[marcoarment]

The rest of the box was immaculate. I'm guessing it got stabbed by a forklift's fork — it's roughly the right size.
 
Anyway, back to the actual Ragnarok. So far, I'm really enjoying it. Initial impression is that it seems a bit more crisp, with faster transients, than the Mjolnir. I'm not enough of an expert to explain that further or guess why.
 
The relay-stepped volume control is weird, but very well done. The knob moves without "notches", like any other analog volume knob, but anyone in the room hears a bunch of clicks as you turn it, about the volume of an old "clicky" mechanical PC keyboard. Here's a video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/s3tpj2od3kvvyqo/IMG_6973.MOV?dl=0
 
The clicks aren't audible in the headphones if you're at moderate volume or louder, but any normal people in the room will probably make fun of your crazy huge clicky amp.
 
The volume intervals are so close that you can forget that it's switching between discrete steps. And you rarely hear silent gaps as they switch unless you quickly jump pretty far. It's extremely well done — far better than the coarse, chunky stepped attenuators I've seen on other high-end amps like the EF-6.

 

[forkliftHIFI]

  The rest of the box was immaculate. I'm guessing it got stabbed by a forklift's fork — it's roughly the right size.
 

 
Eh... sorry about that 

 

[Zojokkeli]

  The rest of the box was immaculate. I'm guessing it got stabbed by a forklift's fork — it's roughly the right size.
 
Anyway, back to the actual Ragnarok. So far, I'm really enjoying it. Initial impression is that it seems a bit more crisp, with faster transients, than the Mjolnir. I'm not enough of an expert to explain that further or guess why.

 
Let us know how it fares with TH-900!

 

[reddog]

Glad that gash, did not hurt that beautiful, large pile of Schiit called the Ragnarok. I sometimes feel the delivery companies hire incompetent buffoons like the guy in pet detective movie.
Hope the Ragnarok makes your cans sing to new heights of beauty

 

[David Aldrich]

Jason,
 
I'm beginning to wonder about your customers.
 

 

[marcoarment]

 
Let us know how it fares with TH-900!

With the TH900 (through the 1/4" single-ended output), I hear a quiet but noticeable hum, unrelated to volume level, gain setting, or input, and much more prominently in the left channel. It's also present, but slightly quieter, when plugging in other 1/4" unbalanced headphones.
 
I can't hear it at all with the balanced HE-6, but I don't know if that's because noise is coming from the summer or that it's not loud enough to be noticed on them. I don't have any other balanced headphones to test.
 
If it's just always this way, I definitely can't recommend it for single-ended use, and may even return it (since I need both). Given how many others have said it works great with high-sensitivity IEMs, etc., I imagine this is not normal. I'm going to try with a power conditioner and see if it's any different.

 

[45longcolt]

   Given how many others have said it works great with high-sensitivity IEMs, etc., I imagine this is not normal. I'm going to try with a power conditioner and see if it's any different.

 
Don't forget the dimmer effect - which apparently plagues Ragnarok as well as Mjolnir. Do you have any dimmers in use when you hear the hum?

 

[marcoarment]

 
Don't forget the dimmer effect - which apparently plagues Ragnarok as well as Mjolnir. Do you have any dimmers in use when you hear the hum?

Nope. Dimmers are against my religion.
 
(not really, I just really enjoy light)

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Weird. They're certainly not humming when they ship. It's most likely dirty power or a ground loop.
 
To check for ground loops (or input cables picking up buzz), unplug all inputs on the Ragnarok and see if it goes away. If it does, it's a ground loop. 
 
Dirty power? Plug it into a circuit separate from any computers/switchmode chargers/etc to start. Continue with a good AC line filter, then a Tripplite isolation transformer (best.)

 

[Byrnie]

With the TH900 (through the 1/4" single-ended output), I hear a quiet but noticeable hum, unrelated to volume level, gain setting, or input, and much more prominently in the left channel. It's also present, but slightly quieter, when plugging in other 1/4" unbalanced headphones.

I can't hear it at all with the balanced HE-6, but I don't know if that's because noise is coming from the summer or that it's not loud enough to be noticed on them. I don't have any other balanced headphones to test.

If it's just always this way, I definitely can't recommend it for single-ended use, and may even return it (since I need both). Given how many others have said it works great with high-sensitivity IEMs, etc., I imagine this is not normal. I'm going to try with a power conditioner and see if it's any different.

You might want to consider putting these impressions in one of the Rag threads so you can get more replies from Rag owners. Glad you're enjoying it!

