Schiit Vidar 2 Stereo Amplifier Review

[restorer-john]

Question for you though: what are your thoughts or comments on the Vidar blowing a fuse? Irrelevant, related to the test methodology or indicative of a problem or shortcoming?

It depends. What is the value (slow vs fast vs time) of the fuse, the drive conditions, the supply voltage and the history of the testing.

Blowing a fuse is way better than blowing a rectifier, a txf secondary, or output stage, but it needs to be balanced to obtain specified rated output. I can't really comment as the amp isn't on my bench.

We don't know Amir's test conditions and how commensurate they are to the manufacturer's conditions. When it comes to fuse values, manufacturers always err on the side of caution and protection for both their amps and the customer's connected loads.

 

[mhardy6647]

P/S hum/buzz could be DC riding on the AC mains ("DC offset"). Just puttin' that out there.

EDIT: Of course, sometimes the bolts holding the laminations together just need to be snugged a wee little bit.

 

[Sokel]

“Time for the planet” Ok)
But "made in USA", "In France" or others... is no longer a guarantee of reliability.
I would rather say "assembled in the USA" from Asian components)

You must still remember the "all western-minus amp" in diyaudio,
Mundorf,Caddock,etc and Japanese output devices (that's the "minus" )

It can be done,not cheap though.

 

[F1308]

I think it could be good for 1985.
It is 2024...
Poor I voted.

 

[eddantes]

Looks great. Perfomance is OK. Hard to get excited about it at this price... When I just got a FosiV3 for >$75. Yeah - I know - not quite apples to apples - but $700:$75 is a meaningful consideration.

 

[daniboun]

You must still remember the "all western-minus amp" in diyaudio,
Mundorf,Caddock,etc and Japanese output devices (that's the "minus" )

It can be done,not cheap though.

ASR is above all a performance barometer. Given the average results of Vidar 2, I therefore stick to my position... "beautiful anatomy around an outdated core"

 

[wwenze]

P/S hum/buzz could be DC riding on the AC mains ("DC offset"). Just puttin' that out there.

EDIT: Of course, sometimes the bolts holding the laminations together just need to be snugged a wee little bit.

In SMPS the root cause can be anything. Mainly down to manufacturer not giving a hoot.

 

[Sokel]

ASR is above all a performance barometer. Given the average results of Vidar 2, I therefore stick to my position... "beautiful anatomy around an outdated core"

That's true but your point was about the components and that's what I answered.
Not nice cost-wise but perfectly doable and not just class AB amps but any device.

 

[Ruhled]

Poor. I've built tube amps with less mains hum!

 

[Guddu]

Thanks @amirm for the review.

Class AB, SINAD 88dB, ~US $800, EU: ~1000€, nice as it is... it is still an idiosyncratic stillborn.

At this price, in 2024, it has no chance against either Hypex or Purifi for the "price is no object" consumers; or against the likes of Fosi ZA3 / Fosi V3 PFFP for "cost conscious" consumers.

It is surely an interesting conversation looking at price vs SINAD.
However, I guess you are just looking at SINAD and price?
Overall cost of the product has other major variables as well like case build and quality, electronic BoM, etc.

***as a buyer, one can always pick higher SINAD product if that’s desired but manufacturers aren’t going to price their product lower because it has lower SINAD.

 

[Guddu]

Unless the "Made in USA" justifies the price....

Trust me on this, anything made in USA will have higher price in comparison.
Manpower isn’t cheap here, and neither material.
Having said that, this is also true that “Made is USA” doesn’t always mean that it’s better than “Made in <another country> but quite often means that “more expensive”.

A brand has higher prices for their product even though those are “made in china” but “designed in USA”….. you know the brand for sure!

 

[somebodyelse]

From the website "Convenient standby mode keeps Vidar 2 powered up, but consumes only 1-2 watts—and it’s not automatic, you select when and if you want to use it."
Not very convenient on my book in 2024. Anyone knows power consumption at idle? I couldn't find it.

Isn't that a CE marking fail? IIRC standby consumption has to be <0.5W unless you've got a network connection to maintain in standby, which this clearly doesn't. I suppose it might be 1-2VA but <0.5W.

 

[Guddu]

Thanks @amirm for the review.

Class AB, SINAD 88dB, ~US $800, EU: ~1000€, nice as it is... it is still an idiosyncratic stillborn.

At this price, in 2024, it has no chance against either Hypex or Purifi for the "price is no object" consumers; or against the likes of Fosi ZA3 / Fosi V3 PFFP for "cost conscious" consumers.

I guess you are just looking at SINAD and price?
Overall cost of the product has other major variables as well like case build and quality, electronic BoM,

Actually, it does.

