized rooms quite fine. And unless you have a really hiss-prone, uber sensitive system, I doubt you need worry about too much power.

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Yeah, my point was that I'm anticipating the Rag to be more than adequate for most speaker setups. I think it's fairly safe to say that people aren't going to look to the Rag to power really demanding speakers. If they've stepped into the world of big-time, loudspeaker hifi then they know what's involved.
 
I have really efficient, small, bookshelf speakers that sit right in front of me. 100wpc? Should be plenty—it's not just about wattage. For me, it more a matter of high-current supply, quality power, clean power, etc.
 
I'm eagerly awaiting Jude's feedback. I'm anticipating the Rag being my ultimate, multi-purpose, home office amp, which I've been looking for for a long time. Fingers crossed 

jchandler3 said:

   
Yeah, my point was that I'm anticipating the Rag to be more than adequate for most speaker setups. I think it's fairly safe to say that people aren't going to look to the Rag to power really demanding speakers. If they've stepped into the world of big-time, loudspeaker hifi then they know what's involved.
 
I have really efficient, small, bookshelf speakers that sit right in front of me. 100wpc? Should be plenty—it's not just about wattage. For me, it more a matter of high-current supply, quality power, clean power, etc.
 
I'm eagerly awaiting Jude's feedback. I'm anticipating the Rag being my ultimate, multi-purpose, home office amp, which I've been looking for for a long time. Fingers crossed 

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I'd probably keep a lid on those expectations until the amp actually starts shipping : not knocking Jude, but I've yet to see him give a seriously critical review of any product - happy to hear otherwise. John Atkinson's demolition of the Croft Phono Integrated is one of relatively few recent examples of anyone being willing to really go after a product that the rest of the audiophile universe (including his own reviewers) seems to adore. 
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/croft-acoustics-phono-integrated-integrated-amplifier-measurements
 
I dont want to see anything from Schiit torn apart like that, but it's refreshing nonetheless. 

estreeter said:

 

jchandler3 said:

   
Yeah, my point was that I'm anticipating the Rag to be more than adequate for most speaker setups. I think it's fairly safe to say that people aren't going to look to the Rag to power really demanding speakers. If they've stepped into the world of big-time, loudspeaker hifi then they know what's involved.
 
I have really efficient, small, bookshelf speakers that sit right in front of me. 100wpc? Should be plenty—it's not just about wattage. For me, it more a matter of high-current supply, quality power, clean power, etc.
 
I'm eagerly awaiting Jude's feedback. I'm anticipating the Rag being my ultimate, multi-purpose, home office amp, which I've been looking for for a long time. Fingers crossed 

Click to expand...

 
I'd probably keep a lid on those expectations until the amp actually starts shipping : not knocking Jude, but I've yet to see him give a seriously critical review of any product - happy to hear otherwise. John Atkinson's demolition of the Croft Phono Integrated is one of relatively few recent examples of anyone being willing to really go after a product that the rest of the audiophile universe (including his own reviewers) seems to adore. 
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/croft-acoustics-phono-integrated-integrated-amplifier-measurements
 
I dont want to see anything from Schiit torn apart like that, but it's refreshing nonetheless. 

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Rightly said, even if Jude is out with his review we can expect only positives from him, with all his obligations it would be difficult for him to be an Critic, IMO. 

musicinmymind said:

   
Rightly said, even if Jude is out with his review we can expect only positives from him, with all his obligations it would be difficult for him to be an Critic, IMO. 

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hey, watch it...them words will get you banned!
 
i want to see/read jude's review simply because it will be the first of anything substantial that we'll get for the rag. just to get some impressions will be nice. now, how much weight should we place on that review? well...that's another story for another thread...

estreeter said:

   
I'd probably keep a lid on those expectations until the amp actually starts shipping : not knocking Jude, but I've yet to see him give a seriously critical review of any product - happy to hear otherwise. John Atkinson's demolition of the Croft Phono Integrated is one of relatively few recent examples of anyone being willing to really go after a product that the rest of the audiophile universe (including his own reviewers) seems to adore. 
 
http://www.stereophile.com/content/croft-acoustics-phono-integrated-integrated-amplifier-measurements
 
I dont want to see anything from Schiit torn apart like that, but it's refreshing nonetheless. 

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I know what you mean - he kind of says that he likes most things. Which isn't really critical. That being said I still cant wait for the review