More

    Schiit Aegir Mini Amp

    Schiit Audio broke the mold with its Aegir amp. It’s small, solidly built and sounds like a bona fide high-end amp. The price is right too, and it’s about a fourth the size of traditional amps with its power.

    The Aegir is $799, and looks like a near twin of the Schiit Vidar ($699), but while Vidar is a 100 watt per channel stereo amp, the more-expensive Aegir is just 20 watts per channel.

    While the two amps appear similar, the Aegir is the more sophisticated design, and sounds better than the Vidar up to medium loud volume levels. Not everybody wants maximum loud, or can get away with that, so for them putting sound quality ahead of sound quantity is a good move.

    I’m Aegir uses a rather advanced design not typically seen in such an affordable amp. It includes power ratings of 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms, doubling to 40 watts per channel into 4 ohms. For 4 or 8 ohm speakers, the Aegir’s first 10 watts per channel are pure Class A watts, from 10 to 20 watts Schiit describes the power as “Class A like” watts. Meaning they don’t conform to the strict definition of Class A designs.

    Aegir is smaller than most high-end amps, a mere 9 by 13 by 3.9 inches, but it weighs a hefty 27 pounds. Even with the Aegir’s finned heat sinks running the full lengths of the chassis sides, the amp runs warm to the touch, so don’t plan on tucking this amp away inside a closed cabinet.

    The amp’s rear panel hosts a set of beefy looking gold-plated speaker cable binding posts, stereo RCA inputs and a single XLR input for use when an Aegir is run as a mono amp (the RCA inputs are only used for stereo operation). The front panel power button toggles between standby and power on settings.

    The Aegir is a power amp and must be matched with a preamp. Having said that, it makes music sound authentic, rich and perfect for audiophiles.

    David Novak
    David Novakhttps://www.gadgetgram.com
    For the last 20 years, David Novak has appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV around the world, reviewing the latest in consumer technology. His byline has appeared in Popular Science, PC Magazine, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Electronic House Magazine, GQ, Men’s Journal, National Geographic, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Forbes Technology, Readers Digest, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Glamour Magazine, T3 Technology Magazine, Stuff Magazine, Maxim Magazine, Wired Magazine, Laptop Magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, Indiana Business Journal, Better Homes and Garden, CNET, Engadget, InfoWorld, Information Week, Yahoo Technology and Mobile Magazine. He has also made radio appearances on the The Mark Levin Radio Show, The Laura Ingraham Talk Show, Bob & Tom Show, and the Paul Harvey RadioShow. He’s also made TV appearances on The Today Show and The CBS Morning Show. His nationally syndicated newspaper column called the GadgetGUY, appears in over 100 newspapers around the world each week, where Novak enjoys over 3 million in readership. David is also a contributing writer fro Men’s Journal, GQ, Popular Mechanics, T3 Magazine and Electronic House here in the U.S.

    Must Read