Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
Aug 12, 2014 at 8:25 PM Post #2,026 of 151,274
   
Well, it's pretty easy to estimate the size of that box. The standard FedEx label on the adjacent-left package is 6" tall. The standard USPS Priority Mail sticker on the Schiit box is 3" wide, as is the Schiit logo printed on the box if it's the same as the one on my Mjolnir box. Using the two stickers and printed logo to estimate, that box is very likely to be the common size of 12x12x6, which wouldn't fit the Ragnarok even with zero padding. (Not to mention the inefficiency in shipping the rectangular Ragnarok in a square box.)
 
The release date has slipped substantially since the chapters began as they've had unexpected delays. The story timing is likely just a coincidence. It wouldn't surprise me if they started taking Ragnarok orders this week or next.


I'd say what you just said is what I was thinking in my head and what my post was meant to say lol. so yea totally agree :)
 
Aug 12, 2014 at 8:28 PM Post #2,027 of 151,274
 
It's definitely bigger than an asgard/bifrost/valhalla/lyr sized box, I am looking at one right now 3 feet from me for comparison that my bifrost came in. This box looks bigger, I wont speculate anything though, but in case this wasn't already mentioned earlier on theres a chapter coming up in just 3 weeks that is all about ragnarok. And considering that it most likely is not THAT far off from release (as in I would be surprised if it's another 6+ months out) then I always had a feeling that chapter would correlate closely to it's release, since this whole story is chronological, and that chapter according to the title chronicles the story of ragnarok until present day. But that doesnt mean anything either lol. Just sayin. when it comes it comes.

That box looks to be the exact same size as the box my Asgard 2 came in. There's no way a Ragnarok would fit inside that. And I don't think the people at Schiit are idiots, I'm sure they're shipping the beta units back and forth in discreet, brown boxes.
 
But I agree that the Ragnarok will likely be shipping or at least up for order by the time that chapter is released.
 
Aug 12, 2014 at 8:53 PM Post #2,028 of 151,274
It could be a Asgard/Lyr/Valhalla + Bifrost stacked with foam blocks on the ends to keep them separated. The box doesn't look wide enough for a Mjolnir or Gungnir as they are 16" wide.

There's no way that box is a Ragnarok as it is even wider.
 
Aug 12, 2014 at 9:00 PM Post #2,029 of 151,274
It could be a Asgard/Lyr/Valhalla + Bifrost stacked with foam blocks on the ends to keep them separated. The box doesn't look wide enough for a Mjolnir or Gungnir as they are 16" wide.

There's no way that box is a Ragnarok as it is even wider.

The Asgard 2 ships in a box that exact size inside two foam block things. It's clearly one of those... I'm assuming the Lyr, Valhalla and Bifrost ship the same way.
 
Aug 12, 2014 at 9:08 PM Post #2,030 of 151,274
  The Asgard 2 ships in a box that exact size inside two foam block things. It's clearly one of those... I'm assuming the Lyr, Valhalla and Bifrost ship the same way.


You're right that it is not a ragnarok, I didn't mean imply that originally either. I had to put my box my bifrost came in next to this pic and allign it the same way, and now they look similar lol. The picture made it look bigger to me, and I figured it was a mjolnir/gungnir since I have not seen the box they come in, just their size.
 
Aug 13, 2014 at 10:35 AM Post #2,031 of 151,274
Chapter 26:
Finally, the $99 Solution
 
Back in the early 1990s, while I was working at Sumo, if you told me I’d eventually be designing and selling audio products that retailed for $99, I would have told you that you were insane.
 
(And, if you’d told me that I’d be designing and selling audio products that retailed for $63—the 1991 equivalent to $99 today), I’d think you were even nuttier.
 
I suspect Mike Moffat would have had the same response. Which makes it all the crazier that he was the one who brought the idea for the $99 DAC to me first, and started the whole inexpensive-gear thing at Schiit.
 
Why would this be so unbelievable, you ask?
 
It’s simple. Back then, it was a different world. Building and selling a product for $31-37 in 1991 (which would allow the dealers to have their cut, in the dealer-dominant marketplace of the time) simply wasn’t gonna happen. Selling direct was, to put it mildly, unfeasible in the pre-internet world. And, back then, we’d probably have to make the products with thru-hole parts, rather than using surface-mount parts (which allow for efficient automated assembly), driving the production cost even higher.
 
And, early on in the Magni/Modi project, I had doubts that we could do it for $99, even direct.
 
