[33na3rd]

I Don't mean to derail the many subjects covered here, but I'm curious if anyone is running a sub from the pre outs of the Freya + and if it works well.

Not Freya +, but I'm running my sub from one of the RCA outputs of Freya S. It works well, as intended, in all modes. Freya + should be no different.

 

[mch12000]

Do you happen to have a link to that video? I haven't seen/heard that before.

Thanks.

Do you happen to have a link to that video? I haven't seen/heard that before.

Thanks.

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxYjX28B2DzvMZ1P9lFzmJ46D1oRke81Tt

 

[Ripper2860]

I Don't mean to derail the many subjects covered here, but I'm curious if anyone is running a sub from the pre outs of the Freya + and if it works well.

I run my Rythmik sub via one set of pre-outs on my Freya + N with no issues. Works quite well.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Looking forward to reading write-ups on the Class A, AB, Continuity listening, and whether the Class A was converted into a BBQ at the end

SERIOUSLY!!! @Jason Stoddard @ArmchairPhilosopher - don't keep us in suspense!!! What was the outcome?!?!?!?!

The "Pure Class A Aegir" sounded horrendously bad. No stage at all, everything happened through what felt like a key hole between the two speakers. No bottom end whatsoever, there was no separation worth mentioning, the midrange entirely overwhelmed everything else, and the upper frequencies could never quite decide if they want to needle your ear drums to shreds at one moment, or just disappear behind the steamrolling midrange altogether.

"Class A/B Aegir" sounded better to me, but started to strain a bit when driven a little harder. The stage widened quite a bit when compared to the class A, and accuracy improved a tad as well. Upper midrange and above, though, turned almost raspy when driven a bit harder. The amp wasn't clipping, but something was definitely off there.
Would be a great amp to enjoy somewhat grungier live rock with, though. But a hard pass for anything that requires accuracy, imaging, or a wider stage, like jazz, classical, acoustics, or the like.

At least as far as I'm concerned, Continuity (the unaltered Aegir) won hands down. Without any exaggeration: It wasn't even close. But then again, I might be somewhat of a Continuity fanboi without actually having realized it until last night, because I always liked the way Aegir sounded. And even after close to a year of ownership, I still drool on an almost daily basis over the results my Tyrs produce.
Continuity Aegir had by far the widest stage, most precise separation, and crispest low end. But it started to struggle with higher volumes. At normal-to-above-normal listening levels, it was by far the most accurate and musical of the three variants.

With all three I hated the highs. Prickly, glassy, harsh. Just way too "in your face," to the point of being utterly offensive. It got worse the louder you played them, and regardless of genre.
But since I'm somewhat intimately familiar with the Aegirs (in stereo as well as in mono configuration, but for this experiment they were run in stereo) and know for a fact that they can do way better than that, I blame that offensiveness on the speakers that were used. (A pair of Salk Song 3, I think? Ribbon tweeters, they sure are … something!)

As far as I could tell — and before it was announced which amp was which, mind you — people's opinions were all over the place on which one they liked better between the first (class A) and the second amp (class A/B), but overwhelmingly seemed to prefer the third (Continuity) overall.

Personally, I was pretty much instantly able to tell which one was Continuity—simply because it was the only one that would be worth turning into an actual product. A and A/B sounded so horrendously bad to my ears that I couldn't imagine that anyone would actually pay any money for them. I've heard bluetooth speakers that sounded more musical. Just based on that alone, the third one had to be Continuity. But there were other indicators as well.
I did get my picks of A and A/B wrong, though. I attributed the second amp's somewhat wider stage and improved accuracy over the first one to it having to be class A, and thought that this raspy "struggling" I heard when driven a little harder would have to be an indicator that it's flying a little too close to your typical "class A power limitations." And thus, I assumed, it follows that the first one would have to be class A/B, also because it did not at all deliver anything of that certain je ne sais quoi that poeple usually associate with class A. To me, it felt like the least accurate (or most distorted, if you will), it had no stage nor separation, and really nothing else that would be worth gushing over. Like, at all.

A very interesting result, I think, and at least to me it was somewhat surprising. But absolutely worth the experiment.

How hot does it get?

Plenty. Not quite Folkvangr or Asgard 1 levels of hot, but it gets seriously hot.
The prototype didn't have the final heat sink design yet, and it also didn't have a case that could help with dissipation. It was literally just the naked board screwed on a Mjolnir 2 base plate. I would hazard a guess that the final product will probably be somewhat similar to Mjolnir 2 in how much heat it radiates.

Wait, that's all you have to say?!

