Schiit Aegir Power Amp Impressions

I ordered a copy, should be here tomorrow. I'll see if I can push Vidar into protection in similar conditions. My towers have a similar impedance curve, however above 1000 Hz they are about 1 ohm higher vs the F260's, if they don't trip the protection I'll hook my F260's up to them and see if they will...

I don't think they will, but it'll be a neat experiment...

 

This is a cool track!! Thanks for mentioning it.

I listened to it on my stereo, listening distance is about 2m from the speaker tweeter loud enough that I didn't really want to listen higher. When I measured it, turns out it peaked at 90db averaging about 85.

My speakers are nominal 4ohm. So for this environment I suppose a couple of Aegirs might work. My KT88 tube amp now can put out 65w and clearly gets the system loud enough!

 

That tube amp is better than the M-22 which is better than the Aegir which I have finally heard.

 

Wow, that's a great CD! I listened to track 6 a few times with Vidar monoblocks and the C4's going up a couple dB each listen. I got to 0 on my pre/pro, which turned out to be 100 dB at listening position, and it didn't go into protection. The rear sides of the heatsinks got up to 66 C on the last listen.

I also put in CD 2 and gave the Inception track a listen and holy crap does that work out the woofers! It did push the temperature up to 72 C but no protection kicked in. I'll try and hook the F260's up tomorrow and see how they do.

 

Well, time to square the circle on this whole thing. I've been out of town on vacation with the family which gave me some time away to gain perspective and rethink things a little. I talked to a buddy who affirmed my fear that I really didn't give the Odyssey a fair shot with my comparison test as I pulled it off a rack, cold, didn't let it warm and then evaluated it for two songs and drew conclusions. Very lazy of me, I'm sad to admit, but it was a learning experience.

Now, having done a proper evaluation, I can say that while my Stratos Extreme closed the gap, it still isn't "better" to me than the mono Aegirs. However, it does play effortlessly at whatever SPL I choose and for that, I will chalk this up as a somewhat costly exercise that has taught me the following:

* Care in evaluation is paramount. Comparing items without proper diligence is a waste of time
* My current amp is good, better amps exist. I knew this, but hadn't quite heard what to listen for
* I'm not going to change speakers. The F260's are my foundation. They aren't perfect but they are honest enough for me, they are entertaining and deliver excellent value for my budget. I'll build my system around them, not in spite of them
* I will keep an eye out for a set of Odyssey Kismet Monoblocks. As I read about them, they sound very "Aegir-ish" with respect to the extras they bring to the table over a hot rodded Stratos. Otherwise, my buddy told me to keep a look out for vintage Krell, Bedini, he did mention the M22, and possibly Classe stuff, or if I could afford it, Pass Labs. Thinks those would be in my wheelhouse for SQ and have no issues with the Dyn load.

So the Aegirs have an RMA return requested for them. I have to say, I really hate to let them go but I have to be honest with my expectations for the SPL and material I play. And I will re-state - if Schiit ever gets around to a higher current version of Aegir, I will be a buyer. They are amazing amps, end of story.

 

That's one of the best, open and honest responses I've seen in audio in a long time. Well done.

 

You should give a pair of Vidar a try. I've been very happy with mine, and I'd really love to grab a pair of Aegir however like you stated I really want to be able to play at higher levels if/when I want without have to be leary of them going into protection.

I'm going to hold off for the high power (and price) Continuity amps that might be coming out in the next few years...

 

For what it's worth @toddrhodes I tried the same song with my single Vidar and even at 100dB had no issues. Thanks again for sharing your experience with the Aegirs, those F260s do love their power!

 

Pass Labs, especially the XA series would easily be fine. Not full Class A all the time (unless you won the lottery) but they have serious muscle passing into Class AB.

Something to consider would be looking at what amps Dynaudio uses at shows and check their specs. Additionally, Maggie's are notoriously low impedance, and recommendations regarding those speakers would be certainly sufficient. For example, Bryston is often referred to. Powerful and notoriously clean sounding, these may mate well with Dynaudio's slightly warmer side.

As you already now know, auditioning reveals all.

 

I've heard Classe is about a perfect match for Dyns, but also have heard of success with Plinius and not ironically, Hegel amps. They all possess that quality of being especially high current but not particularly hard on the ears. Not sure how each stacks up in terms of detail, though. I would think Hegel would be the winner in that department, of the three. The other amp I'm on the lookout for is an already-upgraded by SMC McCormack DNA 1, 2, or 250 amplifier. They come up every now and again.

