[quimbo]

How i got here, About 10-12 years ago when all of my children were well on their way to college I starting exploring desktop hardware, etc.

I started with an HRT Streamer (replaced with a Pro a few years later), fed into a cheap switch box which then fed a Tweak City Gizmo Class D Amplifier and a Creek OBH-11 Headphone amp that was part of my 2 channel system since 2000. I had a similar setup at work.

I stumbled onto Schiit on May 7th of 2015 and purchased a Fulla. I used this on my man cave laptop and was impressed with the quality for the price. It is now in a drawer at work

I started exploring the Schiit forums after being impressed with the Fulla

5/22/2015 - purchased a Sys to replace the cheap RCA switch on my home setup

8/8/2016 - purchased a Vali which I rarely ever use.

12/7/2016 - Fulla 2. Used this at work, now it is used in the mancave laptop

7/29/2017 - returned home from vacation, my second HRT product (HRT - MUSIC STREAMER PRO) crapped out so I purchased a Bifrost MultiBit

9/7/2017 - Asgard 2 to replace the Creek OBH-11 at home. This was re purposed for work (at some point I had it modded here - http://bigskyaudiomt.com/Creek_OBH-11_Headphone_Amplifier.php ) and was recently gifted to a friend

10/06/2017 - Loki for home

10/18/2017 - Modi 2 and Magni 3 for work

10/26/2017 - Loki and Modi 2 Uber for work (so I could use my Fiio X7, my 3rd Fiio on that journey), Modi 2 gifted to a friend at work. I also purchased a floor wart

11/01/2017 - Wyrd for Work

03/27/2018 - Lyr 3 for home, gifted the Asgard to a friend

Home setup - Bifrost, Sys, Loki, Lyr3 - JBL 305P MkII

Work Setup - Wyrd, Modi 2 Uber, Loki, Magni 3 --> JBL One Series 104 -pic of setup - https://www.head-fi.org/threads/magni-3-impressions.860812/page-81#post-13956309

 

[yonson]

I'm going to change this conversation slightly and mention how I've gotten others into Schiit. For a while now I've had a modest stack at work (currently Wyrd, Mimby, Loki and Magni) with a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros. The cubes are low wall, so there's lots of cross-noise, and as often as I can I play music on my headphones from my laptop so I'm not distracted. People circulate all over to collaborate and I have many walk by my desk.

Frankly, having them see this stack of silver (and my enjoyment of the music) is the gateway drug. Invariably, I'm asked what it is. Before I explain anything I ask he or she what kind of music they like, queue something appropriate on my laptop, then suggest they listen on my headphones. This simple little demo has resulted in more than a dozen coworkers purchasing Fullas, Modi/Magni or Vali stacks for work, and a couple of them have now moved up to Bimby+amp levels and beyond for home. Every single one of them had been listening to music directly from their laptops or their phones, often on earbuds.

And the response is almost always: "Wow! I didn't know music could sound this good." A few do say their phones are just fine, and that's great. We all like what we like. But many, many more, most, love it and appreciate the difference. I don't try to explain what a DAC is or does, or the amp, or any of the rest of it (how to do you explain Wyrd, ha?!?). Usually, at this point I direct them to Schiit's web site and tell them I'm around for any questions, and bingo, a month later they ask me to come to their desk to listen to their new setups.

Anyway, I get nearly as big a kick turning others onto good hi-fi, especially when they can do it for as little as buying a Fulla and decent headphones, as I do listening to music on mine. And that's the magic of Schiit.

Before I had to switch to Bluetooth headphones at work (needed to move around, a LOT) I use to do something similar with my smallish Schiit stack (Eitr, Modi 2 Uber, Vali 2) the Vali 2 is what always caught everyones eye.

Now days all my Schiit has been repurposed for 2 channel listening. I have the old work stack in my shop running to a pair of Dynaudio BM Compact mkIII's...

 

[bcowen]

Before I had to switch to Bluetooth headphones at work (needed to move around, a LOT) I use to do something similar with my smallish Schiit stack (Eitr, Modi 2 Uber, Vali 2) the Vali 2 is what always caught everyones eye.

I sold my Vali 2 when I got the Lyr 3. Almost instantly regretted selling it, but I sold it to a guy at work mostly as a favor and he loves it. Then 5 of them showed up in Schiit's B-Stock the other day and I grabbed one. I think the other 4 disappeared in about an hour.

 

[TylersEclectic]

I'm going to change this conversation slightly and mention how I've gotten others into Schiit. For a while now I've had a modest stack at work (currently Wyrd, Mimby, Loki and Magni) with a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pros. The cubes are low wall, so there's lots of cross-noise, and as often as I can I play music on my headphones from my laptop so I'm not distracted. People circulate all over to collaborate and I have many walk by my desk.

