[Jason Stoddard]

I've long since forgone the headphone world in favour of a Marantz receiver and speakers/subs, but I have to admit I do miss 2 channel stuff. I was checking out all the new stuff lately (holy moly what a year and a half for Schiit), and I stumbled upon the guides on Schiit for the preamps saying "Integration with home theater via true bypass capability."

I'm curious as to what this means exactly?

Scroll down to the very bottom of the Guides page for the answer.

 

[Exidrion]

Yeeeeah I just saw it. Ooops.

 

[DACattack]

Congrats on shipping Sol. A labor of love indeed. I sold all my vinyl years ago but I’m intrigued. I’ll see how things shake out and maybe take the bait in a few months. Hope it performs and sells well. (Personally, I’m more interested in a CD transport since I still have lots of CDs around.)

 

[axle11]

Holy Schiit!

 

[Balthazar B]

Black is a vocal minority, but the percentage of black is growing. Bifrost 2 and Asgard 3 are probably running 1/3 black vs 2/3 silver. Maybe 40/60.

As part of the black vocal minority, just have to ask. What's the percentage of black/silver Freya+ these days? <ahem>

You had to know *that* was coming, he he he....

 

[wabe]

Wait, there's a new Fulla coming out, too? The Audio gods are pleased today...

I believe Jason was comparing Hel (the "prototype" gaming project) to Fulla in terms of output. Where did you see the new Fulla announcement?

Except on Hel. But that's black and red. You'll see that at RMAF soon. Oh yeah, and it has op-amp outputs too. Not socketed, surface-mount. But it does 1W RMS per channel, a whole lot more than Fulla.

 

[omegaorgun]

Never anything with socketed op-amps, sorry. That way lies madness. At least for us.

We do offer one amp product that uses op-amps: Fulla 2. But they're surface-mount.

My workmate who used to be in the audio industry makes these 2520 opamps, the ones here are two 49710's in class-a on his proprietary pcb and they have an interesting sound (I think he knows one of your designers).

I also need a Jotunheim.

 

[PioBeer]

I believe Jason was comparing Hel (the "prototype" gaming project) to Fulla in terms of output. Where did you see the new Fulla announcement?

Gotcha, I figured the HEL might be like a Fulla 3, but I guess it's indeed a different animal?

 

[wabe]

Gotcha, I figured the HEL might be like a Fulla 3, but I guess it's indeed a different animal?

Someone will hopefully come in and correct me where I'm wrong, but I think it's essentially a Fulla 2 with the addition of a microphone input, based on what Jason said.

 

[ThorCorps]

Just timed it and the OG Freya takes about 50 seconds. I don’t like to leave it on all the time since it gets pretty hot and I’m not sure the LISST tubes will last forever (and no replacements available.)
At least it sounds like the Freya S is selling well so should be around for a while

While I haven't timed my Freya S, I'd agree that it's start-up time is about half of the OG Freya (I have both). Running temp for the Freya S is basically room temperature, compared to the quite toasty OG Freya with LISST.

 

[AndreYew]

Is the electronic Sol user manual on schiit.com missing pages? It seems to only have 1 page, and it kind of leaves you hanging.

 

[nerone]

My workmate who used to be in the audio industry makes these 2520 opamps, the ones here are two 49710's in class-a on his proprietary pcb and they have an interesting sound (I think he knows one of your designers).

I also need a Jotunheim.

For those who like to roll op-amps I think there is a reasonable amount of options (I won't mention brands, but they are easily found on the forum and internet). Even one specific DIY project that someone can find a technician to build for not too much money designed by a Pass Labs engineer.

 

[Varejao17]

Congrats Jason - looks like a SOLid product.

 

[hearditontheX]

Just want to extend my congrats to Schiit on releasing the Sol.

I hope Mike’s baby kicks ass at RMAF.

Now that Sol is out there, I have to figure out the plan to give one a Florida home.

 

[bcowen]

2019, Chapter 13:
Tonight, Chickenpowder and Cocaine!
Or, Introducing Sol.