So I was very, very thrilled when the original numbers came in for the chassis and wall-wart, confirming that we could, indeed, sell gear with the near-unbelievable two-digit price tag.
 
Once the numbers were confirmed—this was in late August 2012—we started placing the biggest orders we’d ever done to date with our suppliers. We knew Magni and Modi would be big, and we knew how crazy things could get if we went out of stock. So we stocked up, in anticipation of being able to release it at CanJam, well-timed for the holiday rush that hits every year.*
 
*Audio is a strongly seasonal business. October through March are hot. April, May, and June see falling sales, to a low in July/August. Then it picks back up again as people get into a stay-indoors or holiday-buying mood. This seasonality tracks very well with cold weather in much of the northern hemisphere, where people are more likely to stay at home and curl up with a nice glass of scotch…er, I mean wine…er, wait, warm milk or something is probably a little more PC, but whatever. As the days get warmer and vacation season hits, sales fall. This has been going on approximately since the earth cooled. If you’re thinking of starting your own business, be aware if it’s a seasonal one or not—planning in the fast season can leave you buried in unsold stock, and projecting forward from the slow season can put you in heavy backorder.
 
Of course, people who attended 2012 CanJam know there was no Magni and Modi there (well, not out on the table—there were under-the-table prototypes we shared with a few people.)
 
And, even more sharp-memoried readers will remember that Magni and Modi didn’t ship “comfortably before the holiday season,” and, in actuality, made their appearance on December 13—deep into the Christmas buying time.
 
Not ideal, right?
 
Yep. But much less ideal than setting an arbitrary deadline to be missed, or pushing a semi-finished product out the door.
 
 
The Luxury (and Penalty) of Closed Doors
 
Magni and Modi were the first products we didn’t announce beforehand. Indeed, they were the first products we didn’t even hint about. This “closed door” approach is great in many ways. Namely:
 
  1. There’s no chance of missing the deadline, because there isn’t any
  2. If there are problems in production, you have the luxury to take your time and sort them out
  3. Your competitors don’t know what you’re doing until you launch, which means it will take them longer to counter 
 
Of course, closed doors have some disadvantages, too:
 
  1. With no deadline, you may not work as hard as you need to in order to hold a schedule
  2. If you have cash flow problems—that is, if you’re running a business on a receivables-financing basis, or a assets-financing basis, or if you don’t have shipping products to tide you over—the luxury of time is a cold comfort
  3. If there are significant delays, you may miss your first-mover advantage
 
The real danger to Schiit’s launch of the Magni and Modi was the first point—with no deadline, you might not work as hard to get it out on time.
 
Now, this doesn’t mean we sat around. But when metal was late, and when the board house was slow freeing up their surface mount line for us, we were probably less diligent than we should have been in being “in their face.”**
 
**Please note that “in their face” does not mean “being a total whiny bitchy ass at every opportunity.” Running a business that doesn’t do everything in-house requires great relationships with your vendors. They need to know when things aren’t critical, and they need to know that you’re not going to hold them to some insane algorithmic standard for to-the-minute delivery on every product. That means, when you do need fast delivery, or a quick change, they’re going to be much, much more likely to get that done for you. Because you don’t ride them on every little thing. So, “in their face,” means “calling them more than once every three weeks to see how things are going.”
 
So yeah, metal was a bit late. That killed showing Magni and Modi at CanJam. And boards were a little later. Which wouldn’t have been as big a problem, except for two others:
 
  • The pots (engineer-speak for ‘volume control’) we planned to use were late—even later than their 6-week lead time would suggest. Which hung up delivery of the boards, since a headphone amp without volume control is, well, pretty much useless. Especially when there’s a big hole in the chassis it was supposed to poke through.
  • When we finally got the completed boards in, we had an engineering “oh schiit” moment when we realized the boards couldn’t be inserted into the chassis. As in, at all. The big capacitors at the front of the board hung up between the pressed-in board standoff and the top inner chassis flange.
 
Aside: and, before you start saying, “3D CAD would have showed this clear as day,” well, not really—not unless it showed articulating exploded views. And, these days, finally, everything we’re doing is 3D—but not back then.
 
So, what did we do? Well, I knew at least one fix:
 
“We could send the chassis back to the metal guys and have them notch the front flange to clear the standoff.”
 
Mike was less than convinced. “How long will that take?”
 
“A couple of weeks.”
 
Mike looked pointedly up at the calendar. It was the first week of December.
 
“Yeah, I know, I know, we miss Christmas…”
 
“If it’s really only two weeks,” Mike said. “We could lay the capacitors down, couldn’t we?”
 
