[Chris J]

I kinda doubt it....it's tough to compete with SME and Rega for tonearms because they have literally decades of mechanical engineering experience and can build to the tolerances required, as well as fit the pivot bearings at the right tension. 

Tonearms are sideline even for SME, most of their engineering is done for Formula 1. Not many companies in the world can match them for precision mechanical engineering design and execution. And as such, why go into that red ocean? Doesn't match with Schiit's core competencies, which are around audio and digital electrical engineering and firmware. Better to stay in blue oceans...

That was just a joke!
Like the other turntable and cartridge posts.......

 

[asuperpower]

- PC Soundcard. Why? It is basically a DAC with different power specs and pins. I am willing to bet that PC geeks will buy it. Plus, no need for fancy cosmetics.

Don't you still need shielding for that? - so there will still be fancy cosmetics, and it won't really bring anything new to the table.

 

[Coolzo]

Don't you still need shielding for that? - so there will still be fancy cosmetics, and it won't really bring anything new to the table.

In my experience, it won't matter how much shielding you put on an internal sound card... it will still be noisy as **** compared to a half-decent external audio interface or the like. And for that reason it seems like something Mike or Jason would definitely not be interested in.

 

[atubbs]

In my experience, it won't matter how much shielding you put on an internal sound card... it will still be noisy as **** compared to a half-decent external audio interface or the like. And for that reason it seems like something Mike or Jason would definitely not be interested in.

 
It also requires a lot more software and support pain, something Jason's said several times is not a direction they want to go in.

 

[AManAnd88Keys]

   
It also requires a lot more software and support pain, something Jason's said several times is not a direction they want to go in.

Exactly. They would receive a shiitload of complaints every day like "Your soundcard doesn't work. I have xy as operating system (version x.x.x) and a dimdadum mainboard with blobblib CPU. Please help me asap.".
It's customer service hell.

 

[520RanchBro]

Doubt this happens but if the Mani is doing well I hope they make an affordable tube phono pre. More of a wish and not a realistic prediction. Also would like a small, simple, single-ended speaker amp.

 

[2K9R56S]

My Schiitwishlist would be a balanced amplifier that could drive bookshelf speakers and have the same footprint as Mjolnir.  Though it might have to be twice as tall.  A PYST connected Mjolnir/Gungnir/amplifier would cool.
 
Someone mentioned earlier a USB to S/PDIF.  That too would be nice.  Maybe with some WYRD-ness built-in to it.

 

[520RanchBro]

  My Schiitwishlist would be a balanced amplifier that could drive bookshelf speakers and have the same footprint as Mjolnir.  Though it might have to be twice as tall.  A PYST connected Mjolnir/Gungnir/amplifier would cool.
 
 

I think you are just describing the Ragnarok, it's just a little bit bigger in depth but they are the same width. But having a uniform footprint for stacking is ideal.

 

[2K9R56S]

  I think you are just describing the Ragnarok, it's just a little bit bigger in depth but they are the same width. But having a uniform footprint for stacking is ideal.

 
 
Well yeah, if I'm starting from scratch that would be the route to go.  But for those of us with existing amp/dac Schiitstacks, simply adding a third component would be preferred.

 

[bigro]

  Jason, 
I am glad you mentioned you might consider traditional pre-amps. I have been thinking about writing a post requesting you to consider building one for sometime. The reason for this is that I think you already have many of the necessary pieces to build a very good one. In addition, surprisingly most other manufacturers do not pay much attention to the importance of varying gain to better fit a component in an audio chain with other components of various sensitivities. I hope you can make the volume control as a gain control in that preamp or build the the preamp with several gain levels and the volume control would move between changing gain levels and cutting the signal in between the gain levels seamlessly to the user. Since Mike mentioned that Yiggi's DAC modules (if I remember correctly) output "VOLTS", it would be good if there is a special link to carry that high signal level without attenuation to such a pre-amp.
  Other than that, my wish list/guess list would be:
Headphone amps: not much.. but hey.. Mjolnir seems to be the only one left in the lineup without gain switching.. you ain't gonna leave it like that, are you?

