[Edoardo]

Quote:

OH, COME ON!
 
At first Schiit have been talking about their statement DAC that it will cost $900-$1000
....half a year later they were saying that it will cost around $1200
 
and now??
 
"If you’re looking at spending at least 2X the price of a Gungnir,"
 
they must be kidding.
now they say that it will cost MORE THAN $1500 ?
 
if they continue in this manner, i believe that by august they will tell us that it will cost $2000

Man, as it is built, the Gungnir itself could cost 2000$ and be worth every penny.
 
Find me a DAC with clock regeneration, separate 44.1 and 48 KHz multiples clocks, double DAC stages, balanced FET output stages... and if you are able to, tell the price.
 
Or if you wish, find me an headphone amplifier with 8 power supply stages and 8 single gain stages in parallel push-pull.
 
...And... Everything Op-Amp free.
 
Made in the USA.
 
 
I could name both audiophile and pro brands that build their Hi-End 1000$ or 3000$ DACs with much, much less effort.
 
This stuff may not be a reference in their catalog, but is already top-notch, over-killingly and genially built.
 
And costs much, much less than already-very-good, but "nothing new", and not so hi-end, stuff.
 
 
Statement Schiit DAC and amp gonna cost 1500 $ each? Odin knows what they're going to put inside it.
 
I'm not buying this namely "mid-range" couple just because these guys have been fulfilling their promises and made me really, really very curious and hopeful about the statement gear to come.

 

[Llloyd]

Yeah, even if the statement DAC is 1500, I imagine it will be a good value.  We'll see when the time comes.  I might just pick up an M-DAC within the next year and be done with it though.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

To answer a couple of questions, one of which came up privately, I figured I'd pop in.
 
1. Statement products cost more than originally anticipated? Yep. They're also very different products than we anticipated. We originally planned to have a single-ended-only, non-hardware-balanced version of the top DAC. We decided that hardware balanced was the way to go (it will still have summed single-ended output.) We also originally planned to have the top amp be a conventional volume-pot and input-switch design, now it's relay-switched stepped attenuation and relay-switched inputs. Fair warning: if you don't like clicking, steer well clear of the statement amp. It'll have 24 relays inside. 
 
2. Black anodize? Nope. Not gonna happen. We need to keep things simple, so silver it is. And clear anodize vs black anodize as far as heat goes is not that much different. Unplated aluminum is a disaster, but clear anodize's emissivity is 0.83, vs black's 0.86. Plus, if I ever see another black and gold Sumo faceplate, I'm going to have to get out my VHS videotape of Smokey and the Bandit. I keep flashing back to the chest-hair and gold-chain era. 
 
3. What about this Buy Better Gear light? Does it mean I'm in trouble with a computer source? Bottom line, probably not. The only sources we can't consistently get to work with VCXOs are satellite receivers. Most of our computers work just fine, even cheap stuff. So you're probably fine. But it'll be interesting to see, won't it?
 

 

[kr0gg]

Thanks, Jason.
That cleared things up for me.

 

[dyl1dyl]

Quote:

Man, as it is built, the Gungnir itself could cost 2000$ and be worth every penny.
 
Find me a DAC with clock regeneration, separate 44.1 and 48 KHz multiples clocks, double DAC stages, balanced FET output stages... and if you are able to, tell the price.
 
Or if you wish, find me an headphone amplifier with 8 power supply stages and 8 single gain stages in parallel push-pull.
 
...And... Everything Op-Amp free.
 
Made in the USA.
 
 
I could name both audiophile and pro brands that build their Hi-End 1000$ or 3000$ DACs with much, much less effort.
 
This stuff may not be a reference in their catalog, but is already top-notch, over-killingly and genially built.
 
And costs much, much less than already-very-good, but "nothing new", and not so hi-end, stuff.
 
 
Statement Schiit DAC and amp gonna cost 1500 $ each? Odin knows what they're going to put inside it.
 
I'm not buying this namely "mid-range" couple just because these guys have been fulfilling their promises and made me really, really very curious and hopeful about the statement gear to come.

