[JanMc]

Jason and I like Zu speakers and they are quite the contrast to the Salks so maybe a pair of Union 6s would be a good match for the Aegirs which they couldn't really demo in the old Schiiter with either the Salks or the Maggies.

 

[sixergixer]

We live near Hopkins Farm, which is a farm+brewery with the best name ever.

Great name!

 

[Paladin79]

Definitely what your group does is grander in scope and scale, and has more moving parts, than what I am envisioning for the Schiitr.

I am assuming that the typical use-case at the Schiitr is that someone arrives wanting to know if, everything else being equal, that person prefers Yggy MIB or LIM. Or Aegir vs Tyr. Or can differentiate Bifrost over Modi Multibit enough to justify the cost. Or wants to have fun with tubes.

Some of these comparisons surely happen often enough that Team Schiit might consider setting up a permanent MIB vs LIM station, etc. Plug in your headphones and boom, you're ready to go.

Won't be able to replicate all the good or bad synergies of the other gear in people's normal home setup, of course. Or their room, for speakers.

It just occurred to me that what I have described does NOT HAVE to be used for DBT testing. The parallel nature of it means it could also be used for manually controlled fast-switching, after using the automated volume equalizer. Unequal volumes is most pernicious bias in A vs B comparisons, per my understanding. So a good & easy way of dealing with that would be a big step forward.

Best Saturday of the Week, so far !!!?!?!?!

You are a wise man. I try to include some Schiit gear but a specific brand is rarely our focus.

Sometime I will talk about the basis for our work privately, no sense interrupting a Barbie Doll discussion.

 

[ckehoe]

2024 Chapter 10
Schiitr 2: The Sequel

So now there’s no Schiitr.

For those of you just stopping by, the Schiitr was our first retail store. It was a fully captive operation—as in, it sold only Schiit products, was owned and operated by us, and had Schiit employees (Will, of late) running the show.

And, what started as a bit of a lark (on April Fool’s Day, no less) really ended up being an unqualified success. The Schiitr made money. The Schiitr hosted meets—you may have seen me talking at one. The Schiitr drew visitors from around the country and internationally—yes, internationally. And the Schiitr provided a place for us to do important demos and launches, like when we had the press out for Yggdrasil LIM and MIL.



“So if it’s so great, why is it closed?” someone asks.

In short, lots of little reasons, and one big one.

The little reasons were largely due to, ah, size.

• The Schiitr was physically small—less than 1000 square feet.
• The smallness meant a very small speaker room, not ideal for demoing what our 2-channel stuff could do.
• The smallness also meant that the home theater area (for Syn) was also, well, less impressive than it should be.
• And, without a lot of room for stock, we couldn’t always guarantee we’d have every one of our products, in every one of their variations, there at all time.
• Finally, without a lot of room for additional stock, it’s not like we could carry anyone else’s products, like, say, a couple of key headphone brands.

The big reason was moving everything to Texas. We had logistics problems when the Schiitr was less than 10 miles away from Valencia. Increasing that distance by 100x would make things untenable.

So we decided: let’s close the Schiitr for now, and re-open in Texas, near our San Antonio production facility. And this time, let’s go bigger.

Aaaaand that’s where we are now.


The Logistics Morass

“Ah hell, why not go to New York?” someone asks. “Or at least Austin? Or Dallas? Or Los Angeles and San Francisco and Chicago and Atlanta?

Yeah yeah, I hear you. And I would like to have multiple locations in the coming years. But let’s discuss where we are and why we decided to go the way we’re going.

Here’s what we got:

• We can create a profitable retail business selling only our stuff
• We can do it in a relatively weird place (Newhall is in no way “Los Angeles”)
• We were constrained by size and lack of planning (we never really decided to “go big” with the Schiitr, and implement a lot of our more interesting ideas)

Now, what do we do with this? It seems logical that a bigger space in a more accessible area could do better, especially if we start implementing some of our more interesting ideas, like:

• Partnering with local businesses, like a coffee shop that wants to expand, to make it more than a place to buy gear
• Offering a small selection of complementary products like headphones
• Having more interesting events beyond product intros, such as live music

And, if we’re going to do this, we need to focus on it like we mean it, which means this Schiitr 2 location should be near one of our facilities.

Corpus Christi?

Oh, that’s remote, even in a state where a 2-3 hour drive is no big deal. Flights into Corpus Christi airport are also limited. I can’t really see having the new Schiitr in Corpus. This is not a diss on Corpus, I really love this funky town. But we have to be realistic.

San Antonio?

Now you’re talking! San Antonio is a sprawling city with a lot of interesting areas to consider. We could locate near the touristy areas of Riverwalk, in a gentrifying area of Southtown, in the fancy La Cantera mall, in a commercially zoned old house…or we could consider locating a bit farther out, because we could be in the Hill Country San Antonio-Austin corridor, which is somewhat akin to where we were in Newhall.

And that’s one of the problems: there are a lot of options. This time, while the operational chaos of San Antonio production is being transformed into order, we’re looking at all of them. There have been no decisions made yet.

“Ah hell, I want a new Schiitr faster!” some will say.

And yeah, I hear you. I’d prefer to have a new location faster as well. But I’d rather get this one right. Or at least more right. At least in part because we have a new perspective on things. In California, we owned none of our buildings. We were, in at least one important way, transient. In Texas, we own all of our facilities. Which means we’re here. It also means that we have a much more solid basis of operations for the future…no constantly increasing lease rates, no sudden decisions by the landlord that it’s time to move, etc.