This is the isobar/ac filter that I got by Tripp Lite
http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-ISOBAR8ULTRA-Isobar-Protector/dp/B0000511U7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415751407&sr=8-1&keywords=isobar+tripp+lite

 

[David Aldrich]

   
Don't forget the dimmer effect - which apparently plagues Ragnarok as well as Mjolnir. Do you have any dimmers in use when you hear the hum?

Nothing is safe from the person waveforms those switching dimmers put out.

 

[valiant66]

1.
 
Quote:

  Got my Ragnarok today! And this is why Schiit double-boxed it:
 
  
 
Whatever made this huge gash (thanks, FedEx!) came within an inch of the front panel, but didn't seem to hit it. The Ragnarok's perfect.

 
2.
 
Quote:

 
With the TH900 (through the 1/4" single-ended output), I hear a quiet but noticeable hum, unrelated to volume level, gain setting, or input, and much more prominently in the left channel. It's also present, but slightly quieter, when plugging in other 1/4" unbalanced headphones.
 
I can't hear it at all with the balanced HE-6, but I don't know if that's because noise is coming from the summer or that it's not loud enough to be noticed on them. I don't have any other balanced headphones to test.
 
If it's just always this way, I definitely can't recommend it for single-ended use, and may even return it (since I need both). Given how many others have said it works great with high-sensitivity IEMs, etc., I imagine this is not normal. I'm going to try with a power conditioner and see if it's any different.

 
I have a suspicion that event 1 led to result 2. The blunt impact trauma dealt to your Ragnarok by FedEx probably knocked something loose inside - even though there was no visible damage to the exterior. Differential hum is not expected behaviour, and since it's worse in one channel than the other, it's probably not due to funky mains.
 
I don't know if this is something you take up with FedEx or Schiit, but you probably need to replace the amp.

 

[marcoarment]

  Weird. They're certainly not humming when they ship. It's most likely dirty power or a ground loop.
 
To check for ground loops (or input cables picking up buzz), unplug all inputs on the Ragnarok and see if it goes away. If it does, it's a ground loop. 
 
Dirty power? Plug it into a circuit separate from any computers/switchmode chargers/etc to start. Continue with a good AC line filter, then a Tripplite isolation transformer (best.)

 
Thanks for responding. It's not a ground loop — the hum continues, unchanged, with no inputs connected. Dirty power is unlikely — just tried it on a far-away circuit with nothing else on it, same hum. I've never had noticeable dirty-power issues with any other equipment, so that's probably not it. I ordered a Furman PST-8D conditioner earlier today that's too late to cancel. If the hum continues with that, safe to assume it's a fault, or is that not good enough?
 
For the curious — lots of speculation already! — I recorded the noise with a s(c)hi(i)tty little USB sound card connected to the SE output. Starts with output volume at 0, and all of the little spikes correspond to the relay clicks when I turn the volume up to about 60%, wait for a few seconds, then back down to zero:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5xin0xhenxkbbc/Ragnarok-SE-noise-marcoarment-raw.wav?dl=0 — raw recording
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3nntlhntsc3aido/Ragnarok-SE-noise-marcoarment-normalized.wav?dl=0 — normalized up to be more audible

 

[Clemmaster]

  Weird. They're certainly not humming when they ship. It's most likely dirty power or a ground loop.
 
To check for ground loops (or input cables picking up buzz), unplug all inputs on the Ragnarok and see if it goes away. If it does, it's a ground loop. 
 
Dirty power? Plug it into a circuit separate from any computers/switchmode chargers/etc to start. Continue with a good AC line filter, then a Tripplite isolation transformer (best.)

Won't an isolation transformer hum, too?

 

[Jason Stoddard]

   
Thanks for responding. It's not a ground loop — the hum continues, unchanged, with no inputs connected. Dirty power is unlikely — just tried it on a far-away circuit with nothing else on it, same hum. I've never had noticeable dirty-power issues with any other equipment, so that's probably not it. I ordered a Furman PST-8D conditioner earlier today that's too late to cancel. If the hum continues with that, safe to assume it's a fault, or is that not good enough?
 
For the curious — lots of speculation already! — I recorded the noise with a s(c)hi(i)tty little USB sound card connected to the SE output. Starts with output volume at 0, and all of the little spikes correspond to the relay clicks when I turn the volume up to about 60%, wait for a few seconds, then back down to zero:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5xin0xhenxkbbc/Ragnarok-SE-noise-marcoarment-raw.wav?dl=0 — raw recording
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3nntlhntsc3aido/Ragnarok-SE-noise-marcoarment-normalized.wav?dl=0 — normalized up to be more audible

That's not hum--that's high frequency interference, either coming in through the AC, or via a cellphone or wifi router nearby.