Considering purchasing Ragnarok 2, but I have some reservations.

Discussion in 'Advice Threads' started by Rocco, Feb 28, 2020.

  1. Rocco

    Rocco New

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    Hello everyone, my name is Rocco. I'm a 34 y/o financial analyst living in LA and an audiophile. This is my first post and I chose this forum because it seems to be the de facto Schiit Audio forum that doesnt exist on Schiit's website. Anyway, I was hoping for some advice or anecdotes as I am very close to pulling the trigger on the Rag 2.

    Presently my system is a 2 channel comprised of Tekton Pendragons, Emotiva Stealth DAC/Preamp, and an Emotiva A300 amplifier. I primarily listen to metal and electronic music. I find my current system sounds amazing for electronica, but I find myself wanting something different for metal, something more lively and energetic. After listening to Steve Guttenbergs youtube review of the amp, his description of the amp more or less matched the words in my head that I was searching for in a product.

    So whats the dilemma? Based on the Stereophile review, and the fact that the damping factor would be 40 into 4 ohms, I am worried about the bass response. Essentially, double bass drums are super important in metal music. I hoping the amp wouldnt lose anything in the punch and impact around the 100 hz range.

    I was wondering if there were any like minded people out there with personal experience with the amp? How did it handle that frequency, and do you think its a worthy upgrade to my $400 Emotiva amp?

    Thanks for any and all responses.
     
  2. Sunflower_sutra

    Sunflower_sutra Acquaintance

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    Do you have headphones in mind for use with the Ragnarok? I don’t think it’s the greatest of amps but a good all rounder in one box
     
  3. Rocco

    Rocco New

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    I really wont be using headphones for this setup, just speakers.
     
  4. dasman66

    dasman66 Self proclaimed lazy ass - friend

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  5. Rocco

    Rocco New

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    I did introduce myself, here, and in the official introduce yourself thread. It seems bizarre to me that I actually did follow the rules of the forum, made sure my request was polite... and still managed to annoy someone. Can you point me to the rule that says we cannot start our own threads in the advice area if its too similar to another post?
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2020
  6. ColtMrFire

    ColtMrFire Writes better fan fics than you

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    Its about not being redundant. There is already a Rag2 thread, so no need to start an entire thread dedicated to one question about a well known and popular amp that already has a thread of its own.

    If you have a question about a more obscure product, that's a different story.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Don't worry about it. You are being hazed. Just shrug it off.

    You won't lose punch based on damping factor, etc. 40df is plenty. And seriously your speaker cables will affect just as much. And worse damping factor can actually result in more punch.

    However, if you really want to rock out to unrestrained energy, heft, punk out, consider this too: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...nd-measurements-stream-of-consciousness.8816/

    Super powerful amps and efficient speakers for the win for metal (must slay slayer) and electronic (sustained heft and nice attacks on beeps and boops). If you listened to more naturally mic'd and less processed recordings, I'd tend toward Rag 2.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2020
  8. Rocco

    Rocco New

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    Thanks, I really appreciate the advice. However, I actually owned a Crown XTI 1002, I know its not exactly the same amp, but I have to imagine its 90% similar. That being said, I really didnt care for that amp. It sounded really flat and dull to me. The A300 was a big improvement over the XTI 1002. I was confused because I had heard so many good things about crown. I guess its possible the XTI really is a different beast compared to its brothers. It does feature a whole suite of DSP, which proved to be really not user friendly, so I left it untouched. But I assumed the amp section would be the same as the XLS group. Maybe Im wrong though.
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Not the same thing and I understand your hesitation so will do nothing to convince you otherwise. However, I will entertain you with another suggestion: Vidar. More power than advertised. Hefty and slamming and rockin'. Can be a bit too thick if you are running smaller distorto woofers or warmpoo speakers. But this is not the case for you with the Tektons. If you want lively and energetic, there is no such thing as not enough power. You better not be listening at 75db.
     
  10. Rocco

    Rocco New

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    So my Tektons are 4 ohm, or at least that was the agreement I had with Eric. I have no way of verifying this without buying a multimeter. But... assuming this is correct, I worked out the engineering math and @ -20 db on my preamp, I am using 2 watts of power... 1 watt if my speakers are 8 ohms. That being said, I am listening to the metals usually around 95 or 98 db depending. Any louder and my condo association would kick me out :D
     

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