A few days ago, a friend in Tokyo posted this amazing example of fashion English (and French, I suppose, as well).



I think it accurately summarizes how I feel about introducing Sol: off-base, surreal, but highly entertained.

Because I wasn’t ready to do this. Not now. Not after so many disappointments. I mean, the last few months have really felt like a death march. We’d get in a new platter—and it would look like ass. We’d get in another new platter—and it wouldn’t run to spec. We’d get in small parts that looked like they were finished by blind badgers. We’d get in other small parts that would be out of round, or crooked, or inverted (?!) or some other incomprehensible level of screwed up. And this would happen pretty much every week, so the hits…they just kept on coming.

And here’s the really funny part: almost none of these parts were super critical. The bearing housing? No problem? The bearing? Cool. The tonearm pivot? No problem.

But without those small, not-super-critical parts, we didn’t have a turntable.

And I think it was the small drip, drip, drip of disappointment after disappointment that got me to the point where I never really thought we’d ship a turntable.

Like, ever.

And so when the guys came to me last week and said, “We have platters,” I figured there’d be caveat. Like “We have platters, but they look crappy.” Or “We have platters, but they are mis-centered.” Or something like that.

When I discovered they actually meant, “We have platters, and those platters are the last part we need, and we can ship,” my mind just went into bizarro mode. I just didn’t believe it. It couldn’t be possible.

Hell, I hadn’t written the chapter!

Hell, I hadn’t written the press release!

But I didn’t really go into full chickenpowder and cocaine mode until they also added, “And we’ve built 20 Sols.”

I blinked a couple of times and said something really intelligent, like, “What?”

They said, “We built 20 Sols.”

“As in, done?”

They nodded. “As in, done and in boxes.”

Everything went kinda hazy and gray for a bit, like the last time I gave blood and had a couple of beers. Or like when someone calmly tells you they got abducted by aliens, then shows you the one they shot in the back of their truck. Or when you meet Elvis in the men’s restroom.

Holyschiit holyschiit holyschiit. That actually meant we could ship Sols.

And so here I am this week, catching up. Because you know what? If we can ship Sols, we’re gonna do it!


A Salute to the Guys

The turntable is Mike Moffat’s baby. He’s the one who conceived it, he’s the guy who found the dude (Conrad Hoffman) who did the design heavy lifting, and he’s the guy who shepherded it through to the last year or so, when we both got too busy. For a refresher about how Sol came about, re-read the “Here Comes the Sol” chapter from earlier this year.

That’s when we handed over the mess to Tony, who, if you remember some even earlier chapters, was our second employee at Schiit. He’s long been a great tech, but handing over Sol for him to manage is one of the best things we’ve done. He took it to the end zone, so to speak, working with our vendors to finally fix all the last tiny issues on the product. He also set up the production space (see pics below—yep, it’s modest, but I find it comfortingly reminiscent of the garage era of Schiit—a small, raw new area that will hopefully grow), did all the prototype assembly, built the first few dozen tonearms, and also did the setup video. In short, we couldn’t have done it without Tony.



Tony now has his own minion, Elvis (no, not that one), one of the newest members of our staff. Elvis is doing great work getting us organized for Sol production, and already the production area is one of the best structured in the shop. And Elvis is busy training others to help with Sol production, even as Tony is out at RMAF.

Aside: I won’t be at RMAF. Still too much to do. Don’t weep for me, I like doing this stuff!​

And I’d be remiss not to mention Tyler, who runs the HR and accounting side here, and who was also instrumental in helping the vendors understand, ahem, what we meant by “consumer quality,” and in helping Tony get the final parts hammered down. And Alex, the long-suffering director of operations, who worked with Tyler, Tony, and myself to make sure things happened.

In short, Sol took a lot of people a lot of time to get right…but it is finally right, and we’re going to start shipping…

…slowly and cautiously.