I was hoping my small room would ameliorate the SPL concerns, but I was wrong. It happens, but I'm taking it in stride. I've seen, er heard what "better to me" sounds like. Now I just have to make a decision down the road. I listened to the Stratos quite a lot last night and it'll work for now. First world problems, and all that

That said, this thread is about Aegir so I'll keep following, but don't want to monopolize the conversation any further

 

The M22 is 30 watts per channel and that seems to hold up with 4 ohm loads.

 

Classe and Dyn's are a VERY nice pairing! The gentleman I purchased my Dynaudio center channel from was powering it (along with his towers) with a trio of CA-M600's, and they sounded glorious! However a pair of those would run right at 10x what a pair of Vidar would, and 9x a pair of Aegir.

Before I switched to Schiit I was running mine with a pair of Parasound JC 1's and while they would play louder with the JC 1's after a few A B A sessions I ended up sticking with the Vidar, even though they run a little warm when really pushing them, they don't run anywhere near as warm as the JC 1's in High Bias mode!

 

Schiit Aegir Loaner Impression

Pros: intimacy, involving and sweet tone, de-bias button is cool
Cons: single Aegir (likely) not powerful enough for SR1a

Associated gears

• Gustard X26+U16 (connected via AES)
• Schiit Vidar and Loki
• JBL Nanopatch+
• Weiliang A60+ custom built
• Raal SR1a

Background
I enjoyed this loaner program a little differently from other loaner programs I joined before. As posted here and there, Raal SR1a has become my go-to transducer for weeks. I’m having a great curiosity about what if lower power than the manufacturer’s suggestion is fed. To investigate this, during my Aegir evaluation, I tried to compare three different power configurations: class AB 100Wpc, Continuity 20Wpc, and high bias (higher than Aegir) class AB 200Wpc.

My rationale was (1) SR1a’s claimed sensitivity is already high (91db spl/W) -- equivalent to 94db spl/W loudspeakers at practical situations (6 feet distance, stereo setup in normal rooms); (2) I’m not a loud listener. Mostly done at 85-ish db spl at peaks, which implies first watt quality may be way more important to me than max power.

For these reasons, I wanted to test SR1a with low-power but high-quality amps. As an aside, repeated disappointments in various auditions made me believe high power class ABs not my cup of tea. But low power amps may have a lot of great (or legendary) options. Sounds hopeful, doesn’t it?

Ok, anyway that’s my purpose. I think this loaner answered my question. But not necessarily in the direction I wanted.

First Impressions
Aegir’s physical dimension seems the same as Vidar. However, they differ in weight slightly with my scale: 22 lbs (Vidar) vs 20 lbs (Aegir) -- possibly due to different choice of power transformer?

De-bias button is pretty cool idea (well, in both means lol). De-biased Aegir is cooler than Vidar after hours of rest. Lots of electricity still consumes though.

Sound
I am emphasizing again that my impression is based on SR1a which Aegir isn’t recommended to drive (even Jason mentioned so!). My statements would largely NOT apply to more normal and appropriate uses. My evaluation is more like a fun experiment. Therefore, please read my impressions with a grasp of salt.

Fortunately, Aegir+SR1a didn’t sound horrible, which I already knew to some extent from the previous experiment of JLH(10Wpc)+SR1a. Rather, it’s quite pleasing and enjoyable had I not heard other options.

Unlike I imagined before, Aegir wasn’t particularly mellow or warm (those are rather appropriate descriptions for Vidar). It’s still a little mid-centric, but largely cool, uncolored, and clear style sounding (by comparison). Stages were closer and well-layered in depth. With certain recordings of female vocals and solo performances, it could generate some hint of “emotional connections”. Not at the level of Verite with DSHA-3F though.

When compared to the other two (both more powerful than Aegir), the problems of single Aegir driving Sr1a became more evident. What I noticed immediately was bass -- underwhelming. It wasn’t as terrible as JLH’s rolled off one. But bass is quite loosely defined and less articulated than I wanted. Very in line with average AKM 4490 things. With Vidar, I could enjoy 30 hz notes although a bit recessed in amplitude. But Aegir (relatively) failed to maintain good quality bass for the same tracks.

Aegir couldn’t outperform Vidar in micro details and micro dynamics, either. The latter was more shocking because Continuity is supposed to do those things better than traditional push-pull class ABs. I threw in a bunch of favorite recordings hoping Aegir might shine with some tracks. But at the end of the day, I found nearly all tracks were less flat and boring with Vidar.

I’d like to mention that most “problems” of Aegir found from SR1a disappeared or reduced significantly when hooked up with Tekton Lore speakers. At least for high-efficiency speakers, Aegir is doubtlessly a step up from Vidar.

