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

[JohnnyOps]

On a whim this afternoon, I decided to dive into my neglected 4385-track Liked Songs playlist I built up over many years before I grew wise to lossless streaming and better artist payouts.

Thanks for the reminder, Ripper. Others have recommended this, and I'll tackle it someday. Knowing my eclectic tastes in music, I am pretty sure that 20-30% of the tracks won't survive the transition

I’ll second the recommendation for Soundiiz. If you have enough stuff queued up (like your big playlist) I think there’s a trial period where you can do it for free, and the interface is easier than you think it’ll be. I hear you on eclectic music, but I’d recommend giving it a shot - between Tidal and Qobuz I get nearly everything I want. And I kept a Spotify playlist of “things that didn’t make it”. I know it’s a to-do-list item you need to eventually get to, but I’d advocate giving it a shot sooner rather than later. Life is too short for lossy music!

 

[Syan25]

Chilling to this on my Kara F.
Anything that came out by Creed Taylor during this period is awesome. It's a quality of the production, the all star ensemble, the arrangements that effortless flow into the soloing. Just awesome.

Oh, and then, there's Cobham on drums...Benson on guitar...

 

[rkw]

Codename: tUrd (tiny Urd)

Speaking of which, I have a suggestion for Forkbeard and the next Urd. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already given some thought to this.

After a disc is loaded, how about fetching metadata for the album from the web – information such as album and track titles, artist name, and album cover image. Some music player software on Windows, Mac, and Raspberry Pi do this. There are even some standalone CD players that are internet connected and have this capability. It would be an immense benefit for a user to see a track displayed as "Waltz for Debby" or "Bohemian Rhapsody", rather than "Track 2" and "Track 11".

The implementation would be in the Forkbeard app. On the Urd side, the only requirement is that it must provide a way for the Forkbeard app to retrieve the CD's TOC (table of contents). The TOC is used to look up the album at an online music database that has metadata. You can look at how it's done in the MusicBrainz Picard app, which is open source (note the Lookup CD feature in the app).

 

[Les Strat]

Tomorrows listen. Far too many things going on outdoors today to stop and turn on one of my turntable systems.

I love CCR.

The first album I ever bought was Cosmo's Factory, in 1970 and they were the first band I ever saw play live , in 1971.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Speaking of which, I have a suggestion for Forkbeard and the next Urd. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already given some thought to this.

After a disc is loaded, how about fetching metadata for the album from the web – information such as album and track titles, artist name, and album cover image. Some music player software on Windows, Mac, and Raspberry Pi do this. There are even some standalone CD players that are internet connected and have this capability. It would be an immense benefit for a user to see a track displayed as "Waltz for Debby" or "Bohemian Rhapsody", rather than "Track 2" and "Track 11".

The implementation would be in the Forkbeard app. On the Urd side, the only requirement is that it must provide a way for the Forkbeard app to retrieve the CD's TOC (table of contents). The TOC is used to look up the album at an online music database that has metadata. You can look at how it's done in the MusicBrainz Picard app, which is open source (note the Lookup CD feature in the app).

I can neither confirm nor deny that we may or may not already have given some thought to this.
But yes, if there's a new Urd some day, it would be a complete waste of Forkbeard's capabilities not to do this.

 

[Les Strat]

You mean the ESS Sabre glare still there???

The Mimir looks like incredible value for money.

I am sure that the team at Schiit have worked their magic, using their proprietary 'Mesh' digital filter on a standard DS modulator.

A few years ago I tried several DACs with various ESS DS chips in them.
I didn't like any of them!

I am not in the market for a Mimir, but I'd expect it to sound very different from almost any DAC out there using an ESS chip.

 

[jonathan c]

Sniff test is insufficient. Throw them at the wall. If they don't stick and stay of their own accord, they are OK.

.... one can get added use / wear by turning the article of clothing inside-out ....

 

[MindBreak]

The Mimir looks like incredible value for money.

I am sure that the team at Schiit have worked their magic, using their proprietary 'Mesh' digital filter on a standard DS modulator.

A few years ago I tried several DACs with various ESS DS chips in them.
I didn't like any of them!

I am not in the market for a Mimir, but I'd expect it to sound very different from almost any DAC out there using an ESS chip.

Mimir most certainly does sound different from any of the several ESS chip based DACs I have owned in the past ($500 and below).

When I made the switch to the Bifrost 2/64 from ESS based DACs it changed my outlook on DACs in general. I had sworn off DS DACs for several years, but Mimir had be intrigued when I read about it. Since I needed another DAC (to run Schiit DACs in all 3 setups), I decided to give Mimir a try and I am not regretting that decision.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

The Mimir looks like incredible value for money.

I am sure that the team at Schiit have worked their magic, using their proprietary 'Mesh' digital filter on a standard DS modulator.

A few years ago I tried several DACs with various ESS DS chips in them.
I didn't like any of them!

I am not in the market for a Mimir, but I'd expect it to sound very different from almost any DAC out there using an ESS chip.

