2025, Chapter 7
In A World Where…
When I was a kid, my parent’s home was across the street from another house that was exactly the same (1), except it was mirrored.
As in, enter our house, turn left for the dining room. Enter their house, turn right. Bedrooms on the right in our house, on the left in theirs.
It was always very weird going to the house across the street, because it was so right and wrong at the same time. I mean, it was the same place, just swapped left to right to give a bit more variation to a tract home neighborhood where dozens or hundreds of homes were built at the same time.
I mean, it was a bit like going into an alternate universe, one that was just a bit, ah, different.
Why mention this?
Because of Kellen’s design project.
I mean, it started completely open-ended, an exploration into the higher end of the lower end of high end audio (2). But where it ended up was uncannily close to something we might have done, in a universe that was only slightly different.
Or, for those who have more patience for what I’ve been writing (3), remember how I’ve been saying that I’d love to send some notes back to a past self, notes like “paint everything,” and “make the 9 x 6” products a half inch deeper, and you’ll be wayyyyyy happier?” Those notes would result in yet another alternate universe, one in which I might be a bit more sane.
In any case, on to the story.
The Ask
When I was at the North Carolina Schiitrmeet a year or two ago, I was approached by an industrial design student, who said he liked the minimalist aesthetic of Schiit products (4).
Furthermore, he said, he would like me to be his mentor for his upcoming Capstone Project at Appalachian State University, where he’d be exploring ideas for designs of an audio product.
This was cool.
It was cool for several reasons:
- I’d really like to work with Texas A&M (or another school) as an industry advisor on analog engineering, because analog engineering is dead, dead, dead. I may be the youngest analog audio engineer, and I’m old.
- I haven’t engaged with A&M, despite knowing some of the faculty there, because I’ve been busy, or lazy, or both.
- An exploration of what could be done with industrial design in audio, beyond our minimalist interpretation and various bad takes on infinite resources5 would be really really interesting.
So of course I agreed.
Now, I had no idea if this would ever come to anything, because some people just don’t follow through, and others think I’m intimidating (I don’t know why), and sometimes life deals you a different set of cards and it’s Just Not Gonna Happen.
But a few months later, I got an email: we were on.
The Parameters
Early on, Kellen had a lofty goal: to create an amplifier with more visual appeal. Something you’d want to have in the room with you, rather than hide in a cabinet. Something that actually accentuated the listening space, rather than, ah, just taking up space.
His rationale was solid. A great-looking pair of loudspeakers, or a neat turntable, can be the focal point, or a conversation piece. Furthermore, he deliberately explored vertical orientations because it can create a more striking design, and also save footprint.
But beyond that, the idea was fairly open-ended: a compact monoblock speaker power amp, at a higher-end place in the market than Schiit usually occupied.
Now, this can describe a lot of things.
I mean, a “compact monoblock speaker amp” could be nothing more than a Nexus-ified version of Gjallarhorn. Or it could mean something very extreme by early-1990s metrics like Mike’s Cello monoblocks ($10K then, 24K in today’s dollars). Or it could mean something even more extreme in a world where 6-figure amps exist (5).
But Kellen wasn’t dumb. The first thing we talked about was where this product might exist in the market, and what kind of features it might have. This was before any pen hit paper, before any CAD was done, before any prototypes were built.
Kellen asked me where I thought there was a gap in the market, and I gave him my input.
My entirely seat-of-the-pants input (6) was:
- On a price basis, there seemed to exist a gap in the market between where we were and where the car-priced companies started.
- Or, to put it in $ terms, $2K to 12K.
- Or, to really narrow it down and be serious, $3K to $7K, which is where we’d go if we went to a higher-tier product. This was comfortably above where we were (this was pre-Byggy), and comfortably below where the bonkersverse started.
Going to that price range opened up a lot of opportunities for more appealing design, nicer chassis work, and additional features, like screens or LED volume rings or other stuff we’ve shied away from because it adds $250-$1000 to the chassis cost.
“Wait, that’s just the chassis,” someone smart says. “What about better sound?”