Taken together, I came to a conclusion of the famous audiophile myth: the more power, the better -- at least among the three amps I tested this time [1]. I still don’t get the reason why SR1a needs that much power (obviously not used). But what I heard just pointed out the benefits of high power. Oh well.

Conclusion
Is Aegir a bad amp? No. Never.
Is Aegir a bad choice for SR1a? Maybe. Single Aegir may not work. Consider two of them.
Will I buy two Aegirs in the foreseeable future? Not quite. First, for SR1a maybe Schiit direct drive amps could be upcoming (maybe sometime next year?). And second, I am not sure whether I like doubled and balanced Aegir’s tonality as much as single Aegir.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I will send out this to the next folk!

Footnote
[1] Indeed I like the Chinese monster (Weiliang) over the two Schiit amps. It’s sonically colored/distorted but has many traits I wanted for a power amp driving SR1a: mellow, dark, sweet, delicate, well textured, etc etc. I may write more about this one later. But for now just want to enjoy music collecting thoughts.

 

Loaner Impressions - Schiit Aegir

General Observations:

• I love the Schiit aesthetic, and the Vidar / Aegir chassis and case-work is awesome.
  
  
• Heat cooling fins can be rough to handle, so handle with care.
  
  
• Runs warmer than the Vidar I owned, but not super hot during my use.
  
  
• The “standby” mode is cool, but I found myself just turning the amp off between listening sessions.

Headphone Impressions:

Eitr > SFD-1mkii SE+ > SYS > Aegir > LFF Slants/Paradox

• The planars loved the power and driver handling the Aegir could provide. Really good control.
  
  
• Quiet. I always had either a hum or an audible noise floor running the Vidar, but the Aegir was much less noisy, and while there was still the hint of an audible floor, it didn’t bother me.
  
  
• Very clean, uncolored sound. Switching between the two different headphones, I could easily hear the sonic differences between them, without any added influence from the power amp.
  
  • Slants had an abundantly pleasant low end, with delineated bass layers and good extension. More rounded bass compared to my Jot, but weighty and appreciating the added power; more slam. Mids were quite smooth with decent resolution, but upper mids sounded a little recessed. Treble sounded good; sweet and airy (as closed cans can be).
    
    
  • Paradox sounded tighter in the bass, less full, but similar extension and dynamics. More flat through the mids with more energy up top. Very neutral.

• Using the SYS, the pot usually sat around the 11-12 o’clock position. Lots of headroom.

Speaker Impressions:

NAD CD spinner > SFD-1mkii SE+ > SYS > Aegir > JBL 4312A

Note: My old listening space was rearranged when we moved a piano into the same room. My speakers got relocated and have lately been used simply for background music. The family was out of the house for a few hours allowing me a chance to set them up to demo the Aegir. Not ideal, but oh well.

• My JBLs are approx. 91 dB efficient. They got sufficiently loud, and still had some decent dynamic contrast, but the low end didn’t have the balls they had when I had my Vidar.
  
  
• When the speakers where floor mounted, on little risers I made, the bass sounded boomy, loose and bloated.
  
  
• Moving the speakers off-floor, on some padded wood-built storage bins my wife bought, bass greatly improved. Boom and bloat all but disappeared.
  
  
• Lower mids sounded a little soft and laid-back, vocals less so. Good midrange, with decent detail.
  
  
• A nice resolving treble, that’s neither glaring or edgy. There’s a hint of a metallic or “tinny” glaze to the treble, likely attributed to the titanium dome on the speakers - first time really getting a sense of what this sounds like. My ol’ Pioneer and Vidar didn’t produce this.
  
  
• Using the SYS, the pot hovered between the 2-3ish o’clock position. I thought about switching the SYS out for my Jot to inject a little gain, but lost time.

As others have noted, the Aegir does detail, resolution and dynamics very well. Running it with the headphones, I had a fairly up-front stage, decent width and height with deeper layers. Much more “room” than my Jot. Transients were sharp with well-defined edges. Micro-dynamic resolve was some of the best I’ve heard with the planars, allowing for an incredibly fun and engaging (falling into the music) experience. Speaker listening was fun, but not as engaging. I think they were a little under-powered.

My biggest take-away is my sense that the Aegir in an amp that can clearly define the pros and cons of the playback chain, especially the transducers. My planars sounded like themselves, but moar so. The lack of influence the amp imparted helped and hindered. For my headphone use, I’d definitely want some type of tube-stage preamp to run. Something to impart a little coloration, without squashing the dynamics and resolution.

Overall I liked it. Nice job by Schiit and sounds like a decent companion to the Vidar in the Schiit line.

 

Yup. That's exactly how the manufacturer claimed! haha.