Neck Deep in Schiit: Gungir Balanced DAC and Mjolnir Balanced Amp Announced!

[Somnambulist]

Urgh, the talk of the statement DAC is annoying! Can't I just buy a DAC and be done with it lol?! There's always something to turn your head.

 

[kevin gilmore]

Its about time someone came out with a solid state circlotron design.
 

 

[Edoardo]

Quote:

We don't comment on other designs, but here are some other companies using Circlotron-style output stages:
 
Atma-Sphere http://www.atma-sphere.com/
Thorens (TEM3200) http://www.thorens.com/electronics/amplifiers/tem-3200.html (supposedly "the world's best power amplifier" according to Stereoplay Magazine)
 
The Sumo Nine and Nine Plus were also circlotrons (but WAY different than Mjolnir, since they used op-amp voltage gain and had a patented biasing/current limiting scheme.)
 
Most of my work at Sumo was in balanced amps. I've done all the flavors: two separate gain stages with one run inverted, common balanced front end and separate output stages for positive and negative phases, true cross-shunt push-pull circlotrons. I've always loved the elegance of the circlotron designs, which trade off output stage complexity for power supply complexity. Consider that we need four separate non-ground-referenced power supplies just for the output stage, as well as separate high-voltage supplies for the JFET front end--most of Mjolnir's work is in the power supply, and the (as far as we know) unique DC servo arrangement that keeps the output stage in balance. It's been a heckuva development cycle to get it right, and it's (really) not like anything else out there.
 
 

Thank you very much for the info. I was aware only of a few japanese tube amps (i.e. Luxman).
 

 

[Edoardo]

Quote:

Now I know where your monolithic face'plate' inspiration came from. Btw, look at how GOOD that black looks, Jason.

Sure it'd help with the heat thing, but... I'd never part from silver/aluminum

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Figured I'd crosspost from the DAC anticipation thread:
 
 
To answer a couple of questions, one of which came up privately, I decided to pop in.
 
1. Statement products cost more than originally anticipated? Yep. They're also very different products than we anticipated. We originally planned to have a single-ended-only, non-hardware-balanced version of the top DAC. We decided that hardware balanced was the way to go (it will still have summed single-ended output.) We also originally planned to have the top amp be a conventional volume-pot and input-switch design, now it's relay-switched stepped attenuation and relay-switched inputs. Fair warning: if you don't like clicking, steer well clear of the statement amp. It'll have 24 relays inside. 
 
2. Black anodize? Nope. Not gonna happen. We need to keep things simple, so silver it is. And clear anodize vs black anodize as far as heat goes is not that much different. Unplated aluminum is a disaster, but clear anodize's emissivity is 0.83, vs black's 0.86. Plus, if I ever see another black and gold Sumo faceplate, I'm going to have to get out my VHS videotape of Smokey and the Bandit. I keep flashing back to the chest-hair and gold-chain era. 
 
3. What about this Buy Better Gear light? Does it mean I'm in trouble with a computer source? Bottom line, probably not. The only sources we can't consistently get to work with VCXOs are satellite receivers. Most of our computers work just fine, even cheap stuff. So you're probably fine. But it'll be interesting to see, won't it?
 

 

[dyl1dyl]

Quote:

Figured I'd crosspost from the DAC anticipation thread:
 
 
To answer a couple of questions, one of which came up privately, I decided to pop in.
 
1. Statement products cost more than originally anticipated? Yep. They're also very different products than we anticipated. We originally planned to have a single-ended-only, non-hardware-balanced version of the top DAC. We decided that hardware balanced was the way to go (it will still have summed single-ended output.) We also originally planned to have the top amp be a conventional volume-pot and input-switch design, now it's relay-switched stepped attenuation and relay-switched inputs. Fair warning: if you don't like clicking, steer well clear of the statement amp. It'll have 24 relays inside. 
 
2. Black anodize? Nope. Not gonna happen. We need to keep things simple, so silver it is. And clear anodize vs black anodize as far as heat goes is not that much different. Unplated aluminum is a disaster, but clear anodize's emissivity is 0.83, vs black's 0.86. Plus, if I ever see another black and gold Sumo faceplate, I'm going to have to get out my VHS videotape of Smokey and the Bandit. I keep flashing back to the chest-hair and gold-chain era. 
 
3. What about this Buy Better Gear light? Does it mean I'm in trouble with a computer source? Bottom line, probably not. The only sources we can't consistently get to work with VCXOs are satellite receivers. Most of our computers work just fine, even cheap stuff. So you're probably fine. But it'll be interesting to see, won't it?
 

Hey, the new midrange priced, endgame performance stuff looks great. However, if I do decide to hold out for the Statement stuff, do you guys have any idea of a rough shipping target, say October?
 

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

Hey, the new midrange priced, endgame performance stuff looks great. However, if I do decide to hold out for the Statement stuff, do you guys have any idea of a rough shipping target, say October?

Didn't he just say "end of year" a few pages back?
 

 

[dyl1dyl]

Quote:

Quote:

Didn't he just say "end of year" a few pages back?
 

Yup, haha, was hoping "end of the year" meant the start of q4. We'll see I guess. probably depends how many people decide to pick up the wonderful looking Gungnir and Mjolnir. 
 

 

[Roscoeiii]

A crosspost from the other Schiit DAC thread, maybe more appropriate (or likely to be seen by Jason. Hi Jason!):
 
For the DAC outputs, will both balanced and RCA be able to be used simultaneously? I would love to be able to run XLR to my bedroom headphone rig and RCA to my stereo. That's one of the features I miss from my Weiss DAC2

 

[Maxvla]

Figured I'd crosspost from the DAC anticipation thread:


2. Black anodize? Nope. Not gonna happen. We need to keep things simple, so silver it is. And clear anodize vs black anodize as far as heat goes is not that much different. Unplated aluminum is a disaster, but clear anodize's emissivity is 0.83, vs black's 0.86. Plus, if I ever see another black and gold Sumo faceplate, I'm going to have to get out my VHS videotape of Smokey and the Bandit. I keep flashing back to the chest-hair and gold-chain era.

LOL! Smokey and the Bandit was one of my favorite movies as a kid

 

[kn19h7]

hmm, just wonder is there any chance for a new SS amp with single-ended output?

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Quote:

A crosspost from the other Schiit DAC thread, maybe more appropriate (or likely to be seen by Jason. Hi Jason!):
 
For the DAC outputs, will both balanced and RCA be able to be used simultaneously? I would love to be able to run XLR to my bedroom headphone rig and RCA to my stereo. That's one of the features I miss from my Weiss DAC2

Yep, absolutely. 
 

 

[Maxvla]

hmm, just wonder is there any chance for a new SS amp with single-ended output?

Looks like the statement will have unbalanced output and can be built as SS.

 

[kn19h7]

Quote:

Looks like the statement will have unbalanced output and can be built as SS.

 
It thats true, I would definitely like to see the SS version of the statement!

 

[Maxvla]

It was mentioned in the amp anticipation thread that it would be capable of being built as SS or hybrid, so you will have that option.