Schiit Saga+NuForce STA-200+ZU Audio Omen MKII Dirty Weekends

This has been an ongoing issues with all of schiit's products with internal power supplies. They've admitted it and were taking steps to remedy it in other models.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...view-head-fi-tv.818323/page-389#post-14362885

That’s odd. This is your third post in a row that makes claims about Schiit that are wildly inaccurate. I’d ask you why, but then I noticed in your link that you were quoting another crackpot, Amir.

Further, in a thread that is over 400 pages long you had at your fingertips a specific post( which you then mischaracterized). You use photos from Amir’s site and you seem to purposely make wild claims about it and Schiit. What you’re doing is pretty obvious, and pretty funny. I think I’ll ignore you from now on since you’re really just a troll.

On to the Saga, I actually owned one, which I returned. At the time, I found that I preferred the preamp which I was comparing it to. In my system the Saga had more detail and was more open sounding than my P5, but with the speakers I had, the Parasound was warmer sounding which I preferred.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve recently acquired some Totem Hawks, which are warmer sounding than my previous speakers. They are also capable of more detail, plus I’ve acquired several more varieties of cables to experiment with. The tweeters are particularly impressive, helping to throw up a 3D image that isn’t harsh.

Bottom line, I’ve ordered another Saga. Hopefully it’s here by Saturday. I’ve owned several components from Schiit. I keep going back because the performance/cost ratio is really outstanding, and I like buying stuff that’s made in the USA. Also, I have yet to have anything that’s in any way defective from them.
 
That’s odd. This is your third post in a row that makes claims about Schiit that are wildly inaccurate. I’d ask you why, but then I noticed in your link that you were quoting another crackpot, Amir.

Further, in a thread that is over 400 pages long you had at your fingertips a specific post( which you then mischaracterized). You use photos from Amir’s site and you seem to purposely make wild claims about it and Schiit. What you’re doing is pretty obvious, and pretty funny. I think I’ll ignore you from now on since you’re really just a troll.

On to the Saga, I actually owned one, which I returned. At the time, I found that I preferred the preamp which I was comparing it to. In my system the Saga had more detail and was more open sounding than my P5, but with the speakers I had, the Parasound was warmer sounding which I preferred.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve recently acquired some Totem Hawks, which are warmer sounding than my previous speakers. They are also capable of more detail, plus I’ve acquired several more varieties of cables to experiment with. The tweeters are particularly impressive, helping to throw up a 3D image that isn’t harsh.

Bottom line, I’ve ordered another Saga. Hopefully it’s here by Saturday. I’ve owned several components from Schiit. I keep going back because the performance/cost ratio is really outstanding, and I like buying stuff that’s made in the USA. Also, I have yet to have anything that’s in any way defective from them.

Did you get your Saga yet?
 
Yup, it’s still early but the soundstage imaging is cleaner and more open. At first I was getting an off center stage, I had moved the speakers a little when I changed cables and had to reposition them.

It has the same drawbacks that I dealt with before since it doesn’t have a crossover to divide the music between the speakers and subwoofer.

This is only a concern because the amp will over drive the Hawks so I’ve been removing the low frequencies from the mains, and sending it to the sub with the P5.

I can work with that, however, I think I may experiment with the Loki EQ on this. But the sonics are really good, better than the P5 imho, at least in my system. The P5 has some nifty features though and is more flexible.

I’ve also got a smaller amp( also an Adcom, the 6002 with 70 wpc instead of 200 from the 555SE) so when I’ve got more time I’ll swap it in.
 
Yup, it’s still early but the soundstage imaging is cleaner and more open. At first I was getting an off center stage, I had moved the speakers a little when I changed cables and had to reposition them.

It has the same drawbacks that I dealt with before since it doesn’t have a crossover to divide the music between the speakers and subwoofer.

This is only a concern because the amp will over drive the Hawks so I’ve been removing the low frequencies from the mains, and sending it to the sub with the P5.

I can work with that, however, I think I may experiment with the Loki EQ on this. But the sonics are really good, better than the P5 imho, at least in my system. The P5 has some nifty features though and is more flexible.

I’ve also got a smaller amp( also an Adcom, the 6002 with 70 wpc instead of 200 from the 555SE) so when I’ve got more time I’ll swap it in.

