Cute new schiit speaker amps

[Snoopy]

That's great news. You can build on for yourself and I can definitely buy one made from them. Jokes aside, i think this is a very neat design, with small footprint and a reasonable price. Very attractive solution for a desktop environment. Any alternative (ready made and new) at this size, power and price?

Topping, smsl? Aiyama?

 

[MyCuriosity]

Topping, smsl? Aiyama?

I bought the Aiyama and returned it. To be polite I would say that it was a major disappointment. Which topping and SMSL are you referring to? Remeber the criteria. Size, price and power.

 

[Joe Smith]

I bought the Aiyama and returned it. To be polite I would say that it was a major disappointment. Which topping and SMSL are you referring to? Remeber the criteria. Size, price and power.

Curious, what troubled you about the Aiyima? The specs on the new Schiit $300 model are pretty good, but it has gain of 10 and maximum of 10 watts, and costs over 3x the cost of the Aiyima.

 

[nyxnyxnyx]

I have to applaud the gall of a company selling a 2wpc "HiFi" power amplifier, but they are seriously very cute. I expect they will sell better than people would think, particularly to the desktop/mom's basement crowd.

And the performance in the crucial low level listening power area is pretty impressive- they should be virtually silent on a desktop, something larger, more capable amplifiers can't reliably achieve.

I really like the new Schiits, but if I want a truly miniature amplifier for my desk, I'll just pull out a real one like this:

Iconic Boomboxes

Hi, Discogs put out an article about famous Boomboxes: https://blog.discogs.com/en/most-iconic-boomboxes/?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=discogs&utm_campaign=Culture_2021_10_13 I wonder if it would be possible to measure some of them, especially FR and distortion.

www.audiosciencereview.com

I clicked the URL and see a nice-looking stack, it looks aesthetic to me, probably 80s-90s style?
how is the headphones out of that Aiwa?

 

[MyCuriosity]

Curious, what troubled you about the Aiyima? The specs on the new Schiit $300 model are pretty good, but it has gain of 10 and maximum of 10 watts, and costs over 3x the cost of the Aiyima.

Regarding the power I have reservations since it didn’t perform in line with the advertised power. I had the amp on a desktop near field environment driving a pair of Harbeth P3ESR and at higher SPL it was way to bright, or it made my P3 sound much brighter and was clipping. Also the complete size was an issue since it’s not just the box but the power supply that came with it.

 

[AaronJ]

I really think these needed to be integrated amps with volume pots to have mass appeal as standalone products, but I'd anticipate that nearly everybody who purchases these will already be in the Schiit environment and have some preamp in control, be it a headamp or one of their other preamp offerings.

With that said, there is no reason to get up in arms about the rated power output. This is clearly marketed as a desktop product where using more than 1W will approach ear-damaging levels. $150 for an amp with excellent measurements in the usable band from a US-based manufacturer (if that's important to you) with a strong reputation for good customer support (if that's important to you) using a technology with proven longevity (if that's important to you) is very appealing to me. If and when the time ever comes that I need an amp for my desktop use these are certain to be near the top of the list for purchase.

 

[Joe Smith]

Regarding the power I have reservations since it didn’t perform in line with the advertised power. I had the amp on a desktop near field environment driving a pair of Harbeth P3ESR and at higher SPL it was way to bright, or it made my P3 sound much brighter and was clipping. Also the complete size was an issue since it’s not just the box but the power supply that came with it.

Yeah, for really high listening levels, probably better choices out there. I use the 32w/5a adapter but rarely use mine above 80 dB, so for my purposes, they work fine. I think all the people who are trying to get to the "promoted maximum" wattage with the Aiyima products are not being very smart - they are not made to be pushed IMO.

 

[tmtomh]

I really think these needed to be integrated amps with volume pots to have mass appeal as standalone products, but I'd anticipate that nearly everybody who purchases these will already be in the Schiit environment and have some preamp in control, be it a headamp or one of their other preamp offerings.

With that said, there is no reason to get up in arms about the rated power output. This is clearly marketed as a desktop product where using more than 1W will approach ear-damaging levels. $150 for an amp with excellent measurements in the usable band from a US-based manufacturer (if that's important to you) with a strong reputation for good customer support (if that's important to you) using a technology with proven longevity (if that's important to you) is very appealing to me. If and when the time ever comes that I need an amp for my desktop use these are certain to be near the top of the list for purchase.

I appreciate your repeated "if that's important to you" parentheticals. I'm not as enthusiastic about these new Schiit units as you are, but I agree with the gist of your comment here. I won't defend Schiit's marketing copy, and I've never felt a desire or need to buy any of their gear myself, but I find that most of the time they tend to position their products in a pretty honest way when it comes to the bottom line of what they're selling: a particular range of performance, for a particular set of use cases, for a generally affordable price, from a US-based company with easy to access warranty/technical support.

If the gear doesn't fit your use case, or you want higher SINAD, or you see no need to pay a price premium over an SMSL or Topping unit, then you don't have to buy Schiits' schiit.

Again, I do understand that the perception of what use cases are appropriate for this gear, and the perception of how good of a value it might be, can be shaped and distorted by misleading marketing claims. I just don't think that Schiit's marketing claims are so misleading that they will lead a lot of buyers to get these amps and find that they're inappropriate or unusable for their situations.

Finally, if some buyers get these amps instead of kilobuck 2wpc SET tube amps, I consider that a step in the right direction.

