Schiit Aegir Power Amp Impressions

One follow-on question (I'm sorry, I don't know why this decision is driving me crazy) - the Raggy 2 is driving these speakers fine on medium gain at around 12 o'clock - 3pm for my listening levels which are rarely above 70 dB and never above 80 (apartment life). That to me indicates the Aegir would probably drive them fine - am I off base?

 

I am inclined to believe that yes, the Aegir would be fine.

 

Just want to call out Schiit's great responsiveness and customer service. I have one final update from the regarding my decision.

This is from Schiit:
"I wouldn't say there is a lot of hum from the Vidar, but anything you run in Mono via balanced connections would be quieter than RCA.

The Aegir is definitely better sounding but it is only 20wpc, your speakers are 100-400 recommended for power, so you would be severely under powering them. That's not to say they won't work or sound good, they will sound great, but under powering speakers you can get a little distortion and in general it is typically not recommended. Which is why we usually have people buy two and that way you get 80wpc. However, you would need to buy a Freya S or Freya + so you could run them in Mono and you can now see how that would add up.

If you have the budget for it, go for the dual Aegir setup with a Freya, if not, then go for the Vidar and keep your existing Denon would be my advice."

Seems pretty logical to me. After all of this, I still want the Aegir. It's hard to pick the Vidar when every review and the manufacturer says Aegir sounds better... Gah.

 

This sounds like good advice. Good luck.

 

I'll offer a different opinion to consider. I'm currently running a single Aegir/SYS into Dynaudio BM15s in a midfield-ish setup. I enjoy music loud but I think my smaller room and listening position I'm probably not getting close to 40W. If my room was bigger I'd probably have to get two Aegirs to reach my desired dbSPL.

This might be helpful to you: https://myhometheater.homestead.com/splcalculator.html

I almost gave up on Schiit amplifiers because there was always something unpleasant about the way they render treble. Aegir gets it right, in fact the entire range is very well balanced. I don't miss the bass authority and slam I got from running monoblock Vidars because the Aegir is so much more engaging and harmonious. Vidar is rather dull and flat in comparison, and its unable to resolve microdynamics and microdetail like the Aegir can.

Vocals are startlingly realistic and perhaps the star of the amplifier. And how it naturally resolves the crashing of cymbals is most impressive, surprising as this has always been a problem spot for me with Schiit amps.

There is a hint of sweetness that I think contributes to how immediately enrapturing the amp is. It reminds me a bit of how a good tube amplifier has that distinct quality which brings you directly into instant involvement. From reading impressions here, this seems to be lost in monoblock configuration which is unfortunate.

But yeah I would easily take the Aegir over a Vidar (if you don't need its power). It's just an overall well rounded amplifier that gets so much of the nuances right that gives life to music.

 

Jason really needs to launch a higher powered stereo Aegir. He already has a wide formfactor case and heatsink profile with Ragnarock. Hopefully he can pull that off at some point. That or figure out some magic to lower the heat output in the circuit even further so he can increase the power output. Overly simplistic I’m sure, but really would like to see this happen.

 

How much more $$ are we talking here.. I feel like for under a grand, Aegir and Vidar are peerless, no?

 

Well, crap... is Aegir really THAT much better than Vidar? I've got Klipsch RP600Ms and live in an apartment, so not listening at super loud levels. I was totally decided on Aegir, but then Schiit told me to go Vidar. John Darko and other reviews seem to say Aegir worked well with RP600M, besides losing bass slam. In a year or so, I'll probably get new speakers for music only when I move into a house, and leave the RP600ms as dedicated home theater use.

 

Backwards to what most suggest, I prefer going with the amps I like and getting speakers based on that. Like my tube amps, I enjoy high efficiency speakers because of them.

 

Haha you guys are killing me - just emailed Schiit 30 mins ago before I checked the replies here, telling them to switch my order to a Vidar. Now I am about to switch it back to an Aegir. I am confident an Aegir will drive my Klipsch to sufficient levels when I am sitting 9 feet away.

 

Worst case it's a small restocking fee to up the wattage. You're only talking like 6db louder if my math checks out. But I suck at math, so YMMV

 

I'd buy that in a heartbeat. The Aegir's tone and timbre coupled with an ability to push dynamics and power, especially into non-low-efficiency speakers, would be a no brainer.

 

Man, this thread is killing me - y'all are making me want to swap out this Raggy 2 I just got for an Aegir even more.

 

Tell me about it haha. So after all this back and forth, I told Schiit to swap my Aegir order to a Vidar, so they cancelled the Aegir order and told me to place a new order. But....now I want to go ahead and get the Aegir. So after waiting a week since ordering the Aegir, I now have to place another order and wait another 2 weeks to get it I suppose.

I wonder why it takes a week just to ship the thing.

 

Probably because of COVID. Shippers may be backed up, or Schiit staff may be reduced, or they may be doing things in batches rather than on demand to reduce collocation time etc. These are not normal times. Regardless, be patient - it’ll be the same amp when you get it a week later. And this time stick with it!

 

Then do it! In this somewhat foolish hobby, you just have to put ears on stuff. This means you have to be willing to buy and sell (on the used market). This means you have to $spend$ - they don't call it consumerism for nuttin. If your looking on these forums, even good ones like SBAF, for definitive reports/experience/advice so that you can safely maximize your budget to the limit and be assured of what you get...well, good luck with that. The truth is past a certain 'mid-fi' level, everything is just a preference - there is no "best", just different.