I absolutely agree with this. Purely from the specs and design ideology released so far, I would absolutely place the new Gungnir in the same class as DACs like the W4S Dac2 and Calyx DAC which both run about double the Gungnir. We will have to listen to them though to confirm if the Gungnir really does match up. As to the Mjolnir, I really think that Jason and all his partners have really delivered as to their claims of having technology not seen anywhere else even in their "mid range" stuff. The cyclotron topology sounds great and the simple thing is that the Mjolnir looks super competetive with lots of amps such as the Apex Arete and Hifiman EF-6 that cost noticeably more. All things said, the ultimate performance of the new products will define their value proposition but just looking at specs, the new Schiit products look like absolutely brilliant value propositions.
 

 

[ninjikiran]

I wonder how it would React to juli@.  I must warn you, she is very concerned about her looks and if you say shes low class she will get depressed.  I will probably wait for the statement since I already own the excellent bifrost, and while gungir would be a significant upgrade, statement should be insanity. (in short, if schiit wasn't offering more dacs I would be happy with bifrost being my end game)
 
I wonder how mjolner will sound vs the decware taboo I am still waiting for. 

 

[Roscoeiii]

For the DAC outputs, will both balanced and RCA be able to be used simultaneously? I would love to be able to run XLR to my bedroom headphone rig and RCA to my stereo. That's one of the features I miss from my Weiss DAC2

 

[takezo]

nm
 

 

[achl354]

if only the shipping date were closer than August, i would have paid for the new mid range DAC without second thoughts
 
so for now, until Schiit's statement DAC is out, the Yulong D18 will do the job...... hopefully

 

[Llloyd]

Quote:

I wonder how it would React to juli@.  I must warn you, she is very concerned about her looks and if you say shes low class she will get depressed.  I will probably wait for the statement since I already own the excellent bifrost, and while gungir would be a significant upgrade, statement should be insanity. (in short, if schiit wasn't offering more dacs I would be happy with bifrost being my end game)
 
I wonder how mjolner will sound vs the decware taboo I am still waiting for. 

I'm waiting on a taboo too and am very curious about this.  I feel like the taboo is incredible value though.  Not to mention I love tubes.  Plus being able to power speakers is too good for me to pass up.
 
Needless to say I'm still curious.  Just thinking of the asgard and how I felt about it(did not like with HE-500), I imagine the taboo will be more dynamic.  I wouldn't be surprised if I was proved wrong though.  I am a tube fanboy what can I say.
 
Taboo + CSP2 can power virtually any headphone as well so I doubt I'll be looking any further once I have the two of those.  Maybe I'll pick up the schiit statement dac when it releases though, or I might flip my bifrost for this new one depending on what my cash situation is looking like when it releases.  It's either that or the M-DAC.

 

[shaunybaby]

aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww but i just finished building my new Pc, great looking amps, i will prob get the new combo and call it a day with some he-6s, i love the look of schiits products and the new line up continues this great styling, i have a lyr and it has been a treat to listen to, can,t wait to hear impressions and see some real pics, great work as always jason and team

 

[shaunybaby]

just came back from reading the FAQ on the two new products, you guys make me laugh, very good reading material
 
 
Now you’re screwing with me!
Just a little. Technically, Adapticlock is the industry’s most advanced jitter-reducing reclocking system. It automatically switches between VCXO and VCO reclocking, depending on the quality of your source. High-quality sources run on the VCXOs, for best jitter performance. Lower-quality sources that deviate from the range of the VCXOs are routed automatically to the VCOs, and an LED on the front panel comes on. We call this the “buy better gear” light.
 
i love this one

 

[grokit]

Quote:

We call this the “buy better gear” light.

 

[estreeter]

Sadly, for all the hooha around 'you can plug our DAC into anything and it will transform it into a world-class source !', I have to agree with Schiit on this :
 
 
You’re kidding. Buy better gear?
Yep. Sources that are outside of the industry-standard specified range of clock frequencies probably ain’t so great. However, you’re still getting clock regeneration from the VCOs, but not the better regeneration performance of the VCXOs.

What are some typical high-quality and low-quality sources?
High-quality: good CD transports, good DVD/Blu-Ray players, good music servers. Low-quality: satellite receiver, many computers, bad/cheap CD/DVD players.

 

[estreeter]

They key, IMO, is finding the aforementioned 'good music server' and a decent NAS. Get that right and the rest should fall into place. I'm still happy to mess around with voyage-mpd but I'm increasingly drawn to gear like the Marantz NA7004. Its all dollars, but might as well get it right from A to B. Juggling CDs is a bit too 1995 for me - ymmv.