For what it's worth:
I generally dislike the sound of delta sigma, especially ESS.
I very much like the sound of Mimir.

 

[artur9]

Nice pretty affordable Ethernet filter right there. I think your Ethernet nervosa is pretty cured already. I went overkill on mine with the eno2 filter + fiber + now iFi silentpower Omni LAN on a loaner which still has subtle effect even with all the Ethernet filters and fiber optic that I already have in place

Yeah, the Linn probably doesn't need any additional filtering but at that price I thought why not try it.
True test is to take it back out again and see what I hear.

Generally, and I think everyone experiences this, when adding something the change is hard to hear. Remove something and one thinks,"What just happened to my nice sound?!"

Well, #5 seems like a potential deal breaker to me.

Yeah, seems unlikely to be the cause. Will check again today. The Linn has been incredibly robust, running for days at a time. There were some odd power occurrences recently, otoh, so confirmation today.

Thanks, and thanks to Qobuz I listened to the album over dinner.

Fun little album. I have it in high res so it seemed the most appropriate for this test. I hope you enjoyed it.

..., it would be a complete waste of Forkbeard's capabilities not to do this.

Revenue stream for you: in-app purchases of the download from Qobuz, or other. Or maybe the LP from this store I just googled.

For what it's worth:
I generally dislike the sound of delta sigma, especially ESS.
...

The better half bought me a very nice ESS-based DAC from Italy, NorthStar (192 iirc), which I was hot for. Did not like it and subsequently sold it off. Now better half won't buy me any more stuff

 

[Bowmoreman]

You mean the ESS Sabre glare still there???

I don’t know it’s the ESS glare, it’s more (I think) the loss of resolution (or something) in the highs when the digital attenuation is too much; they get distorted, the sonic envelope gets “fuzzy”, versus proper air/bloom around acoustic instruments…. Kinda similar to switching to NOS, but worse (maybe?)… I can hear it, and don’t like it with any attenuation greater than -12dB indicated. On my systems that have ribbons. Less noticeable on my dynamic driver speakers. All the above hearings with no pEQ/Loudness applied, just getting sense of the digital attenuation tradeoffs, standalone…

Definitely different than ESS sound as it’s far more noticeable in a bad way at similar volumes. Again at unity (0dB attenuation), it is an excellent sounding DAC (especially for the money). And, in my experience, around 12dB is the “turning point”. The benefits of the EQ outweigh the downsides in my office setup, just not in my main setup.

 

[artur9]

... And, in my experience, around 12dB is the “turning point”. The benefits of the EQ outweigh the downsides in my office setup, just not in my main setup.

I had a similar experience using Roon's "add 3dB of headroom" feature. Made jazz sound less dynamic and not as engaging.
Surprised the heck out of me that I could hear that!

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Speaking of which, I have a suggestion for Forkbeard and the next Urd. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already given some thought to this.

After a disc is loaded, how about fetching metadata for the album from the web – information such as album and track titles, artist name, and album cover image. Some music player software on Windows, Mac, and Raspberry Pi do this. There are even some standalone CD players that are internet connected and have this capability. It would be an immense benefit for a user to see a track displayed as "Waltz for Debby" or "Bohemian Rhapsody", rather than "Track 2" and "Track 11".

The implementation would be in the Forkbeard app. On the Urd side, the only requirement is that it must provide a way for the Forkbeard app to retrieve the CD's TOC (table of contents). The TOC is used to look up the album at an online music database that has metadata. You can look at how it's done in the MusicBrainz Picard app, which is open source (note the Lookup CD feature in the app).

Cambridge Audio has a CD transport that does this (EVO CD) but, strangely, it must be connected to one of two Cambridge EVO integrated amps to work. I'd like to see the feature on the new Urd as well.

 

[Ripper2860]

Yeah, the Linn probably doesn't need any additional filtering but at that price I thought why not try it.
True test is to take it back out again and see what I hear.

Generally, and I think everyone experiences this, when adding something the change is hard to hear. Remove something and one thinks,"What just happened to my nice sound?!"

Yeah, seems unlikely to be the cause. Will check again today. The Linn has been incredibly robust, running for days at a time. There were some odd power occurrences recently, otoh, so confirmation today.

Fun little album. I have it in high res so it seemed the most appropriate for this test. I hope you enjoyed it.


Revenue stream for you: in-app purchases of the download from Qobuz, or other. Or maybe the LP from this store I just googled.

The better half bought me a very nice ESS-based DAC from Italy, NorthStar (192 iirc), which I was hot for. Did not like it and subsequently sold it off. Now better half won't buy me any more stuff

Looking forward to further impressions.

 

[theveterans]

I had a similar experience using Roon's "add 3dB of headroom" feature. Made jazz sound less dynamic and not as engaging.
Surprised the heck out of me that I could hear that!

That’s why I never attenuate digitally myself and let my preamp do its job. Heck with SET headphone amps, I find depending on the circuit, one can get even more dynamic sound by letting the pot go to max on the amp and just control the volume with a preamp like Saga, freya, kara