Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

[ethr]

Sorry if this has been asked already.
 
What happens if you have a LISST in one channel and a tube in the other? Perhaps a tear in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop?
 
No seriously will things go hiss/fizz/pop or will we have the ultimate A/B test?
 

 

 

[jacal01]

 
How are we going to make sure our shirts are cooler than the regular shirts though?

 
If you were to really do some high class schwag, instead of (or in addition to) tee shirts, you should offer those nylon fishing shirts (with vented backs) in baby mustard yellow, with maybe the company logo over the breast pocket.  Understated, but to the point. 
 
Now that would be the Schiits. 

 

[hifuguy]

Put me in for a portable DAC/Amp with iPhone compatibility and being dead quiet with sensitive IEMs please!

 

[crazychile]

  Sorry if this has been asked already.
 
What happens if you have a LISST in one channel and a tube in the other? Perhaps a tear in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop?
 
No seriously will things go hiss/fizz/pop or will we have the ultimate A/B test?
 

 

I'm guessing nothing would explode...Jason would be the authority on that. But assuming it's fine....
 
It would be hard to get a good feel for the exact differences except it would be obvious if the output levels are different between the channels. You might be able to detect some imaging differences.
 
If the Lyr 2 or Mjolnir had a mono switch and balance control you could A/B the channels and check for tonal differences when panning to all left or all right.

 

[rtaylor76]

  Sorry if this has been asked already.
 
What happens if you have a LISST in one channel and a tube in the other? Perhaps a tear in the fabric of space where time becomes a loop?
 
No seriously will things go hiss/fizz/pop or will we have the ultimate A/B test?
 

 

 
My guess is that it will not sound good, but it will not blow up. I'd be surprised if this has not been tested at Schiit labs. If not, then I am also Jason is getting up and running into the listening room to make sure the board is not going to explode. With the auto bias setting it will not put the SS device or the tube run into dangerous territory, but you usually set bias for the pair of tubes, so it will not be very well matched and thus not sound so good...hmmm...let's give this tube the positive wave, and the SS tube this negative side from the phase inverter. 
 
Sounds good...might get the best of both worlds, but I am also guessing their bias points are not the same, and with the auto bias circuit set for those particular devices is why it is said they are only guaranteed in those specified devices. Who knows what kind of plate voltages, bias currents, or other type configurations in other amplifiers that use that same tube.

 

[theblueprint]

I wonder if it will be the same board as the Gungnir multibit or a different/cheaper one.  At 500 clams the Gungnir upgrade board would double the price of the Bifrost Uber.  That doesn't seem sensible on the face of it.

In the other hand it's still one of the more cost effective way to get to multibit.

No way it'll be $500, I can see it being $2-$300 though. Hopefully, they squeeze in a new multibit DAC chip and hopefully bring over some of that burrito DSP filter goodness.

 

[evillamer]

Both google chrome and microsoft windows defender has identified Schiit Yggrasil USB Gen 3 Windows 10 driver downloaded from Schiit.com as Virus infected. Guess it's not likely a mis-detection.

 

[RickB]

  Both google chrome and microsoft windows defender has identified Schiit Yggrasil USB Gen 3 Windows 10 driver downloaded from Schiit.com as Virus infected. Guess it's not likely a mis-detection.

 
I just scanned it with Webroot and Malware Bytes and neither identified any threats.

 

[evillamer]

Trojan:Win32/Dorv.A!rfn
Category: Trojan
Description: This program is dangerous and executes commands from an attacker.
Recommended action: Remove this software immediately.
Items:
file:C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\LocalCopy\{F4C39126-FCB8-44FF-860A-28533DB2D508}-Schiit_USB_Gen3_W10_1_01.zip
Get more information about this item online.

 

[Tuco1965]

Trojan:Win32/Dorv.A!rfn
Category: Trojan
Description: This program is dangerous and executes commands from an attacker.
Recommended action: Remove this software immediately.
Items:

file:C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\LocalCopy\{F4C39126-FCB8-44FF-860A-28533DB2D508}-Schiit_USB_Gen3_W10_1_01.zip
Get more information about this item online.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/601151/schiit-owners-unite/10500#post_11855359

 

[artur9]

No way it'll be $500, I can see it being $2-$300 though. Hopefully, they squeeze in a new multibit DAC chip and hopefully bring over some of that burrito DSP filter goodness.

What's the priciest part? The SHARC or the mil spec DACs?

 

[theblueprint]

What's the priciest part? The SHARC or the mil spec DACs?

Not sure how much the SHARC is, but the entire DSP board from yggy supposedly costs more than the bifrost.

 

[Astral Abyss]

I am SO doing this. 

Amy (at Schiit) has said she'd take on some schwag slinging, so you may see a few items up on the site soon.

This is pure win.

 

[sling5s]

 
ps.  can I get a Black T-Shirt with the Schiit logo on the front and a Power Switch screen printed on the back?

I like the dark grey (schiit napkin color). Would look better than black t-shirt.

 

[AndreYew]

What's the priciest part? The SHARC or the mil spec DACs?

 
The DACs for sure. You can find component parts prices for various quantities at DigiKey, which most small companies (and even some big ones) buy their parts from.
 
Based on the pictures of the GMB on the Schiit site, the DSP is the Analog Devices ADSP-21478KSWA-1A, which sells for around around $9.50 to $11 per chip depending on how much they order. I would guess that they use the same DSP on both Yggy and GMB. I'll just say $10 since that's easy to add.
 
The AD5781BRUZ used in GMB is $32 per chip in quantities of 1000. So just the DSP and 4 DACs for a GMB is around $138. That doesn't count the cost of the PC board, the various support chips (power supplies, buffers), or the passives (caps, resistors) or connectors or the assembly cost. I don't know if Schiit does this, but a 2x selling price to build cost structure is not unreasonable depending on your business. For a $400 upgrade, a $200 build cost is in the right ballpark.
 
The 5791 used in Yggy is far, far, far more expensive at $82/chip in quantity 1000. That's enough for 250 Yggys since it takes 4 DACs. In an earlier post, Mike said that's the size of their last production run. So that's around $338 per Yggy for 4 DACs and 1 DSP.  Add in the PCB and all the other components along with build costs, and it might be almost $500 just to build the DSP and DAC boards: remember they're two different boards in Yggy. More different boards in a modular architecture are usually more expensive to build, all else being equal.
 
Note the economics of this: Schiit needs to put up $82000 just for the DACs for 250 Yggys, and that's assuming the production has a 100% yield, which it never does. It's good to have a reliable cash flow for your business just so you can actually build stuff to sell. Think about how long the production of an Yggy takes, and that's basically Schiit fronting probably many $100k to get something they can sell hopefully soon.
 
I'd love to hear about the business side of things, like cash flow, for Schiit. I don't know if Jason can talk meaningfully about it without giving away too many secrets, or if it'd be too boring for everyone. Mismanaging this kind of thing has doomed otherwise wonderful companies.
 
Reference pricing links:
 
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/AD5781BRUZ-REEL7/AD5781BRUZ-REEL7TR-ND/2432868
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/AD5791BRUZ/AD5791BRUZ-ND/2606881
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/ADSP-21478KSWZ-1A/ADSP-21478KSWZ-1A-ND/2700216