Yeah, it's such a piece of Schiit! It's good. It's real good. I did some more critical listening yesterday and am VERY pleased. I am so glad that I took this route instead of the Audio By VanAlstine Pre. Not that I think the AVA wouldn't be a great piece of gear too, it's a cost to performance thing for me. At $400 delivered with the upgraded Tung Sol's, the Schiit is entry level pricing for mid-fi performance. The AVA was going to cost me $1140. So I just saved $740! I am not even going to question it. I am happy.

And it's funny you mention the Loki. I too have seriously thought about trying it out. Let's talk a little more about that. It seems like a real interesting piece.
 
I’ve got it in the system now, between the Saga and amp. I’ve got to read up on the Loki again, apparently it adjusts gradually off of neutral and then gets more aggressive the further you turn each band. Or something like that.

Anyway, I’m experimenting but it’s early. I’d like to get at least 50 hours on the Saga before my ocd will be convinced it’s burned in. Plus I replaced a speaker binding post on the on Hawk( WBT 0763, 35 bucks a pop!) and then swapped in rocket 44 biwire speaker cables, and I’m giving it all a couple of days to “settle”.

The Loki is fun, and it does take the bass load off the speakers. I’ve got the sub’s crossover set at 100 Hz(Hsu ULS 15 MKII) for now.
 
I’ve got it in the system now, between the Saga and amp. I’ve got to read up on the Loki again, apparently it adjusts gradually off of neutral and then gets more aggressive the further you turn each band. Or something like that.

Anyway, I’m experimenting but it’s early. I’d like to get at least 50 hours on the Saga before my ocd will be convinced it’s burned in. Plus I replaced a speaker binding post on the on Hawk( WBT 0763, 35 bucks a pop!) and then swapped in rocket 44 biwire speaker cables, and I’m giving it all a couple of days to “settle”.

The Loki is fun, and it does take the bass load off the speakers. I’ve got the sub’s crossover set at 100 Hz(Hsu ULS 15 MKII) for now.

Yeah, I am going to talk to the guys at Schiit and get some more info on it. Might throw it in down the road. A month or so. I want to get a handle on how the Schiit Saga and NuForce STA sound. Like you, I feel like they are in break in mode since I have only had them for about 10 days. In fact my entire system Is fairly new. My ZU's I got on 12/23. So everything is still in the burn in period. Like you too, even my cables, I got new rca and speaker wire from BlueJeans Cable, those guys make some very nice and legit high quality cables but are not overpriced. Anyway, those are new too. So I am letting everything settle in too. :)

Yeah I guess that 20hz eq section on the Loki can take some of that low bass off of the speakers which I wouldn't mind. I have dual RSL subs so I don't need to punish my ZU's under the say 40hz range. I have my subs crossed over at 100z as well. Seems to be the sweet spot for my system.
How do you like that HSU sub? I was going to do dual ULS-15's but that was more than I wanted to spend at the time. $800 for two subs from RSL was a steal! They're pretty darn good. Real punchy and quick.
 
9 Days later and with some more critical listening over the weekend. I have no regrets at all selling off the Volt+ and buying the NuForce STA-200. I found that the Volt+ is a little more SET, tube sounding with more resolution and delicacy of details than that of the STA-200. But the STA-200 seems to really awaken my ZU's in a way that the Volt+ didn't. More dynamics, more punchy but still audiophile sound. Huge soundstage but pinpoint imaging and the way sounds move around on the soundstage is pretty impressive. But the ZU's seem to love power. It seems that the bass is a lot more controlled with the STA-200. I like the Volt+. I really do, but I like the STA-200 more. Heck, what I am going to do, is buy the Volt+D and swap it in and out of my system. I want to see how much better the D version is over the normal Volt. Plus I can always move the ZU's to the living room and combo the Volt+D with some Betsy OB's. :)
I know you wouldn't discourage me from that. LOL
Maybe I can have the best of both worlds.
 
Of course the STA-200 is going to play louder, have more headroom and be more dynamic than the Volt. That goes without saying. But after the initial wow factor wore off. I went back and listened to it just to critique sound quality. But my point is that the sound quality is also present in spades. It's not just about sheer volume, it's still about sound quality played at dynamic loud levels. I like the fact that the beat, and dynamics are there and that it pressurizes my room with lively dynamic sound but still maintains all it's composure and doesn't fall apart or distort.