 
Digital: 
- Mainly hoping Yiggi turns out to be a game changer. 
- I hope/think Mike will surprise us with a state of the art standalone USB or ethernet interface. Thinking of something that can challenge a Berkeley Design Alpha USB at around 1/3 the price. 
-  A proper 8-channel digital crossover and DSP that can work with input signals up to 24/192 and have high quality digital to analog conversion. The software side can be daunting but if you can team with somebody like Accourate or other filter software companies to make the filters directly uploadable to the DSP, it would make things easier. I doubt you get all of the above in one product from anybody now. But I know this is likely a low volume product.
 
 
Swiss army knife products: which in my mind include SYS and Wyrd:
- A version of SYS that switches between several input signals (more than 2) and have bypass-able volume control.
- An analog or digital equalizer, preferably PC/MAC programmable in case of a digital one and may be also uses off-the-shelf software like fab filter. All headphones need some sort of equalisation. 
- High quality power supply with various output voltage levels mainly to be used in place of switching power supplies for a laptop / windows tablet / MAC mini used as a music file server and also to power usb-powered devices.
 
 
2016 onwards: 
- If you can build a statement DAC, why not  build a statement ADC as well for the recording industry? It is equally as important.
- There are/will be some clearly large price gaps in the product line up that will be waiting to be filled
 
 
Other: Since you mentioned something nobody is expecting from you in Mystery 3, please think twice before you get tempted into spreading yourself too thin. I hope you wont go into mechanical stuff (headphones, speakers, turntables, etc) and keep refining and building better electronics.
 
Enjoy the holidays.

 I Second the Notion of a SYS with four + inputs and a volume control. If it happened to be in the size of the bifrost and valhalla. I would be forced to upgrade so my stack of schitt matched.
 
 
Great read. I have enjoyed every chapter and welcome follow up posts. All the best in The New year.
 
My new years resolution is to upgrade my preamp to a Valhalla 2.

 

[WilCox]

 
My new years resolution is to upgrade my preamp to a Valhalla 2.

 
You will love the Valhalla two.  It's an a wonderful amp and preamp.
 
My wish for 2015 is that Mike and Jason bring out a headphone equalizer.  Not the typical graphic equalizer, but something more novel, similar to the Quad tilt control which does little harm to the music's content but can do wonders to improve the listenablity of poorly mastered albums.

 

[Rem0o]

I just saw a "The Verge" article with some kind of Schiit in it, check it out. Free ad for Schiit?

 

[murrays]

   
You will love the Valhalla two.  It's an a wonderful amp and preamp.
 
My wish for 2015 is that Mike and Jason bring out a headphone equalizer.  Not the typical graphic equalizer, but something more novel, similar to the Quad tilt control which does little harm to the music's content but can do wonders to improve the listenablity of poorly mastered albums.

 
A parametric equaliser would be good for headphones.

 

[Alex Martin]

My Schiit Wish is that we wait another 3 or 4 months before launching another product.  I'm starting to forget what my family looks like and I am pretty certain that I saw my face on the back of a milk carton this morning.
 
Thanks to all of our great customers for a successful and eventful 2014.  I am blessed with a great team at the Schiitbox.  We are still catching up from our biggest Christmas season yet- but we'll get there.  Have a Happy New Year.

 

[Armaegis]

  My Schiit Wish is that we wait another 3 or 4 months before launching another product.  I'm starting to forget what my family looks like and I am pretty certain that I saw my face on the back of a milk carton this morning.
 
Thanks to all of our great customers for a successful and eventful 2014.  I am blessed with a great team at the Schiitbox.  We are still catching up from our biggest Christmas season yet- but we'll get there.  Have a Happy New Year.

 
Hey, who let you out? Get back to work!