Schiit Audio just released two new amplifiers, the Rekkr and the Gjallarhorn. As soon as they were announced, I bought both, filled with excitement to hear low powered, class AB amplifiers. Let me tell you all about the Schiit Gjallarhorn in this review and whether or not this amp will be a good fit for you.
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Schiit Gjallarhorn Specs:
How Much Power Does The Schiit Gjallarhorn Produce?
As I mentioned before, the Gjallarhorn is a low powered amp, rated at just 10 watts into 8 ohms and 15 watts into 4 ohms.
If you want more power, you can buy two Gjallarhorn amps and use them as mono blocks to increase the power to 30 watts into 8 ohms.
Here’s an interesting fact that I read on the Schiit website where they claim, “10 watts out of Gjallahorn with 95 db efficient speakers is like 100 watts of Vidar into 85 db efficient speakers.” This is great news since my vintage Klipsch Heresy speakers are rated between 96 and 99 db and should be a great pairing with this little amp.
It’s so small, is the Gjallarhorn a Class D Amp?
Even though the Gjallarhorn is small, it doesn’t feel cheap, weighing in at 8 pounds. Schiit is very quick to point out on their website that the Gjallarhorn is not class D, but instead, class AB.
The small size is due in part to Schiit incorporating a fully discrete, Continuity S output stage, which is their exclusive design.
I’ve been listening to a lot of class D amps lately like the Aiyima T9 Pro, the Fosi Audio T20, TB10D, BT20A and even the original Aiyima T9 and was curious if the class AB Gjallarhorn would sound different. I’ll tell you more about sound after explaining two more features.
Speaker Connections:
Note, the Gjallarhorn’s speaker connections on the rear of the unit require you to use banana plugs, so make sure you have those handy before the unit arrives.
Balanced Input?
Looking at the rear of the Gjallarhorn, you will notice a mono balanced input on the left hand side of the unit.
If you have a preamp with balanced outputs, you can connect it to a pair of Gjallarhorn amps using this mono balanced input.
How Does The Gjallarhorn Sound?
For all of my listening tests below, I connected the Gjallarhorn to my Schiit Saga+ preamp and my vintage Klipsch Heresy speakers.
First, before we discuss the sound of the amplifier, it’s worth pointing out that Schiit calls this amp a “lease-breaker”, meaning it can get loud enough to annoy your neighbors or in my case, everyone else living in my house.
Just how loud can a 10 watt amplifier get?
I played a CD copy of SAMIAM’s Astray album, a loud in your face emo rock record released in 2000. I was home alone and turned the volume up as loud as I could stand it on the Saga+ preamp and took a reading with my decibel meter which measured between 95 and 96 decibels, aka LOUD!
I didn’t even have the volume turned all the way up because I chickened out and worried I would blow my speakers.
So can the Gjallarhorn be a lease-breaker? After my loudness test, I say YES!
Now, keep in mind, my Klipsch Heresy speakers have a high efficiency rating between 96-99 decibels (at least that’s what Klipsch claims) which makes them easier to drive with a low powered amp.
If your speakers have a lower efficiency rating, say 86 decibels, and you crank the Gjallarhorn too, you may have a different volume result.
Okay, it gets loud enough, but how does the Gjallarhorn sound?
As I mentioned earlier, I connected the Gjallahorn to my vintage Klipsch Heresy speakers, using my Schiit Saga+ preamp. I don’t have any tone controls with this set up, so whatever tones the gear produces, is what I have to live with.
I first listened to Jeff Parker’s Forfolks album. My formative musical years were in the late 1990’s and I listened to a lot of Jeff’s band Tortoise and have really enjoyed following his solo career in the last few years.
While some of his earlier releases feel more like jazz albums, this instrumental record is an intimate recording of mostly quiet electric guitar playing layered over loops.
The Gjallarhorn brought Jeff’s amplifier right into my living room. It felt like I could see how closely mic’d his amp was in the studio while listening via the Gjallarhorn.
Low powered amplifiers are known for not producing a lot of bass, so how did this 10 watt amp hold up? I decided to compare the Gjallarhorn with the Emotiva Bas-X A-100 amp which is rated at 50 watts into 8 ohms.
I played an album by Blakroc, a project that features The Black Keys backing various hip hop stars rapping over their blues rock jams.
The first song, one that I’ll have to refrain from naming here, has ODB and Ludacris rapping over some pretty thick bass and I found the Gjallarhorn to play it back adequately. The Emotiva amp had a little more thump to it, but some of the extra detail I enjoyed with the Gjallarhorn disappeared with the added power of the Emotiva.
Also, the vocals are more forward with the Gjallarhorn which is a common sound signature of Schiit gear. ODB’s last first sounds like he’s rapping in a large room rather than an isolated studio booth. There is a lot of extra echo on his vocal and the Gjallarhorn highlighted that sound more than the Emotiva.
Overall, the Gjallarhorn is very easy to listen to. Even albums that tend to be a little harsh in the high frequencies, think Sugar’s File Under Easy Listening or Fugazi’s The Argument, were played back in a controlled manner that made things pleasant to listen to.
In short, if you like the sound of Schiit amps, the Gjallarhorn will be right up your alley.
Should You Buy The Schiit Rekkr or the Schiit Gjallarhorn?
If you are a fan of Schiit Audio, you most likely noticed they announced another amp, the tiny 2 watt Rekkr amp for just $150. For anyone who might be curious which of the two amps they should buy, let me help you make that decision…
The Rekkr is just 2 watts per channel and I listened to it both in my system at home and work. I found it to sound best as a desktop amp where it sounds great at low volumes. It hasn’t left my office since I set it up there.
I took the Gjallarhorn to work and found that the increase in wattage there wasn’t necessary, the Rekkr is just fine.
However, I found the Gjallarhorn to WAY outperform the Rekkr in my home system. It has made music a lot of fun to listen to!
So, if you are trying to decide which amp is right for you, I would suggest you consider your use. If you are looking for a great desktop amp, go with the Rekkr. If you would like something to power your speakers at home, go Gjallarhorn.
Should You Consider Buying the Gjallarhorn?
Before buying the Gjallarhorn, I would consider two things: 1) how to plan on using the amp and 2) the sensitivity of your speakers based on your answer to #1.
I found the Gjallarhorn to be a great sounding amp on my desktop, no matter the sensitivity of my speakers. Sure, the higher the better, but lower sensitivity didn’t lose much when listening on my desktop.
However, I found the Gjallarhorn to sound better using higher sensitivity speakers, anything over 90 db, in my home system.
So if you plan on using it in a home system, check out the sensitivity level of your speakers and try to pair this little amp with a level over 90 db.
But if you are using it for a desktop system, don’t be scared to pair it with lower sensitivity speakers if that’s what you have on hand. If you eventually add higher sensitivity speakers down the road, the Gjallarhorn will only shine that much more!
Lastly, if you would like to see my YouTube review of the Gjallarhorn, you can do so by clicking the link below:
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