Schiit Vidar Impression Thread - UPDATED WITH REVIEW (CHECK FIRST POST)

Discussion in 'Power Amps' started by Rotijon, Jul 17, 2017.

  1. Dino

    Dino Friend

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    So it is not just me! That is an impression I have been picking up, off and on through the thread. I'm exaggerating, but it sometimes seems like "So it is not the greatest power amp ever made at any price? Hmm.".

    Edit: I am going to be in the market for a power amp within the next year. I have been wondering what amp would suit my needs and budget. It is looking like Vidar, so far.
     
  2. crazychile

    crazychile Eastern Iowa's Spiciest Pepper

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    This is why we still need the dislike button.

    Electronics, a few days is usually enough. Speakers sometimes a little longer. Six months?...just no.
     
  3. captkirk

    captkirk Khan's BFF

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    My take-away is that most feel the Vidar is a "great value", and there's a lot to be said for that. If you're unhappy with the performance, or it doesn't meet your expectations, move on.

    If I was in the market for a power amp, I'd choose the Vidar. I know the company and have used their product, and feel confidant enough to give it a try.
     
  4. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Not just this thread, but it has been the general reaction online (e.g. reviews and other forums such as head-fi) — that Vidar is a good performer and good value, but not particularly unique relative to other products on the market. Contrast this with the Schiit DACs.
     
  5. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    Pardon the interruption to your regularly scheduled blathering.

    Below is official follow-up to the quoted issue:

    "Hey all,

    Okay, so I'm back in the office, and I spent some time with Chris’ problematic Vidars. And yep, there’s something up with them, something that’s triggered by the cable he sent us. Apparently the cable’s combination of capacitance and inductance sets the amps off, even though Vidar has (a) a full Zobel network, and (b) is tested into punishing reactive loads.

    What’s weird is that we can’t reproduce the problem on any of the Vidars we have currently in stock.

    Because of this, I dug into Chris’ amps some more:
    • Tested the Zobels to make sure they were connected and not fried—they were fine
    • Replaced the Zobels with current production parts—no change
    • Changed the compensation capacitors to current production parts—and that fixed it
    Now, this makes no sense. Changing a like-for-like part shouldn’t make any difference. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep the comp caps I took out of Chris’ amps to measure (and you can’t measure them in circuit, they’re tiny, low-value 0805 SMD parts.)

    So what happened? I’m not completely sure. Perhaps some amps got the wrong comp caps in them, even though they are surface-mount and robotically placed, and you’d think that would be very unlikely. The parts are unmarked, and most small SMD caps look the same, so they can’t be identified visually.

    Because of this, we’re adding a new stability test to the Vidar production process, using an RLC network that mimics the cable Chris sent us. This is in addition to the standard process which includes automated instrumented test, load testing, 1 day burn-in, and a listening test. We’ll also notify Vidar owners in the same batch as Chris’ amps that if they are experiencing operational oddities, we’ll swap them out at our cost.

    But, in any case, if you have Vidars that are behaving oddly, contact us and we’ll get you taken care of. Sorry for the trouble!

    (Oh, and Chris, we'll get the cables back to you today.)

    All the best,

    Jason Stoddard
    Co-Founder
    Schiit Audio"

    (source)
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2017
  6. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    These guys are a class act through and through.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Oh gawd. I wonder what is the R, L, and C of those wide girth audiophile cables.
     
  8. captkirk

    captkirk Khan's BFF

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    Transparency sells a ton of Schiit.
     
  9. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    An amp that beats everything in its price range, and possibly everything in 2-3x its price range is pretty special IMO (if in fact it does that). I personally think for $699, the performance of Vidar is pretty incredible, and you can't really expect a "giant killer" or "statement" piece, like Yggdrasil, at that price...Yggdrasil is $2299 afterall.
     
  10. ohhgourami

    ohhgourami Friend

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    Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. That's the type of shilling that creates the wrong level of expectations and people will come back bitter. Having heard amps of various price ranges ($100-10k+), the Vidar is priced right. The real advantage for Schiit is the Vidar is competing at a price point that is traditionally no man's land. If you're buying used pro amps in that price range, the Vidar might not outperform those.
     
  11. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    That might be giving Vidar short shrift. Having owned various Crown, QSC, Crest amps in different lines and up and down the chain, we just get more power as you move up the pro amp scale, often jumping from Class AB to Class H. Not better sound quality. So a $400 used pro amp from a good line isn't any better from a $800 used pro amp from the same line, especially for home applications.