Slow and Paranoid

As I mentioned in the last chapter, Sol is the most mechanically complex product we’ve ever made. This means that, even after building 50 or so of these (with shockingly few glitches), even after measuring a couple, even after all of that, we’re gonna go slow at this. Lots of testing, lots of proving, lots of paranoia. Like Bifrost 2, but x10.

Which is good, because we’ll have a better shot at shipping you a mechanically ideal product. So far, things have worked very well, and the critical tolerance parts are all well within tolerance. But we’re continuing to measure and test, to make sure Sol is really, really good.

The old hands know what this means. “It means you’re gonna go into backorder,” they say.

Well, hopefully not, but we are not promising our usual 1-3 day shipping time on Sol. We’ve backed it off to 5-7 days. Hopefully it won’t go longer. Hopefully there won’t be a backorder. But we’ll see.

Because we’d all rather ship 100 good Sols than 1000 bad ones.


Why You Don’t Want a Sol, AKA “The Video”

When I realized we could ship Sol this week, I also realized several other things. I covered my lack of wordage above. But, most importantly, we also didn’t have a setup video. Tony had said he would do one, but he was also doing a bunch of the heavy lifting for RMAF. And he was leaving for RMAF on Tuesday! Argh.

Could we put together a video in time?

Yes, with the help of a friend and videographer we’ve worked with in the past. Tony and I came in on Monday, and while he and Brian were shooting video, I did the final shots for the owner’s manual. Kinda fun, actually, like old times at the agency.

The result is a 25-minute-long video that goes through all the setup and adjustment on Sol.

All the setup. All the adjustment.



As in, this isn’t a “take it out of the box and play records,” kinda thing. This is a turntable where literally every part is adjustable. VTA? Yep. Cartridge angle? Sure. Cueing height? Yep. Platter height? Yep. Motor pulley height? Yep. Arm cup height? Youbetcha. Anti-skate? Absolutely.

Plus: you have to buy your own cartridge.

And more plus: we expect you to have a phono preamp. Or buy one.

This kinda crazy high-level-of-owner-interaction experience is alien, if the only turntable you’ve ever used is a typical entry-level table. So if you’re not into doing an hour or so of tweaking, Sol probably isn’t for you.

The payoff for all this insanity? Lots better performance.

Sol follows the patters of uber-high-end turntables: no MDF or acrylic in sight, no standard cartridge, literally everything adjustable. You can dial in Sol’s performance to an insane degree, to extract amazing performance from even very expensive cartridges. But again, we get it: not everyone wants to go through the trouble.

So, here’s a suggestion: when you’re doing your morning workout, put on the Sol video. See if it looks reasonable. If it does, you’re a good candidate for Sol. If not, there’s a ton of other options out there.

If you do go for it, you’ll have a turntable that's really, really yours. You’ll also have a turntable you can easily swap arms on—affordable arms, so if you want to have a cartridge specifically for mono and one for stereo, no problem. Or if you want to have a dozen, that’s cool too. Though a bit weird. But hey, so is owning a turntable in (nearly) 2020.


Future Spin

Mike and I have talked about tons of crazy stuff for the future, from pre-set-up arms with various cartridges, bases and dust covers to AC motor controllers to different options for the platter casting to active suspension systems, but all that is a bit beyond the pale. I can’t really think about that right now. It’s like worrying about whether gray aliens are real and if they are actually making alien-human hybrids.

So yeah. There may be more. But for now, we’re going to go with what we have: a basic turntable, at a fair price, that you can order an extra arm for, or add a Mani to, that we’ll build slowly and carefully to make sure they’re the best they can be…

…and then we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

In the meantime, let us know what you think!

Beautiful 'table!! Oops, I guess I should say 'turntable' to avoid the nicknames.

Kudos to Tony and Elvis as well for a beautifully 5S'ed workspace. A place for everything, everything in its place, everything labeled. Wish I could get my guys to do the same....consistently. And to echo @dmckean44 , the effective mass of the tonearm is a critically needed spec, especially when mating up MC cartridges that have compliances all over the map.