Mhm. The prototype wasn't really "final" in that the board layout will still change, it didn't have the final chokes (the ones it had are considerably smaller than what is planned for the final product), and it lacked certain protection mechanisms. The state it is currently in, you for example have to unplug your headphones every time you wanted to switch between high and low gain, between single-ended and push-pull, or between … I forget what the third switch did, sorry.
So it wouldn't really be fair to "publicly" judge Mjolnir 3 at this point.
But I really, really, really! enjoyed it in push-pull on high gain (with that third switch in the down position, whatever that means), though. For that alone I'll be buying one, that's for sure.

 

[33na3rd]

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxYjX28B2DzvMZ1P9lFzmJ46D1oRke81Tt

Thank you very much!

 

[sam6550a]

The following criteria apply before I tube roll...

1. I must be well rested.
2. Completely sober.
3. Consume 1 shot of espresso for heightened alertness.
4. Glasses must be cleaned for optimal vision ensuring pin-to-socket alignment.
5. Change into loose fitting clothes.
6. Loosen up by doing stretches and toe-touches to ensure adequate tube-rolling mobility.

My process is as follows:

1. Power off my amplifier.
2. Power Freya N off at the switch, power conditioner, and circuit breaker.
3. Remove power cord.
4. Wait 15 minutes for current tubes to cool off.
5. Remove tubes carefully while wearing clean cotton gloves.
6. Carefully place them in their appropriately labeled boxed with care to ensure the correct tube goes into the correct box as the boxes have the measurements on them.
7. Insert the new tubes carefully while wearing clean cotton gloves.
8. Go to the breaker panel and flip the breaker ON
9. Re-install the power cord.
10. Switch on the power conditioner.
11. Power on Freya.
12. Ensure it is in tube buffer mode.
13. Wait 60 seconds for tubes to reach optimal temp.
14. Select a well-recorded CD or stream album via Roon
15. Wonder why there's no sound.
16. Double-check input selection.
17. Make sure MUTE is not engaged.
18. Turn volume up and down.
19. Remove the tubes and re-insert.
20. Repeat steps 15-18.
21. Remove tubes and check them on my B&K tester. (they always test OK)
22. Place tubes back in and try again.
23. Repeat steps 15-18.
24. Place the previous tubes back in.
25. Repeat steps 15-18.
26. Remove original tubes and replace with the tubes previously removed.
27. Repeat steps 15-18.
29. Shout expletives!
30. Dejected and looking down, realize that the amplifier is still powered off.
31. Repeat step 29.
32. Power on the amplifier.
33. Confirm that there is finally sound.
34. Repeat step 29.
35. Power everything off and go to bed as I am now too tired and too pissed off to listen to music.

36. Consume 2 shots of stiff Texas moonshine, then go to bed.

 

[sam6550a]

Technically the college does the graduating, it means to assign students to different levels. I am a graduate. 10 years to get your bachelors should have taught you that. my first car out of college was a Dodge Challenger, the Plymouth version would have been the Barracuda. Besides I think of Belvedere as the dog in Foghorn Leghorn cartoons.

My first new car was a 1967 Barracuda Formula S with the 383 big block, 4 speed manual, and positraction rear end. It had no power steering, no power brakes, and no air conditioning. Cost me $2934. What a beast!

 

[StimpyWan]

36. Consume 2 shots of stiff Texas moonshine, then go to bed.

Texas moonshine...?

 

[Ripper2860]

I think we call it Tequila in these parts.

 

[NigelJ]

When's the last time you saw a black conductive material. Case closed

Try carbon. Although I agree that its not as conductive as the metals usually used for electrical conductors, ie copper, silver, gold, etc. Still used for many resistors, although less common than in the past.

 

[Paladin79]

Who's backside?

If I were to choose, I would say Emily Ratajkowski but she is probably busy.

I cannot visualize adding shelves to a headphone stand but I will give it some thought. I could build shelves for the smaller Schiit gear just as I have done with the midsize and maybe use copper to construct a headphone rack.

 

[Ripper2860]

Thank you, ChatGPT, for confirming my suspicion...

Based on the information available, color does not affect the conductivity of heat. The heat conductivity of a material is determined by its thermal conductivity coefficient and its thermal conductivity is a function of the material's density and its atomic structure, not its color.

In the case of heatsinks, the most important factor in their performance is the material they are made from, such as aluminum or copper, as well as their design, including the number and shape of fins, the thickness of the base, and the amount of surface area in contact with the CPU.

 

[Paladin79]

My first new car was a 1967 Barracuda Formula S with the 383 big block, 4 speed manual, and positraction rear end. It had no power steering, no power brakes, and no air conditioning. Cost me $2934. What a beast!

I then went with a Z car, they were still Datsun back then. It is amazing what you can drive till the kids are born and you start thinking safety and roominess. Later in life I went back to an RX 7 and such. My wife would have a family car and I would have a sports car and a truck.