Sorry to disappoint, but we’re already doing most of the most insane, no-compromise, edge-case, super-audiophile stuff when it comes to sound. Hell, even the $279 Saga 2 has a relay-switched attenuator, when stuff that literally costs 80x as much brag about using a crappy IC-based volume control.
But there are some things we could do if we had more budget.
- Even more insane volume control. Go to mercury-wetted relays and MELF 0.05% resistors or something like that. Big money. Also mercury. But that’s on the table.
- Even more insane power supplies. We’ve discussed doing something like a 30W single-ended Class A monoblock in a quad-Tyr chassis configuration (one chassis for output, one for current source). This would be a $7K product. And still ugly.
- More exotic topologies. We haven’t done a hybrid speaker power amp, for example. And yet we have a perfect way of doing this, with the Vali/Lyr Coherence™ topology. Heck, I even started a 50W version of this in a Vidar-sized chassis, way back in 2017. We never brought it to market due to difficulties in development.
In any case, I talked all this through with Kellen, and he was intrigued by the thought of a hybrid speaker amp.
But to be clear: early on, Kellen’s product wasn’t necessarily going to be something that fit into our lineup. Heck, it didn’t need to stick to any of the arbitrary or necessary restrictions of a Schiit product. It was wide-open. It could be a completely separate line.
But maybe we talked a bit too much about the mechanics. Or maybe my enthusiasm was contagious. Or maybe Kellen just is too much like me…except from an alternate universe.
Because when the first sketches came back, I was shocked.
The Process
Sketches are cool. It’s great Kellen started with sketches. I frequently start that way (7).
But back to my shock: Kellen’s first sketches, while very free-form, very conceptual, and very cool,
could have been products of ours. As in, many of them featured, ah, features that were done with bending sheets of metal, rather than machining it.
And this is where things started getting really interesting.
Kellen asked me what I liked, and, more importantly, drilled down into why I liked them. Remember, this is still very early in the process, before it evolved into something that could be our own. I told him I was choosing things primarily due to familiarity (as in, it looked like our products), but I was also choosing for concepts that went beyond what we were already doing.
This was the first of our weekly meetings, where we usually discussed concepts and products on-screen, and then I usually blathered about some of the challenges of amp design that are less than obvious when you first start designing products.
To be fair, Kellen was starting from a very good place. He already knew that amps got hot and had to dissipate heat, he knew tubes got hot and also had their own thermal requirements…and, most importantly, he wasn’t going for a 1000W monster amp design.
In fact, one of the first things we discussed was a realistic thermal envelope, and how all the parts could fit comfortably into Kellen’s chassis design. This is far, far beyond something you’d discuss for a simple static rendering, and far beyond a DIY approach of “build an amp in the air and then figure out what chassis it fits in.”
From the start, given Kellen’s desired amp size, I opined:
- This is a comfortable 100W/200W 8/4 ohm monoblock. Probably could do 350W into 2 before the party ends. Maybe a little less—the chassis are not gigantic and overwrought, and the transformer design would be either a fairly slim toroid or an EI design with strange dimensions. Strange dimensions are less efficient.
- Heatsinks being exposed to open air is good, because they need to be able to radiate into free space. Heatsinks in a chassis are much less effective. Hide the heatsinks, and fans probably come into play.
- Heatsinks need to be different than what we were doing if they’re gonna be very tall—heat sinking effectiveness is very dependent on convection as well as radiation, and the spacing of our heatsinks is OK for, say, something 3.5” tall, but not great for something 7 or 8” tall.
- The dual up/down tube stack on one of the early designs would typically be OK for most tubes, since they aren’t usually orientation dependent, but it would add complexity—multiple PC boards and/or wiring—and you’d need a rationale for it. As in, a dual triode is fine as the front end of a hybrid balanced power amp. You don’t need two. But you could parallel the tubes for lower noise, or even let customers switch between two different tube types for comparison.
- I didn’t see a lot of challenge with the chassis. It was more complex than what we were doing, but nothing would have to be machined from billet or welded closed.
