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More Disruptive Schiit (Vidar)


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Here's an update on my humming problem.

 

I've now tried Saga and Vidar in a different room, where I could easily do much neater cable management using the very short PYST RCA cables. I wanted to try this way before using ground lifts.

 

Speaker hum seemed further reduced compared to my previous testing. It was only clearly noticeable from less than half a meter away. This was in a far from quiet setting, with ventilation and chattering budgies adding to the background noise, but I still don't think that level of speaker hum would present a problem in  my usual listening room. So, as long as I manage to mitigate any ground loops, the speaker hum should be fine.

 

Unfortunately, the transformer hum from Vidar was still quite bad, and clearly audible and annoying from at least 1.5 m away in the already noisy room. The level of hum still wasn't affected by whether or not inputs were connected. I doubt I could live with that hum.

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409/5000
 
 
This amplifier has a potential problem, its 600 VA transformer. Although it is EI and not toroidal, if you have DC at mains it will affect the sound even if you do not hear the hum because it will stop working in the linear zone of the hysteresis curve.

Being so big, it should have a DC blocker as standard.

If I were you, I would connect you in another house, far from yours. If the noise remains, return the amplifier.
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53 minutes ago, maty said:

If I were you, I would connect you in another house, far from yours. If the noise remains, return the amplifier.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I've actually done this. I brought my Vidar to a local audio dealer, and connected it through a DC blocker. It still had hum, so I am indeed going to return it. The distributor is going to inspect it. It will be interesting to hear what they think. I'll let you know how it develops.

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3 hours ago, arsenal said:

A question, as I did not see it in the discussion, does the buzz change or disappear between using the unbalanced to balanced input into the Vidar?

 

In my case, the buzz from the amp itself was there with neither input connected.

 

I didn't have the means to try the balanced connection, but having unbalanced input cables connected didn't change the sound from the amp. However, depending on how tidy my cable management was, it also gave varying levels of hum from the speakers.

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1 hour ago, lau2001hk said:

is it wifi  router near your schiit vidar, if yes , you can try turn off your wifi router. and listen schiit vidar have hum or not ?

 

Well, in my case, I tried shutting down power to the whole house except for one outlet powering only the Vidar, and it still had hum.

 

I even brought it to a different, faraway, building, and it had hum there as well.

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  • 2 months later...

So here is my problem I just bought a VIDAR amplifier to use with my KEF LS50 and am having the same humming issue!

I got a response to my enquires from Tom E at the company!

"Have you tried swapping out all of your cables? Have you tried all the steps at http://www.schiit.com/guides/amp-problems ?"

 

I tried all that I use, I have swapped cables I use Mogami GOLD RCA and switched to Canare L-4E6S, Star Quad, RCA Audio Interconnect Cable and Neutrik-Rean.

Previously I had a Classe amplifier and I had zero hisses or buzz?

The noise is very loud without any signal!

The same cables with my Classe amplifiers same speakers have no hiss or noise!

I hope I will hear back from Jassonso far I have not heard back since Monday! Tried calling always the same answering message no live person :(

 

wse

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8 minutes ago, wse said:

So here is my problem I just bought a VIDAR amplifier to use with my KEF LS50 and am having the same humming issue!

 

 

I got a response to my enquires from Tom E at the company!

 

"Have you tried swapping out all of your cables? Have you tried all the steps at http://www.schiit.com/guides/amp-problems ?"

 

 

I tried all that I use, I have swapped cables I use Mogami GOLD RCA and switched to Canare L-4E6S, Star Quad, RCA Audio Interconnect Cable and Neutrik-Rean.

 

Previously I had a Classe amplifier and I had zero hisses or buzz?

 

The noise is very loud without any signal!

 

The same cables with my Classe amplifiers same speakers have no hiss or noise!

I hope I will hear back from Jassonso far I have not heard back since Monday! Tried calling always the same answering message no live person :(

 

 

 

Let's tag @schiit to see if Jason has any info.

 

Are your cables different lengths?

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I love how Schiit always pretends there’s nothing wrong when faced yet another problem with their designs.

 

@The Computer Audiophile fixed the humming problem with the use of some custom cables (probably recommended to him by Schiit). Could it be the amp is super sensitive to environmental noise? Do you guys with the hum have carpeted floors? Try elevating the cables with wood blocks or use CD cases to form an inverted V stand.

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On 12/15/2017 at 2:56 AM, Vrugdush said:

 

Well, in my case, I tried shutting down power to the whole house except for one outlet powering only the Vidar, and it still had hum.

 

I even brought it to a different, faraway, building, and it had hum there as well.

 

I have this kind of experience before with an integrated amp (cannot remember the brand) and I had tried many method to fix it but in vain.  I changed the amp and the problem disappear.

MetalNuts

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Considering how many people are having problems with the vidar I can't believe that schiit is really not getting on top of this. I own two schiit products and I have never had anything close to hum. I currently own an emotiva a300 and would not consider the vidar until they come up with a revised edition when my amp sounds fairly good at $300 less. I get the feeling that schiit pushed the envelope somewhere in their design and it might work really good in some customers setups or really poorly in others.

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On 2/21/2018 at 11:34 AM, schiit said:

Actually, I looked into the ticketing system. Here's what really happened. (I will not cut and paste actual responses, though I can if we really need to.)

 

Sunday at 9:35AM, we received an email about Vidar hum. Tom responded at 10:06AM, asking about swapping cables and system troubleshooting. There were a couple other responses that day, until the customer asked if we were serious about using a ground loop isolator to eliminate a possible ground loop problem.

 

Tom escalated this to Orders, since the date of the order wasn't given. 

 

Since Tom thought he was waiting for a response from the customer, something like, "Yes, I've gone through system troubleshooting and I still have the problem," he didn't escalate it to a return/replace, where we issue a call tag and send another amp out. Today, we got an angry email about poor customer service.

 

I have responded to the email and connected him with Amy, who will arrange a return/replace or 100% refund, whatever the customer wants.

 

Yes thank you very much for that, I hope the replacement won't have that problem! 

wse

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On 22/02/2018 at 5:21 AM, wse said:

So here is my problem I just bought a VIDAR amplifier to use with my KEF LS50 and am having the same humming issue!

 

Same here!

 

I bought a Vidar from Addicted to Audio in Melbourne to use with my ls50, replacing a NAD D3020 which was dead silent.

 

My first Vidar was returned because it made a rattling vibration sound.

 

Now on my second Vidar the rattle is gone, but there is a very loud hum.

I upgraded my powerboard to a Belkin pro 4000 which offers a very basic level of power filtering to see if it would make a difference.

Its still pretty noisy from 3 metres away. Sounds like a fish tank pump only louder.

 

This has to be a defect right?

 

The noise happens when it's just am amp connected to speakers no inputs just like the previous posters.

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11 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Twice I was able to stop the Vidars form humming by using different speaker cables. 

What should I look for in a replacement set?

 

Currently I only have Van Den Hul Clearwater. I don't want to spend too much on something that might not work.

 

But if there is a affordable set known to work well I would give it a go.

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1 minute ago, TheDotProd said:

What should I look for in a replacement set?

 

Currently I only have Van Den Hul Clearwater. I don't want to spend too much on something that might not work.

 

But if there is a affordable set known to work well I would give it a go.

 

I would seriously try something really cheap to see if it works. Here is a link to what I tried earlier in this thread (Monster Cable worked).

 

 

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