Schiit Aegir Power Amp Impressions

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

  1. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    So... PrimaLuna? :)
     
  2. yonson

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    This is what I'm holding out for now as well. After @toddrhodes experiences with his Focus 260's I know for sure they wouldn't work with my C4's the way I would want them to. I'm sure they would sound amazing at low to mid volume, however I like to crank it up at too much and I know they wouldn't be able to handle that.

    I'm wanting something from Schiit that will really compete with my Parasound JC 1's...
     
  3. ohmaigulay

    ohmaigulay Friend

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    I compared the Aegir loaner against the Vidar on speaker system comprising Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers.

    Aegir: The midrange was the standout aspect. I preferred using Aegir on vocal and acoustic biased tracks eg. Jack Johnson, Lykke Li, Paulo Nutini, Dionne Warwick etc..

    Vidar: The bass was the standout. I preferred on using the Vidar on electronic and 5 piece alternative, emo and indie bands (not the best recorded tracks as well). On bands like Arctic Monkeys, Jimmy Eat World, Interpol, Strokes, Killers etc..I missed how the Vidar controlled the bass. Bass drums would sound more like a harder "dig dig dig" on vidar compared to a softer "dug dug dug" on the Aegir.

    Aegir never had trouble driving the Ascend towers with 89 dB sensitivity. Didn't get too hot as well but was noticeably hotter to touch than the Vidar.

    Overall I think with my current speakers I'd swing towards the Vidar or at least am not tempted to get an Aegir.
     
  4. androxylo

    androxylo Acquaintance

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    Looks like Aegirs are selling well, because my order for black one was not filled for 4 days and now they told me my black has to be silver or else.
     
  5. tranq

    tranq Friend

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    Has anyone tried a Loki with Aegir to help with the bass?

    I am currently listening to Zu Omen Dirty Weekends and KLH Kendalls, powered by Vidar.

    Im using Loki to increase low end bass response on the Zu's by about 1-2 db. It's very nice. Have been considering Aegir if I end up with the Zu, but I don't want to lose the bass, and my wife really really doesn't want less bass.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2019
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Loki works with everything. Instead of 1-2db with Vidar, you might dial in 2-3db on the Aegir.
     
  7. tranq

    tranq Friend

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    Sorry, I know it works, was just wondering if it sounded good. You can only attenuate so far before it sounds bloaty, strained, distorted, etc. Each component reacts differently.
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Shouldn't be any different than Vidar if you are using the Zu Omens since Aegir won't be running out of power. That is if you are truly doing +2db, and not +9db. I've played around with DEQ on the similarly efficient JBL 4698bs running a single Aegir and it's not a problem with +3db here or there.

    The biggest difference will be between Vidar and Aegir. Vidar has a thicker and warmer tone, which was the reason 1 out of 6 listeners preferred the Vidar at the amp blind test (Vidar, Rag 2, Aegir) conducted at the Schiitr a month ago. Aegir was a lot more resolving with better microdynamics.

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...hiitrmeet-power-amp-thunderdome-7-11-19.8040/
     
  9. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    My time with the Aegir mono nearing its end, I thought I would post some power consumption measurements, for those of you wondering.

    They were driving a pair of Focal Electra 1008Be, which are rated at 89dB/W @ 8Ω with a minimum impedance of 3.9Ω at 200Hz (see measurements).

    The idle power consumption for the pair is 138W
    De-biasing
    the amp brings the consumption down to 78W, which is still rather significant.

    My usual listening level is probably quieter than most, with a peak SPL at ~80dB on 70's rock music, as reported by my phone (which I now realized was using Z weighting o_O. I will need to re-do the measurement with C weighting).
    At that level, the Aegirs never consumed more than their idle power and were never more than warm(ish).

    I then calibrated the output to get 80dB on a -20dBFS pink noise signal (again, Z-weighted :rolleyes:), which to me is really loud.
    Same thing, the power never exceeded that of idle and was actually closer to 126W.

