2024, Chapter 5
The End of the End of the World?
Some of you are gonna get an email soon announcing the blowout on Ragnarok 2.
And it’s a biiiiig blowout. As in,
Ragnarok 2 is now $999.
Like I said, BIG.
“Why?” some of you cry. “Why oh why do you have to do this? What happened? Did you screw up? I know you screw up all the time, you guys suck!”
Others say, “Yeah, it’s an integrated, you can’t move integrateds with bran, no big surprise here.”
(and many others are saying nothing, too busy hitting the BUY button, because this is a heckuvasupercallifragillistic deal.)
So what happened?
Simple: due to commitments we made during the supply chain crisis—commitments we made in order to get any supply at all—we made too many Ragnarok 2s. And now we’re moving. And it’s better you have them than we move them. So please enjoy the deal.
“But what’s this end of the end of the world thing?” someone is asking. “Are you considering not making another Ragnarok?”
Good question.
Is It the End?
In short, we don’t know. As of the time of this writing, April 2024, I don’t have a Ragnarok 3 on the screen. Not a board, not a chassis, nothing.
So, at the very least, there’ll be a hiatus. We’ll sell through Ragnarok 2, and then there will be nothing for a while, and then maybe there will be a Ragnarok 3.
“Ah hell, you’re screwing with us, you’re always working on something new,” someone says.
Yeah. But not a Ragnarok 3.
Here’s the thing: I took a couple of swipes at improving Ragnarok 2.
The first is what we’re selling today—a Ragnarok 2 with a toroidal transformer, which gives it a lower noise floor and higher output power than the original. Ragnarok 2 now comfortably exceeds its rated power. If we re-rated it, it would be more like a 75/110W amp into 8 and 4 ohms.
The second, never seen, was a Ragnarok 2+ which added a handful of extra relays to switch the “Nexus resistors” to different values in order to decrease the noise floor even lower when used in low gain. I built a prototype of it, which worked OK, but didn’t really work as well as I hoped (I was looking for 15-20dB better, I got 6-10dB), so I put it on the shelf and forgot about it.
Aside: literally. There’s a shelf of in-process and kinda-sorta-dead prototypes in the tech lab.
In both cases, the revised Ragnaroks didn’t exceed what the current one is in any significant way—they didn’t deliver 100+W into 8 ohms, they didn’t add a bunch of digital inputs, they didn’t change the basic idea of Ragnarok 2, which is simple:
a great integrated amp for speakers that also will absolutely light up any headphone, no matter how hard to drive.
And when you get down to it, maybe that’s the problem. Ragnarok 2 is a bit hard to get your head around. It’s a:
- A mid-power integrated amp suitable for most speakers, but not ones that need tons of power. Mid-power integrateds have been the kiss of death since the 1980s. Literally it was a joke at Sumo. I tried doing one. My boss killed it. He was probably right.
- One of the purest integrated amp designs. As in, this isn't a preamp bolted to an amp in a chassis. This is a purpose-built, single-gain-stage, multiple-gain-selection, balanced and single-ended in and out, super-flexible, no-compromise product. It's so no-compromise that it has 100% linear power supply, Class AB Nexus™ fully discrete, DC-coupled gain stage, relay ladder attenuation, independent high voltage rails, dual-mono-back-to-the-transformer construction, and microprocessor oversight and protection.
- A giant, insanely powerful balanced headphone amp. I mean, the headphones are driven by the SPEAKER OUTPUTS. We’re talking 30+W into 32 ohms. Completely bonkers. But with 3 gain levels, it’s still great for pretty much any balanced headphone. Neat in a way. But not normal. Not convenient. And not sized for sane desks.
Yeah. Weird.
I mean, yeah, in my mind it makes total sense. Get a Ragnarok 2, especially with the phono and DAC input cards, and you’re done. One box for all your stuff—speakers, headphones, etc. Nice.
But…one digital input? And only MM phono? Maybe that’s not enough.
So yeah, as of today, if I was going to shoot at a new Ragnarok design, it would be more powerful, with more digital inputs and a more flexible phono preamp—and it would probably only be sold that way. And it would cost more. So it’s really a different product at that point. And I’m not super excited about it in any case.
Aaaaaand as I mentioned, no design work has been done.
Soooo….who knows? Maybe in 2025. Maybe not until later. Maybe not at all.
What’s the Catch?
Some of you are thinking, “This deal sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?”
No catch. With Ragnarok 2, what you see is what you get. Lisa uses one in her office in Corpus Christi. I frequently have one on my desk in California, but now that we’re moving, everything is packed up except a Magni Unity. Alex has one. Tyler has one. Elvis has one. It’s one of the most popular products we’ve ever had internally.
Aaaanndd…they are insanely reliable. The huge heatsinks and middling power output mean it runs super-cool, and it’s almost impossible to get outside the range of its protection.
Aaaaaaaaaaaannnd…they sound good! Ragnarok 2 was our first Nexus™ product. It was designed as a flagship of a whole new “holy grail” topology, and it sounds like it.
Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnddd…it’s super hard to conceive of any headphone that Ragnarok 2 won’t work well with, and its plenty for all but the most insane speakers, so it’s one and done deal.
Sounds good?
Sounds even better at $999?
Cool. Get one. And sit back and enjoy excellent sound for a long, long time. Because when they’re gone, they’re gone. And there’s nothing on the horizon.
For a time, at least, it really is the end of the end of the world.