And as far as your thoughts on the 10" full range driver even being efficient but not a best match for the Volt. I strongly concur. The NuForce seems to handle and control the 10" driver and in particular the bass and slam more than the Volt+ could. They just respond different with more power. The way in which bass notes hit in my room is literally startling. I didn't get that with the Volt+. I ma not talking sloppy, boomy bass. Tight, articulate fast attack and decay bass. It sounds like a real drum set in my room. I haven't found a lot of combos that do that well with concert like levels of volume.

And once again, concur with your thoughts about the Volt+ being more SET like. Still better power bass and control than my SET Decware SE84UFO but not quit up to Class A/B 80watts per channel slam. The Volt+ did bass good, but it doesn't control it the way the NuForce does. It's like comparing normal subs to servo controlled subs. The bass stops and starts on a dime, when the NuForce tells it to. But here is where we are going to disagree. What I love about my set up, is female vocals are goose bump inspiring. That midrange is spectacular. I listened to a lot of Eva Cassidy, Holly Cole, Rebecca Pidgeon and Diana Krall yesterday, and they all sounded phenomenal.

I think we all have our priorities and musical tastes. I am not blindly out there just saying buy this or buy that based upon my personal tastes. If you were to tell me that you like just vocals and acoustics at low to moderate levels. I wouldn't suggest the system I have, Omega, Decware, Betsy OB's SET amps or Volt+ would be a good fit.

But if you like EVERYTHING and your musical tastes vary like mine do and play anywhere from low volumes all the way to concert volume levels and want impact and slam but musicality and accuracy, and want an all in one system that in my opinion does it all very well and excels in a lot of areas. I stand behind what I say. The system I have now is the best system I have ever owned to fit all my needs. Is it perfect, hell no, but it's as perfect as I need it to be.
 
I’ve got it in the system now, between the Saga and amp. I’ve got to read up on the Loki again, apparently it adjusts gradually off of neutral and then gets more aggressive the further you turn each band. Or something like that.

Anyway, I’m experimenting but it’s early. I’d like to get at least 50 hours on the Saga before my ocd will be convinced it’s burned in. Plus I replaced a speaker binding post on the on Hawk( WBT 0763, 35 bucks a pop!) and then swapped in rocket 44 biwire speaker cables, and I’m giving it all a couple of days to “settle”.

The Loki is fun, and it does take the bass load off the speakers. I’ve got the sub’s crossover set at 100 Hz(Hsu ULS 15 MKII) for now.

Oh, I meant to ask you, what Tube did you get with your Saga? I upgraded to the Tung-Sols.
And are you going to look into other tube options? I wonder how much of a difference it makes in the sound with the multiple options out there.
 
Oh, I meant to ask you, what Tube did you get with your Saga? I upgraded to the Tung-Sols.
And are you going to look into other tube options? I wonder how much of a difference it makes in the sound with the multiple options out there.

The Hsu sub was something I’d kept in mind for when I upgraded the 2 channel system. When they dropped the price on the ULS 15, I never heard about it and just happened to see the new price a few months ago. I snagged a B stock unit and saved some cash l, and although it’s more sub than I really needed I’m really happy with the tight bass. What you did was the way to go, though, with 2 subs.

I’ve heard great things about Zu Audio and that amp too. I just love how the Saga gets out of the way and does no harm to the music/signal. I went with the Tung Sol tube as well and at this point I don’t see me experimenting with tubes.

The system sounds so in-the-room live, I think I’ll be a Schiit fan for life. I’ve also got the Bifrost Multibit, and it does the Schiit treatment on my digital files. Those guys know what they are doing.
 
The Hsu sub was something I’d kept in mind for when I upgraded the 2 channel system. When they dropped the price on the ULS 15, I never heard about it and just happened to see the new price a few months ago. I snagged a B stock unit and saved some cash l, and although it’s more sub than I really needed I’m really happy with the tight bass. What you did was the way to go, though, with 2 subs.

I’ve heard great things about Zu Audio and that amp too. I just love how the Saga gets out of the way and does no harm to the music/signal. I went with the Tung Sol tube as well and at this point I don’t see me experimenting with tubes.

The system sounds so in-the-room live, I think I’ll be a Schiit fan for life. I’ve also got the Bifrost Multibit, and it does the Schiit treatment on my digital files. Those guys know what they are doing.

Yeah, the Saga is pretty special. I really like it. Glad I went that route and cancelled the order on another tube pre-amp that I was going to get. $1140! So a $740 difference. I am sure it was nice but probably not $740 nicer.
I am thinking about getting the Modi MB for a dac.
 