    Bottom line is that - driving the Focals - a pair of Aegirs doesn't suck up much power (by class A standard - the First Watt amps consume a lot more and get a lot hotter, too) and doesn't generate much heat.

    Now, I wish @schiit would implement audio sensing to automatically turn the amps on and off like my Anthem MCA 20 does: it will wake up the amp when it senses an audio signal and automatically turn it off after 30mn of no activity.

    As for the sound: glorious. More on that later.
     
  10. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    @Clemmaster, or someone else that can answer, what is "de-biasing" the amp?
     
  11. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Same thing as degaussing your old CRT monitor, except in this case you press a button and the insides of Aegir jiggle around to get rid of stray magnetic fields.

    Just kidding. It’s Jasons version of a standby button, except it doesn’t really take the power down close to zero, as Clem has shown. But it makes it able to stay powered up in the back, but not continually space-heat your room. I assume based on the name it lowers the class A bias down to a low/zero level so there is less continual power running to the output transistors. It’s the little button on the front of the Aegir.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2019
  12. androxylo

    androxylo Acquaintance

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    So Agir is Winter amp. They should have called it Skadi. Vidar should be Freyr.
     
  13. Clemmaster

    Clemmaster Friend

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    Update on power consumption: one of the units might have been a pre-production model with a not-so functional de-biasing function. The typical consumption should be closer to ~20-25W per amp, so 40-50W per mono pair. This is still quite high, but hey, it's still a small victory!
     
  14. androxylo

    androxylo Acquaintance

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    I've got my Aegir too and I love it :) Sound is covered above so I have nothing to add here, same thing.

    I feed it directly from $100 Khadas tone board and it's very good, I don't think any DAC under $500 will do much better. Khadas output is 100 Ohm, good match with 22 kOhm input. I use iOS Spotify with bitrange extended to 32 bits, then the board digital volume is using those 32 bits to adjust down. My normal listening volume with Aegir is about 75%, at 80% it gets really loud. I don't think at this volume any information is lost bitwise.

    My speakers are low efficiency Dynaudio MD10. With high efficiency speakers I would need a stepped attenuator, but not with those. My speaker cables are noname $10 cables from Amazon, so the next upgrade should be there, rather than attenuator, which I still think I don't need.
     
  15. androxylo

    androxylo Acquaintance

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    Also Aegir is getting really hot, I've ordered $15 active cooler fan.
     
  16. SnowPuppy

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    Interesting that Stereophile put Aegir in class A recommended components. Sits among some really pricey product.
     
  17. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    I thought folks here thought Stereophile was a joke??
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Standby Idle wattage is ~11W. It's been stable like this for days now.

    IMG_20190908_164920a.jpg

    Clem got erroneous results because one of his units (he measured x2 in monoblock at the same time) was a production loaner and the other one was an initial production sample / beta / B-stock (mine). My amp did not standby properly and and ran between 70-90W, thus throwing his measurements off.

    In the overall scheme of Class A amps, the Aegir actually runs cool. It's all relative.
     
    Last edited: Sep 8, 2019
  19. dmckean44

    dmckean44 In a Sherwood S6040CP relationship

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    It's still nice to see the mainstream audiophile press pick up on the Aegir. An $799 amp in the Class A component recommendations is going to attract some attention when most of what's on that list costs as much as a new car or a down payment on a house.
     
  20. Partytime

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    Over the weekend I bought a pair of Aegirs to run as mono blocks. I ended up exchanging them for Vidars.

    I was using them in my home theater. They were feeding a pair of Polk LsiM 707 towers, which are not the most efficient speakers. 86db I think. I could not get enough volume out of the Aegirs and anytime a big action sequence came with a lot of noise the protection circuit would kick in and cut the amps. NOT ideal.

    They did sound great, but I would say they are not great with less-efficient speakers.

    I have not even had a chance to really stretch the legs on the Vidars yet, but so far the 400 wpc in mono is definitely pretty great for action movies!
     

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