Schiit Aegir Power Amp Impressions

Discussion in 'Power Amps' started by rlow, Oct 16, 2018.

  1. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Aegir is coming, hopefully this week according to @schiit.

    Good luck with the launch Jason and team! Looking forward to it.

    Also looking forward to impressions - not sure if anyone has had a preview/beta test of this one.
     
  2. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    not to add too much noise, but I'll likely be picking up one of these as soon as they're shipping. Will be happy to put it out there for a local DMV loaner if there's interest.
     
  3. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Will this amp have issues running monoblock configuration with 4ohm speakers like Vidar? If no issues with 4 ohms, when is likely to have protection kick in at moderately-high volumes?
     
  4. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    Ya know, Schiit has the disclaimer on their website, and it's been discussed quite a lot on HF. I've maybe added to that impression with some of my posts here, and that was not my intention. By "issues" what is really meant is that it can make so much reasonably clean power driving the lower impedance loads that it can be forced to protect itself. Now that I have learned how it works, I don't consider it a deficiency at all.

    Really, the only issue is learning where the limit is and not having to rely on the protection to do it for you. I've certainly had other equipment over the years that I was quite able to force to protect itself even within officially supported parameters. I think of the protection like the rev limiter on my car - it's there to hopefully keep from breaking things, but it is actually considerably faster if you shift well before the red line. I've also owned audio equipment without any protection (and cars without rev limiters for that matter). The unconstrained ability to break things is probably a bigger issue in the real world.
     
  5. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Your idea of a rev limiter is exactly right, but in a solid state amp I'd much rather than but at 2 ohms to protect itself than 4 regardless of volume. If I'm understanding the amp's design correctly, it's very much analogous to Pass Labs XA amps such that it hangs out in full Class A until it transitions to AB with a huge power boost.

    Not that my setup is overly demanding, I have a full tube power amp with very good power supplies and have zero issues at high volumes. But it's something to consider and I'm sure measurable to see how low the impedance can go before (intentionally and intelligently) protecting the device.
     
  6. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Wouldn’t you rather it just simply go into protection based on it exceeding the threshold where it might be damaged, or clip excessively and damage your speakers, rather than just arbitrarily do it at 2 ohms only? Which I think is what Vidar does - I would expect same from Aegir.
     
  7. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    I just remembered that back when Aegir was first previewed at RMAF, the spec sheet Jason had on Aegir actually specified monoblock into 4 ohms being 160 watts:

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...-audio-fest-rmaf-2018.6782/page-6#post-227468

    So considering he wouldn’t even rate Vidar for 4 ohms in monoblock, there’s a good chance it’ll hopefully be pretty stable at that impedance. Of course the power output is a lot lower overall than Vidar however.
     
  8. schiit

    schiit SchiitHead

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    Aegir is fine into 4 ohms as monoblocks. We probably won't rate it officially, though.
     
  9. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    Thinking out loud - any issue using a RCA-->XLR cable to run monoblock out of a SE source?
     
  10. schiit

    schiit SchiitHead

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    No, you need a balanced source to run them mono, just like Vidar.
     
  11. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    I has question, does it have the same gain as Vidar or do I have to use resistors to biamp?
     
  12. jmimac351

    jmimac351 New

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    Hi Jason, what is the Output Impedance for Aegir into 8ohms?
     
  13. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Jason posted over on Head-Fi tonight that Aegir is launching on Tuesday.

    So we’ll find all the relevant specs out in a few days. I’m curious about damping factor as well.
     
  14. dropadred

    dropadred New

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    FFS, I have just interrupted my reading nuances reading about Aegir in Schiit happened just to find out if this very thread exists, which it does, so here I am....like really?

    Next time, Marv, please, please, for all what is holy to you, try to suggest adding output switches on Schiit (HP out <> Line/Pre outs, so I can confidently switch between headphones without my speakers blowing up in the meantime, I hate auto-switching, and I love switching between speakers and headphones without unplugging them...and not needing to spend XYZ greens on yet another box, set of cables and power plug (bite me, ground loops)) rather than suggesting an auxiliary room heater...well, at least good sounding heater I'm sure.

    Oookay, back to the reading......
     
  15. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Two days off for near incoherent rambling
     
  16. Rowethren

    Rowethren Acquaintance

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    You know the Aegir doesn't have a headphone output right?
     
  17. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    I'm pretty sure this dude is referencing the fact that Marv gave Jason the idea for Aegir. He thinks class A amps are just "auxiliary room heaters" and instead wants Marv to suggest something useful (to him) like output switches on headphone amps.

    Still mostly incoherent rambling and a useless post.
     
  18. Jerry

    Jerry Friend

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    Thanks for clearing that up.
     
  19. Aklegal

    Aklegal Friend

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    The thing is I daisy chained my Lyr 3 into the Jotunheim. I wasn't getting any sound out of the Jotunheim - I had headphones plugged into the Lyr. Once I unplugged the headphones the Jotunheim got a signal. Now my Lyr 3 is about 3 weeks old so maybe this is a new feature.
     
  20. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    It's been a feature for a while that most of Schiits TRS outputs will mute the pre-amp output of their headphone amps, but XLR will not. I sold my Jotunheim but I'm pretty sure that's one of the only TRS that doesn't mute the pre-amp outputs.
     

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