[Greed]

Quote:

It appears to be aiming to compete more with amps like the Cavalli Liquid Gold which has no speaker taps and retails for almost $6500. There are plenty of cheaper headphone amps, but none that are really aimed at the same target. Plus you should realize that it's not really a headphone amp. That's an integrated amp with multiple headphone outputs and gain switching. When compared to those, it's pretty cheap. Whether it actually hits its target or not remains to be seen, but if it does, it's an amazing value.

 
I'm looking at the Ragnarok for my next venture. Its biggest competitor is the GS-X MK II, IMO. Said to be the one of the top if not the top of the line as far as SS amps are concerned. Holding off until its release to find out if it will deliver. High hopes for the end of the world amp. 

 

[spritzer]

That's indeed the point, give the GS-X Mk2 some competition as the best SS amp there is.  Two very different approaches to the same problem.  We are finalizing some new DIY offerings to up the ante even further so fun should be had by all. 

 

[preproman]

There's others as well....
 
Dynahi 
Dynalo mkII
LAu
ECP DSHA-1
A18 (not out yet)
Violectric V282 (not out yet)
 
Maybe more I'm not aware of as well.

 

[Greed]

Quote:

There's others as well....
 
Dynahi 
Dynalo mkII
LAu
ECP DSHA-1
A18 (not out yet)
Violectric V282 (not out yet)
 
Maybe more I'm not aware of as well.

 
Indeed, the Rag will have some tough competition. 

 

[eugenius]

Just because you don't grasp how good this design is doesn't mean it should be sided with 6moons level garbage. 

I think the Schiit amp may have just one problem, it's too cheap to be taken seriously by the price snobs. 

I presume it's a good design, I never said it wasn't. I said it's expensive as hell for a company who built it's name around value and it has no perceived advantage, no "hook" to help sales. There are exactly three people who want a balanced headphone amplifier (I'm one of them) so that's not going to get them much sales.

I mean: "come get your $2500? integrated amp from us for just $1600, we previously made a good $750 headphone amplifier" is not a sales pitch that works. But "come buy a $1600 amp from us, we make a $16000 amp that people are actually buying" works.

 

[Greed]

Quote:

I presume it's a good design, I never said it wasn't. I said it's expensive as hell for a company who built it's name around value and it has no perceived advantage, no "hook" to help sales. There are exactly three people who want a balanced headphone amplifier (I'm one of them) so that's not going to get them much sales.

I mean: "come get your $2500? integrated amp from us for just $1600, we previously made a good $750 headphone amplifier" is not a sales pitch that works. But "come buy a $1600 amp from us, we make a $16000 amp that people are actually buying" works.

 
Value is judged by the individual person. To someone in the market for a top tier amplifier, the Ragnarok is an absolute steal (specs wise of coarse). The minds behind Schiit Audio are no strangers to the audio market. They have been in the business a long time. I'm sure they know exactly what needs to go into an amp that sounds high quality while keeping the cost relatively low. 

 

[eugenius]

People are going to compare it to a Cambridge 851a or an Anthem 225 as a speaker amp, and it's going to lose.
Maybe the head-fi crowd who sees it as an ultra headphone amp that also drives near field speakers are enough of a market, I don't know ....

Good luck with it but I bet I'm going to see one on e-bay for $700 a year or two from now.

 

[Greed]

Quote:

People are going to compare it to a Cambridge 851a or an Anthem 225 as a speaker amp, and it's going to lose.
Maybe the head-fi crowd who sees it as an ultra headphone amp that also drives near field speakers are enough of a market, I don't know ....

Good luck with it but I bet I'm going to see one on e-bay for $700 a year or two from now.

 
A realistic assumption, but that isn't extraordinary in this market, especially in the Summit-Fi tier. The Ragnarok won't be known as a speaker amp, IMO. 

 

[spritzer]

Quote:

There's others as well....
 
Dynahi 
Dynalo mkII
LAu
ECP DSHA-1
A18 (not out yet)
Violectric V282 (not out yet)
 
Maybe more I'm not aware of as well.

 
Leaving out the DIY projects (the new Dynahi PCB is open in the background now....

) that is just a list based on price.  I rank based on performance, not excessive markup for mediocrity. 
 
Quote:

I presume it's a good design, I never said it wasn't. I said it's expensive as hell for a company who built it's name around value and it has no perceived advantage, no "hook" to help sales. There are exactly three people who want a balanced headphone amplifier (I'm one of them) so that's not going to get them much sales.

I mean: "come get your $2500? integrated amp from us for just $1600, we previously made a good $750 headphone amplifier" is not a sales pitch that works. But "come buy a $1600 amp from us, we make a $16000 amp that people are actually buying" works.

 
There were a lot of compromises that were made to the Mjölnir to reach that price point.  No worse than you find in amps three times the price though and this is one is vastly superior in terms of engineering. 
 
You are also looking far too much into the fact that the amp can output so much power.  The B22 can do around 20W and the Dynahi 24W into a speaker load but they are always discussed as being headphone amps, as that's exactly what they are. 

 

[SoupRKnowva]

The Ragnarok looks awesome, and if I were in the market for a headphone amp, that would definitely be near the top of my list, since I loved the Mjolnir when i had it.

But holy heck am I looking forward to the Yggdrasil, we need to get some of these statements filled in though....I want more info about this new closed loop digital filter

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

People are going to compare it to a Cambridge 851a or an Anthem 225 as a speaker amp, and it's going to lose.
Maybe the head-fi crowd who sees it as an ultra headphone amp that also drives near field speakers are enough of a market, I don't know ....

Good luck with it but I bet I'm going to see one on e-bay for $700 a year or two from now.

Na, you don't grasp how good the design is behind Schiit's statement gear. And before declaring it a outright loser. listen to one first, er, just shut up.

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
Leaving out the DIY projects (the new Dynahi PCB is open in the background now....

) that is just a list based on price.  I rank based on performance, not excessive markup for mediocrity. 

 
The top two are DIYs.  O I may have left out the Krell Ksa5 Clone..
 
Heck - I hope to have the Dynahi be a "work in progress" as we speak..

 

[rawrster]

My weak link right now is the amp so this definitely would be interesting. I also measured my rack and it does fit but there's also space on the floor that I can put it in. The amp being really heavy doesn't excite me since my Mjolnir is the heaviest gear I have so it probably won't be going to meets if I buy it.
 
There really aren't too many amps that interest me. The GSX mk2 is definitely one and this amp as well. The GSX is the best SS headphone amp (imo of course) that I have heard so time will tell about the Ragnarok when it comes out. I'm hoping it's a winner.

 

[Chris J]

So people who don't like sumo and have never used a circlotron outside the toilet bowl have to stand 20 minutes on their head before grasping the greatness?
I predict a flurry of sales. Send it to Srajan ASAP.

I can see your point!:rolleyes:

 

[nigeljames]

I love it when people just jump to conclusions as to which amp is the best in it's price range when there is no such thing as the best in audio.
 
Yes maybe the GSX mk2 is one of the best in it's price range, maybe the Ragnarok will be as well. I also consider my Audio-gd Master-6 as one of the very best in it's class.
I also had the opportunity to listen, in my system, to the GSX Mk1 a few months ago and clearly felt the Master-6 was better and more 'musical' ( I do hate that term), fuller sounding with the LCD2.2's, T1's and HE6's, did not have the HD800's at that time.
 
I would love to hear how much the GSX mk2 improves on the Mk1 but I am more interested in the Ragnarok when it's finally releashed.
Would love to do a side by side comparison between the Ragnarok & M6.