“Yeah, but that looks awful.” But then, I had an epiphany—the one I should have had in the first place. “But we can find shorter capacitors, I bet.”
 
Aside: yeah, I know, obvious. But tell me you’ve never made any boneheaded mistakes. With a straight face.
 
“Can you get capacitors with the same value?” Mike asked.
 
“I’ll find out. But even if we have to shrink the values a bit, it’s pretty overkill already.”
 
A quick Mouser search confirmed that we could, indeed, get the same value capacitors, at about half the height. Mocking it up with capacitors of that size proved that we could, indeed, just clear the chassis flange. Done.
 
Now, the above thing about capacitors of different sizes may seem strange to non-engineers, but it really isn’t. Capacitors of the same value—for the sake of argument, let’s say 1000uF at 16V—come in a huge array of sizes. Some are large for the sake of higher temperature ratings or lower ESR. Some are large because a lot of engineers think that large caps measure better than small caps. That’s not always true, because a lot of manufacturers caught on to this little factoid, and sometimes make electrolytic capacitors that are full of a whole lot of air. You need to look at the specs, and make your decision based on that…and also consider that oddball sizes are the ones more frequently out of stock, and pricier.
 
So, after the capacitor debacle was resolved, we got some right-size caps in next day, and sent the first article boards back to the PCB house. Luckily, there were only 10 first articles that needed reworked. The rest of them came to us with the new caps in-place.
 
And, in a few days, we had enough Magnis and Modis on the shelf to announce…
 
 
The Real Statement
 
On December 13, 2012, we announced Modi and Magni to the world. And, oh, what a crazy announcement that was—and a crazy last two weeks of December!
 
In terms of mechanics, it was a relatively uneventful launch. We had product in stock. We had enough labor to keep it in stock, and a big enough first run that we didn’t hit backorder until January.
 
In terms of issues, it was also relatively uneventful. Some dead wall-warts (which we tightened up by better vendor communication) and some out-of-spec pots with unacceptable tracking, even at relatively high levels (which we reworked, and re-spec’d the pots for the next run.)
 
But in terms of what it did to the company…suddenly we were all about $99 products. They were the vast majority of sales—easily outstripping all other products combined. We struggled to keep up with shipping and with inquiries, which led to fast changes on the shipping side and slower changes on the customer service side (until November 2013, I answered the vast majority of customer service questions.)
 
And, to this day, the best comment I think we ever got on the launch was amongst the chatter about the Schiit statement products (yeah, people were talking about them even back then, the as-yet-unnamed Ragnarok and Yggdrasil.)
 
The comment was:
 
“Now, this is the real statement.”
 
Exactly. Thank you. Making another pricey product—no matter how advanced and innovative—is cool and all, and makes for good ego fodder (that is, at least when you can ship the darn things.) But making a good, solid product that almost anyone can afford, that’s a whole ‘nother thing entirely. It’s wayyyy more important for the Magni and Modi to exist than Ragnarok and Yggdrasil.
 
And—you know what? It’s a lot more fun, too. Magni and Modi will always be special to me, because it proved that we could actually make, sell, and support a no-compromises, all-discrete amp, and a top-shelf asynchronous DAC in the USA for a two-figure price tag.
 
Nobody was expecting that.
 
Nobody was expecting that from us.
 
Magni and Modi were the first products that actually made me want to go to CES and do a press tour. To go in front of them and say, “You know, there once was a time in this country when we actually made things. Practical things, with top-notch technology and affordable price tags. Things without excuses about ‘well, we can’t really do that in a global economy,’ or ‘we don’t have the supply chain here to do that,’ or ‘labor here costs so much we can’t be competitive.’” And then hold up Magni and Modi and continue: “That stops today. Presenting the only fully discrete, no-excuses headphone amp made in the USA, from predominantly-US-sourced parts, with a 2 year warranty. No excuses. $99.”
 
You know, that would make a decent commercial, if Fiat-owned Chrysler hadn’t co-opted the idea. Ah well, what can you do?
 
And, it’s funny. After the launch, of course we got compared to the O2 and ODAC. And some people even opined that we brought these products out as a direct counter to those.
 
Actually, no. I was thinking bigger. I saw the headphone market growing. And I realized that, very soon, some large entity would wake up and say, “Hey, you know, we should have some of the accessories side of that. Like amps and DACs.” Someone like Logitech. Someone like Harman. Someone big.
 