It will outlast any Fosi, Hypex or Purifi product and its associated SMPS you can dream up. It will most likely still be working and repairable 40+ years from now. When all your Fosi/Hypex gear is 100ft underground, poisoning the water table with heavy metals, this funny old Schiit amplifier will still be pumping out tunes, most likely running on solar power, inverters and batteries.

I would buy this over just about anything right now. It's an honest, well designed US made power amp at a good price. What more do you want or think you are 'entitled' to?

Looking at this very well build amplifier and then it’s measurements makes me ask was it so difficult for Schiit to better the noise performance after a few iterations of this amplifier.
It’s not like that AB topologies haven’t crossed 100db SINAD.

 

[daniboun]

Trust me on this, anything made in USA will have higher price in comparison.
Manpower isn’t cheap here, and neither material.
Having said that, this is also true that “Made is USA” doesn’t always mean that it’s better than “Made in <another country> but quite often means that “more expensive”.

A brand has higher prices for their product even though those are “made in china” but “designed in USA”….. you know the brand for sure!

This is without reminding me of Mini GaN.... manufactured in a "big country' with small performances)

Home Class D Audio - Class D Audio

Premium GaN Amps In Single or 2 Channel

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Premium Audio Mini GaN 5 Review (Stereo Amplifier)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Premium Audio Mini GaN 5 Stereo Class D power amplifier. It was kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $799 (recent price increase). The GaN 5 comes in a compact enclosure with plenty of ventilation at the cost of decent looks: Beside...

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[Andreas007]

I guess my 25 year old Bryston B60 has similar or better specs (rated "not terrible").
Made in Canada. You surely pay for that, but that is buying philosophy and does not belong to price/performance discussions.
B60 is still running at a friend of mine who is super happy with it.
I guess this little amp will not give up soon - despite running super hot if you pushed it (had speakers with 2 Ohm...).

Also had DC-offset transformer hum in my parent's house back then.
Bryston exchanged the transformers for free to medical grade ones, including new measurements and improved overall performance.
Hum was gone.

I guess you get what you pay for. Back then it was very expensive, especially W/$.
If you look at cost over lifetime it's "nothing", nevertheless.
The "issue" today is that people don't care if something is made to last 25+ years, especially in electronics. How boring.

 

[DanielT]

Thanks for the test Amir. Class AB, why not. You don't have to worry about any type of load dependency. Plus no increasing distortion in the higher frequency registers but on the other hand you don't have to worry about that either with many modern class D amps.That with class D amps in roughly the same price range as the Schiit Vidar 2.Long-term reliability and here durability is the other issue. That aspect of class AB vs class D that restorer-john brought up in #33.

_______

@amirm, did you notice any transformer hum/buzzing coming out of the unit during your testing? It is a fairly common issue with many class AB power amplifiers and receivers that annoys me and may eventually push me to a class D speaker amplifier.

It's annoying.

Here's a thread with a number of tips and advice that, if you're lucky, might work for you to get rid of that noise. Perhaps. Over the years I have had mixed success with similar anti-buzzing operations:

Can a buzzing transformer be fixed?

Yesterday when browsing topics I saw a meme indicating that transformer hum causes the worst kind of stress headache. LOL So I guess it's a common annoyance yet I didn't find any discussion of it when Searching for it. I have this issue with the big amp that powers my subwoofers. With no...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[pogo]

Given that the Vidar 2 blew a fuse and wasn't tested with Amirm's reactive load, are there any concerns about performance into lower resistance loads? Schiit's site documents performance down to 4 Ohm, but not below as far as I can tell. Does it matter?

Maybe.
As long as it has not been measured, it cannot be known with certainty.

 

[Mikig]

good product, good performance.
Definitely an amplifier that will allow the customer to enjoy it for many years.
The price is absolutely adequate for performance and measurements; if you wanted to draw on the catalog of “emblazoned" products for these performance you should add at least one zero to the final price.
The power of this devices both in stereo and especially in mono allows you to use most speakers on the market.
Thanks Amirm for the review, as always clear, complete and understandable!!

 

[ta240]

...
Question for you though: what are your thoughts or comments on the Vidar blowing a fuse? Irrelevant, related to the test methodology or indicative of a problem or shortcoming?

I know the question wasn't for me but that never stops me I'd say that if you are planning on listening to sinewaves at high output then this isn't the right amp for that.
If real world speaker loads and music lead to problems I'm sure we will hear about it.

 

[id.ray]

Is there a way we can get the measurements in it's bridged configuration as a Monoblock? Curious to see how well it handles a 4ohm load given that mine and most Kef's dip down to 3.2 ohms
Thank you