Schiit Saga Thread

It is not an infinite turn knob, and it does not move when you use the remote. If you've been using the remote and then go turn the knob, the volume immediately jumps to where the knob is positioned. I use this to quickly and easily turn the volume down to zero.

 

The Saga is currently available in black finish.

 

That means they must be moving quite a few units, if they have enough blems for the black powder coating...

 

Ok, thanks much all. I appreciate the responses.

Now I sort of want to send my silver one back and get the black one, after all, scientific tests show that the black units sound better than the silver ones!

 

@Dino discovered the Black Saga! Available now at Schiit

http://schiit.com/products/saga

 

I'll buy ur silver one for cheap

 

I just bought one of the black ones, but it looks like there are still others.

 

I've been away for a few days so I apologize for the late reply but if you would really like it send me a convo and we'll see what we can work out.

 

I want to try a passive preamp in my big system. The problem is I have very long cables (about 20 ft.) that run from my current preamp to
the power amps.
Does the Saga buffer compensate or normalize impedance with long cables?

 

"Go ahead. Run Saga in passive mode for a convenient remote-controlled passive preamp that’s ideal for many systems. If you need to drive long cables, or want to add some “tube sound” switch it to the 6H8C-based hybrid tube buffer—a serious buffer running on 200V rails with vanishingly low distortion. "

 

My current preamp has too much gain and I wanted more knob play with my amplifiers, so I figured that the Saga would be perfect.

The black finish is glorious, only problem is that my package came damaged, so there's a slight dent to the casing, and I'll have to contact schiit soon.

Was only able to listen to a couple songs, but so far, the Saga truly delivers. Bottom end is really solid compared to what I'm used to and the depth is amazing. More impressions to follow.

 

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

Finally got to sit down and fully enjoy the Saga. I cannot sing enough praise for it. It has brought a new level of refinement to my rig. Coming from a vintage Parasound preamp that once sold for nearly $800 in the 90s, the Saga comes at an insane bargain. Do I need to say that it sounds better in every way?

• Better sense of space, in all planes. I'm sitting in row 5 now, as opposed to row 20; everything sounds larger. Height, width, and depth have noticeably increased.
• There's the hefty bottom end that was missing before, this thing can seriously pound. Honestly, everything just holds more presence/weight.
• Better separation; images are better defined. The Parasound sounds very flat in comparison.
• Super quiet, no humming or noise even with the stock tube. No excessive tube bloom here, no loss in dynamics, seems like all the tube pluses without the tube minuses.
• Complaints? None really, I do miss the LED on the volume knob that tells me what position it's at, but that's a minor nitpick. Also, the cycling through 5 inputs with one button is sometimes annoying, but again, nitpicking here.
• Overall, highly recommend. Freaking loving the low gain, finally my volume knob is now at 12 o'clock (2 o'clock for vinyl) and not at stupid 7 o'clock. For those deciding between Saga and Freya, keep this in mind. Freya's tube stage has a good amount of gain.
• And get it in black. The powder-coating feels great and looks gorgeous.

 

I've been able to borrow a Saga with the stock tube from someone locally and to be honest I cannot hear a difference between active tube and passive mode in my headphone rig or stereo setup. Moreover, in my stereo system i think it actually sounds worse in the chain. In my headphone system, I cannot say I would be able to reliably tell when the Saga is in the chain or not. This may be a lack of relieving gear or because the Saga is just that transparent.

If there is a difference, it's incredibly subtle, I can't hear, or my gear is not relieving enough. Very happy to be able to audition but I doubt I'll buy one now. Which is sad because it is dead sexy in black!

 

Is anyone dissatisfied with the Saga's 64 steps vs. Freya's 128?

 

I have been using the Saga for about 6 month now, and very satisfied with it. Mostly because of it's the stepped volume, remote controller, low gain and transparency.
I use an RCA VT231 smoked glass tube but I can't tell the difference between different tubes in the Saga.

I do think that I can tell the difference between active (sounds more dynamic) and passive stage, but it's a very subtle difference.

There is no noise or hum with the Jotunheim, but putting it before my Elekit tu-8200, and maxing out the elekit's volume I get laudable hum in active mode. Passive is completely silent. Decreasing the amp's volume to about half (and compensating for it on the Saga) makes the hum disappear.

@ghoti I'm satisfied with the 64 steps volume. ever felt the need for more. The only thing I don't like that it smears the sound if I turn multiple steps at once, not as smooth as an analog knob.

 

I ended up returning my Silver one for the Black one and you are right, it is gorgeous. And since I already have a black Jotunheim it just matches that much better. Your thoughts on the sonic improvements provided by the Saga echo mine. It's a fantastic product for the price.

 

I tried a different setup that allowed easier A/B without disconnecting RCAs and much more focus than before on my evaluation of the Saga in my home. I was using a Bifrost Multibit before and this time I did:

PS Audio DirectStream Jr. -> XLR -> Jot
-> RCA -> Saga -> Jot

I switched the xlr and rca input on the Jot to be my "A/B switch" while simultaneously changing the volume to try and match levels.

What can I say, I was wrong before. The differences are still very subtle using my TH600 headphones. Could this also be a difference of the xlr and rca cables? Hard to say exactly since I don't have the exact same ones. The RCAs are Morrow Audio MA1 and the XLRs are Beldens from Blue Jean Cables.

Regardless, using the Saga with the stock tube in the system I found that highs sparkled a touch more, strings had a touch more fullness and "twang" to them and the bass hit with ever slightly more impact.

These differences were still very small to me. Furthermore, are they worth ~$425 USD to my door in the great white north? For perspective if just for an "amp" section, the Jot + Saga ~=~ an EC BW if it was available.

 

Thank you Lasollor for your reply. I appreciate it. Does it smear the sound when turning to knob slowly? Also do you find it problematic to adjust the volume by just one step up or down?

 

Did you have a need for a preamp? If so, the apples-to-apples comparison would probably be Saga vs. Preamp-X, not Saga vs. no preamp. I understand what you're saying in that buying a preamp on the basis of "sonic improvement" is a bad investment. My feeling is that a good preamp should provide input/output flexibility and volume control while getting out of the way sonically. Most of what I've read on SBAF and elsewhere indicates that Saga does this well and is exceptionally transparent. And it's got the added bonus that you can roll tubes and run it in active mode if you want to introduce some pleasing harmonics to your otherwise solid state chain. Synergy with Vidar also seems to be a strength. But you're right, you've got to buy it to fill a larger need, not because you expect it to make your system sound better.