[Jalbert300]

I have hum on Vidar just received few days ago. Working with customer support to find out what to do. My hum is from the amp with nothing connected to it. I also hear the hum from speakers, but much more so from the right speaker. This is with nothing connected to Vidar other than speakers. Interestingly I perceive the hum coming from right side of chassis which correlates with more hum from right speaker.

I tried using a ground lift adapter just to test, and that does lower hum from speakers but still there, and hum from amp itself is unchanged. Also tried many different outlets, along with turning off every other breaker in house, unplugging everything in house, and turning off all Wi-Fi/cable modem stuff.

I have a question for other Vidar/Saga or Freya owners. In addition to the hum, I get a decent speaker thump when turning Vidar off. Also get same speaker thump when switching inputs/modes/mute on my Saga. Does anybody else get the speaker thump in any of those scenarios?

I’m hoping issue can be resolved as overall I’m quite happy with sound quality for price paid. Little afraid if can’t be resolved I’ll be turned off from a Schiit gear all together, but I really want to be happy with it.

 

[Pietro Cozzi Tinin]

I have hum on Vidar just received few days ago. Working with customer support to find out what to do. My hum is from the amp with nothing connected to it. I also hear the hum from speakers, but much more so from the right speaker. This is with nothing connected to Vidar other than speakers. Interestingly I perceive the hum coming from right side of chassis which correlates with more hum from right speaker.

I tried using a ground lift adapter just to test, and that does lower hum from speakers but still there, and hum from amp itself is unchanged. Also tried many different outlets, along with turning off every other breaker in house, unplugging everything in house, and turning off all Wi-Fi/cable modem stuff.

I have a question for other Vidar/Saga or Freya owners. In addition to the hum, I get a decent speaker thump when turning Vidar off. Also get same speaker thump when switching inputs/modes/mute on my Saga. Does anybody else get the speaker thump in any of those scenarios?

I’m hoping issue can be resolved as overall I’m quite happy with sound quality for price paid. Little afraid if can’t be resolved I’ll be turned off from a Schiit gear all together, but I really want to be happy with it.

Take it to another house or to a friend for testing.
Connect the source and pre-amp too and let the whole work, maybe you hear the salvation of your problem there.
I had a Ragnarok that when quarantined hummed but in the line hummed a lot less.
The last hum was gone after placing an off set killer between ac outlet and Ragnarok.

 

[Jalbert300]

Unfortunately we are all quarantined these days, so taking to another house is not an option for foreseeable future.

Do you have a link to an “offset killer”, not sure what that is.

No thought on speaker thump when changing source, power off? Thats as bothersome if not more so than the hum to me.

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

No thought on speaker thump when changing source, power off? Thats as bothersome if not more so than the hum to me.

Both are symptoms of DC offset. It would be good to be able to test the amp on a different circuit.

JC

 

[Balthazar B]

Here is my question: would getting a Rasberry Pi type endpoint streamer provide noticeably better audio performance than streaming to my Apple TV? I'm thinking in terms of the Allo Digi One Signature or Volumio Primo, which are both around USD$400, or something similar. My living room DAC does not have USB, only coax or optical SPDIF.

It's likely John Darko would *personally* prefer the sound quality of the DigiOne Sig to an ATV (and he might also mention that YMMV since everyone's ears are different).

 

[33na3rd]

I get a decent speaker thump when turning Vidar off. Also get same speaker thump when switching inputs/modes/mute on my Saga. Does anybody else get the speaker thump in any of those scenarios?

My Vidar exhibits the speaker thump when powering off. That's normal, I have other amps that do the same thing, and others that don't.

My Saga also makes the small "pops" when switching inputs/modes/mute, but those sounds are different than the turn off "thump". The "pops" are louder on the left channel in my set up. My Vidar does measure more DC offset on the left channel compared to the right, but it is still a very low level.

 

[Jalbert300]

My Vidar exhibits the speaker thump when powering off. That's normal, I have other amps that do the same thing, and others that don't.

My Saga also makes the small "pops" when switching inputs/modes/mute, but those sounds are different than the turn off "thump". The "pops" are louder on the left channel in my set up. My Vidar does measure more DC offset on the left channel compared to the right, but it is still a very low level.

Thanks, yea I do agree the "pop" when switching inputs/modes/mute is different than the thump.

Thing I find interesting is that I only get the pops in speaker when using the Vidar to power passive speakers. I have a few diff pairs of powered speakers(no vidar in the chain) that do not exhibit the pop when switching inputs. I'm curious what the difference is that prevents the pops in powered speakers. Maybe because they are using class D amps I assume?

 

[US Blues]

I've always though Jeff Rowland had it right: if you really want clean power, forget feeding your gear 120VAC and have a 12VDC battery. Seems like that solves almost all the problems at less expense. I was always floored by the cost of the PS Audio conditioners and regenerators. There was another company whose name I can't remember; I think one of their products was the Pole Pig...

The "Pole Pig" is made by the Richard Gray Power Company. Gray's primary focus is isolation transformers to keep AC line noise from the grid out of one's Hi Fi, without losing the power required for creating proper dynamics.

 

[Licht]

So... regarding streaming.