    I know @zerodeefex had a $2300 Parasound A21, which was replaced by a pro Crown, now to be replaced by a Vidar.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2017
  12. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    I wasn't really referring to used either, rather new amps in similar or higher price range. I do agree however they have certainly filled a hole in the market for a great performing, low cost power amp.
     
  13. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Actually, having bought a shitload of pro amps, I've found the low to mid end pro amps tend to sound the best and represent the sweet spot. Once you exceed a certain price threshold you get too much gain and a move to class H. Pro amps of a certain price are meant to power big venues. They don't get significantly better in SQ.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2017
  14. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    Sure, but let's not short-change the huge bump in masculinity that comes from using an amp's power as a proxy for dick size. How else are we to know if we are real Men? Aside from waiting for a connecting flight in Phoenix airport with a sweet cell phone belt clip and a tucked in polo shirt...
     
  15. ohhgourami

    ohhgourami Friend

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    Time to sell my Krell and get a Vidar then!







    Yeah, I'm not referring to Crest and Crown stuff. I got an Anthem MCA 2 which I got with my speakers and sound fantastic. It's marketed as a pro amp and seems there are similar products. I was expecting it to be a piece of crap, but listening out of HE-6 it seems to have that big boy sound. I did a side by side comparison with the Krell and I would have failed a blind test if it weren't for the higher noise floor. When a few of us did the side by side with the Vidar, it was just too obvious in differences. Normally I need a lot of time to hear these things, but I picked it up in like 5 secs. So yes there are some pro amps in the price range that do seem to compete. I don't think Crest CA series is up to stuff.

    Not bashing the Vidar for being a $700 amp because it's that good value at that price, but people are getting carried away to think this competes with $3-5k stuff which you guys initially were doing. Those statements seemed to have been retracted now but people got carried away already thinking this was the end all be all - until the next end all be all that comes out next month.
     
  16. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Anthem is not a pro audio brand. I owned the MCA 3 for my fronts and center for HT years ago. The MCA line was their foray into the HT world. I eventually dumped it due to the treble grain and surprisingly high noise floor with sort of efficient speakers.
     
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Now you are just making up shit.
    1. No one said the Vidar competes with amps "3 to 5 times" the.price. Someone mentioned 2-3 times, $1400 to $2100, which I think is realistic given price inflation of audiophile gear and some of the new shit I've gotten in.
    2. You never compared anything side by side with your Krell because the production amp is very different from the proto.
    3. MCA-2 is not pro gear. If is were, the noise floor would not be an issue. Fan noise would be. Marketed as pro gear my ass. No pro would be that dumb. Pro gear is designed hit full power for hours. No clipping LED, no fans, not pro.
    4. Comparing to used prices of audiophile gear 10-15 years ago? Does the used price include new caps for electrolytics? Will be easy enough for me to obtain an MCA-2 and compare, so good tip.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2017
  18. ohhgourami

    ohhgourami Friend

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    My mistake, Anthem MCA is HT gear then. It may be old but I only paid $300. That's straight up dirt cheap. If it don't sound better than the Vidar then good job on Schiit and I already commended them for a good amp at that price point.

    Again, my original point is people were getting carried away thinking this amp is true high end. Who doesn't want that sound at an AFFORDABLE price? I definitely do but we both know that's not possible until we break past ~$3k used prices. Once you hear what's possible, everything below that seems like no man's land too.
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2017
  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Thanks for taking my preview comments out of context and conveniently ignoring my recent direct comparison to make your point.

    P.S. I don't think we are in any disagreement where the Vidar stands, and that it's not True-Hi-End™. Just wanted to make clear that a used $700 Crown, QSC, Crest, etc. pro amp probably isn't going to compete.
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2017
  20. Puma Cat

    Puma Cat Friend

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    It really depends on the component. Preamps and amps with Teflon caps like Decware, Audio Research and Conrad-Johnson take a REALLY long time to burn in; my CT-5 took approx.1000 hours, which for me at time was about 2 years of listening (I had another preamp I used at the time as well). The spec that C-J provided of 300 hours was way inaccurate. My C-J Premier 350 power amp took about 6 months of time; I think it burned in Teflon caps faster as it was pushing more current to output than the preamp.

    My 1st-gen original-spec Bifrost took about 300 hours to fully burn in and it changed its sound considerably over that time, going from hard, brittle and driving-you-out-of the-room-sounding straight out of the box to very musical and sweet-sounding.

    Vidar should not really take very long, because if memory serves, there are no coupling caps in the circuitry, but I would not be surprised if it sounded better after a coupla hundred hours on it. Plus leaving it on all the time really helps...but you guys know that.
     

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