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

How would these fair as headphone amps if one used something like this?

 

[NTK]

How would these fair as headphone amps if one used something like this?

Assuming the rated power of 2 W at 8 ohm load is voltage limited, the maximum output voltage is 4 V (= sqrt(2 * 8)). It pales in comparison to the Magni+, which can output 11 V (=sqrt(0.215 * 600)) into high impedance load, and higher power into lower impedance loads typical for headphones.

 

[Hatto]

5W is enough for you? 5W isn't enough for 99,9% of all commercial loudspeakers.

Well, no, as it happens 2W is enough for my purposes. But you present an interesting claim.

5W is enough to drive a pair of speakers with 88dB/W/m efficiency to 85db SPL at 15 ft (5m) distance disregarding any wall magnification. Now are you suggesting:
a) 99.9% of commercial speakers have a lower efficiency than 88dB/W/m?
OR
b) 99.9% of people listen to music louder than 85 dB SPL (or father than 15ft/5m away) at all times?

 

[Hatto]

Assuming the rated power of 2 W at 8 ohm load is voltage limited, the maximum output voltage is 4 V (= sqrt(2 * 8)). It pales in comparison to the Magni+, which can output 11 V (=sqrt(0.215 * 600)) into high impedance load, and higher power into lower impedance loads typical for headphones.

View attachment 267131

I believe it should be sufficient to drive low impedance headphones.

Theoretically 2W into 8 ohms is equivalent to 250mW (@4V RMS) into 64 ohms. That is enough to drive Hifiman HE6SE v2 headphones (which are considered not-so-easy-to-drive) as loud as 108dB SPL.

Even with 50% loss under high impedance load (wrt speakers), 125mW (@2.68V RMS) is enough to drive the same pair up to 104dB SPL.

 

[Joe Smith]

I hope someone sends one of these into Amir for testing, though I am more interested in the new Vidar 2 and how it does...

 

[Deleted member 48726]

Well, no, as it happens 2W is enough for my purposes. But you present an interesting claim.

5W is enough to drive a pair of speakers with 88dB/W/m efficiency to 85db SPL at 15 ft (5m) distance disregarding any wall magnification. Now are you suggesting:
a) 99.9% of commercial speakers have a lower efficiency than 88dB/W/m?
OR
b) 99.9% of people listen to music louder than 85 dB SPL (or father than 15ft/5m away) at all times?

-->Dynamic range?

-->Headroom for transients?

-->What if you want to listen to other music than "girl & guitar" ?

-->Add in a DSP for good measure?

= You are running out of juice very fast.

But on topic, this gadget is marketed as a near-field desktop device. Don't expect it to do other than that and don't compare it to ordinary amplifiers and you're good. But let's not pretend that these single watts are useful on tower speakers in a medium sized room with good results.

 

[Jim Shaw]

Perfect for downsizing for the nursing home.

 

[Hatto]

-->Dynamic range?

-->Headroom for transients?

-->What if you want to listen to other music than "girl & guitar" ?

-->Add in a DSP for good measure?

= You are running out of juice very fast.

But on topic, this gadget is marketed as a near-field desktop device. Don't expect it to do other than that and don't compare it to ordinary amplifiers and you're good. But let's not pretend that these single watts are useful on tower speakers in a medium sized room with good results.

Amplifiers amplify, that's it. You feed it with signal, you get amplified signal from the other end. Whatever girls, guitars, transients, dynamic range you have on one end comes up from the other end, just louder.

 

[NTK]

Amplifiers amplify, that's it. You feed it with signal, you get amplified signal from the other end. Whatever girls, guitars, transients, dynamic range you have on one end comes up from the other end, just louder.

That's only true when the amplifier is operating within its linear operating range. For this device, it stops being linear at 2 W into 8 ohms.

 

[Steven Holt]

Which? The little Aiwa A-10 has a toroidal transformer inside, twin stereo (4) amps running in BTL to give around 15wpc, full tone, phono stage, can run (on any world voltage) and 12V (@12W/ch) and has a plenty of inputs, a headphone out.

I just had a chance to look at it, it does seems packed with features. I'm not familiar with Aiwa, thank you for the information. As far as the Schitt amps goes, I was trying to point out the build quality, but I'm just not sure who the target audience is. Is Schitt thinking, 'if you build it, they will come'?

 

[Dismayed]

I’ll pass on this little turd.

 

[mhardy6647]

5W is enough for you? 5W isn't enough for 99,9% of all commercial loudspeakers.

That is an issue for loudspeakers, not amplifiers.

All "audiophiles" would be much greener, irrespective of their amplifier topology of choice, if they would insist on 100 dB sensitivity (@ 1 meter for 1 watt input electrical power) for their loudspeakers instead of the lumbering (not to mention hard to drive) low-80s dB sensitivity foisted on us by the loudspeaker cartel.

Surely Shiit will soon reinvent lukewarm water. They also tried to build a new record player.

Yeah -- how'd that turn out?
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...nt-slayer-that-slays-giants-and-schiit.841060 44 pages of Schiit I mean SOL.



FWIW, I have long suspected that the SOL was the Schiit bros' idea of a joke at the expense of the analogista.

PS Yeah... toroidal PTs. They're not all that expensive compared to a traditional E-I core transformer (for those of y'all who remember those!) -- especially when they're as small (voltage and current-wise) as this little Schiit.