[gikigill]

  I see how this ideology is plausible in a small company environment. However, the bigger the company (and more importantly, the more people working in it) the less probable it is that you can have such dedicated workers. One thing that I noticed is that the less people, the more interaction between them, thus higher levels of empathy are possible, leading to a better work environment.
As numbers grow, the interests of the parties start to head in different directions, and that lack of interaction only increases separate goals.
 
 
Also, I always found that good chairs (does not automatically mean expensive, but it often does) are one core element if you are sitting most of your work hours. 
If you spend 1 hour out of 8 standing or moving that is ok, but if you spend 8 hours sitting, it will take a toll on your health sooner or later (even with good chairs).
 
From another side, I agree that if you build a Palace you die, but... its kinda nice to die in a Palace . Im trying to say that usually you would build the Palace with the money you saved from revenue/profit, not from the money you are investing to make that profit in the first place.
 
As for Apple, they had a good trend going for them, but that is what it is: a Trend. people are already starting to look for alternatives, and Apple has yet to show what it has done with all that massive amount of money it has made. That Spaceship thingy: A marketing stunt, and it is unclear to me if finishing it is even worth it.

 
 
Apple has money to burn so even if they lose a few billion, they are not going to lose sleep over it. Now a startup or a small business trying to emulate them is silly.

 

[davidsh]

Google seems to be doing fine despite palace-building.

 

[markm1]

A lot of passion about chairs! As someone with neck and back issues, I can see the value of having chairs w/ adequate support. My wife had to go thru hell to get decent chairs at work. I'm a teacher. But, if you're sitting 8 hours a day, I can imagine you might have strong feelings about your comfort.............

 

[catspaw]

I wouldn't call it comfort.
In reality, many of the less comfortable chairs are the more healthy ones.
The chair I have now at work looks like a nightmare, but its incredibly good.
 
Also, a good couch for listening sessions or home cinema watching is also quite nice. But at work, where I was my back straight and my bloodstream at its 100%, nah .

 

[superjawes]

A lot of passion about chairs! As someone with neck and back issues, I can see the value of having chairs w/ adequate support. My wife had to go thru hell to get decent chairs at work. I'm a teacher. But, if you're sitting 8 hours a day, I can imagine you might have strong feelings about your comfort.............

Just an observation, but I imagine that most of us are sitting in chairs at computers while we're writing responses...take that for perspective

And it does go beyond chairs. If your job is to man phones all day, I imagine that you would want a decent headset. If you spend most of your job time outside walking off roads, you probably have feelings about quality boots and outwear. If you're a driver of heavy trucks, I can guarantee that you have feelings on engine power and control locations.

It comes down to whether your equipment is actually effective at helping you do your job. There are plenty of "hey, it works" solutions, but there are also plenty of solutions that help you do your job more effectively (and hopefully without breaking the bank).

 

[markm1]

Just an observation, but I imagine that most of us are sitting in chairs at computers while we're writing responses...take that for perspective

And it does go beyond chairs. If your job is to man phones all day, I imagine that you would want a decent headset. If you spend most of your job time outside walking off roads, you probably have feelings about quality boots and outwear. If you're a driver of heavy trucks, I can guarantee that you have feelings on engine power and control locations.

It comes down to whether your equipment is actually effective at helping you do your job. There are plenty of "hey, it works" solutions, but there are also plenty of solutions that help you do your job more effectively (and hopefully without breaking the bank).

Yeah-that's exactly my point-as a teacher, I spend some time working at a desk when I'm not directly teaching. But, I'm up and down. Mostly up.  But, for someone like my wife who works in human resources, she's sitting at a desk most of the day. If she and her coworkers hate their chairs and feel they are uncomfortable, unsupportive, etc. it can become a real sticking point.

 

[jacal01]

  [snip] In reality, many of the less comfortable chairs are the more healthy ones.

 
Soooo...  Out with the bean bag chairs and in with the kneeling chairs.  Can gravity boots be far behind?

 

[OddE]

In reality, many of the less comfortable chairs are the more healthy ones.

-I'll keep that in mind next time I find myself sitting on my standard field chair - a Zarges shipping crate with a 1/2" thick Styrofoam sheet glued on top...

(Truth be told, though - it is surprisingly comfortable)

 

[Rudiger]

Hey, you should post at the forum "chair passion". But sometimes they talk for a long time about headphones.
(Just kidding) 

 

 

[BeyerMonster]

  I wouldn't call it comfort.
In reality, many of the less comfortable chairs are the more healthy ones.

Yeah, it's not about comfort, it's about long-term health. I know it probably sounds ridiculous for those of you that are in more dangerous jobs like construction or deep sea oil rigs, but desk jobs can definitely be a death my a million cuts if the ergonomics are bad (non-adjustable desks, chairs, etc).
 
Incidentally, the reason why the Herman Miller Aeron was the most uncomfortable office chair I've ever had was that the edges would dig into my legs and basically cut off circulation. The model I had was the one where you couldn't tilt the front of the seat down, so it wasn't something that could be avoided. I ended up switching to an older "crappier" office chair at work that was ugly as sin but worked just fine.
 