Frankly, having them see this stack of silver (and my enjoyment of the music) is the gateway drug. Invariably, I'm asked what it is. Before I explain anything I ask he or she what kind of music they like, queue something appropriate on my laptop, then suggest they listen on my headphones. This simple little demo has resulted in more than a dozen coworkers purchasing Fullas, Modi/Magni or Vali stacks for work, and a couple of them have now moved up to Bimby+amp levels and beyond for home. Every single one of them had been listening to music directly from their laptops or their phones, often on earbuds.

And the response is almost always: "Wow! I didn't know music could sound this good." A few do say their phones are just fine, and that's great. We all like what we like. But many, many more, most, love it and appreciate the difference. I don't try to explain what a DAC is or does, or the amp, or any of the rest of it (how to do you explain Wyrd, ha?!?). Usually, at this point I direct them to Schiit's web site and tell them I'm around for any questions, and bingo, a month later they ask me to come to their desk to listen to their new setups.

Anyway, I get nearly as big a kick turning others onto good hi-fi, especially when they can do it for as little as buying a Fulla and decent headphones, as I do listening to music on mine. And that's the magic of Schiit.

This is one of my favorite things to do! I also like bringing in un-obtanium that I have on loan, or own for people to try, it is such a cool thing seeing people’s eyes light up listening to a favorite track over Qobuz and through a HiFi audio chain. I’ll usually pointy them to Schiit and (Mass)Drop as good places to research products. I even did a mini-meet at work where I brought in a bunch of my amps, DACs, headphones and setup a couple of listening stations. I might have to do this again...the only awkward part is when you are asked how much things cost *insert awkward chuckle* “well...”

 

[DACattack]

Before I had to switch to Bluetooth headphones at work (needed to move around, a LOT) I use to do something similar with my smallish Schiit stack (Eitr, Modi 2 Uber, Vali 2) the Vali 2 is what always caught everyones eye.

Now days all my Schiit has been repurposed for 2 channel listening. I have the old work stack in my shop running to a pair of Dynaudio BM Compact mkIII's...

LOL, I bet the Vali2 ups the "wow" factor. I've been waiting for one to drop into the B-stock bin. If I score one, I'll replace the Magni at work with it, and give the Magni to my son for his bedroom setup. He's using an original Vali right now. (I've recently set up a new 2 channel system as well after I repurposed a spare room as a dedicated listening room. More Schiit. Honestly I may not have gone beyond headphones if Schiit hadn't moved into the two channel space.)

 

[DACattack]

I sold my Vali 2 when I got the Lyr 3. Almost instantly regretted selling it, but I sold it to a guy at work mostly as a favor and he loves it. Then 5 of them showed up in Schiit's B-Stock the other day and I grabbed one. I think the other 4 disappeared in about an hour.

Argh! Good for you. I missed the latest batch.

 

[yonson]

LOL, I bet the Vali2 ups the "wow" factor. I've been waiting for one to drop into the B-stock bin. If I score one, I'll replace the Magni at work with it, and give the Magni to my son for his bedroom setup. He's using an original Vali right now. (I've recently set up a new 2 channel system as well after I repurposed a spare room as a dedicated listening room. More Schiit. Honestly I may not have gone beyond headphones if Schiit hadn't moved into the two channel space.)

Vidar is the reason I registered for this forum (on the Vidar release day no less) and ultimately found this thread.

 

[KoshNaranek]

I was in the market for a used Theta DS Pro Generation V DAC. could not find one anywhere. A friend told me that Mike Moffat had come out with a follow up design called Yggdrasil and that his was on order. After it arrived, I went over his house for an evening of listening. There were four DACS in the competition ranging price from $1000 to $4500. When it was the Yggdrasil's turn, I literally dropped my single malt sipping whiskey onto the floor. After cleaning up my mess, I resolved to obtain one for my very own.

Upon returning home, I gushed to my wife how much I lived the new DAC and that I wanted one. "What's it going to cost me?" she asked dryly.

"$2300"

"No Way!"

"Look," I Said. "I really want this. We are going to argue about for the next six weeks, just like every time I want a new piece of audio equipment and in the end, you will relent." "Can we just pretend that we have already done it and you just say yes now?"

She gives me a stony, unblinking stare.

I return the stony, unblinking stare.

This goes on for several more seconds.

She blinks and says, "OK, you were going to get a Taurus SHO as you lease car. Get something cheaper and every dollar you save, you can spend on audio equipment."

"I'll take that deal every day of the week and twice on Sunday!"

So I got this:

and of course, this:

 

[MatthiasP]

I think we are getting Version 3 of both Gumby and Yggy. Both with Unisen USB and Nexus.