And, with a market fragmented amongst a bunch of smaller players, you know what? It could have happened. They could have gotten some engineers together, put together some of TI’s textbook op-amp/headphone-driver solutions, built the whole thing in China, and sold it for a very attractive price. Maybe not $99 through distribution, but dang close.
 
But after Magni and Modi? A powerful, fully-discrete US-built amp for $99? A USB 2 asynchronous DAC for $99? Well, then suddenly the market doesn’t look so attractive. Going up against that is a lot harder than going up against Asgard, Valhalla, and Lyr.
 
And that’s what I wanted to do—to set the value bar, and the barrier to entry, much, much higher. So that any of the big guys out there looking in would say, “Hmm, well, there’s some very high-value, well-marketed stuff already established—considering the size of the market, let’s take a flyer.”
 
Hopefully, we have achieved a small fraction of that goal.
 
We’ll see.
 
 
The Lasting Impact
 
At launch, I really was all about making an impact—but it took quite a while for me to realize what it really is. Chest-thumping about made-in-USA product is one thing. Setting the barrier to entry high is another. But the former doesn’t really matter for much of the world, and the latter really doesn’t matter much except to us and the competition.
 
No. The thing that really matters is that Magni and Modi are giving many, many first-timers their initial taste of very good sound. They’re recommended here, and on many other online communities, including the biggest first-timer venue out there: Reddit.
 
It’s become almost a knee-jerk recommendation: “Oh, you’re looking at getting into headphone amps and DACs? Well, there’s the Magni/Modi…” (and others, of course), but Magni and Modi are usually amongst the first mentioned.
 
Why? Because they’re inexpensive, and because they’re good products.
 
I wasn’t kidding when I wrote, “They may be the only amp and DAC you’ll ever need.” I was dead serious. Magni has a ton of power, and it’s pretty open and neutral for many different headphones. It’s easy to recommend. Same with Modi. It plugs into a whole lot of different sources, doesn’t need drivers, and pretty much just works. Again, easy.
 
Sure, there are amps and DACs out there that scale up higher, or have more features, or serve the format du jour, or whatever, but for most people in today’s largely 16/44.1 based world (and, dare we say it, AAC and MP3), they’re just fine. And either can be had for the price of a good steak dinner.
 
So that’s the real impact: bringing that first audiophile experience to a larger audience.
 
And that matters. 
 
Schiit Audio Stay updated on Schiit Audio at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/Schiit/ http://www.schiit.com/
Aug 13, 2014 at 10:43 AM Post #2,032 of 151,274
Bonus Post: Schiit Pipeline Update
 
Hey guys,
 
I am finally fully up and back to it, and I wanted to update you on where we are with new products.
 
We’re expecting to launch 6 new products before the end of this year (stop laughing.) You know about three of them:
 
  1. Mani. As usual, waiting for parts. We guess mid-September. 
  2. Ragnarok. Currently we have full runs of production boards, metal, etc and are finishing debugging one last little problem and finalizing a test fixture to process boards at a reasonable rate. Soon, I will open up a final beta program for 20 buyers at a discounted price, and with 100% refund if you don’t like it. There will be a form to fill out for inclusion in the beta; it won’t be first-come, first-served. After the 15-day beta, assuming all is well, we’ll open up ordering. Please don’t bother hounding me about this. It will happen soon, and it will happen when it happens.
  3. Yggdrasil. Will be at RMAF, in what should be final form. For further questions, ask Mike (Baldr.)
 
You don’t know about the other three, but you’ll see if I make good on the promise. Again, stop laughing. I’m hoping to have at least one of the three at RMAF. Yeah, I know. We’ll see.
 
After that, buckle up for 2015. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
 
All the best,
 
Jason
 
Schiit Audio Stay updated on Schiit Audio at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/Schiit/ http://www.schiit.com/
Aug 13, 2014 at 11:15 AM Post #2,033 of 151,274
Jason,
 
Thanks for telling the story. It's a thrilling read and made all the more fun when it's about Schiit creating affordable products that let more people discover great sound. 
 
I'm proud that Schiit makes the effort to design and make good and inexpensive products in America.
 
And proves that what some hold as true in the global manufacturing/supply chain space does not have to apply for this industry and perhaps many others.
 
I say that not as an American, but as an Asian.
 
Aug 13, 2014 at 11:24 AM Post #2,034 of 151,274
  Bonus Post: Schiit Pipeline Update
 
Hey guys,
 
I am finally fully up and back to it, and I wanted to update you on where we are with new products.
 
