:D And good to see Stereophile covering product that us mortals can afford. Protection system uses a “least invasive methodology”—no active devices in signal path, no current limiting, no crowbars—just resistors and relays. He makes mono blocks too.. Been in business quite a while but not a big company. There’s no grand conspiracy. ), ... Parasound NewClassic 2125 v.2. I am already trying to envision where I would put it! Driving KEF LS50s

Stereophile: Schiit Audio Aegir Power Amplifier, Schiit’s little amplifier punches way above its weight, "With the easier to drive Klipsch Forte III speakers, the Aegir played louder with ease, and the sound was much livelier with saxophonist Charles Lloyd's iconic Forest Flower LP. Mr.D'Augustino is the Jeweler of Audio Gear. I bought the Aegir based on reviews, together with Freya + . Every once in a while, I will cross paths with a review that makes me wanna stop what I am doing, run out to a dealer, and impulse buy the product. More detailed.

I hope plugs are spaced further apart. The LS50's can't really play any louder than 105dB (20dB louder than their 85dB@1 watt specification). A pleasant natural tone emanates from the Freya + Vidar combination that even the demanding TAD ME1 was able to gobble up with tactile and responsive results.

There might be an equally great Company out there. Sigh. Like we said in the product description, Continuity is a way to extend the benefits of Class A operation outside of the Class A bias region by eliminating transconductance droop, and to solve one of the problems that Class A doesn’t inherently solve—the mismatch between NPN and PNP output devices. And, unfortunately, in engineering, sometimes you have to speak in engineerese. It reproduced Hank's iconic voice with the exact saxophone-like character I require for my enjoyment. When you start using the word “affordable” next to “speaker amplifier,” the choices get really thin, really fast, especially when you also the words “really good,” before those three words. The experience of listening to the system is close if not on par with many of the other front ends I’ve heard the TAD MEs partnered against at audio shows. You get the picture. I've listened to an Atoll with phono and with their phono box, the box was way better, although it's the same circuitry. Wondering if the monoblock Aegirs will still give me a big/powerful sound yet sweet and musical in a 10x11' space. Great "little" amp, but why didn't Schiit make both this Aegir and the Vidar the exact same gains. But mids and highs were not to be outdone. There's nothing wrong with Class-D in and of itself, but I've been more underwhelmed than overwhelmed by the performance of most Class-D products. I noticed that a few companies in Europe now offer custom nCore and Purifi mono blocks for very reasonable prices. In the future, everything'll be class D. In France, they have the 3 D LABS NANO AMPLIFIER, 250 W per channel, also bridgeable, but 1630$. I keep reading Stereophile for another Outstanding Discovery like this one that our Tyll & Steve G gave to me at RMAF 2011. ps. in greater detail how to connect headphones to power amplifiers in my next Gramophone Dream were I discuss Grado's flagship headphone: the GS3000e and the Feliks Euphoria headphone amp. It’s called Ragnarok. "Vidar was a perfect match with the Magnepan .7 flat panel speakers, so that's what I used for my first round of auditions. $4900. I grew up in Chicago, watching Junior Wells at Theresa's Lounge and stealing Little Walter 45s from the Chess Records outlet where I worked. There are no coupling capacitors or DC servos in the signal path thanks to a sophisticated microprocessor oversight system, which also protects the amp and enables a lower-power Standby mode.

I also liked the fact that the Vidar has a microprocessor that regulates current and temperature to keep me from doing something stupid, like blowing it up. Not so many D Amps. 150W/ch into 8Ω, 225W/ch into 4Ω and 400W bridged mono into 8Ω or 4Ω. The KEF LS50 speakers also loved the Vidar, and bass output of this little speaker really surprised me. The Vidar is probably due for an update and that will be at the top of our audition list if that happens. Downside: 20W into 8-ohms. Linear supply, not switching supply, no high-frequency noise to deal with. Now, look at all the greatness migrating to Stereophile for a few thousand words ( beautiful voices in a World of Corporate Censorship ). It sounded physically lush and orgasmic. I’ll continue to try both modes and see how they work with in the mono setup.

thank you for reading my stories Classes and ratings are irrelevant without a frame of reference. I'm Jonesing on the M3 Sapphires as well but so far cost is holding me back (in spite of a generous trade in offer from Clayton). Those are 120_Ohm, so don't draw much current, but the low power sensitivity is such that each side needs 1_Wrms to deliver 105_dB, 11_Vrms across the load, 22_Vrms for +6_dB headroom. I too am looking forward to reading your opinion on the RAAL SR1A. Unless you need more power or have an uncontrollable urge to spend more money, I can think of no arguments against Schiit's innovative Aegir. Okay. Resolving of microdetail, incredible microdynamics, and highly engaging. Why not try a low power output home theater receiver? Nexus mode made the treble a touch edgy and also seemed to have reduced the bass, which seems odd. It has an exotic current feedback topology, coupled with our unique Continuity output stage. It’s still a very hot-running amp, though, with over 10W of Class A standing bias.

Marchand Electronics. One would need to use RCA instead of XLR cabling from the preamp then, right? I did not care much for how the Schiit Vidar sounded a couple years back. These come in kit form.

If Aegir was a normal Class A amp, it’d be biased at 20W for a 20W rating. I didn't give this it's proper deserving thought. Of course, to do that, you’ll need a preamp with a real balanced output, like Freya. We worked hard to make the chassis simple and small, so we can do a no-compromises design at a reasonable cost. Downside: 20W into 8-ohms. the little Schiit Amp could be dressed up a bit by a Fab Shop doing Show Display Products. Vidar is nothing less than a no-excuses, exotic-topology, Class-AB, linear-supply, microprocessor-controlled, power-doubling, dual-mono-ish, intelligently-managed, drives-almost-anything power amp.

Unless you need more power or have an uncontrollable urge to spend more money, I can think of no arguments against Schiit's innovative Aegir.