 

[misterpumpy]

The "Pure Class A Aegir" sounded horrendously bad. No stage at all, everything happened through what felt like a key hole between the two speakers. No bottom end whatsoever, there was no separation worth mentioning, the midrange entirely overwhelmed everything else, and the upper frequencies could never quite decide if they want to needle your ear drums to shreds at one moment, or just disappear behind the steamrolling midrange altogether.

"Class A/B Aegir" sounded better to me, but started to strain a bit when driven a little harder. The stage widened quite a bit when compared to the class A, and accuracy improved a tad as well. Upper midrange and above, though, turned almost raspy when driven a bit harder. The amp wasn't clipping, but something was definitely off there.
Would be a great amp to enjoy somewhat grungier live rock with, though. But a hard pass for anything that requires accuracy, imaging, or a wider stage, like jazz, classical, acoustics, or the like.

At least as far as I'm concerned, Continuity (the unaltered Aegir) won hands down. Without any exaggeration: It wasn't even close. But then again, I might be somewhat of a Continuity fanboi without actually having realized it until last night, because I always liked the way Aegir sounded. And even after close to a year of ownership, I still drool on an almost daily basis over the results my Tyrs produce.
Continuity Aegir had by far the widest stage, most precise separation, and crispest low end. But it started to struggle with higher volumes. At normal-to-above-normal listening levels, it was by far the most accurate and musical of the three variants.

With all three I hated the highs. Prickly, glassy, harsh. Just way too "in your face," to the point of being utterly offensive. It got worse the louder you played them, and regardless of genre.
But since I'm somewhat intimately familiar with the Aegirs (in stereo as well as in mono configuration, but for this experiment they were run in stereo) and know for a fact that they can do way better than that, I blame that offensiveness on the speakers that were used. (A pair of Salk Song 3, I think? Ribbon tweeters, they sure are … something!)

As far as I could tell — and before it was announced which amp was which, mind you — people's opinions were all over the place on which one they liked better between the first (class A) and the second amp (class A/B), but overwhelmingly seemed to prefer the third (Continuity) overall.

Personally, I was pretty much instantly able to tell which one was Continuity—simply because it was the only one that would be worth turning into an actual product. A and A/B sounded so horrendously bad to my ears that I couldn't imagine that anyone would actually pay any money for them. I've heard bluetooth speakers that sounded more musical. Just based on that alone, the third one had to be Continuity. But there were other indicators as well.
I did get my picks of A and A/B wrong, though. I attributed the second amp's somewhat wider stage and improved accuracy over the first one to it having to be class A, and thought that this raspy "struggling" I heard when driven a little harder would have to be an indicator that it's flying a little too close to your typical "class A power limitations." And thus, I assumed, it follows that the first one would have to be class A/B, also because it did not at all deliver anything of that certain je ne sais quoi that poeple usually associate with class A. To me, it felt like the least accurate (or most distorted, if you will), it had no stage nor separation, and really nothing else that would be worth gushing over. Like, at all.

A very interesting result, I think, and at least to me it was somewhat surprising. But absolutely worth the experiment.


Plenty. Not quite Folkvangr or Asgard 1 levels of hot, but it gets seriously hot.
The prototype didn't have the final heat sink design yet, and it also didn't have a case that could help with dissipation. It was literally just the naked board screwed on a Mjolnir 2 base plate. I would hazard a guess that the final product will probably be somewhat similar to Mjolnir 2 in how much heat it radiates.


Mhm. The prototype wasn't really "final" in that the board layout will still change, it didn't have the final chokes (the ones it had are considerably smaller than what is planned for the final product), and it lacked certain protection mechanisms. The state it is currently in, you for example have to unplug your headphones every time you wanted to switch between high and low gain, between single-ended and push-pull, or between … I forget what the third switch did, sorry.
So it wouldn't really be fair to "publicly" judge Mjolnir 3 at this point.
But I really, really, really! enjoyed it in push-pull on high gain (with that third switch in the down position, whatever that means), though. For that alone I'll be buying one, that's for sure.

Thanks for the in depth review, I was wondering how it turned out. I bet Jason and co are happy with Continuity sounding best, but either way what a fun experiment.

 

[scotdouglas]

I then went with a Z car, they were still Datsun back then. It is amazing what you can drive till the kids are born and you start thinking safety and roominess. Later in life I went back to an RX 7 and such. My wife would have a family car and I would have a sports car and a truck.

I had two RX-7s in the past. An 80 and an 83 GSL-SE with the optional rear jump seats. The only person that fit in those seats was my friend Verne Troyer.

The 1980 killed its engine via a failed oil cooler, so I replaced it with a slightly massaged 13B. Surprised many a V8 car on cruise night with it.