We’re expecting to launch 6 new products before the end of this year (stop laughing.) You know about three of them:
 
  1. Mani. As usual, waiting for parts. We guess mid-September. 
  2. Ragnarok. Currently we have full runs of production boards, metal, etc and are finishing debugging one last little problem and finalizing a test fixture to process boards at a reasonable rate. Soon, I will open up a final beta program for 20 buyers at a discounted price, and with 100% refund if you don’t like it. There will be a form to fill out for inclusion in the beta; it won’t be first-come, first-served. After the 15-day beta, assuming all is well, we’ll open up ordering. Please don’t bother hounding me about this. It will happen soon, and it will happen when it happens.
  3. Yggdrasil. Will be at RMAF, in what should be final form. For further questions, ask Mike (Baldr.)
 
You don’t know about the other three, but you’ll see if I make good on the promise. Again, stop laughing. I’m hoping to have at least one of the three at RMAF. Yeah, I know. We’ll see.
 
After that, buckle up for 2015. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
 
All the best,
 
Jason

If sales are good, it looks like it'll be time for expansion. Good luck.
Oh, what's the Mani?
Edit: Professor Google answered, Phono Preamp.
 
Aug 13, 2014 at 11:27 AM Post #2,035 of 151,274
  Bonus Post: Schiit Pipeline Update
 
Hey guys,
 
I am finally fully up and back to it, and I wanted to update you on where we are with new products.
 
We’re expecting to launch 6 new products before the end of this year (stop laughing.) You know about three of them:
 
  1. Mani. As usual, waiting for parts. We guess mid-September. 
  2. Ragnarok. Currently we have full runs of production boards, metal, etc and are finishing debugging one last little problem and finalizing a test fixture to process boards at a reasonable rate. Soon, I will open up a final beta program for 20 buyers at a discounted price, and with 100% refund if you don’t like it. There will be a form to fill out for inclusion in the beta; it won’t be first-come, first-served. After the 15-day beta, assuming all is well, we’ll open up ordering. Please don’t bother hounding me about this. It will happen soon, and it will happen when it happens.
  3. Yggdrasil. Will be at RMAF, in what should be final form. For further questions, ask Mike (Baldr.)
 
You don’t know about the other three, but you’ll see if I make good on the promise. Again, stop laughing. I’m hoping to have at least one of the three at RMAF. Yeah, I know. We’ll see.
 
After that, buckle up for 2015. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
 
All the best,
 
Jason

 
 
Well you do have 3.5 months to launch 6 products, so I'll try not to laugh too much. :)
 
I hope one of your 6 products is an affordable, good sounding tube amp that can drive speakers as well as headphone as that's what I'm looking out for now.
 
Aug 13, 2014 at 11:55 AM Post #2,036 of 151,274
So that’s the real impact: bringing that first audiophile experience to a larger audience.

As someone who found Schiit while starting to wade into teh audiphile experience, this is definitely the coolest thing they've done.

And with these:
You don’t know about the other three, but you’ll see if I make good on the promise. Again, stop laughing. I’m hoping to have at least one of the three at RMAF. Yeah, I know. We’ll see.

After that, buckle up for 2015. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

I'm getting really excited about what's to come.
 
Aug 13, 2014 at 12:24 PM Post #2,038 of 151,274
Here's two more hints for 2015, then I'll stop. I promise:
 
1. If you don't move in surprising new directions, you'll stagnate.
2. If you don't radically improve your own approaches, someone else will come take the market from you.
 
And that's it.
 
Schiit Audio Stay updated on Schiit Audio at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
https://www.facebook.com/Schiit/ http://www.schiit.com/
Aug 13, 2014 at 12:44 PM Post #2,039 of 151,274
Here's two more hints for 2015, then I'll stop. I promise:

1. If you don't move in surprising new directions, you'll stagnate.
2. If you don't radically improve your own approaches, someone else will come take the market from you.

And that's it.
Hmm....could a product refresh be coming? That is, redesigning the chassis and layout of the original Asgard products into new packages? You did just update Vlhalla and Lyr, so I could be completely wrong...

At any rate, it sounds cool, and we're all looking forward to it :)
 
Aug 13, 2014 at 12:45 PM Post #2,040 of 151,274
  Here's two more hints for 2015, then I'll stop. I promise:
 
1. If you don't move in surprising new directions, you'll stagnate.
2. If you don't radically improve your own approaches, someone else will come take the market from you.
 
And that's it.

Drones for delivering headphones?
 

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