Yeah, I’m really impressed with the detail, clarity and musicality of the Saga. 350? If you ask me Schiit is leaving money on the table with every sale. Kudos to them.

I just wasn’t quite happy with the end result when I put the Loki in front of the amp, it wasn’t as clear with the extra component and cables in the chain.

But I had a weird idea. Run TWO preamps! Put the P5 back in the mix taking signal from the second Saga pair of outputs, and use that to run the sub. I can’t crossover the fronts this way, but I think it might be an improvement over the Loki combo.

We’ll see. I haven’t looked around for a passive crossover network. That might be a better solution yet, but for now as long as I don’t overdrive the Totem Hawks I’ll be fine.

Edit: Tried the two preamps, it seemed like an overly complicated way to get little benefit.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I’m really impressed with the detail, clarity and musicality of the Saga. 350? If you ask me Schiit is leaving money on the table with every sale. Kudos to them.

I just wasn’t quite happy with the end result when I put the Loki in front of the amp, it wasn’t as clear with the extra component and cables in the chain.

But I had a weird idea. Run TWO preamps! Put the P5 back in the mix taking signal from the second Saga pair of outputs, and use that to run the sub. I can’t crossover the fronts this way, but I think it might be an improvement over the Loki combo.

We’ll see. I haven’t looked around for a passive crossover network. That might be a better solution yet, but for now as long as I don’t overdrive the Totem Hawks I’ll be fine.

Edit: Tried the two preamps, it seemed like an overly complicated way to get little benefit.

I share your exact same thoughts! The detail, clarity and musicality is off the charts great! I was doing some listening just last night and my system sounds so good and so real it's crazy. There were a couple of times where I had to pause the music because I thought someone else was in the room or heard something that I thought was something other than the music. Nope, just my system retrieving micro dynamics in the recording. It's super good.

Glad you got to be the guinea pig on the Loki. After a lot more listening, I don't want to change anything like that. KISS. Simplicity is a better route to take IMO. I do have a nice NOS tube that should be in today. A 1952 Sylvania. It's rare and supposed to be one of the best 6SNYGT tubes out there.

upload_2019-2-7_10-59-9.png
 
Yeah, I’m really impressed with the detail, clarity and musicality of the Saga. 350? If you ask me Schiit is leaving money on the table with every sale. Kudos to them.

I just wasn’t quite happy with the end result when I put the Loki in front of the amp, it wasn’t as clear with the extra component and cables in the chain.

But I had a weird idea. Run TWO preamps! Put the P5 back in the mix taking signal from the second Saga pair of outputs, and use that to run the sub. I can’t crossover the fronts this way, but I think it might be an improvement over the Loki combo.

We’ll see. I haven’t looked around for a passive crossover network. That might be a better solution yet, but for now as long as I don’t overdrive the Totem Hawks I’ll be fine.

Edit: Tried the two preamps, it seemed like an overly complicated way to get little benefit.

I also agree with Schiit leaving money on the table. There are times where a company builds such a great product and really hits it out of the park, that it outperforms a lot of their other higher priced gear. Seems like this is the case with the Saga. I feel like ZU did that with their DW's. The DW's are worth $2000 but going for $999! Same with the STA-200. At the original release price of $1299, it's worth it. At the current price of $499?!?!?!?! It's a no brainer. With this hobby, I have found that looking for performance to value is key. A lot of really good stuff out there that puts higher priced equipment to shame. I feel like I have a true HI-FI high end system for peanuts compared to what I could have spent. It's taken me 5 years of trial and error but I am truly happy with my two channel system. There is NO need to keep going down that rabbit hole. I am DONE! I am going to buy a new cd player or dac, just because I am not happy with my current redbook cd player, and two 18inch subwoofers, mainly for home theater but other than that done. No need to do anything else. As far as equipment goes. I am going to do some room treatments and some Pyle isolation pads but no more equipment. I toyed with the idea of trying OB's but after last night, I said to myself, why? :)

Anyway,

Yeah when you started talking about two pre-amps and so on, l I was like well good luck with that but it seems way to overly complicated. Guess I was right. LOL :)

Simple, simple, simple. I like things simple. LOL
 
Just a couple of songs in. It’s a great tube. But so is the Tung-Sol that Schiit shipped as an upgrade. From initial impressions, soundstage more open imaging is spectacular and maybe a touch more warmth. Crystal clear and dead silent blacks.
 
Back
Top Bottom