Yggdrasil 2 is now something like 2 years old. From my perspektive, and from an engineer's perspective, it would be (highly) questionable to see after this short time another output stage update.
It wouldn't be Nexus, as a DAC's output stage is more or less the same than an preamp, and there you will run it Class A. Its bias is so low, that you don't take a compromise like ClassA/B or D or whatsoever.
A complete other reason would be a word clock input, as for this as I understand there has to be a reorganization of the digital processing.

I'm eagerly awaiting the Unison, as this would be a real world update for me.
And the gadget, I would get addicted to hearing my music only in 432Hz tuning - and never leave my house again out of pure happiness!
Interesting times we're living in!
(Hope baldr is fine!)

 

[hearditontheX]

My stepped-in-Schiit story is different from most. I was looking for speakers for home and ended up getting Salk Song3-As. While looking around for reviews of the Salks, I read that the Salk-Schiit pairings were well regarded at shows. I also thought it was very cool that Schiit purchased a custom pair of Song3s in a stunning gloss white finish. So I find the Schiit website and appreciate the value/quality message delivered with an anti-corporate tone. I then registered here, because for me, it was an unheard of opportunity to be able to communicate directly with product developers. Many thanks to Mike and Jason for the hours they spend in personal contact with their customers. Since I am not an EE, I read the technical bits in a slight fog, but I give it a go in hopes that it will eventually sink in. In time, I was able to convince the wife of the need for the Mani and the Modi-Multibit. I am very happy with both purchases.

The only thing that pisses me off about Schiit is that I did not know about them when I worked for a year in the Santa Clarita area.

My Schiit plan for the future is preamp, amplifier, turntable, and who knows, even a disc player.

 

[porchwizard]

Another case of greedy government out of control.

If one looks at the boundary conditions. On the one end, all retail purchases are local and all retail sales are taxed. On the other end, if all purchases are done on-line from random locations around the country (USA), only 1/50 of retail sales are taxed (purchases from a business in your own state).

We are, of course, somewhere in the middle, but state and local regions have been steadily loosing income (tax) due to growing internet purchases. The money they spend on schools, roads, police, fire and other services has to come from somewhere. It is natural and inevitable outcome that a way will be sought to re-capture the lost revenue.

However conforming to every state and local tax structure is impossible and unsustainable.

 

[Charente]

PVD, eek, flashbacks! We were the agency of record for Veeco for 7 years.

That said, thanks to all for the stories of how you found us. Maybe I’ll ask if I can reproduce some of them in an upcoming chapter or ad. (I won’t use them without permission—the agency mindset never really changes. It’s also why I scream “kerning!” at many movie titles. Yes, I’m broken.) I never really thought to ask anyone how they found us (funny how you can get too close to things.) Please keep them coming if you have them!

That said, a couple of quick updates, one from the files of “things get a bit suckier,” and one from the “it’s a better day” world.

The suckier thing is that, thanks to South Dakota v Wayfair, we’re now going to have to start collecting taxes for most states. Yes, you read that right. States can now compel remote retailers to collect and remit sales taxes, and of course they are doing so. What’s worse, there’s a crazy patchwork of thousands of local tax rates that we have to comply with. As a result, we’re working with an industry-leading tax collection and remittance service, because frankly, this is nothing we ever wanted to do. So apologies to everyone who lives in a state with sales taxes, and for everyone who lives in a no-tax state, please have a hearty laugh at our expense.

The “it’s a better day” thing is that it’s looking pretty solid for next week as a double-release week. Like I said, these are both typical products we make, but you may be surprised at where we’ve taken them. One is a huge leap forward, and is bound to be controversial. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

And with that, I need to get back to testing and planning for the new releases...

All the best,
Jason

Presumably this won't affect us in Europe in any shape or form !! (I know nothing about the legislation, needless to say !) It's bad enough we pay import duty and VAT on the great stuff that comes out of the USA.

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Me too,
RocketScientist -> nwavguy -> Schiit

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch...robable-start-up.701900/page-52#post-10463052

I re-read that chapter about Asgard, Version 0. Damn. Its tone is still very much electrifying after 5 years.

BTW - I picked up Chesky's Exploration Of Time & Space from HD-Tracks. Whoo hoo!

 

[ScubaMan2017]

.....{{{snip}}}....I imagine some of the younger folks here are looking up Rube Goldberg at this time.

Fear not. My peers are indoctanating scores of teenagers to this mode of applied-science!
...this Honda commercial's still fantastic to watch and listen to...

 

[ScubaMan2017]

Another case of greedy government out of control.

I understand your frustration, @sam6550a
...as soon as my Schiit crosses the border, I get charged my HST (harmonized sales tax [provincial + federal]). I'll pay taxes (and vigorously prosecute wasteful bureaucrats & my publicly-funded peers). Sigh...