And, as things progressed, Kellen ended up picking up some of the tools we used, including Alibre for 3D CAD (8).
In one meeting we discussed if the amp could actually be running for Kellen’s final demo. I told him that we once did a prototype of a Coherence™-style hybrid speaker amp, but it had never been fully worked out. The transformer, I remember, was somewhat problematic (probably because I spec’d it wrong), and I was trying to get auto-operational-point control via microprocessor, so it was overcomplicated. Dave blew it up a few times trying to get it to behave, so we shelved it. The guts of that amp would have been close to what we needed (but down on power).
In the end, we decided to get Kellen some Gjallarhorn guts so the amp could at least play music. If this sounds like a step down to you, think again: actually making a working prototype is no small feat, and Kellen had his own plans for control and visualization on the front panel, which required programming and implementation.
He also was ordering bent metal and fabbing up an internal chassis. This was a big, big project, and the fact it made it to the demo, and survived the demo, was a big deal.
Kellen even ended up coming out to see us in San Antonio, which was really going above and beyond. At that time, we were able to get him Gjallarhorn boards, transformers, heatsinks, etc—the stuff he needed for the functioning prototype—and he also was able to meet Zach and the rest of the crew and ask questions about tech, assembly, sound check, etc (9).
As the project progressed, Kellen had his share of “fun” production issues, like his metal vendor going dark for a while, questions about whether or not key parts would be available for his demo, the need to fab more of the parts than he expected, fun with his front panel control and visualization board, and more. I could only commiserate, because he was learning what we deal with every day, on many, many products.
But here’s the thing: it got done. He got it across the line. No. Wait. More than that. Much more than that.
Like Forkbeard, this is how you do it.
The Result
So, for those who’ve been skimming the text, let’s be clear: these aren’t renderings. They aren’t AI. Kellen designed, engineered, and built actual physical products that play music. Furthermore, he took our design style, extended it, and made it more in-keeping with a “cost no object” approach (10).
And in the end, this is very much like something we would have done, in a world where we had more budget to spend on the chassis. I mean, it even uses our naming and chassis graphics conventions!
To be clear “more budget” also doesn’t mean “make it house-priced.” Kellen’s design is largely producible using our typical manufacturing methods:
- The sides of his design concept are bent sheetmetal, the same as we’d use in production. His are bead-blasted, ours are grained or painted. But really the same thing, same cost. The fasteners could be hidden in the same way we do it already, with custom PEM slide-locks.
- The internal chassis is a bit more complex, but this is also something that can be done in one piece of sheetmetal.
- The tube mount is more complex, and could end up being multiple pieces of sheetmetal, with additional mounting hardware for PC boards, possibly even encompassing some milled parts.
- The display on the front is in-keeping with our products, in that it’s a simple LED bar graph with some tact switch controls. There’s even a front panel control for changing tubes or paralleling tubes. All of this is very simple to produce.
- The stands are also bent metal, with standard adjustable spikes or feet. Nothing over the top.
If I was to give one note at the end, it would be that the first ask from our customers will probably be “is there any way to mount these horizontally, and do they stack?”
And yeah, Kellen, I can hear your groan from here. Because, first of all, you don’t want to stack these horizontally. And, if the product’s thermal performance is optimized for vertical orientation, it’s going to be terrible horizontally. Well, unless you put the whole thing in a heat tunnel with a fan, which, well, has a fan to deal with.
So yeah, a vertical/horizontal choose-your-own-orientation adventure is a bigger discussion. Kellen and I discussed this during the course of the design, and he proposed using a position sensor to kick on a fan if the amps were used horizontally. This is a really neat idea.
And let’s be realistic: the only reason I bring up the horizontal/vertical orientation issue is that I know some people will bring it up. I also have a feeling, completely without supporting data, that maybe people like the idea of vertical amps, but end up not buying vertical amps? The old Theta Dreadnaughts come to mind. But I may be nuts.
I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker if this design only works vertically, personally, because:
- These are monoblocks. Put ‘em near each speaker.
