Schiit Vidar Power Amp and NAD C275BEE Power Amp

[stangman]

Anyone have any experience or comment on either of these power amps. Thanks in advance for your reply.

[audio4life]

Aside from the crickets chirping, I guess there's not much going on in this thread so I'll respond. Since I've owned both, or at least in the case of the Nad, I had its brother the Nad C375BEE. The 375 had a nice sound, tilted somewhat towards the warm side. Highs were a little rolled off but nothing too serious. The bass was strong and the amp over all was pretty solid. I always felt that the preamp section was holding it back, something that the 275 doesn't have since it's just an amp. But for some reason it didn't have good synergy with my 4 ohm Totem Acoustic speakers. Other speakers it sounded fine with, but the Totems, with their frequency response that is close to + or - 6db, the results were kind of hollow sounding. Some amps and some speakers just do not belong together.

The Vidar is another beast altogether, and I prefer it to the Nad. Any speakers I've tried it out with so far have no issues. It's a more neutral amp and does well with all kinds of music. But the bass is really impactful and articulate. It's an amp with a small footprint, and is pretty heavy for its size. It would run warmer than some amps under demanding conditions, which is why the heat sinks are on the outside of the amp. In monoblock configuration it might go into protection mode if driven hard. It's built in the US with mostly American parts. The transformer is made in the US, but the manufacturer may get their materials offshore, and same with the pcb's.

The downside to this amp is that being built in the US, they've scrimped somewhat on features. There is no 12 volt trigger. The only way it turns on/off is by way of the power switch in back. Also, it has a laminated core transformer instead of the favored toroidal. This type of transformer has a slight hum typically. Mine does, and with nothing playing I can't hear it at a 3 foot distance. But if there's noise on your electrical service, it may show up with more hum. Also, it's only 100 wpc. This hasn't been an issue for me, 100 watts is quite a lot unless you have inefficient speakers(say 85 db and below)and a large room and you prefer to crank up the volume. One more thing, it has a slight thump in your speakers upon turning on or off.

So it's not for everyone. It does have good sonics for sure, but those come with pro's and cons.

[vcautokid]

Wow polar opposites. I sold NAD forever. Audio4life nailed on the NAD. I have not heard Vidar so no opinion there. I am sure it is very capable. I think you might like the NAD better too. Though the 2200 is a bit different than the 375. I had the 2400 and 7400 combination part of the monitor series. It was good but I wanted more. I hung around allot with Krell and Acurus and Aragon. I probably would like Vidar better myself but like I said. Never heard Vidar, but if Vidar is anything like the other Schiit gear I have heard, I would like it at least. But something keeps telling me the NAD may do better with the Polks. Your mileage may vary.

[audio4life]

Now that you mention it, Polks can be on the bright side, which would work well with the Nad. Looking at the OP's speaker list, he's got some vintage Polk SDA SRS2! I'm very familiar with any of his speakers, but the old Polks require an amp with a certain type of grounding scheme, if I recall. Something about a common ground? Anyway, he's probably aware of this. But Current Polk speakers do tend to be on the more forward side.

[audiobill]

I tried the Vidar at one time - nice enough, but only 20K input impedance so watch your preamp match.