jfoxvol
500+ Head-Fier
Best shot I could get in a crowded and dimly lit room. Saga. The other stuff. Well there were people listening so didn't want to be rude. I'll be back tomorrow when the crowd dies down a bit.
Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
- Thread starter Jason Stoddard
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Best shot I could get in a crowded and dimly lit room. Saga. The other stuff. Well there were people listening so didn't want to be rude. I'll be back tomorrow when the crowd dies down a bit.
Matro5
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I have power-hungry 4 ohm speakers ( Dynaudio Focus 160: SPECS ). Naturally, the Vidar has caught my eye.
Can anyone help me understand what would the power rating be if I ran two Vidars into 4 ohms?
Can anyone help me understand what would the power rating be if I ran two Vidars into 4 ohms?
ciphercomplete
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I'm pretty sure you would have to know what one stereo Vidar could provide into a 2ohm load before you could answer this. There is no indication that one Stereo Vidar doubles output from 4 ohms to 2. I personally wouldn't run a bridged amp with a speaker rated at 4 ohms because that same speaker will almost always dip even lower (3, 2.5 ohms or lower) at particular frequencies. Most manufacturers that make bridgable amps eg Bryston specifically tell you not to run their amps in bridged mode with speakers lower than an 8 ohm load.
US Blues
Headphoneus Supremus
I just got home from the show, sorry, no pics. Spent some time chatting with Jason, he's very open and honest, a regular guy with a penchant for designing hot audio gear.
Power switch- yes, it's on the back. Jason said that by nature the more he gets criticized for design decisions, the less likely he is to comply. His T-shirt was black, with a power switch indicator on the back, very funny!
Sound- There were a lot of folks at that show who will spend a truck-load more money for gear that does not sound any better. Seriously, I heard the Freya with a pair of Vigar's, using an Yggy fed by a music streamer, and I cannot wait until they are sitting in my living room. Spacious, detailed, natural- the presentation of music was all I could want (given the limits of a very small room). The Salk Song 3 speakers obviously are part of the equation, and they were signing songs. The reproduction of musical textures, precise location of sounds within the soundstage- all the audiophile terms get checked off the list. For me the key is that the whole sound I was hearing was organic, the music sounded like real musical instruments in an acoustic space. Yum!
Tech- The preamp is smaller than I expected, standard width, maybe 8 inches deep, about the height of a Gungnir. The chassis are the same L-bent metal as the Joty. There is no balance control, and obviously no tone controls. The 4 tubes stick out the top, do not stack your Yggy on the Freya! The remote is small- volume, input select, and I think it will also switch between the tubes and passive input (don't hold me to that).
The Vigar is as tall as the Yggy, two of the side-by-sde are a bit wider than the 17" standard chassis. The amps are maybe 12" deep, and they do put out some heat. A single amp is not fully balanced, but when run in a mono-block configuration they are fully-balanced. The circuit is a SE variation of the pivot point circuit, Jason will have to provide more details than this. I heard them in mono block configuration this morning. Jason said they will get to about 600 watts at 4 ohms in mono block mode before they shut down, and the numbers are conservative. Again, technical discussion beyond this will have to wait for the Boss. What I can say is that they were playing loud in a damped room, and I never got the sense that the amps were working hard to drive the Song 3's beautifully. If you need more power, buy 4 of them and bi-amp your system. Or tri-amp your set-up! At $699 a pop, that is a piece of cake.
The amp has the heat tunnel in the center, no fan, with the heat sink in the center. The top also dissipates heat. The picture of them in the rack at the show depicts them with a low-overhead shelf, Jason indicated that they need more ventilation than this. Jason jokingly said that as soon as they are up for sale, someone will stack them 5 high in a home theater set-up and the top one will melt. Actually, it will go into thermal protection first and not burn down your house (cue the Talking Heads).
I think that is the whole of what I can say. Awesome sound, silly good value, irreverent company set on turning the industry on it's ear- what more can we ask for?
On last thing- Jason said the preamp should be shipping in a couple of weeks. The amps? Don't call on 1 January asking for them, 1st Q of 2017 ends on 31 March.
PS- Mike is at the show, but apparently does not put in an appearance before Noon, so I did not get to meet him.
Power switch- yes, it's on the back. Jason said that by nature the more he gets criticized for design decisions, the less likely he is to comply. His T-shirt was black, with a power switch indicator on the back, very funny!
