[SuperU]

  EDM with the Rag + Abyss / 3F / X was excellent :¬)

Looking like a winning combo. Thanks, Yoga.

 

[zerodeefex]

Seriously considering jumping on board, I have no doubt that it will pair well with my LCD3F, anyone else have HD800 experience with the amp.

I need more power and was really impressed with the Schiit gear at the last meet I was at.

Rug liner mod it without creatology and its a perfect match with the Rag.

 

[kapanak]

  Seriously considering jumping on board, I have no doubt that it will pair well with my LCD3F, anyone else have HD800 experience with the amp.
 
I need more power and was really impressed with the Schiit gear at the last meet I was at.

Let's just say it is quite literally the best sounding solid state amp with the HD800 out there, for me.

 

[Olias of Sunhillow]

  Seriously considering jumping on board, I have no doubt that it will pair well with my LCD3F, anyone else have HD800 experience with the amp.
 
I need more power and was really impressed with the Schiit gear at the last meet I was at.

 
Ragnarok + unmodded HD800 = sounds good to me. My LCD-X get more head time, but that's more a result of what I'm listening to these days (more rock, less classical) than anything else.

 

[DSNORD]

SuperU,
 
Regarding the use of the Rag and LCD-X with hard driving rock, I have recently purchased the entire remastered Pink Floyd collection. It is absolutely spectacular with this combo. I can honestly say I have never truly "heard" The Floyd before in spite of being a diehard fan for 40 years. I've never seen them live but have all of their albums and DVD/Blurays.
 
The closest I've come is 4 rows back 3 times seeing Brit Floyd who are awesome in their own right. Any Floyd fan owes it to himself/herself to see them if they at all have a chance. Brit will be playing in Harrisburg, PA Tuesday April 14. I'm a bit bummed though- Row 5, 2 seats off center. I was 5 seconds late on Ticketmaster for anything closer!!!!
 
Check out the pic which says it all. Floyd's Seamus from their Meddle album is playing. Pure Music/iTunes>Gungnir>Rag>KEF LS50s. Dogs are howling in the background music. My Shep's hackles are up as he's howling back at the left speaker, my Schnauzer's an alert mess trying to figure out where the enemy is hiding!!!
 
DSN
 

 

[MattLanham]

Ordered the Ragnarok the week before Christmas, and received it yesterday. Was very keen to hear what it could do. Needless to say that after a day and a half, there will still be some settling happening, but here are some starting notes.
 
 
With speakers
This is the main reason it was purchased. If ~AUD$2500 was going to be spent on a stereo amp, it may as well have a great headphone amp as well. A little worried as I've never heard any Schiit gear before, but decided to go in blind anyway.
 
Wow. Trying not to swear here, but it is really impressive with some B&W CM1s and an SVS SB2000 sub. The sound is just excellent. I've always felt that Arcam amps paired nicely with B&Ws, but I'm starting to seriously rethink that. This is just damned impressive. Like most people, the first few hours after receiving a new toy is spent playing a lot of different tracks to get an idea of what it does best with. Normally there's no problem with swapping from one track to another after a minute of playing. It's actually really hard to do that here. Start listening to a track and an hour later the album's still playing... After several hours, I finally reached the letter 'B' in the artist area. Never had that before. As for finding a style of music it does well with... hmmm... I'll let you know when I find something it doesn't make sound brilliant.
 
There were some questions about it being worth adding a sub to it. Hell yes. The bass handling is crazy. Not just strength, but the fine frequency changes and texture. More than enough to turn anyone into a bass head.
 
 
With headphones
This feels a little less impressive. It is good, but it doesn't wow me as much as the speaker portion. Coming from a WA6se with upgraded tubes, it just doesn't team up as well with the headphones I have. The T90 (sorry typed T70 - not thinking typo) and D5000 both sound great, but the Woo just matches up a little better. I have no doubt that with different headphones, it could really start to shine though. Looking at some HE6s later in the year, but that will need to wait at the moment.
 
 
So far...
I'm really impressed with it, and incredibly happy with the purchase. If I had to complain about anything so far, It would be nice if the headphone/speaker switching system was implemented a little more clearly. Another set of LEDs perhaps. The nicest thing I can say, is that this has made me want to pre-order the Yggdrasil as soon as possible. Well done Schiit!

 

[Revogamer]

  Ordered the Ragnarok the week before Christmas, and received it yesterday. Was very keen to hear what it could do. Needless to say that after a day and a half, there will still be some settling happening, but here are some starting notes.
 
 
With speakers
This is the main reason it was purchased. If ~AUD$2500 was going to be spent on a stereo amp, it may as well have a great headphone amp as well. A little worried as I've never heard any Schiit gear before, but decided to go in blind anyway.
 
Wow. Trying not to swear here, but it is really impressive with some B&W CM1s and an SVS SB2000 sub. The sound is just excellent. I've always felt that Arcam amps paired nicely with B&Ws, but I'm starting to seriously rethink that. This is just damned impressive. Like most people, the first few hours after receiving a new toy is spent playing a lot of different tracks to get an idea of what it does best with. Normally there's no problem with swapping from one track to another after a minute of playing. It's actually really hard to do that here. Start listening to a track and an hour later the album's still playing... After several hours, I finally reached the letter 'B' in the artist area. Never had that before. As for finding a style of music it does well with... hmmm... I'll let you know when I find something it doesn't make sound brilliant.
 
There were some questions about it being worth adding a sub to it. Hell yes. The bass handling is crazy. Not just strength, but the fine frequency changes and texture. More than enough to turn anyone into a bass head.
 