This is not for my office setup, it's for the living room, which is an old fashioned two-channel setup without headphones. Now, I am in the Apple ecosystem. I picked up a Google Chromecast Audio for $10 just before they were discontinued, and tried it out. It did not play well with my Macs and iPads, but it gave me a taste of streaming.

I then realized I had an old unused Apple TV gen 2 knocking around, so I hooked that up to my DAC. Much easier to use with iTunes etc. Seamless, in fact.

Now I have over 150,000 songs, of which less than 1,800 are hi-res (as in higher res than Redbook) so I don't care about whether that 1.2% of my tracks stream at original resolution in the grand scheme of things.

Here is my question: would getting a Rasberry Pi type endpoint streamer provide noticeably better audio performance than streaming to my Apple TV? I'm thinking in terms of the Allo Digi One Signature or Volumio Primo, which are both around USD$400, or something similar. My living room DAC does not have USB, only coax or optical SPDIF.

Thanks!

Raspberry Pi + Volumio is waaaay better than Apple TV on redbook source. Especially on speakers
What's bad with Apple TV is it converts everything to 48kHz sampling rate, which destroys staging when playing 44.1kHz source.
(It won't be problem if you play 48kHz 16bit source, but it is not popular...)

I am using Raspberry Pi 4B + Volumio + Aluminum heatsink type casing.
However, in my case, the casing and insulator (the wooden block in my case as shown on photo) really affects the sound.
Three wooden blocks aren't good and just one block beneath was best in my trial.
Standard plastic casing sounds more open but more loose.
And the USB cable makes big difference as well. (I am now using audioquest USB Carbon and it made huge difference for me.)

If you install Audirvana in your mac, you can stream HiRes to Volumio via network using your iTunes library as well.
Volumio works as AirPlay receiver, but also works as a network receiver and you can use Audirvana as a network transport.

I am using
Apple TV (HDMI) to TV (Optical) to Bifrost 2
RaspberryPi+Volumio (USB) to Bifrost 2
in my living room setup.

 

[US Blues]

I have a question for other Vidar/Saga or Freya owners. In addition to the hum, I get a decent speaker thump when turning Vidar off. Also get same speaker thump when switching inputs/modes/mute on my Saga. Does anybody else get the speaker thump in any of those scenarios?

I run my Vidar's in mono block, and while they make some noise when powering down I would not describe it as a full thump. I also get some hum from one which is likely the transformer, and when I decide I can live without it for a time I'll send it back to Schiit for a new transformer.

 

[Jalbert300]

I run my Vidar's in mono block, and while they make some noise when powering down I would not describe it as a full thump. I also get some hum from one which is likely the transformer, and when I decide I can live without it for a time I'll send it back to Schiit for a new transformer.

I would def consider mine a full thump, equivalent to a thump I get in my recording studio setup if I forget to power off my monitors prior to powering off other sources.

I'm sort of assuming my Vidar hum is a bad transformer (of something of that sort) and hope they are gracious enough to help me get it resolved as I've only had it a few days. I can certainly live without mine for a while as I've only lived with it a few days As of now I have to power the amp off when not listening to tv/music cuz the hum coming from speakers is quite annoying in the background among an otherwise silent room (this is assuming the hum from speakers is some how related to the hum from amp, but I guess they could be two separate issues).

 

[RickB]

I've been wanting to upgrade my Magni 3 to a 3+ for months now. I placed an order today via Amazon, I figured with everything going on, who knows what the future will bring, so I'll get it now.

M. on another forum says it's a nice upgrade from the Magni 3, and I trust his opinion.

 

[Licht]

I've been wanting to upgrade my Magni 3 to a 3+ for months now. I placed an order today via Amazon, I figured with everything going on, who knows what the future will bring, so I'll get it now.

M. on another forum says it's a nice upgrade from the Magni 3, and I trust his opinion.

Yeah, just a slight "+" difference on the naming, but big difference on the sound.
Better defined bass and more musical lively feeling.

 

[Jalbert300]

Thanks, yea I do agree the "pop" when switching inputs/modes/mute is different than the thump.

Thing I find interesting is that I only get the pops in speaker when using the Vidar to power passive speakers. I have a few diff pairs of powered speakers(no vidar in the chain) that do not exhibit the pop when switching inputs. I'm curious what the difference is that prevents the pops in powered speakers. Maybe because they are using class D amps I assume?

Interesting observation I just made on Saga. I notice when switching inputs/mode on the Saga it appears to toggle the Mute function as the mute light flashes on/off. I wonder if the pop noise is specific to the Mute being toggled.

 

[yonson]

My Vidar exhibits the speaker thump when powering off. That's normal, I have other amps that do the same thing, and others that don't.

My Saga also makes the small "pops" when switching inputs/modes/mute, but those sounds are different than the turn off "thump". The "pops" are louder on the left channel in my set up. My Vidar does measure more DC offset on the left channel compared to the right, but it is still a very low level.

Yeah, all 3 of my Vidar do this. It's only noticeable in my office system on the left channel, so I put the one with the lowest offset in there with a sys between the Saga + and Vidar set so that the pop is gone...

Also, I'm happy the thread is alive again!