Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

[Nick76]

My Yggdrasil (first gen with A2 and Unison) is off to River Vale, NJ for the nose-in-air audiophile comparison to units costing up into the six-figure range. It is mainly a test of the "price does not equal quality" mantra that I developed many years ago while working with THX. I don't expect Larry to give me an honest opinion since there is a wager involved, but his comments in a few weeks will be interesting. I'll report here if people remain interested.

That’s my town

 

[Alexnova]

Hey Jason, thank you so much for your work on Valhalla 3 and its release (woohoo its finally here!).

I wanted to ask you something about the 3 gain levels on it.

On the Folkvangr there was a high and low gain, did both of those have feedback? If not, what makes the "no-feedback" gain level on the Valhalla 3 different to the Folkvangr (outside the higher output impedance)?

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Hey Jason, thank you so much for your work on Valhalla 3 and its release (woohoo its finally here!).

I wanted to ask you something about the 3 gain levels on it.

On the Folkvangr there was a high and low gain, did both of those have feedback? If not, what makes the "no-feedback" gain level on the Valhalla 3 different to the Folkvangr (outside the higher output impedance)?

Both high and low gain on Folkvangr had feedback.

With Valhalla 3, I just decided to give you an option for no feedback as well. The tradeoffs are higher output impedance and noise floor.

 

[Adam Balm]

The Valhalla 3 Impressions Thread is already cookin' on the site.

Wow!

 

[MindBreak]

The Valhalla 3 Impressions Thread is already cookin' on the site.

Wow!

I have no... idea what you are referring to.

 

[Adam Balm]

There's a Mimir Impressions Thread that's busy too.

 

[feelingears]

My Yggdrasil (first gen with A2 and Unison) is off to River Vale, NJ for the nose-in-air audiophile comparison to units costing up into the six-figure range. It is mainly a test of the "price does not equal quality" mantra that I developed many years ago while working with THX. I don't expect Larry to give me an honest opinion since there is a wager involved, but his comments in a few weeks will be interesting. I'll report here if people remain interested.

I for one am interested, but the caveat is that there are many factors in play here and that in the end, personal preference in sound and music is going to sway who's paying for the peat. Speaking for myself, and without inflicting you all with my saga, I discovered some interesting things about my preferences as a result of upgrading my Yggy to Yggy+ and from LiM to MiB, both at the same time. Again, without getting into all of it, I found that MiB was more "delicate" in its dynamics and overall presentation than I liked, and in particular versus the LiM in the original A2 chassis (and being fed AES vs Yggy+ which I find likes Unison USB over the others). And thus I sold my MiB...

Anyway, please do report back, and this is my plug for one of my favorites: Bruichladdich (pronounced "brook-laddie" I believe) Islay Barley. I discovered this at a whisky bar in NYC when I asked for something unusual. The server brought this out and he was right: it's complex and interesting, not just all about the peat and nothing but the peat.

I had not heard of Black Art, so thank you, @Ableza - I must go try and find some...

 

[theveterans]

I found that MiB was more "delicate" in its dynamics and overall presentation than I liked

Not on my system, but I tweaked the heck out of it on the source side (zero software digital manipulation, just pure hardware) to make slam like a truck heck dare I say even more than Yggy+ OG without the tweaks

 

[yonson]

Hmmm. My OG Bifrost 2 analog card is green.

Pretty sure mine is as well, but it's been many moons since I've looked at it...

My Yggdrasil (first gen with A2 and Unison) is off to River Vale, NJ for the nose-in-air audiophile comparison to units costing up into the six-figure range. It is mainly a test of the "price does not equal quality" mantra that I developed many years ago while working with THX. I don't expect Larry to give me an honest opinion since there is a wager involved, but his comments in a few weeks will be interesting. I'll report here if people remain interested.

Yes please!

 

[classfolkphile]

My Yggdrasil (first gen with A2 and Unison) is off to River Vale, NJ for the nose-in-air audiophile comparison to units costing up into the six-figure range. It is mainly a test of the "price does not equal quality" mantra that I developed many years ago while working with THX. I don't expect Larry to give me an honest opinion since there is a wager involved, but his comments in a few weeks will be interesting. I'll report here if people remain interested.

Yes.

 

[Paladin79]

I for one am interested, but the caveat is that there are many factors in play here and that in the end, personal preference in sound and music is going to sway who's paying for the peat. Speaking for myself, and without inflicting you all with my saga, I discovered some interesting things about my preferences as a result of upgrading my Yggy to Yggy+ and from LiM to MiB, both at the same time. Again, without getting into all of it, I found that MiB was more "delicate" in its dynamics and overall presentation than I liked, and in particular versus the LiM in the original A2 chassis (and being fed AES vs Yggy+ which I find likes Unison USB over the others). And thus I sold my MiB...

Anyway, please do report back, and this is my plug for one of my favorites: Bruichladdich (pronounced "brook-laddie" I believe) Islay Barley. I discovered this at a whisky bar in NYC when I asked for something unusual. The server brought this out and he was right: it's complex and interesting, not just all about the peat and nothing but the peat.

I had not heard of Black Art, so thank you, @Ableza - I must go try and find some...

I am also a fan of Bruichladdich on occasion. Friends and I did comparisons using most all Schiit DAC’s compared to other brands but it is hard to recall if we were able to hit all iterations. I do know the Gungnir always did very well in some areas, the Yggy in others.

I always tried to be involved so I could form my own opinion in blind comparisons but those days are pretty much over for me.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

My Yggdrasil (first gen with A2 and Unison) is off to River Vale, NJ for the nose-in-air audiophile comparison to units costing up into the six-figure range. It is mainly a test of the "price does not equal quality" mantra that I developed many years ago while working with THX. I don't expect Larry to give me an honest opinion since there is a wager involved, but his comments in a few weeks will be interesting. I'll report here if people remain interested.

Looking forward to his comments. You have a standby DAC ready to go, I assume.

I will neither confirm nor deny.


** OK. It's far too early for that right now, but the day is young.

You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning.

 

[spydrwebb44]

Interested.

+1

 

[feelingears]

I am also a fan of Bruichladdich on occasion. Friends and I did comparisons using most all Schiit DAC’s compared to other brands but it is hard to recall if we were able to hit all iterations. I do know the Gungnir always did very well in some areas, the Yggy in others.

I always tried to be involved so I could form my own opinion in blind comparisons but those days are pretty much over for me.

Super hard to compare all iterations as you note. And especially if trying to be even just a little "blind", methodically. So like most people, I have a set of songs I know super well, that I've used over years to learn to compare components/systems/rooms and to classify things on a few sonic spectrums (a spider diagram is one visualization of this concept, 2x2 is another). As others posted recently, you learn a lot from things like cymbals and violins and solo piano because they are acoustic instruments that have real-world reference points.

Then after a while you just listen and you know what works for you. But still, if someone attempts to do an honest-ish comparison of gear, I am usually interested in learning what they heard/experienced. There's a kind of triangulation that happens for me, at least with the language of this hobby. And there seems to definitely be a different "target" or emphasis on the voicing of certain particulars that uber-expensive (> US$4K) gear seems to aim for...

 

[riffrafff]

Shipping notice received. Very quick turnaround. Well done!

Looks like I ordered mere minutes after you did, but no shipping notice yet. Did you go with silver or black? (I'm not sure that would matter, though. Curiouser and curiouser.)