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News

Ragnarok Is Here

11/11/2014

The Intelligent, Universal Amplifier

 
November 11, Valencia, CA. Today, Schiit Audio announced the availability of Ragnarok, an amplifier fully suited to driving everything from highly efficient IEMs to speakers. In addition, Ragnarok also has full integrated amp and preamp functionality, making it uniquely suitable to be a universal amplifier for all needs. An advanced microprocessor control system manages all aspects of Ragnarok's operation, ensuring superior flexibility, stability, and safety. Ragnarok is available for order immediately, with an estimated shipping time of 2-3 weeks.
 
“Ragnarok is the reimagination of the integrated amplifier, based on our extensive experience with headphones,” said Jason Stoddard, Schiit’s Co-Founder. "Most amplifiers use a separate, inexpensive stage to drive headphones. With Ragnarok, the balanced headphone outputs are exactly the same as the main speaker outputs, delivering up to 100W into 4 ohms (or, in more headphone-friendly terms, 15W into 32 ohms.)"
 
But power is only the start of the Ragnarok story. Where other integrated amplifiers use a potentiometer for volume control, Ragnarok uses a 64-step relay-switched attenuator. It also offers 3 different gain levels (20, 5, and 1) to provide flexibility for highly efficient headphones or more difficult-to-drive speakers. It also breaks with tradition on the output stage, which is a DC-coupled circlotron-style topology that offers simplicity and linearity. Finally, an advanced 16-bit Microchip microcontroller monitors and controls all aspect of Ragnarok's operation, including bias, DC offset, and protection. This dynamic control allows Ragnarok to dispense with DC servos and coupling capacitors, and enables it to offer rock-solid operational levels that don't drift over time.
 
Ragnarok offers 3 single-ended and 2 balanced inputs, and offers balanced and single-ended preamp outputs, in addition to balanced speaker outputs and both balanced and single-ended headphone outputs, for ultimate flexibility. 
 
“We're extremely proud of what we've accomplished with Ragnarok,” Jason continued. “In almost all aspects of its design and operation, it re-thinks the traditional integrated--and, in doing so, it provides more flexibility for both headphone and speaker listeners."
 
Like all Schiit products, Ragnarok is made in the USA, with the vast majority of its total production cost going to companies manufacturing in the USA, and local assembly, testing, and support through Schiit’s Valencia, CA offices. 
 
Ragnarok, (in Norse legend, "the end of the world,") is available to order now on the schiit.com website for $1699. 
 
About Schiit Audio
Founded in June 2010 by audio industry “old dogs” Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat, Schiit Audio has a simple, if somewhat insane, mission: to bring superior performance, design, and quality to audio products at near-Chinese prices, while manufacturing in the USA. Schiit has grown into a leader in the "personal audio" market, with a wide range of products spanning DACs, headphone amplifiers, and preamplifiers, from $99 to $1699. Schiit is also a leader in the direct sale of audio products, passing additional value along to the customer by foregoing the cost of traditional distribution networks.
 
Jason Stoddard was the former engineering lead at Sumo, designing power amps that included Polaris II, Polaris III, Andromeda III, Ulysses, Ulysses II, The Ten, The Five, as well as preamplifiers including Athena II, Diana, and Artemis, and Sumo’s first digital line: Axiom and Theorem.
 
Mike Moffat was the founder of Theta, Theta Digital, and Angstrom, and his audio history covers an impressive list of firsts, including the first standalone DAC, the Theta DSPre, the first use of digital signal processing and bit-perfect digital filter algorithms, the first DTS surround processor, and more.