For a couple of years, I have been wanting a better speaker amp and been looking at Hegels H80(cheap in my country). Then last year I bought the Magni 2U/Modi 2U stack because it was well reviewed and most people said it was the best entry level head-fi gear you could get. And I was pleasantly surprised! It was my first pure headphone amp/dac and a step away from using the “convenience” jack-out on stereo receivers, or straight out of the computers minijack. Because of this purchase I started looking at some schiit and spotted the Ragnarok. An amp that could do both well, not just speakers or just headphones. Read some review online and that’s when I decided to buy it.
 
Gear
I don’t have much to compare with or against as I skipped straight from the beginning to the end of schiits amp product line. Modi 2U>Ragnarok/Modi 2U>HE-400i cans/LS50’s speakers. This is everything I have.
 
Sound
On both jack and balanced I noticed the sound improve more to my liking after it had heated up. It probably took around 10-30minutes, never timed it. As for speakers, I never tried them from a cold Ragnarok.
 

1. Jack: 
   After listening sessions lasting 2-3 hours I started getting a headache. This might be because I had to put the gain up to 20 and turn the volume to around 12 o’clock to run my headphones. Might have boosted some headache promoting inaudible frequency? If this is from the DAC, power grid or amp itself I have no clue and I lack the gear to find out. Despite this headache I still feel it improved the sound over my Magni 2U, I just cannot put my finger on it and I never bother doing a side by side comparison with the jack. I look at the jack is a convenience port and it was mighty convenient as I was waiting 1 week for my balanced cable to arrive.

 

1. Balanced: 
   Once I got my balanced cable the difference between the Ragnarok and the Magni 2U became apparent. Sounded as it had more control over the lows to upper mids(female vocals). Highs sound quite similar as the Magni 2U, that might be because I’m using a HE-400i and I find their highs are lacking. I suspect the cans are turning the highs into a sludge of some sort that no amp can improve upon. And yes, the headache problem disappeared with a balanced cable. 

 

1. Speaker: 
   Blows everything I have previously owned out of the water. Which is no feat at all as I have owned some AKAI system, Denon home cinemathing and a borrowed Yamaha RX-V1800(returning it promptly). I bought a pair of LS50’s together with the Ragnarok so I also had a major speaker improvement. Can only say it’s good, really good, best speaker system I have heard. I like the sound of the LS50’s better through the Ragnarok than when I auditioned the LS50’s at a hifi store, and suspect they were connected to something fancy. Didn’t have my own tunes at the store so that might have played a major role.
    

Design, UI and heat

1. I wanted one in silver, but the only one available for me was black. Still looked a lot better than expected with the grey/silver details on the black. That I have this “limited edition” black might become a problem if I buy an Yggdrasil someday.
2. The source button labelled with numbers only is awesome.
3. The minimalistic 3 buttons on front is to my liking as I don’t like a clutter of buttons to ruin somethings sleek design.
4. Once I got used to switching between headphones/speakers with the source button hold, I liked it. Was kinda weird at first.
5. When people said it got toasty I was a little worried, turns out it’s not that hot. I have had hotter laptops, measured at 88celcius. This amp probably only goes to 55ish celcius (going by feel here).

Would I recommend this amp?
For me its the best amp i know of for my needs, headphone and speakers at one place. So if you want a high-quality amp for speakers and headphones, then this is the amp you want. Feels like quality, looks like quality, sounds like quality and has all the features I need. Everyone with a typical "boys room" setup with speakers and headphones would love this.

Now I just need to save some money for a balanced DAC and probably upgrade my cans as well...