Schiit Ragnarok Amplifier

[Velomane]

I, for one, am of the opinion that the good folks at Schiit have gotten their hands on the spirit of Glenn Gould. They add some to the odd Ragnarok, picked using a random computation, and there you have it- an amp that hums.

 

[seb7]

  I, for one, am of the opinion that the good folks at Schiit have gotten their hands on the spirit of Glenn Gould. They add some to the odd Ragnarok, picked using a random computation, and there you have it- an amp that hums.

 
No humming from my Ragnarok. I put my ear on top of it...and dead silence. The only Glenn Gould hums I hear are from Glenn Gould recordings played through my Ragnarok...which reveals them quite well unfortunately.

 

[RUMAY408]

My Schiit Rag is bought and on the way.
 
So I check out the last few posts on this thread, and where was the hum talk before I made the purchase?
 
I'm cursed!

 

[reddog]

My Schiit Rag is bought and on the way.

So I check out the last few posts on this thread, and where was the hum talk before I made the purchase?

I'm cursed!

My Ragnarok does not hum, and I got my Ragnarok, in early December. I hope your Ragnarok, is like mine, and has no hum.

 

[DSNORD]

My Rag/Wyrd are 2 months old and are switched on to use. My Gungnir is on 24/7 to keep it in "best" computational condition. My Mjolnir chills unconnected to anything. NONE of them has ever made any perceivable peep even under full load. This is in a room with a baseline noise level of 30 dB primarily from a Synology server 6 feet away from the stack. Even with my ear plastered to the Rag with the server down, I still can't hear any hum.

 

[johnjen]

My Rok does not hum.
It sits ≈ 1-2' away from my head.
 
JJ

 

[smitty1110]

Mine has no hum, even under heavy load on a noisy electrical circuit. Only way I ever get hum is if I cross the RCA cables with the gaming computer's power cord, and that was really going out of my way to try to make noise.

 

[HeyWaj10]

Does anyone who owns or auditioned a Ragnarok have experience with Decware gear as well?  If I were to hypothetically have high efficiency speakers and LCD2's, how would each compare? Clearly, the output capability and technologies are dramatically different, but for those who have experience with both, what are your thoughts?
 
Looking forward to any insights, thanks guys!

 

[negura]

  Does anyone who owns or auditioned a Ragnarok have experience with Decware gear as well?  If I were to hypothetically have high efficiency speakers and LCD2's, how would each compare? Clearly, the output capability and technologies are dramatically different, but for those who have experience with both, what are your thoughts?
 
Looking forward to any insights, thanks guys!

 
I owned the Taboo MK3. Based on what I am hearing on the Rag I have at home, I would choose the Taboo for planars and Ragnarok for HD800/T1. There's an obvious big grain of salt as the Taboo impression is based on memory, but I owned it for a very significant time.
 
With my 96dB horn speakers the Taboo wasn't doing any bass to talk about, but it was incredible with vocals and very enjoyable with simple acoustic or classical music, putting up a great soundstage and airy treble. It is, depending also on tubes used, mostly an uncoloured and almost solid-statey (in a good way) sounding tube amplifier. If I wanted to stay in the high efficiency/SET/SEP game, I would have bought an active subwoofer. The Rag on the other hand, can drive my current 87dB speakers loudly and to an average sound quality level in all aspects. It does not impress me in any particular area, but it can certainly be enjoyed. I guess the soundstage is very good for a solid state, but well below my class A speaker amp.

 

[RUMAY408]

My Ragnarok does not hum, and I got my Ragnarok, in early December. I hope your Ragnarok, is like mine, and has no hum.

 
 

My Rag/Wyrd are 2 months old and are switched on to use. My Gungnir is on 24/7 to keep it in "best" computational condition. My Mjolnir chills unconnected to anything. NONE of them has ever made any perceivable peep even under full load. This is in a room with a baseline noise level of 30 dB primarily from a Synology server 6 feet away from the stack. Even with my ear plastered to the Rag with the server down, I still can't hear any hum.

