Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
- Thread starter Jason Stoddard
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Jason Stoddard
Sponsor: Schiit Audio
Hey guys,
As you know, Mike has always been a proponent of minimal moderation. Lately, I have agreed with his approach, and have stood back and watched a lot of very interesting conversations (and lots of pictures of cats, which, truth be told, I find pretty funny).
However, I think I need to remind you that we are here due to Head-Fi's hospitality. They have provided us this home, and we should consider ourselves guests. You know the drill: don't track mud onto the new living room carpet, don't use the fancy display towels, don't just start poking through the leftovers in the fridge.
Or, to be a bit more pointed: Head-Fi has their own rules of moderation. Most of this is common sense. I hope you understand the common sense of me asking you to abide by those rules, and to not use our hands-off approach as a way to bend them.
Because, like you, I understand I'm a guest in this house, and I want to continue to be welcome.
Thanks, as always, for reading my blather.
All the best,
Jason
As you know, Mike has always been a proponent of minimal moderation. Lately, I have agreed with his approach, and have stood back and watched a lot of very interesting conversations (and lots of pictures of cats, which, truth be told, I find pretty funny).
However, I think I need to remind you that we are here due to Head-Fi's hospitality. They have provided us this home, and we should consider ourselves guests. You know the drill: don't track mud onto the new living room carpet, don't use the fancy display towels, don't just start poking through the leftovers in the fridge.
Or, to be a bit more pointed: Head-Fi has their own rules of moderation. Most of this is common sense. I hope you understand the common sense of me asking you to abide by those rules, and to not use our hands-off approach as a way to bend them.
Because, like you, I understand I'm a guest in this house, and I want to continue to be welcome.
Thanks, as always, for reading my blather.
All the best,
Jason
Robert Padgett
500+ Head-Fier
Thanks Jason, loved the Darko Interview, and can hardly wait for the Schiit Sol!!
the finisher
1000+ Head-Fier
I on the other side and same side all at the same time, can't wait for the CD spinner!
AudioGal
100+ Head-Fier
Funny - I'm wearing my Teton Gravity Research shirt that has all five of those guys across the front. Though they're all skiers and snowboarders.
Shirt also has the red, white and blue G-D skull on the back, too. Grateful Dead iconography seems to be really popular with the ski/boarder crowd.
earnmyturns
Headphoneus Supremus
Not to derail from Schiit or anything, but TGR shirt, ski or ride? My music daydreams involve visualizing in-rhythm turns down a steep powder slope
AudioGal
100+ Head-Fier
Not to derail from Schiit or anything, but TGR shirt, ski or ride? My music daydreams involve visualizing in-rhythm turns down a steep powder slope
Ski. Live to ski. North East style - hard pack, icy, dust on crust kinda skiing. 4 inches of fresh snow qualifies as a powder day. It's fast and furious. My top speed is 56.2 MPH, though my normal average ski speed is in the mid 30s. My favorite day to ski is Wednesday as the tourists from last weekend have gone home and the tourists from next weekend haven't arrived yet. Only hard core locals on the mountain. Love when I'm at the top of a trail and there's no one below me for the entire run. Especially when it's all corduroy and we get to grab first tracks!
the finisher
1000+ Head-Fier
That sounds very much like skiing in Minnesota. It snowed here today damit.
Now this looks fun
earnmyturns
Headphoneus Supremus
Started skiing in CA, then moved East and skied a lot in Vermont, Maine, and Quebec, now back West, mostly converted to backcountry touring -- Sierra, British Columbia, and occasional trips to Europe and South America. I still ski the groomers in Tahoe for my early season tune-ups, especially if it is not too crowded. Hard as it might be to believe, I am even more fanatic about backcountry skiing than about music and audio
KoshNaranek
Headphoneus Supremus
I would never have guessedStarted skiing in CA, then moved East and skied a lot in Vermont, Maine, and Quebec, now back West, mostly converted to backcountry touring -- Sierra, British Columbia, and occasional trips to Europe and South America. I still ski the groomers in Tahoe for my early season tune-ups, especially if it is not too crowded. Hard as it might be to believe, I am even more fanatic about backcountry skiing than about music and audio
ScubaMan2017
Headphoneus Supremus
On a Sunday, I viewing that YouTube stream. The following is an exercise for me - assessing my understanding of my new-found hobby, as a middle-aged ScubaMan, living in Canada, whose lucky to have enough disposable income to play with toys. I’d welcome your feedback...
My highlights:
Timestamp: 2:16. ....baldr’s comment about the received parts being upside-down and backwards. If he had said it was also inside-out... and it exploded, he’d have unwittingly quoted from the 1999 movie, GalaxyQuest... starring Tim Allen, Sigournie Weaver, and Alan Rickmann. Link.
Timestamp: 4:38 - 5:38. ...inverted bearings being fully erect. Erections. Erections. Erections. Love it!
