[mulveling]

well I guess a certain market segment will have to skip the yggy. too bad

Indeed -- they'll miss out on the customers that really want to shove a square peg through a round hole (you really need an extra gain stage for that setup). Good for Schiit to keep focused on its customers with normal/typical requirements for a hi-fi DAC.

 

[kstuart]

standard for pro audio or higher end dacs

Higher end is to run balanced.   SE is for simpler and cheaper.

 

[jcx]

  4V line level is +4dBu and is common in SE pro audio or car audio where max gain is often desired over very long cable runs and to control the noise floor in a very noisy environment.  Consumer audio is -10dBu which is 1V p-p or 0dBV. Cable runs are short and noise is generally not an issue.  Connecting a +4dBu output into a standard consumer preamp can overload the input of the preamp.  +4dBu output into a -10dBV input the signal is coming in 11.79dB hotter than the gear was designed for

"dB" is always fun in audio - many conventions, assumptions, possible confusions
 
dBu in Audio is dB re 1 mW for a 600 Ohm system, Unterminated, quite a mess of arbitrary assumptions but it really is "the standard" and 0 dBu ~ 0.775 Vrms
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level
 
+14 dBu is ~ 4 Vrms, pro studio equipment may use that, though not as a clipping level, with the expectation that +22-4 dBu can be handled by pro analog line level equipment
 
defacto desktop consumer digital audio DAC analog line out is none of the above @ 2 Vrms at the output, in the digital domain 0 dFS (full scale, largest digital number)
 
dBV is a similar mongrel unit as dBFS - dB is strictly defined as a Power ratio and you have to adjust for V^2 being proportional to power in a constant impedance system
 
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-db-volt.htm shows the range of different interpretations/conventions

 

[donunus]

Anyway I think he is getting an yggy regardless of it being 2volts. It was just a question that needed an answer. Nothing to get worked up about.

 

[Sunya]

What "higher end" DACs have 4v SE outputs (that aren't also digital pre-amps with built-in volume controls)?

 
Primare DAC30 is 4.3V on both SE and balanced outputs, it has separate circuits for each output.

 

[Ableza]

If that's what you want, buy it.  Nothing's stopping you.

 

[mdavid]

I've had the Ragnarok for 4 days, does anyone know how much burn-in is required for this amp to start sounding like it's supposed to? Right now it's not much different from my $120 DIY amp from a Chinese eBay seller.

 

[theveterans]

That's called law of diminishing returns. Compare both amps with HE6 headphones then you'll hear a huge difference.

 

[Torq]

I've had the Ragnarok for 4 days, does anyone know how much burn-in is required for this amp to start sounding like it's supposed to? Right now it's not much different from my $120 DIY amp from a Chinese eBay seller.

How's it "supposed" to sound?

And what headphones are you using?

 

[mdavid]

I have several headphones but I bought the Ragnarok for the HE-6. First, I'm pretty disapointed that I need to use medium gain to get good volume which has led to heavy distortion when driven loud, but if I keep the pot at "good enough" everything is fine. Also it seems to be a problem mainly with over-loud pop music. My DIY amp from China is incapable of driving the HE-6. Using the HE-6 my system is balanced front to end, but I've also listened to the Ragnarok with my TH900, which can be compared with my DIY amp. The Ragnarok clearly has more headroom so high extension is pronounced. Besides that, they sound more-or-less identical. There was more of an upgrade when I was trying the Valhala 2.

I have a hard time believing that a $1700 TotL 36lbs amp can't offer a pronounced improvement over a tiny DIY amp from eBay. So I was hoping someone with the Ragnarok can inform me of the burn in required...

 

[Fifinder]

I was hoping someone with the Ragnarok can inform me of the burn in required...

 
I noticed very little if any effect burn-in effect. The amp sounded very good out of the box. It may have gradually gained some sonic heft and extra smoothness over the month that I've owned it, but nothing I can truly put my finger on, and nothing dramatic. It's possibly all in my head.
 
I do notice the Ragnarok sounds better once it's been on for 30-90 minutes, but that isn't a night-and-night difference either, to my ears.

 

[goldendarko]

Yeah Rag didn't require any burn-in from what I remember, though it does sound better after cooking for a bit. The Yggy took a couple days to sound as awesome as it does now though. Like 3 maybe

 

[reddog]

I noticed very little if any effect burn-in effect. The amp sounded very good out of the box. It may have gradually gained some sonic heft and extra smoothness over the month that I've owned it, but nothing I can truly put my finger on, and nothing dramatic. It's possibly all in my head.

I do notice the Ragnarok sounds better once it's been on for 30-90 minutes, but that isn't a night-and-night difference either, to my ears.

Yes I agree, my Ragnarock sounded fantastic out of the box, but the sound quality, did not really change much over time / extended use. Only the Yggdrasil's sound quality has improved over continuous use ( especially after 175 hours). I feel my Ragnarock reaches its best performance after 20 to 30 minute warm up, but even then the change in sound is suddle.

 

[Torq]

I have several headphones but I bought the Ragnarok for the HE-6. First, I'm pretty disapointed that I need to use medium gain to get good volume which has led to heavy distortion when driven loud, but if I keep the pot at "good enough" everything is fine. Also it seems to be a problem mainly with over-loud pop music. My DIY amp from China is incapable of driving the HE-6. Using the HE-6 my system is balanced front to end, but I've also listened to the Ragnarok with my TH900, which can be compared with my DIY amp. The Ragnarok clearly has more headroom so high extension is pronounced. Besides that, they sound more-or-less identical. There was more of an upgrade when I was trying the Valhala 2.

I have a hard time believing that a $1700 TotL 36lbs amp can't offer a pronounced improvement over a tiny DIY amp from eBay. So I was hoping someone with the Ragnarok can inform me of the burn in required...

I doubt using medium gain is the cause of any distortion. In fact no matter how loud, or in what gain mode, I play my Ragnarok I'm not getting any audible distortion. I run on medium gain most of the time, no issues there with any of my headphones or a wide variety of music. It's one of the cleanest amps I've heard.

Sounds to me more like you either have a faulty unit, or the music you're playing is what's actually distorted (because I'm not sure what an "over-loud" pop music is ... surely it's only "over" anything if it was clipped during recording).

But "burn in" is not going to fix your problem ... my Ragnarok was excellent right out of the box and if there was any improvement over time, beyond just a few minutes of warm up, it was very minor and subtle.

 

[lukeap69]

Distortion? Maybe similar to this issue? http://www.head-fi.org/t/603219/schiit-gungnir-dac/3615#post_12564758