Schiit Aegir Power Amp Impressions

Well, this negates my own little test of running a speaker in mono mode to see how much volume increased at the same setting. Thank you for explaining why.

So, I wonder what I could reasonably expect my power increase to be, if any, going into 12 ohms. Any thoughts? Perhaps, @schiit knows or has some idea. As I stated before, I am very happy with the amp in terms of both sound quality and the volume I am getting with the single Aegir. I'm just trying to obtain a bit of headroom and future proofing, but I'm reluctant to spend another $799 (closer to a grand with tax and shipping) on a second one not knowing if it will actually accomplish either of these goals. I do feel the need to purchase the second Aegir sometime in the not-too-distant future if I'm going to as there is no guarantee how long Schiit will manufacture an exact twin to my amp. To the company's credit they are constantly improving and replacing their products on a regular basis. Alternatively, I can hold on to my money to put down on a new power amp later, perhaps even a Vidar when/if more power is needed.

I always take any review with a grain of salt. That being said, while I didn't appreciate the tone of Amir's review of the Aegir (nor some of the stupid responses that it seemed to elicit from his community) he has given other Schiit products, like the Saga for example, glowing reviews. Also, he did seemingly perform a lot of work to back his opinion up, which 99.9% of the opinions you read on the internet do not. I don't know Amir, who he loves or what he hates. However, he did seem to tip his hand a bit when he said that he didn't buy into "Class A having any benefit" because it doesn't show up in his measurements. It is also common to see equipment that measures well on his site receive criticism on this site (the Benchmark AHB2, for example). Finally, he has ripped products that I've personally owned and loved like the Klipsch RP600M, the absolute best pair of speakers that I ever purchased for $400 (in this century, at least). So again, I do take his reviews and with a grain of salt, for sure.

I'm just trying to make a decision about a fairly expensive purchase with the information that I can obtain while sitting in isolation at my computer (with some beautiful jazz playing in the background ;-) The Schiit listening room ("The Schiitr") is 2000 miles from here and is closed anyway. I suppose that I might just have to see for myself and then take up Schiit on their 15-day return policy if I don't get the results that I want by adding the second Aegir to my system. Be sure that I will add more of my "impressions" when/if I do. In the meantime, thanks for all of the support and information here!

 

@digitaldufferme. I appreciated that you positively commented one of my previous posts in this thread, which I reported my experiences using either one or two Aegirs to drive a pair of KEF LS50s. You specially mentioned that you read the whole Aegir thread and found it was very informative. In addition to what I have reported, I would like to add that when I used two Aegirs, I used a cheap "JBL nanopatch" for volume control. I don't have a Freya+. If you were thinking that you must use a Freya+ for Aegirs, in fact, no you don't. Hope this help you release your anger. Now you post many times on this Aegir thread talking about your experiences with the Schitt custom service. It was not related to the sound or usercase of Aegir or any other Schiit products. You posted did not contribute anything on this informative Aegir tread which you have valued.

By the way, I am also interested in seeing the email that the Schitt sent to your. You mentioned that they have the copy of the email. But they may not know your email address or real name by your SBAF name "digitaldufferme". Please let @schiit know so that he could be able to trace the email.

If you'd like to discuss what other power amps would serve the best for your KEF LS50s, it would better suit in the speaker subforum. The bottom line is that the Schitt did not take your money. You have not lost nothing.

 

Would it be completely crazy to use an Aegir as the amp stage in a HT/HiFi setup? I have Paradigm 85f's, which have something like a 93db sensitivity, and I generally listen below 80db, so I feel like I could even get by with a single one. I'd be running it off a Denon AVR's pre-outs for the short term, longer-term getting a dedicated preamp like a Freya+, the disadvantage is half the time I'd be using this giant class A-ish brick to...watch tiger king. Seems really tempting when you can get an Aegir and a Freya+ for the same price as an integrated like an Arcam SA20 or Ragnarok.

 

@moriya
I seriously contemplated doing just this. I really think its up to you. I opted not to do it. Maybe someone from Schiit can chime in but I didn't want to risk running such a hot amp 4-5 hours a day simply for television viewing. The Aegir gets pretty hot so I don't know how such use will affect it in the long term.

But, I thought really long and hard about doing this with a pair of them. I really, really like that amp.

 

@Aklegal

Yeah, I have 2 minds about it - on the one hand, I only use it for a couple hours a day whether it be for music/movies/TV, which seems reasonable. On the other, it's a waste the 50% of the time I'm not listening to music, and I worry that my Denon 3500h's preamp stage isn't going to cut it, and I'm immediately going to want to upgrade my preamp, in which case the whole 'incremental upgrade' thing isn't an advantage.

