[StanD]

  Almost an only male hobby. I guess there's a mix of people coming here from engineering, tech geeks, musicians and producers, all of them fields dominated by men as well.
 
I would like to see this change. I'm 25 and I'll do my part.

We don't discuss surgical procedures here.

 

[jacal01]

  I like being on the edge of the bell curve. 

 
I like being in the wedge of the belle curve. 

  

 

[Insidious Meme]

I'm late to the party but good post on obsolete, Jason.

 

[Rodmunch]

 
Yeah, I've struggled a bit on which way to go, and it's not about the extra 150 bucks. I'm leaning toward the 4490 because my Bifrost uber sounds better (to me) than my old Theta Pro Basic II (a Mike Moffat-designed multi-bit converter) that finally crapped out after about 25 years of service. So for me, current delta/sigma sounds better than old (vintage?) multi-bit. I'm sure Yggy would blow both out of the water, but that's not in the cards for me near term. For now, since I'm so happy with the sound I have, I'm inclined to go with the 4490 upgrade over switching to an entry-level multi-bit design. But I'd love to hear any other perspectives, particularly from those who've had experience with both Theta and Schiit multi-bit converters.

Your Theta is 25 years old.  Technology has improved.  You're doing yourself a disservice by not spending that extra $150 on the multibit IMO, especially if $ isn't an issue.  To each his own I suppose.

 

[sam6550a]

  R2R dacs are temperature sensitive right? Why are we using temperature sensitive dacs in Mission Critical Machines?

All semiconductor junctions [and there are hundreds of thousands in DACS] are temperature sensitive to some degree. The hardware electrical and thermal designs, along with the software design take this and other environmental sensitivities into account as part of the system design. That is why office clerks do not design successful analog and digital systems from cookbooks, but experienced engineers do on a daily basis. You need to do more than read a data sheet to design a high performance system. 

 

[Jason Stoddard]

 
All semiconductor junctions [and there are hundreds of thousands in DACS] are temperature sensitive to some degree. The hardware electrical and thermal designs, along with the software design take this and other environmental sensitivities into account as part of the system design. That is why office clerks do not design successful analog and digital systems from cookbooks, but experienced engineers do on a daily basis. You need to do more than read a data sheet to design a high performance system. 

The longer I spend designing products, the more surprised I am at the effect that seemingly very trivial things can have on overall system performance. Please don't take this as a veiled endorsement of magic stones and shiny hologram stickers--I'm talking about stuff with physical properties that can be measured. However, there are quite a number of things that many engineers would never consider significant...but do make a difference.

 

[sam6550a]

 
The longer I spend designing products, the more surprised I am at the effect that seemingly very trivial things can have on overall system performance. Please don't take this as a veiled endorsement of magic stones and shiny hologram stickers--I'm talking about stuff with physical properties that can be measured. However, there are quite a number of things that many engineers would never consider significant...but do make a difference.

Engineering school is a start, but you have not arrived until there are over 100 people waiting on your solution to a problem that you only found out about 30 minutes ago. [True story from the Apollo/Skylab era].

 

[O8h7w]

Do tell, I'd love to read the long version of that story!

 

[darkarn]

 
The longer I spend designing products, the more surprised I am at the effect that seemingly very trivial things can have on overall system performance. Please don't take this as a veiled endorsement of magic stones and shiny hologram stickers--I'm talking about stuff with physical properties that can be measured. However, there are quite a number of things that many engineers would never consider significant...but do make a difference.

 
Same applies when it comes to troubleshooting stuff, be it hardware or *shudders* software!

 

[sam6550a]

Do tell, I'd love to read the long version of that story!

Long version? Go to engineering school, graduate, forget half of what you learned, go to work in industry, find out that things are different from academia, learn about things like "profit and loss, cash flow, manufacturing problems and customer complaints". Go insane and open a taco truck.

 

[O8h7w]

When you get right down to it, most hobbies are obsolete. They consist of people doing things for fun or relaxation that could be more efficiently achieved by other (more up-to-date) means. You don't go fishing or hunting or gardening because you are hungry. You don't paint because the walls look a little bare. And there's absolutely no rational reason to listen to music at all. Wherein lies the glory of the thing, no matter what means we use to pursue it.

What bugs me more is people looking down on others' hobbies or approaches. Seems that passing judgment is one of the most popular hobbies of all...

I don't think any hobby can ever be obsolete. There are perfectly rational reasons to engage in a hobby: it feels good to do so, it will help you clear your mind (through filling it with something else hopefully less pervasive) and it is generally good for your mental health.

Take special note of that last part, which can be extreme: engaging in a hobby activity will literally help keep you sane when you have stressful situations going on in other parts of your life. It is indeed that important.

 

[O8h7w]

Long version? Go to engineering school, graduate, forget half of what you learned, go to work in industry, find out that things are different from academia, learn about things like "profit and loss, cash flow, manufacturing problems and customer complaints". Go insane and open a taco truck.

I like that version

I'm currently in engineering school. I've learned from summer jobs that industry is different from academia, and that I generally do not fit in there. Therefore I plan to stay in academia - the problem with this is that my main task here will be to prepare others for industry... so I try to glean as much as I can of the hard-earned lessons of "the real world" from reading stories (and the summer jobs) and talking as much as possible with experienced people. This thread has been staggeringly good for this! I owe a lot of people here, especially Jason, some really big thanks.

And somehow, even staying in academia you do encounter a lot of the same things. I've certainly forgotten more than half of what I've learned. Cash is crucial, academia just means you work year by year (or a couple of them) rather than month by month on this point. The big difference IMHO is that in academia, "it works" isn't the important part - the whys and wherefores are.

 

[saddleup]

Stereophile calling anything Schitt builds obsolete is pretty ironic considering Stereophile recently posted a video lamenting that this was quite possibly the last year there would be a High End Hi-Fi show during CES.  While watching the video all I could think of was that with just a few exceptions high end audio companies are run by a bunch of dinosaurs.  All these old dudes boo hooing about the old days, pretty sad. 
 
I've got nothing against old guys, I'm 58.  There just needs to be more audio component companies with their Schitt together.  Times have changed. 

 

[webstaa]

A question on power:  As Schiit stuff is made in the USA and ostensibly designed for 115vAC 60hz, what problems usually arise when using a Schiit product with an internal power supply on something like 100vAC 50hz like in Japan?

 

[StanD]

 
Long version? Go to engineering school, graduate, forget half of what you learned, go to work in industry, find out that things are different from academia, learn about things like "profit and loss, cash flow, manufacturing problems and customer complaints". Go insane and open a taco truck.

Somehow I could never imagine a Taco Truck with a sign that reads, "Schiit."