FWIW, I'm about 6' and 190, so while I could maybe lose a few lbs here or there, I'm not overly obese or anything like that. A standard bar stool or a $10 yoga ball would have worked out better.

 

[jacal01]

  With respect to I2S, I'll leave Mike to comment more if he'd like, but I believe it comes down to this:
 
1. We make (by and large) inexpensive products that are geared at the vast majority of applications, rather than specific, ultra-high-end implementations.
 
2. The opportunity in lower cost products is much, much greater than any high-price-tag stuff.
 
3. Because of this, it's more likely you'll see us working on connectivity such as WiFi or Bluetooth (yeah, I know, barf) before I2S, because this is more congruent with where we are in the market, and the engineering resources are much better used in this space. Note that this isn't a promise of future products; this is merely an example of other mass-market connectivity which we currently do not support.
 
4. Similarly, we won't be working on things like $2500 USB cables or reintroducing ST optical connections for our products, for the same reasons.
 
5. We don't ascribe any overarching advantage to I2S for connectivity, because every connector/format has its challenges in implementation--especially when working with a format that was never designed to run down a cable (I2S stands for Inter IC Sound).
 
6. If we're talking I2S via HDMI, HDMI has its own set of headaches (licensing, special test equipment, DRM, ongoing revision levels) that we'd prefer not to deal with. The best way to deal with HDMI is with a separate upgradable board, to ensure future compatibility.
 
All that said, sure, if I2S becomes a significant part of the connectivity mix, sure, we can add it in. Of course, that requires a bigger upgrade than our current modular upgrades, because it will affect the mix of connectors on the back of the product--which means a different inner chassis.

 
As I understand it, the big advantage of I2S over the other digital signal formats, especially USB, is that the source clock solely controls the signal transmission, so that clocking jitter becomes a non-issue, at least in theory.  In more practical terms, and of course implementation is always a factor, but I’ve compared the various forms of S/PDIF against it, and the difference in musical clarity and fidelity is immediate and significant.
 
Of course data signal jitter elimination is one thing, cable and connector impedance is another.  Listening comparisons consensus during development of a DIY I2S LVTTL/LVDS converter board and its DAC installations seem to indicate that higher quality interconnecting wiring of as short of lengths as possible is optimal.  The beauty of HDMI for I2S signal formatting, in addition to supporting LVDS balanced signal protocol and growing industry standard acceptance, is that high quality cables are already readily commercially available for the discerning audiophile.  
 
If Schiit’s 18K+ timing interpolation filter taps and multi-bit R2R ladder conversion DAC is all that you and Mike claim it to be, the Yggdrasil can potentially stand right up there with the best of them, at least 2, most noticeably.  That's rather exciting to contemplate and explore, and it would be disappointing if quality of input signal proved to be its weak link.  There is at least one very good USB to I2S converter available for alternative USB implementation options, so that additional I2S input capability would be a perfect segue into the high end audio market that you claim not to pander to.  It also doesn’t make good business sense to deliberately eschew a significant market segment, if a little can potentially gain you a lot.
 
I’m not really pushing an agenda here at this point, just food for thought.

 

[madwolfa]

As I understand it, the big advantage of I2S over the other digital signal formats, especially USB, is that the source clock solely controls the signal transmission, so that clocking jitter becomes a non-issue, at least in theory

Isn't that what asynchronous USB is for when the clock is fully under control of receiving device, in our case - DAC? Are we inventing a wheel here?

 

[EraserXIV]

What sources do people have that output I2S?

 

[madwolfa]

What sources do people have that output I2S?

He was suggesting some USB to I2S converters. Kinda pointless, IMO.

 

[jacal01]

Isn't that what asynchronous USB is for when the clock is fully under control of receiving device, in our case - DAC? Are we inventing a wheel here?

 
I'm not planning to get into any sort of extended debate or discourse here, but as I've learned, and I'm certainly not an expert, audio quality USB formatted signal data input is especially hard to implement, and clocking errors still occur even in asynchronous transmission mode.  Which ostensively explains the attraction of femto clocks and the like.  USB signal conversions are not all created equal.  Some are implemented much better than others, depending on software drivers, etc., and I would go so far as to say that in all probability no two product USB implementations are exactly alike in quality.  Digital audio file input signal options are always good.   
 

What sources do people have that output I2S?

 
 
I myself have a PS Audio Perfect Wave CD transport with LVDS I2S via HDMI output, since I find that Redbook quality 16 bit/44.1 kHz resolution is sufficiently satisying if properly recorded and mixed and processed through a suitably matched high quality component setup.  There is also a Rockna Wavedream NET combination file server and transport with HDMI I2S output capability I've got my eye on for possible future upgrade that promises to bypass completely the whole audio file output via USB signal quality issue.  Sorta like having my cake and eat it too for having both download audio file and CD source digital output signal integrity.
 
And as I'd mentioned before, there are some high quality USB/I2S DDS converters available, albeit pricey, to offer choices to those still constrained to digital audio file server/PC sources.