Hey all,
 
Well, I was hoping to say we'd be shipping tomorrow (we have tons of finished boards waiting for nothing but bottom chassis), but it looks like the weather caught the plater out. It's been 105-110 degrees here, and the parts we got back are significantly different color than the top chassis. Sorry for the ongoing delays, but the good news is that not many parts ended up like this, the plater understands the problem, and I believe we'll be able to get this sorted next week. I've updated the website to reflect this.
 
All the best,
Jason

Well that's some awful bad luck there Jason. You can't seem to catch a break with the chassis.

It's my own fault for saying, "Hey, we fixed all our production problems, everything's clear sailing now." Murphy can be quite a pain in the rear end.
 
Q: So what have we learned from this?
A: We've learned that even when we've never had problems from a supplier before, they can happen. They're stepping up, but there are just some things out of our control.
 
Q: Can we expect the same for Gungnir?
A: I'm not going to say, "no," (see Murphy's Law), but it's much more doubtful. Ironically enough, the Gungnir metal is in-house and perfect. Transformers are en-route. Everything is in great shape--we're literally just waiting for the final custom VCXO production parts (expected Monday) so we can do final qualification and release boards and kits to the assembly house. But . . . well, until we're shipping, we're not shipping.
 
Q: Does this affect future new products?
A: Nope, engineering is proceeding with good speed on new products. The only big gotcha we've hit so far is a specific programmable part going obsolete, and the requirement to re-invest and re-develop with an all-new simulator/debugger package, on an all-new part, with all-new code. What impact that will have, I'm not sure yet. I hope it has zero impact.
 
And that's all we know for now. As usual, we'll keep you updated as much as possible. And, even though I'm not one to do the hard sell, let me say this: Mjolnir is gonna be worth the wait. 

Quote:

jason stoddard said:

Sorry for the ongoing delays, but the good news is that not many parts ended up like this, the plater understands the problem, and I believe we'll be able to get this sorted next week.

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Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but will any ship out if most of the bottoms are good?

Quote:

solude said:

 
Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but will any ship out if most of the bottoms are good?
 

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All of them are bad. Just not many were done before they realized the problem and brought us in to compare. What this means is we don't have to re-machine the majority of them.

So guess the over under question is will you have case bottoms before I have my HD800  My money is on the cases coming in first

Since I got my Burson Soloist and was bummed to find out its not biased very far into class A... just how deeply biased is the Mjolnir?

Quote:

solude said:

Since I got my Burson Soloist and was bummed to find out its not biased very far into class A... just how deeply biased is the Mjolnir?

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Very.

I would venture a guess to say that it is pure class A up to its
maximum rated power.

"Schiit Audio:  All our bottoms are bad."
 
I need sleep.  No animosity at all is intended, btw....my next amp will likely be a Schiit.

Quote:

kevin gilmore said:

I would venture a guess to say that it is pure class A up to its
maximum rated power.

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I wish! But that would take a fan that would sound like a stuck toilet (for the record, Mjolnir has no fan.) Bias is set to give a comfortable 2W class A into 50 ohms, though.

Quote:

disastermouse said:

"Schiit Audio:  All our bottoms are bad."
 
I need sleep.  No animosity at all is intended, btw....my next amp will likely be a Schiit.

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 I was discussing JFET "pinch-off"--a common engineering term for Vgs(off) with Mike a while back, and Rina just burst out laughing. It took me a while to understand what was so funny about it.

Quote:

jason stoddard said:

Bias is set to give a comfortable 2W class A into 50 ohms, though.

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That's pretty good in the context of price.  Unless I pooched the math that's 200mA compared to the B22's 160mA.  

Quote:

solude said:

 
That's pretty good in the context of price. 

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Faint praise. It's higher bias than the 300W Stereophile Recommended Components (B-Class) speaker amps I used to design.
 
Name me something else near the price anywhere near that level. There's nothing out there. Name me something else near the price with a circlotron-style topology. There's nothing out there. Mjolnir doesn't have to apologize to anyone. When I said all of our new products would be "one and only," that's exactly what I meant. 
 
Sorry to sound a little testy, we have to re-set perceptions. We don't operate on a "what can you sell it for, with plenty of margins for dealers thrown in" basis. We operate on a "what can we build it for in the USA while paying our people a decent wage, and what's the lowest price we can sell it for and still run a stable, long-term business with great customer service," basis. We're not traditional boutique audio, and we're not DIY. 
 
Of course, it could still sound like crap. But I'm pretty confident that's not what the reviews will say.