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

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

  1. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    How far away are you sitting? If you don't listen at super loud volumes, I think they're sensitive enough you won't have issues. But only trying them out will tell you for sure.

    I ran them with smaller speakers that dipped to 3 ohms, for a good portion of their impedance curve as well, to ear piercing levels and never had an issue, although I was only sitting 8 feet away in a smallish room (11 x 17). And those speakers would have been about 3-4 dB less sensitive than yours.
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2022
  2. shortyg83

    shortyg83 New

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    Room isn't very big. It's about 16x25. I sit around 12 feet away.
     
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    HT, decent size room, decent distance away. Vidar.
     
  4. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    I can make my Vidars shutdown but having learned the limits it never happens anymore. I don't regret buying them whatsoever, they sound damn good. I wouldn't worry about it.
     
  5. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Schiit amps are rated pretty conservatively. In stereo mode they can reach 1% distortion at 256w for a 4Ω load. Assuming that you run out of current at 4Ω would mean you can use these at 100w for 2Ω or 200w mono at 4Ω.

    What? I don’t get more power running mono over stereo at 4Ω?! Yeah, that’s the nature of P=IV and likely why there’s no official 4Ω mono rating. Mono doubles voltage available but not current.

    Really I would just try a single Vidar and buy another if you really think you need it. You might maaaybe get 300w mono, but do you really need that much?

    Edit:

    looking at data for the Focal Aria and they dip down to 2.5Ω at 100Hz! Good news is they seem to increase in sensitivity around there but a back of the envelop estimate seems like the Vidar can drive them to 110dB at 100Hz. A difficult load for sure but seems they can still get pretty loud.
     
    Last edited: Mar 2, 2022
  6. shortyg83

    shortyg83 New

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    Yea I am def confused now. While the Vidar isn't rated at 4ohms, everything I have seen online is that it is around 500-600w at 4 ohms. I already ordered the 2 vidars. It turns out one will arrive today and the second tomorrow. So I will try them both as a single setup and dual mono and see which works out better.
     
  7. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    600w is highly unlikely since it uses a 600VA transformer.

    Really you need to see measurements at 2Ω to know what the limits are. Data that I haven't found so I made a lot of safe assumptions
     
  8. shortyg83

    shortyg83 New

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    So first Vidar came in, initial impressions were soso. But prob not due to the Vidar. I noticed a huge lack of sound compared to the Emotiva, and even though it sounded better than the NAD it was not on the same level of output. This is likely due to my Yamaha Aventage RX-A3050 only have 1v preouts. I increased the gain 5 and turned the volume up and it sounded fine. But I presume that when the freya arrives tomorrow this will no longer be an issue. The receiver will use its outputs to the Freya single ended in then balanced out to the dual Vidars, and the Freya has a 2V output plus prob like 5db gain from balanced. Some devices will still run through the receiver into the freya, but my turntable will go straight to freya. So I am hoping the volume level should be good tomorrow or friday whenever the freya arrives.
     
  9. Kernel Kurtz

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    According to Jason earlier in this thread, that 256w at 1% into 4 ohms is correct, with both channels driven, for a total of 512w total output.

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...iew-check-first-post.4730/page-28#post-247272

    The official rating for a single Vidar running balanced mono into 8 ohms is 400w. While there is no official rating for a 4 ohm load, I've read elsewhere (but can't find right now), that total output mono into 4 ohms is a bit above 500w. I'm no engineer, but I'm guessing 250w x2 or 500w x1 into 4 ohms seems to make sense and is probably limited by the power supply, which is why it is not anywhere near double the power into 8 ohms. Perhaps someone can correct me if I am wildly offside.
     
  10. shortyg83

    shortyg83 New

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    So I did some research on this, and apparently unless I am playing sine waves then the 600VA transformer would handle that power in mono mode at 4ohms playing music.
     
  11. shortyg83

    shortyg83 New

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    I will tell ya, gain matching could be a problem for some people with this setup in home theater. So the plan was to set the Freya at 12 o clock on gain 1. But when I run my YPAO for leveling out of my receiver there is over an 18db difference between the fronts and other speakers cause the Yamaha to give an error believing the system will not match. I had to put the volume dial on the freya to 3 oclock just to get them within 10db of the rest of the speakers. I assume this is fine. Not having any issues currently. Sounds pretty good to me.

    As far as heat is concerned, they have been playing for the past 6 hours, one amp is slightly hotter than the other to the touch. But even that one is only luke warm. Comparing to what everyone else was saying I was expecting heat like I get from my Lyr 2 or Asgard. But it is not even close.

    Last would be humm. Currently none. I know some people said they got it after a time period so I guess time will tell.

    Overall I am very happy with the sound.
     
  12. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    That’s the great thing about a stepped attenuator for volume control in the Freya - it’s perfect channel matching at any volume level. So nothing to worry about at any volume level.

    Just for your benefit, I found it took about 30-40 hours of playing at moderate volume for them to kind of even out sound wise. New, I found them a bit soft sounding in the bass, warm overall and a bit too forgiving up top, but this became more even and tighter and cleaner and slammier over time.
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2022
  13. Entropy

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  14. Johnny Opps

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    Question for the wise folks here… are Vidar’s that are run as monoblocks full differential balanced? I’m going to be trying out dual Rel T9/x’s (I have a huge living room / family room) alongside my KLH Model 5’s. Want to make sure that the advice to hook the red and yellow wires twisted tiger and both to the R positive post on the Vidar and float the black is the right connection that will not fry my new subs. They also say sometimes you want just the red or the yellow. Interested if anyone has any experience.

    https://rel.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/REL_Tx_Manual_12-20_11_WEB.pdf
     
  15. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Yes they are full differential balanced. I did the red and yellow and floated the black with my Rel. I did have a ground loop issue however with them initially because they were plugged into a different outlet from my amps. Had to have everything on the same outlet/power strip.
     
  16. Johnny Opps

    Johnny Opps Facebook Friend

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    Thanks, super helpful. Ugh on one front though… I definitely can’t easily get them on the same outlet, because the Vidar’s are located in cabinets close to the speakers (long XLR, short speaker cable, high spousal acceptance). And hence they are definitely on different outlets. If I end up with a ground loop, can I ground the black to an RCA on the Vidar’s or something?
     
  17. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    That I don’t know. Try with the black floating for now and see what happens. Then ask Rel for their advice if you do get a loop.
     
  18. Gazny

    Gazny MOT: ETA Audio

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    Any impressions of this?
    Considering this as an upgrade from ghorn
     

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