 
With headphones
This feels a little less impressive. It is good, but it doesn't wow me as much as the speaker portion. Coming from a WA6se with upgraded tubes, it just doesn't team up as well with the headphones I have. The T70 and D5000 both sound great, but the Woo just matches up a little better. I have no doubt that with different headphones, it could really start to shine though. Looking at some HE6s later in the year, but that will need to wait at the moment.
 
 
So far...
I'm really impressed with it, and incredibly happy with the purchase. If I had to complain about anything so far, It would be nice if the headphone/speaker switching system was implemented a little more clearly. Another set of LEDs perhaps. The nicest thing I can say, is that this has made me want to pre-order the Yggdrasil as soon as possible. Well done Schiit!

Glad to see you are enjoying it

It is indeed a great amp, need a better headphone to really do it justice - methinks HE-6 will be a great match; or an audeze..

 

[NZtechfreak]

  Glad to see you are enjoying it

It is indeed a great amp, need a better headphone to really do it justice - methinks HE-6 will be a great match; or an audeze..

 
Oh man, A2A better have one in stock when I am there in nine days time (the 20th)!
 
Will be bringing my HE-6 across the ditch with me to audition it...

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Matt, were you using it balanced with your headphones?

 

[HeyWaj10]

If I had to venture a guess, probably not balanced...seeing as how he was listening to Beyer t70's and Denon D5K's.....both of which are SE headphones. Therefore, he may not have yet tapped into the Rag's true potential

 

[MattLanham]

Quote: SoupRKnowva

 Matt, were you using it balanced with your headphones?

 
Quote: HeyWaj10

 If I had to venture a guess, probably not balanced...seeing as how he was listening to Beyer t70's and Denon D5K's.....both of which are SE headphones. Therefore, he may not have yet tapped into the Rag's true potential

 
 
Correct. Just SE. I'm not huge on modding equipment. I like something because of the way it was made, not how I messed around with it (and knowing me, broke it). And sorry for the late night typo, they're actually T90s.
 
From the very limited time that's been spent with headphones on this (the speakers have been demanding all my attention), it is really good, and in many ways very similar to the Woo. It's just that the Woo compliments them a little I feel. Maybe its just the SS vs Tube debate.
 
I know the D5000s are being overkilled by either amp. The Woo gives them a nice warm and very slightly thicker sound, while the Schiit cleans them up a little bit too much, and loses the thickness that I've grown to enjoy. It definitely makes them sound more technically competent, but the fun has left. The bass from them is rather interesting. A little less strong, but far tighter and much better frequency differentiation (just like on the sub).
 
The T90s I do feel need a decent amp, but they are really picky with what works well with them. It seems there is a lot of complaints about the treble spike from them, and I think the amp goes a long way to helping with that. When using some 6GW7 tubes on the Woo, they had the annoying treble spike. 6DE7 tubes sound much better and the spike is barely noticeable. The Schiit likes to show whatever issues any equipment may have, so the treble is there and annoying. I haven't had the time to look beyond the treble yet to hear how it compliments the good parts of the T90s. I'll give that a try at some stage and see if it's possible to get beyond the spike.
 
Upgraded headphones are a future certainty, but the amp was more needed to help the speaker equipment sound better than it was. Mission accomplished there. It's now just a case of deciding which high-end headphone route to go. I was one of the few crazy people that always liked the AKG K701s, so the K812s are a maybe except for the whole SE-not-using-the-full-potential-of-the-amp situation. Never been a huge Sennheiser fan, so the HD800s aren't really grabbing me. The D5000s really surprised me so the TH900s keep on calling to me, but I know they will be overkilled by either amp. The LCDs sound interesting, but their styling is not for me, except for the LCDXCs. The HE-6 look nice and sound like they could be a nice alternative to the Audeze range. Plus they seem to be a headphone that was dismissed due to amp pairings, but the Ragnarok seems to love them. Decisions, decisions.

 

[MattLanham]

   
Oh man, A2A better have one in stock when I am there in nine days time (the 20th)!
 
Will be bringing my HE-6 across the ditch with me to audition it...

 
That's who I ordered mine through, so I would call to check before you get any hopes up. I wish you all the best and hope they do have one, as it would be great to hear more impressions of the pairing!

 

[kazsud]

You can get a adapter made at moon audio.

 

[johnjen]

The few times I have heard The Rok on SE headphones the 'magic' was missing.
This has been noted by others as well, and really The Rok should be used as a balanced amp, because that is what it is.
This is why speakers sound great because they too are being driven by the balanced output.
 
The SE headphone output is a 'convienience' feature and is not its primary output.  
Indeed the SE headphone output is quite limited in SQ and power, due to the 'summing' circuit used.
 
So if you want to hear what The Rok can fully deliver, use balanced headphones.
This is where it is running in it's 'sweet spot' and is it's primary intended purpose.
 
JJ

 

[reddog]

The few times I have heard The Rok on SE headphones the 'magic' was missing.
This has been noted by others as well, and really The Rok should be used as a balanced amp, because that is what it is.
This is why speakers sound great because they too are being driven by the balanced output.

The SE headphone output is a 'convienience' feature and is not its primary output.  
Indeed the SE headphone output is quite limited in SQ and power, due to the 'summing' circuit used.

So if you want to hear what The Rok can fully deliver, use balanced headphones.
This is where it is running in it's 'sweet spot' and is it's primary intended purpose.

JJ

+1 Well said. The rag is at its best in balanced mode.