I also found it fascinating that Schiit Audio’s putting “function over form”. This upcoming device will be a ~15lb chunk of sculpted aluminum with a smoooooooth pivot point. And modular arms?! This device might very well upset the vinyl-playing-turntable market.Timestamp: 10:00. Schiit Floaters. While I was a teenager in the cassette-tape culture, turntable leveling & correction was a few years before my time. The two made a bold statement about this turntable — it’s not designed for the casual vinyl listener. It’s meant for high performance playback @ about $700 USD. Not my interest, but the spin-off technologies will be interesting (next-generation DiscMan/DVDman,...).
Timestamp: 11:55. The Supreme Soviet Of DACs... As a teenager of the 80s, this made me sit up. A soviet of... Who talks like that?! I might even use that saying.... Clever.
Timestamp: 18:40. Dr. Ivanna. Math/Music/Computer-Coder. Good god. Digital processing can do THAT to a song file?! Parse out and re-tone the voice and/or select instruments?! I’d expect that at the music-studio-level.... but if we as listeners can monkey around with the final product (and make it pleasurable to our individual tastes), that’d be amazing. I think there’s software technology available that’ll correct headphones and/or correct for room echo. And there’s something called Auto-Tune used in hiphop. Now, this... this goes further up the stream and allows me to alter the source before it hits my DAC... analogEQ.... amp...speakers. I love it how baldr (timestamp ~23:00) bristled at one thinking music processors as tone control. It’s not about making the musical output more accurate to the original source — it’s about enjoyment & pleasurable listening.
Timestamp 24:15. Wow. If I understand what Schiit has in mind... they’re developing and implementing their own USB protocol that’s designed from the ground up for multibit-DAC technology (I’m in the weeds here and only partially understand it). Schiit-USB-boards that does NOT sound like ass (it plugs in and just works). Christ, they could then license that technology out (hmmm, like Dolby? Like MQA? [like I said, I don’t understand this concept... no put-downs, please]).
Timestamp 26:55. So Schiit might dabble in (host) computer components. Perhaps a stand-alone music streamer or ‘transport’. That translate as a DAP to me. Ah, so that’s how a Raspberrry Pi could be used to feed our Modis, Bifrosts, and such!
Timestamp 27:55. Boom! A SchiitPi instead of customers running out and buying a RaspberryPi to stream tunes. It’s a next generation DAP. The little computer boards would have Schiit-designed-music-centric-USB-friendly-DAC chipsets (as a possible product line in the next 10 years).
Timestamp 29:55 ...USB sounding like *** ass... USB 2, 3 ~ what’s my favourite prostate exam? (SPIDIF) > (pre-Schiit-USB protocol). Awesome!
Timestamp 30:50... the beta-Schiit-USB is now on-par or better than SPDIF (so, [SPIDIF] < [USB-Schiit]). I appreciated how they both know digital transport (from host to DAC) shouldn’t matter... bits are bits... And yet, there’s a phenomena at work that they just don’t understand (it’s quantum?!
). Another balder zinger: it’s chickenschiit, chicken-salad better than SPDIF. I can’t make this up.Timestamp ~31:00. I’m pleased to see that these 2 guys are using consumer-grade audio sources. PCs.... MacBooks... dinosaur-aged rigs... I’m sure that might come and bite them in the ass eventually — GIGO (garbage in, garbage out). Meh, maybe it’ll only punish cheapscapes like me who use old gear.
Timestamp ~34:55. I appreciated how the reviewer drilled our guys on the SchiitPi (a highly modified RaspberriPi). This is going to become a very delicate dance for Schiit — they have to allow others to develop an operating system that liase with the dumb-yet-Rainman-brilliant, Schiit-DAC-chipset on the Pi’s motherboard. Schiit won’t make their own user interface on the SchiitPi (or RaspberryPi). Got it. I’ll run some kind of Linux distro.
Timestamp ~38:00. Their proprietary USB-100%-Schiit card’s coming out next year (2019). Meh... beyond my needs. Now, the SchiitPi... THAT’S WHAT I WANT.
Timestamp 39:00. It’s worth going through the interview just to see their looks on their faces wrt the state of DSD and MQA. Totalitarian sheep ***?! Yep, that’s another image I can’t get out of my mind (and can wait to use it at my next beer-BS-session).
Timestamp 42:00. Jason asks yes-and-no questions to Mike. It’s worth a listen. If for no other reason to hear Mike growl how future-Schiit-made-electrostatic headphones users should sit in a bathtub full of water. Damn! As my students would say, that’s savage, sir.
Timestamp: 45:50. Both of them boil their success down to a simple, phrase: their gear is simple... their gear is reliable... their gear is cheap (they make money selling it be the 1000s).
Timestamp: 47:00. Schiit and Massdrop similarities. Get more quality audiophile gear to people for cheap.
I urge newcomers like me to watch this interview. It’s educational, it’s coherent, and they use elegant swear words. Mr. Darko, thank you for this content, eh.
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scclimber
New Head-Fier
I’m new around here but loving the conversation.
Ripper2860
Headphoneus Supremus
Welcome. Do stick with us -- we are lucid every now and then. 
BagelJoe
100+ Head-Fier
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Point me to those posts!Welcome. Do stick with us -- we are lucid every now and then.