Always worth trying it out I suppose, but after buying a REL T5i before the Paradigms (sub is comically undersized with them), I'm being particularly sensitive to buying upgrades out of order.

 

So I've been enjoying my Aegir x 1 for some time now (with an OG Freya and a Stello DA220MK2 DAC, Technics 1200mk2 turntable and my Nakamichi ZX-9) with my Scansonic MB2 2.5 speakers (6ohm, 88DB)

I also bought a Vidar at the same time but it was no contest. The Aegir does everything better except for bass. My wife had a listen as well and thought the Vidar sounded cleaner, which I agree with. But to me it sounded like artificial cleanliness, like things where missing that the Aegir was rendering just fine.

But, and this is the but: The Freya is working a bit hard at levels between 12:00 and 12:15. At the time there where insufficient funds for two Aegirs but it seems there now might be some funding available for a second unit. But this is where my audio nervosa hits: will the amps sound the same even though they're from different batches? Especially since there might be running changes made?

 

Guess you could always sell the Aegir and Vidar you have, and buy two Aegirs at the same time.

Schiit prices on eBay always seem to go for higher then I expect.

 

Fair enough. Also got word from Schiit there are no changes made between now and when I bought the Aegir. So....I guess there shouldn't be audible differences? But like I said, I have a (slight) case of audio nervosa.

Oh, I wasn't clear in my original post: I returned the Vidar so I only have the Aegir

 

Yeah, that's pretty extreme nervosa. Just buy the second amp, silly.

 

That is about the same face my wife made ;-) Thanks!

 

Hey guys,

What a great 28 pages! Super informative and is why I ended up buying my first Aegir a week or so ago. So I have a couple questions hopefully you guys can answer.

Here's what I'm working with (and also trying to grok what I want for an upgrade, more on that after the Aegir specific questions):
- Gungnir MB
- Freya S
- Aegir x1
- Rythmik F12SE x1
- Omega CAM's

1 - Vertical Biamping. Trying to follow what yotacowboy is talking about in regards to the Aegir. So if I'm running in XLR, that isn't the same as vertical biamping? Would I really need a y-splitter from each L/R output of my Freya S into the RCA inputs on the Aegir's?

2 - Compatibility with KEF R3's. I'm looking at possibly getting these (once again more on that later ) and I'm concerned that the Aegir may not be able to hold enough steam. I listen at ~80db and sit about 3.5 feet away from my speakers. Do you think one is sufficient for the R3's? Or should I be thinking about doing a dual setup?

So the other questions I have were about speaker upgrades. I really wanted to see if I can reach higher than my CAM's and was originally thinking the Zu Omen MKII Bookshelfs. Since I sit pretty close (this is my work office, not a lot of room unfortunately, but fortunately since I program remotely, I get to jam and listen to great sounding equipment all day long.), the speakers are currently about 10 inches from the wall. I can supply a pic if needed, but there isn't a lot of wiggle room. The desk is about 35.5 inches deep, so they would be at my face to get them an OK distance from the wall.

I mentioned going with the Zu's on Reddit and was told they wouldn't do very well for my application, and was recommended the R3's instead. Not sure if that's true, but my original reason for the Zu's were the sensitivity letting me keep my Aegir. I'd really like to keep it if possible, and I prefer FRD.

Anybody have any experience with any of these 3 speakers (Omen Bookshelfs/R3/CAM's) and can lend a guy a hand? If I do go with the R3's, the Aegir questions are of vital importance I think. Otherwise I'm pretty sure the Zu's will sing on it, just like the CAM's instead of me having to get 2.

 

Vertical biamping is different than monoblock amplification (which is what you get when you use the XLRs). Vertical biamping you use the RCAs still, but you feed two signals from the same channel into the one amp, so that you only still have a single amp per speaker, but you’re not “bridging” the amp, therefore you won’t run into current overload issues due to low impedance speakers. However you also don’t get the extra gain from using the XLRs, nor the quadrupling of power output from “bridging” (Yes I know it’s not technically the same thing as bridging the way Jason designed it, but just stating for simplicity). You do potentially gain stereo separation however due to channel crosstalk.

So for instance, what you do is feed 2 left channel RCA outputs into 1 Aegir amp (into the typical left/right stereo inputs), and then run speaker wire from all the output terminals, for instance the normal “left channel” pair to the bass driver binding posts, the other “right channel” pair to the tweeter binding posts.

So for Aegir, you’re still only getting 20w for the bass driver and 20 for the tweeter, but only using one amp per speaker. Then do the same for the right speaker. You shouldn’t really need Y connectors with Freya because Freya has 2 sets of RCA outs that are active at the same time which accomplishes the same thing.