 
 

  My Rok does not hum.
It sits ≈ 1-2' away from my head.
 
JJ

 
 

  Mine has no hum, even under heavy load on a noisy electrical circuit. Only way I ever get hum is if I cross the RCA cables with the gaming computer's power cord, and that was really going out of my way to try to make noise.

^^ Good to hear that Head-Fi members who bought their gear have + impressions

 

[HeyWaj10]

   
I owned the Taboo MK3. Based on what I am hearing on the Rag I have at home, I would choose the Taboo for planars and Ragnarok for HD800/T1. There's an obvious big grain of salt as the Taboo impression is based on memory, but I owned it for a very significant time.
 
With my 96dB horn speakers the Taboo wasn't doing any bass to talk about, but it was incredible with vocals and very enjoyable with simple acoustic or classical music, putting up a great soundstage and airy treble. It is, depending also on tubes used, mostly an uncoloured and almost solid-statey (in a good way) sounding tube amplifier. If I wanted to stay in the high efficiency/SET/SEP game, I would have bought an active subwoofer. The Rag on the other hand, can drive my current 87dB speakers loudly and to an average sound quality level in all aspects. It does not impress me in any particular area, but it can certainly be enjoyed. I guess the soundstage is very good for a solid state, but well below my class A speaker amp.

 
Negura, as insightful as your impressions are, it almost doesn't help in any way 

.  It's such a difficult decision, because on one hand, the Ragnarok offers full scale versatility in power and connectivity. On the other hand, Decware gear offers impeccable craftsmanship and a truly unique look. Plus, the tubes would just add a layer of beauty to the fold (aesthetically and sonically). My eyes are set on a pair of Omega 3 desktop speakers, and the combo of those speakers with LCD2's make me struggle with the best pairing amp-wise.

 

[negura]

   
Negura, as insightful as your impressions are, it almost doesn't help in any way 

.  It's such a difficult decision, because on one hand, the Ragnarok offers full scale versatility in power and connectivity. On the other hand, Decware gear offers impeccable craftsmanship and a truly unique look. Plus, the tubes would just add a layer of beauty to the fold (aesthetically and sonically). My eyes are set on a pair of Omega 3 desktop speakers, and the combo of those speakers with LCD2's make me struggle with the best pairing amp-wise.

 
My impressions so far based on what I am hearing, the Ragnarok could be a great amplifier with treble naughty headphones, and likely in a system with brighter sigma/delta DACs with balanced or bright frequency response headphones. With the LCD2s, 3s or even Xs, I would probably not personally go for the Ragnarok as my first choice. Taboo more so between these two. I did not find an amplifier that's exceptional with all headphones thrown at it and that tries and can do a lot of things equally well. This is probably unrealistic to expect. There are always going to be compromises made with jacks of all trades. And both these amplifiers are that.
 
With the Taboo consider the speaker taps as a bonus, without expecting much. With the Rag, I would be very careful of my intended headphones audience for it. Speakers wise, going there it's some very stiff competition with both modern and legacy products. They may have even tuned the Raganarok to sound at its best with the Yggdrasil. I don't know. Yet.

 

[HeyWaj10]

Great advice there, Negura. Thanks for that. I see in your past you have also owned the Burson Conductor...how does that piece hold up to both the Decware and Ragnarok (from memory, of course)?

 

[negura]

  Great advice there, Negura. Thanks for that. I see in your past you have also owned the Burson Conductor...how does that piece hold up to both the Decware and Ragnarok (from memory, of course)?

 
Clearly in a lower league than these other two. In today's world the DAC holds the Conductor back, compared to what is out there. The Soloist is probably still good value for the money, but it is a long time since I last heard it. In other words, if I started again from bottom up with more limited funds, I would consider the Soloist, but not the Conductor. I am not exactly sure what I would do in regards to the DAC and it's a difficult one... but I would invest in that first.

 

[NoxNoctum]

How similar is the Ragnarok's sound sig to the Mjolnir's?