Jason Stoddard
Sponsor: Schiit Audio
Can we expect the tube hybrid Ragnarok to ship soon and will it do Dolby? -joking
LOL!
Actually, let's address the tube Ragnarok: at this point in time, it's in notgonnahappenland.com. As in, ever.
Why? When you start adding tube heaters into the thermal load on the chassis, it becomes a no-go without fans. Add into that fact that the tube transformer would be much larger than the solid-state one (and may not physically fit), and the fact that it really means a new main board, a new gain board, and entirely different firmware, and you start getting really uneasy. Add that to the scary, scary idea of interfacing tubes with, say, 400V rails to the output of a 5V DAC and microprocessor control...and your enthusiasm for, say, adding a fan to the chassis to cool such a beast becomes much less.
And, as far as surround/HDMI goes, ask Mike about that...he'll say, "Never again!"
Stay updated on Schiit Audio at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
|