Me thinks this will not be the best pairing. I have the KEF R3 currently and with monoblock Vidars, I find them to be lacking in speed and explosive dynamics. I think the speaker overall is just kind of overdamped and boring, and I suspect need a really fast amp like a Kinki Studio or Goldmind Job or something to get some kind of excitement. Aegir being even lighter in bass output than the Vidars, I would be pretty sceptical this would be a good combo, especially in nearfield where you’re not really putting much power into them. Could be wrong, but a recent member tried Aegir with a set of Harbeth P3ESRs and found them lacking in dynamics and excitement - I suspect you will find the same here.

Also the R3s are really deep and tall - I can’t imagine those in a nearfield setting, esp on a desk. They’re also rear ported and there’s no way they will sound acceptable that close to a wall unless you plug the rear port entirely or EQ the bottom end out of them - they need a TON of space around them because they have a ton of deep bass for their size.

The Zus seem more likely choice due to sealed box, less bass extension and higher efficiency. But a 10inch woofer is a big driver to have nearfield - not sure how well they would work in that application, but I’ve never read or heard of those particular speakers being used in nearfield, so not qualified to provide a valid opinion on that aspect.

 

Ah! Ok that all makes way more sense now, thank you!

That is where I landed as well, I already love my Omega's, so trying another FRD (since I have a sub for the lower octave I'm missing) seems to be a better path. I contacted Zu about this, and they recommend 3-4 feet minimum for distance, which I can achieve on this desk. They said it could kiss the wall and things would be fine. So it seems this is a good application for the bookshelf, as I can't find almost anybody talking about their experiences with it online, just the floor standers. Which I suppose is expected

Oddly the R3's would fit fine on my desk, but yes with the porting I was worried the bass that I hear is already quite strong would get even more overwhelming and muddy.

So Zu's it is and keeping with the one Aegir. Awesome, that makes everything simpler. I plan on using my UMIK-1 and REW to smooth out any room issues with that large of a driver and being close. I had good results with my Omega's doing the same thing.

Thanks for the help @rlow!

 

Wouldn't putting a short between the + and - pins of the XLR input allow you to use only one RCA input and achieve the same?
Like the U metal rings one needs in some FirstWatt amps, to use the RCA inputs (except only one).

 

Right I’ve seen that before with the Firstwatt stuff. No idea if that would work with the Schiit amps - I’m not qualified to answer that one, nor would I try it - I have no desire to make the magic smoke appear!

 

Let us know how you find the pairing with the ZUs, curious to hear your findings. By the way, did those ZU bookshelfs go up in price dramatically?? I thought they were less than $1000 a while ago, now they cost $1900? Thats more than twice the price of the Dirty Weekends.

 

If my Aegirs were accessible, I would.

One just needs to do a continuity check with a DMM, between both RCA center pin (+) and the + and - pins of the XLR, to see if they are connected: Left RCA (+) to XLR (-) pin & Right RCA (+) to XLR (+) pin. Also check that the XLR ground pin is connected to both RCA grounds (the outside ring).

 

Absolutely. Yeah I’ve noticed a couple people mentioning the price (some years ago though) that it was around a grand. I’m assuming the latest additions bumped the price as it looks like they dropped a bookshelf model too. The Essence Bookshelf iirc?

 

There are Zu single concentric bookshelf's available for 499 each. They appear to be using the soul drivers. Ones for 1900 appear to be using omen full range and tweeters. 80hz is the rated low end.

 

Hello everyone! I have been lurking here for some time now, but just registered my account.

My name is Jordan, and I have followed this forum for many years. It was massively helpful when taking the dive into HiFi when I bought my LCD-3s years ago. However, my current living situation has changed and allowed me the opportunity to build out a modest speaker system. I currently have a Denon x3500h powering Klipsch RP-600M, RP-600C, and a B&W sub for home theater.

However, I also use this system in 2.0 for music. Audyssey on the x3500h has allowed me to create two different profiles, one for 3.1 and one for 2.0, that I switch between for home theater or music. I saw that @Brian67 had success using an Aegir with the RP-600m, and I am keenly interested in adding this to my setup.

Having just ready through the last 28 pages of this thread, my question is this: would adding an Aegir into the chain and using the x3500h as the preamp be an improvement? Or would the Aegir be bottlenecked by the x3500h? Additionally, even though the Aegir performed with the 600Ms, would the Vidar be a better match?

Finally, I am keen on keeping the x3500h as the source due to the wonders Audyssey has worked. If any of you have read the review of these speakers over at ASR, they can sound great with some EQ.

Any insights would be appreciated. Thanks.

-Jordan

Edit: forgot to add that I my listening position is against a flat, reflective wall about 9.5 feet from the mains. The mains are about 6.5 feet apart.