Jason Stoddard
Sponsor: Schiit Audio
Apologies, everyone. But you really should relax. This isn't a cure for cancer or a solution for world peace. This is just our new stuff (which is pretty damn cool, yeah, but it's not worth getting upset over.)
In a few days, I'll make an announcement about the "midrange" products, Mjolnir (balanced amp) and Gungnir (balanced DAC). Which really are end-game products. This announcement will give you plenty of information to chew on and decide if the products are for you, but there will be no pre-order. There'll be an interest list and an anticipated shipping date. Pre-orders will be open when all parts are at the board house for assembly, all final metal has been through QC, and we're ready to produce. This means there won't be delays, as there were with Bifrost.
So, in true Schiit fashion, here's an FAQ about where we are and why everything is so late:
So, why the heck are you so late? Have you just been sitting around, watching TV and eating bonbons?
Yep. That's exactly what we've been doing. It's not like we've been expanding dramatically, struggling to keep up with orders, hiring new people and moving into an entirely new, 5x larger space. It's not like we haven't been scaling up production and making the investments in operations that are necessary to ensure we don't have endless backorders again. We love getting ten thousand emails about "where's my stuff!"
Why can't you do new products at the same time you scale up?
Because you'd much rather have us get the current stuff right than pump out some half-sorted attempt at new gear. We've seen that kill more companies than you can imagine. Also, consider that every new product we're announcing is a "one and only" product, not the chip of the month in a fancy box--so it takes a lot more development work than you might expect.
So, why didn't you anticipate the demand you have?
We did. The problem is, every time we made a prediction for future production, our needs exceeded it by 50-100%. We're now building 2-5X larger production runs than in the past.
Are you done with the growth pains?
For now, we have plenty of space and runs that will keep backorder to a minimum. There are some new faces around the shop, including Alex, who's in charge of operations. Things are working much more smoothly now. Which means--
So when are the new products coming out!
We'll announce the midrange products in the next few days. Like I said, it'll be an interest list. We'll specify anticipated shipping dates on the interest list and announce pre-order shortly before shipping. At least one of the products will be shipping in Q2.
How about the "statement" stuff?
We still expect to announce and ship this year. I have good confidence this will happen, now that we've had our operational issues largely taken care of.