- They are very pretty! Don’t hide ‘em in a cabinet.
So, where do we go from here?
Well, first:
I can heartily recommend Kellen for industrial design projects. I’ve already referred him to one audio company. He’s at
www.kellenhileman.com, or via email at
contact@kellenhileman.com.
He’s promised me a huge referral fee for anyone who uses his services totally kidding, we have no business relationship, I’m just thrilled to recommend someone so talented and enthusiastic. He estimates the Jartegn project chewed up about 450 hours of his time!
We’ll also be working with him on something in the future (don’t panic, it’s not a $7K-amp-for-the-sake-of-making-a-$7K-amp project, but maybe those 4-chassis Class A monoblocks I’ve been thinking about might need a bit of love in the design department)?
What Do You Think?
Finally, I have to ask: what do you guys think of this? Do you like this alternate universe? Should we living “in a world where…?” Is it a smart evolution of our products? Something you’d like to see us explore more? Or should we stick to our more utilitarian, cost-minimizing design style?
Please be civilized. This was a ton of work. And I’m thrilled to have been a part of it.
Asides
(1) This is super common in tract homes where they build dozens or hundreds at a time. Mirroring the house allows for more variation in the basic design, so people who live there have less of a feeling that they’re trapped in a human Habitrail. Also, it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the same housing tract. My former business partner at Centric and my current business partner, Mike, once lived in exactly the same house in two tracts that were 40 miles and 60-90 driving minutes apart.
(2) Schiit occupies the lower end of the high end. Not in terms of performance, but in terms of cash green money, which is how most of the old guard rate audio gear. Oh gawd, did I just write that? Yes, but let’s let it go. Back to the subject: Schiit is cheap. Other than truly disposable stuff, there’s nothing much below a Magni or Fulla. The high end of the high end is occupied by a plethora of stuffed-shirt companies making car- and house-priced gear, harrumphing their way to oblivion as their core customer base expires. Ah gawd, did I say that too? Yeah. OK. Ah well. It is what it is. The mid-end of the high-end is kinda unexplored territory, so Kellen and I had conversations about this as the project began.
(3) I don’t read everything, but the snark is sometimes hard to miss. I get it. You don’t like the way I write. You don’t like our company. Cool. Start your own audio company and write about it and bury us. I’m OK with that. Competition means the best wins.
(4) In a world where everyone seems to think that every product needs multiple screens (and horrific, dystopian AI-generated diagrams showing the “tech” inside the product), this was a refreshing take.
(5) It’s dead-easy to make an insanely great-looking audio product when it costs like a car or a house. Spend 50 hours of mill time making a pile of shavings 20x larger than the billet it started out as, and you have infinite capability, infinite possibilities. Who cares what the cost is, or how wasteful it is? Just do it. It’s OK. Right?
(6) Not that I didn’t actually think about it. Kellen’s questions coalesced things I’d been mulling over for a long time. And my thoughts were based on what we’ve sold in the market, and my knowledge of what other people were doing. However, if you wanted a breakdown with charts, metrics, research, and the results from focus groups, yeah nah, that wasn’t this.
(7) I should seriously scan all the old lab notes from Schiit, back when I was using paper, before I went to OneNote. Just for fun.
(8) There are plenty of 3D CAD options out there, but not many good ones for sheetmetal CAD. Kellen found out how useful it was to have actual sheetmetal CAD as soon as he did a couple of the large-radius bends. Dead easy to do with sheetmetal CAD.
(9) What we do might sound simple, but there are a lot of subtleties. Which is why we’re working with the new production team’s leader, Sergio, to improve how we make things, and to identify ways to make products better.
(10) For those of you with car- and house-priced products laughing at these prices, yeah, sure, there is even higher in higher end, but let’s be real: a lot of that cost is in the over-the-top chassis designs, not in actual electronics. Kellen could have chosen to mill the entire product out of a 150-lb billet of aluminum, and that may have opened up additional design options. But it has nothing to do with the sound of the product.
In this case the golden ratio did not work.