Sound- There were a lot of folks at that show who will spend a truck-load more money for gear that does not sound any better. Seriously, I heard the Freya with a pair of Vigar's, using an Yggy fed by a music streamer, and I cannot wait until they are sitting in my living room. Spacious, detailed, natural- the presentation of music was all I could want (given the limits of a very small room). The Salk Song 3 speakers obviously are part of the equation, and they were signing songs. The reproduction of musical textures, precise location of sounds within the soundstage- all the audiophile terms get checked off the list. For me the key is that the whole sound I was hearing was organic, the music sounded like real musical instruments in an acoustic space. Yum!
Tech- The preamp is smaller than I expected, standard width, maybe 8 inches deep, about the height of a Gungnir. The chassis are the same L-bent metal as the Joty. There is no balance control, and obviously no tone controls. The 4 tubes stick out the top, do not stack your Yggy on the Freya! The remote is small- volume, input select, and I think it will also switch between the tubes and passive input (don't hold me to that).
The Vigar is as tall as the Yggy, two of the side-by-sde are a bit wider than the 17" standard chassis. The amps are maybe 12" deep, and they do put out some heat. A single amp is not fully balanced, but when run in a mono-block configuration they are fully-balanced. The circuit is a SE variation of the pivot point circuit, Jason will have to provide more details than this. I heard them in mono block configuration this morning. Jason said they will get to about 600 watts at 4 ohms in mono block mode before they shut down, and the numbers are conservative. Again, technical discussion beyond this will have to wait for the Boss. What I can say is that they were playing loud in a damped room, and I never got the sense that the amps were working hard to drive the Song 3's beautifully. If you need more power, buy 4 of them and bi-amp your system. Or tri-amp your set-up! At $699 a pop, that is a piece of cake.
The amp has the heat tunnel in the center, no fan, with the heat sink in the center. The top also dissipates heat. The picture of them in the rack at the show depicts them with a low-overhead shelf, Jason indicated that they need more ventilation than this. Jason jokingly said that as soon as they are up for sale, someone will stack them 5 high in a home theater set-up and the top one will melt. Actually, it will go into thermal protection first and not burn down your house (cue the Talking Heads).
I think that is the whole of what I can say. Awesome sound, silly good value, irreverent company set on turning the industry on it's ear- what more can we ask for?
On last thing- Jason said the preamp should be shipping in a couple of weeks. The amps? Don't call on 1 January asking for them, 1st Q of 2017 ends on 31 March.
PS- Mike is at the show, but apparently does not put in an appearance before Noon, so I did not get to meet him.
So, do the preamps have an built-in DAC chip, or is a separate DAC mandatory to get sound out of the new Schiit?
US Blues
Headphoneus Supremus
No built-in DAC for the 2-channel preamps. Buy an Yggy, then you'll never have to worry about buying another DAC. Ever.
belgiangenius
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Freja looks interesting. Finally a suitable replacement for my Adcom GFP-750!
FrivolsListener
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They did exactly that at RMAF, but the setup was pushing the amps pretty hard. Both amps were prototypes, hand built, and had slightly different thermal characteristics, which showed when thunderous passages came out of the Salk Soundscape 8s.
FrivolsListener
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To add to this, the mood lighting was because the room was lit by two desk lamps pressed into service as spot lights for the rack o' Schiit. It sounded wonderful, though.
Got to talk to Jason fairly extensively, and another regular here (US Blues?) some, too. When Mike showed up I promptly forgot all the questions I wanted to ask him. Jason was gracious and generous with his time.
bosiemoncrieff
Headphoneus Supremus
How competitive is Freia vs. Mjolnir 2 as a preamp, aside from the remote?
FrivolsListener
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Different functionality. I've never thought of using MJ2 as a preamp, but it does make sense. I didn't play with it much. No headphone jack of Frelya.
Don't even have to go 6SN7...
6SN7 = many tube rolling possibilities...
The real question is what is the heater milliamp limitations on the unit...
US Blues
Headphoneus Supremus
Don't even have to go 6SN7...
6SN7 = many tube rolling possibilities...
The real question is what is the heater milliamp limitations on the unit...
Jason said today the he might think about making a 'LISST' option for the Freja. Note the use of the word might in bold font. It's also possible he might not make a LISST type device.
Personally, tube rolling is a pastime that my wallet would prefer I not engage in!
rmoody
500+ Head-Fier
Best shot I could get in a crowded and dimly lit room. Saga. The other stuff. Well there were people listening so didn't want to be rude. I'll be back tomorrow when the crowd dies down a bit.
Is that a Raspberry Pi in the background? Doing duty as music server?
FrivolsListener
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It is a Pi, but that wasn't the system that was on when I was in that area, so I don't know what it was running or how it was doing.