Taking a bit of time to make this decision also means we can listen to you. As in, are we crazy? Off-base? What do you want to see in a new Schiitr?

So let’s talk about that.


What’s Your Ideal Schiitr?

Okay. Here we go. Knowing that we’re not going to be doing a multi-city, international SchiitrBlitz, what would you like to see in the next Schiitr?

Feel free to blue-sky.

I mean, you can be as concrete as “I live in Texas and I’d choose to locate in a historic house in Blanco because there’s a couple of distilleries there.”

You can talk about the gear you’d like to see, the set-up of the shop, the partners (audio or otherwise) you’d like us to bring on.

Feel free to propose the next city we should hit, once we’ve proven the new and improved Schiitr in a logistics-friendly location here in Texas.

Or you can be as blue-sky as “heck why have a location, kit out a mobile home as a mobile Schiitr and do it that way.”

Aside: oh please no I hope not, the speaker room would be, ah, well…I don’t know how we’d do it, plus paying people to be on the road doesn’t thrill me and will probably thrill the employees even less over time.​

You get the picture. Go ahead and dream. Blue-sky it. Leave off sci-fi technology like Tardises and warp drives. Otherwise…what’s your ideal Schiitr 2?

3 listening rooms: HT, Stereo, Head-Fi. First 2 treated but not ugly. Coffee bar and wine bar, with ability to pour whiskey, neat. Enough space for more than a few ppl. Maybe seating out front under an awning, but maybe not - Texas being Tesxas. Space out back (with shade) for outdoor seating/music, and food truck drive up. Not sure about where to put a retail area, but should have cables and cans and merch.

 

[sixergixer]

Hmm, thinking about the 2ch/speakers part of the upcoming Schiitr.

Salk is no more (he retired, didn't find anyone he was willing to sell it to) so those are out.
Tyler Acoustics is comparable but has a long wait.
I don't like the British sound (B&W, Harbeth, LS3/A etc).
Maggies are fun and "cheap" but need a lot of space.
I do like my Philharmonics and they'd certainly do Schiit bass/Moffat Bass some true justice.

Are there any TX speaker makers? (looking for such I came across the interestingly named companies:
Playmate Enterprises and Skynet Security)

I imagine it would be enough to get solid representatives of maybe three different speaker types to feature. To my mind, that might be a pair of Maggies for the hard-to-drive planar crowd, a pair of Wharfdales for that traditional British sound, and either some Zu Audio or Klipsch for that dynamic high-efficiency side of things. None of these need to be super expensive high-end models to show off 2-channel gear -- DW6 or Fortes would do fine, for example. This way, people can choose the type they are most familiar with to make gear evaluations, and, it can give folks like me a chance to hear speaker types I've not been able to.

 

[33na3rd]

2. Side note, my headphone set-up seems to be more 'present' when I turn on my Loki Mini, even with tone controls defeated. Perhaps it is providing extra voltage over the switcher I'm using before it.

Loki Mini may be acting as a signal buffer? 47k ohms in, 75 ohms out.

 

[Ripper2860]

Most all of them are beyond repair.

So kind of you to run the Cowen Barbie Doll Foster Home. I especially like the plaque in front of your home - "Give me your tired, your poor, your worn out Barbies seeking male companionship." I guess there's is no bar too low at the Cowen Barbie Foster Home of OK.

 

[Adam Balm]

So kind of you to run the Cowen Barbie Doll Foster Home. I especially like the plaque in front of your home - "Give me your tired, your poor, your worn out Barbies seeking male companionship." I guess there's is no bar too low at the Cowen Barbie Foster Home of OK.

And I'll bet it will be decorated in all pink outdoor lights at Christmas time.

 

[Ripper2860]

I think featuring American made products (sorry - including speakers) would match Schiit's made in America philosophy. While I love The British Sound, it just doesn't seem fitting if it takes space from a made in USA brand.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

I think featuring American made products (sorry - including speakers) would match Schiit's made in America philosophy. While I love The British Sound, it just doesn't seem fitting if it takes space from a made in USA brand.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

Wouldn't cultural assimilation be a problem?


JC

 

[Adam Balm]

It's Happy Hour!

For tonight, it's hot wings and Brubeck!

 

[JanMc]

A fine Howell Mountain Napa cab here. Along with leftover pork ragu from international pasta day.

 

[Paladin79]

I think featuring American made products (sorry - including speakers) would match Schiit's made in America philosophy. While I love The British Sound, it just doesn't seem fitting if it takes space from a made in USA brand.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

I prefer the sound and woodwork of Italian made speakers. French headphones and tube power amps from the Netherlands. Most of my shop gear is American, Japanese, and British. I go by sound, country of origin not so much.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I think featuring American made products (sorry - including speakers) would match Schiit's made in America philosophy. While I love The British Sound, it just doesn't seem fitting if it takes space from a made in USA brand.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

Origin doesn’t matter.
Performance and quality does.

(No qualifiers.)

 

[Mike-WI]

I think featuring American made products (sorry - including speakers) would match Schiit's made in America philosophy. While I love The British Sound, it just doesn't seem fitting if it takes space from a made in USA brand.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

I haven't made it over to listen, but these are US speakers
https://www.perlistenaudio.com/

Likely not in price range for every Schiit user