Using an ADC is like using a scanner, it's the best archiving device and using a really high quality ADC is like using a drum scanner instead of a CCD scanner.
Ooh! Somebody else that wants a high-quality affordable ADC! This is not me posting under another name! I promise - he's been around longer than I have.
That being said, I have to play devil's advocate:
Obviously you haven't, as vinyl is by far the fastest growing segment in the music industry, double digit figures which makes other media pale with envy (look it up).
According to IFPI "
Physical formats account for more than half (51.5 per cent) of all global revenues" and "While vinyl sales account for only a small fraction of the overall industry revenues, they have seen an increase in recent years in some key markets. In the US, vinyl sales increased by 32 per cent in 2013" (http://www.ifpi.org/facts-and-stats.php)
But that's still an awfully small amount of records - I tried finding actual unit numbers, but they're hard to come by. In the UK they sold
780,000 LPs in 2013 (a 101% increase over 2012): compare that to the billions of CDs and even more digital downloads. We're in sub-fractions of a percent territory. So I see why Mike is dubious.
Play where the puck will be as Jobs said
As a Canadian I can't let this slide. That was the original Great One, Wayne Gretzky:
"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." A great Canadian, even if we did sell him to LA.
A true audiophile probably should consider good analog front ends, pity to miss out considering they don't cost much to sound great (add a tuner if you're lucky to live in a country that has good FM).
Well, that's a bit didactic, declaring that only audiophiles with analog sources are "true audiophiles" - but that being said, I still have warm memories of my Magnum Dynalab FT-11. Those swinging needles were awesome! A great Canadian product to go along with my Oracle Delphi, another great Canadian product. But I guess I'm not a true audiophile any more since it's been years since I've dropped the needle on anything, and I only listen to FM in my car nowadays.
And finally...
By the way, Pioneer just launched the successor to the SL1200 (which Panasonics/Technics foolishly dropped a couple years ago). Pioneer is also the leader in the consumer DJ world so in terms of teenage wannabe DJs, you can imagine the size of *that* market.
I wouldn't be crowing about that so much: Pioneer is
selling off its DJ division.
That's the problem with playing devil's advocate - it gets confusing. I would like to see Schiit strongly consider building a decent affordable ADC, but by the same token I don't want it to be a dinosaur for them (the image Jason evoked when writing about the warehouse flood of 'shelves of unsold Lokis' kind of haunts me).
Maybe they could roll an ADC into a DAC product? I would suggest
a combo device, but that would surely cannibalize their existing lineup. That being said, it's a very short leap from a Bifrost to an amp with a replaceable DAC board or a DAC with a replaceable analog board... so why not throw in a replaceable ADC while they're at it!
I can hope...
