OK, OK, it is time for me to chime in on cheap products – after all, I was the guy who started the cheap product challenge between Jason and myself with the original Modi. They are hard to get down to a price and difficult tradeoffs have to be made in their design, much less manufacture. There are additional challenges when the product is built here in the USA in a very high tax and labor burdened economy, as well as an employee pay scale which begins at over double the minimum wage. The reason we do this is because we want to build loyalty and a happy workplace. It's eight hours of everyone's day, after all. People respond to money far better than platitudes. This is the way I did Theta, and even before that, it worked for In'n'Out Burgers who made and make the best fast food burger, period. They also pay their employees well over minimum, a fact that was not lost on me when a friend worked there even before I founded Theta. Well paid help takes pride in what they do more than poorly paid ones. I am not so much bragging here as making a point that after taxes and labor on entry level products, we do not get rich on beer money which remains – the hope is that we sell enough for a phuc-ton of beer.
Product design tradeoffs are tough and result in surprises. Since this is the second-smallest product we have ever built, we had to use the smallest parts we have ever used. They are so small that if we place the shoulder to shoulder, 50 of them would crowd into an inch. This brings up new standards and consequent learning curve (read delay) in board inspection (read wrong/missing things). Because of cost/space/performance, this product incorporates the best sounding switcher power supply IC we ever found to provide a bipolar power supply from a monopolar input, for the purpose of power and punch to drive many popular headphones. If our design choice is a switcher vs. an anemic amp, at 100 smackers, then I take the amp balls over the very minor compromise to the highs this switcher makes. That is our design choice – if you like that, well great. If you don't, send it back. Oh, and with respect to experience in putting together our own products: It takes a while, and the earliest adopters get hit the worst, particularly at Christmas. Stuff like the jacks don't fit? We use monoprice, since they are in a price category like the Fulla2. It never occurred to us we would have users using horsecock sized audio plugs from audiophile cables here. Oh, you are talking about the mini USB sockets? Yeah, it took us a while to realize we were not optimally assembling our first units, and longer because we were using the monoprice cables we supply with every unit. And yes, I know you do not want nor deserve to hear that plugging your cables in from a low angle and pulling up Schiit.
So guess what!! We make mistakes. So we have screwed up, and will do so in the future, despite our best intentions. I understand that is part of the human condition. Particularly when we are in a Christmas hurry, and yup, some times when we are not. For all of those mistakes, we are sincerely regretful. I will be the first to admit there is a Schiit Attitude, but a huge part of that is wanting our clients to be as happy as our employees, and no consideration that anyone deserves any kind of bad treatment.
Speaking of clients, we have sold over two hundred thousand units to many, many, people. Unfortunately, there are a several of them that I have fired over the years. There are some unfortunates who will never, ever, but never be happy with anything we could ever provide. On the threads, they bad mouth, do not take advantage of remedies, post, repost, share their misery with all. These types linger like farts in a theater. They have absolutely no notion that happiness is an inside job. They post not just on our threads, mind you, I see them everywhere. Fortunately, they are a tiny minority. I totally get that we cannot please all, not even if God personally did the design. That's why we have competitors.
In summary, we really appreciate our clients and we do the best we can. If we haven't, we really want to make it right. Thanks to all!
