[Jason Stoddard]

Hey guys and gals!

I've been lurking around the forum for quite some time, but never really signed up and posted anything. This will change today, because I feel the urge to give @Jason Stoddard, Mike, and the rest of Schiit a huge compliment.

In early March, I ordered a Gungnir MB. Back then, its product page stated "ships March 31". Yes, the rolling backorder system Schiit switched to since hadn't even been put in place yet, that's how long ago that was. In the meantime, they even did this thing for a while where you had to check off that you understand that the "ships in x-y weeks" will remain the target for your order, even if the backorder estimate on the product page slips further down the road after you have placed your order. Hah, how much I wish that'd be true…

But alas, as of today, I have been waiting close to 21 weeks. That is almost 5 months, around 5 times the estimated shipping target as stated on the day I put in the order, and about twice the estimated "ships in 10-12 weeks" that the product page currently states for orders placed today.

I am not a patient person when it comes to businesses, regardless their size. I am a business owner myself, and I hold other businesses to the same benchmark I apply to my own. This benchmark includes not only that I take promises I make very seriously, but also estimates, as they will inevitably be understood by too many customers as kind of a promise, regardless of how hard I try to make them understand that an estimate and a promise are two vastly different things.
So if a business gives me a shipping estimate of about 3 or 4 weeks, and then repeatedly pushes their estimate further away, that just doesn't sit well with me. Especially if they do so more or less in silence, expecting the customer to proactively keep checking the current state of affairs.

I believe that it should not matter whether you work alone out the corner of your garage, whether you have ten employees, or ten thousand; you keep your estimates and promises. If for unforeseen reasons out of your own control you can't, then you proactively communicate that to your customers. And for that communication to have the desired appeasing effect, it will have to be directly, not via channels that maybe 10 percent of your customer base even knows of, like YouTube streams and the occasional post to some forum thread that's 5331+ pages long. That is in part why you collect email addresses when a customer puts in an order and why group email dispatchers exist.

All right. So you've been reading up to this point and you probably wonder where the compliment is that I mentioned. Well, here it comes:
If this was any other company, they would have irreversibly lost me as a customer many, many months ago.
But this isn't any other company.
This is Schiit, and no matter how you slice it, they make by far the best audio gear I've ever had the pleasure to treat my ears to. Their stuff is so damned good and ahead of the competition, in fact, that they're literally the only business I've ever come across, regardless of the kind of product or service offered, where I have no reservations whatsoever to ignore all of my principles and benchmarks and keep coming back for more.

So… Jason, Mike, Schiit; I know, this whole thing reads like a backhanded compliment, but I sincerely mean it when I say: Kudos to you, this is quite the unique animal you have created.

Yes, I'm not happy that I have to wait for my new toy to arrive. Yes, I'm not happy that I have to pester your customer support team every two to three months to quiet this nagging voice in the back of my head that my order might have fallen out the queue while you moved them to a new processing system. Yes, I'm miffed to see that the backorder-queues of high-volume products appear ('appear' being the operative word here) to receive more attention than the high-value ones that I happen to be sitting in. Yes, I don't think I should have to watch multiple hour-long YouTube streams or search for a needle in a 5331 pages long forum thread to figure out what the deal with Schiit's chip, board, and metal suppliers is. Yes, all this is a very 1st world problem to have.

But all of this isn't the point of this post. All of that princess-on-a-pea whining above is really only meant to underscore just HOW impressed I am with the quality of the gear you guys keep putting out, as well as how valuable your approach to PR is in keeping Schiit "human" and approachable, and as such really hard to stay irked with for very long.

This whole thing also made me realize that I seem to have at least somewhat of a masochistic streak after all. So… thanks, I guess? ;p

Some of what we're going through (consider that I'm more scarce around here, not because I want to be, but because I have to be--things continue crazy):

1. PCBs--specifically Gungnir Analog--went from 6 weeks to 20 weeks. When we asked, we were told about 8 weeks in it would be late. Then at 12. Then at 18.
2. DACs--specifically Gungnir DACs--went from 8-10 weeks to 26-40 weeks. We knew about the long lead going in (back in October 2020!), but, as you might expect, it was 18 and then 20 and then 26 and then 35 and then 40.
3. We are still dealing with the AKM fallout--specifically, Hel and Fulla demand pulled these into ESS territory faster than expected. Dealing with the back and forth of getting those up and running without issues is nontrivial. Plus the module. Plus Modius. Plus, eventually, Modi.
4. Our PCB assembly house--our primary one, the one we've been working with for 10 years--got super far behind this year. As in, months behind. This was not expected. I will not go into detail on their internal/external/unavoidable/maybe-avoidable/who-friggin-cares-stop-pointing-fingers problems, because that's not necessary. However, that's why we're now working with 4 different companies for PCB assembly.
5. Our primary orders@schiit.com communications person went out for health reasons indefinitely and unexpectedly. Which is why we've just hired a high-level person to take on this duty, and to architect communications in the way she best sees fit. She's a customer service veteran and professional, and it's a needed step forward for us.
6. We've had the heaviest demand and biggest backorders ever this year, and, as with #4 and #5, we didn't just sit around and wail--we put in a backorders triage person/distributor communication person, who identified what we could address, and we all worked together to address it. We reorganized to dramatically increase output and quality of our amplifier line--we were in stock for the first time since inception for about a month, but due to high demand, we're back out of stock again. This reorganization will also positively impact Gungnir and Yggdrasil when they are available again. And, finally, we started shipping more than Magni and Modi to distributors, thanks to all of this effort, this month.

So what does this mean for Gungnir and Yggdrasil? Gungnir analog boards are all we need to start shipping again. First articles are imminent. We should be able to start shipping again soon--noting that all sorts of wacky stuff can happen, and "soon" is open to interpretation. Yggdrasil we need analogs and motherboards. I saw analog first articles last week, and we're supposed to be getting motherboard first articles this week. Again, note the "supposed to be" and disclaimers about other shortages/unexpected people out/alien invasions/zombie apocalypses/all of the above.

So. Yeah. I hear you. We're working on getting better at shipping and communicating. I thought everything would be sorted by midyear. It looks like it'll take a bit longer...but we'll keep working on it, and we'll keep getting better.

 

[Ableza]

That's why I love Schiit. Straight dope straight from the horse's mouth.

 

[StimpyWan]

Hey. Great news! At this rate, by the time my Gungnir MB upgrade works into the top of the queue, I'll have saved up for a Yggdrasil...!

 

[adydula]

I smell a YGGY 2 in my future!!!

Cant wait!!

Alex

 

[JanMc]

Encouraged by how well my 30+ years old Beyerdynamic DT990 pairs with the Jotunheim 2 I thought that it would be fun to do a side-by-side comparison with the Asgard 3. Do you actually get better sound for 2x the price? And yes, to my ears there is an audible difference. The bass on the Jotunheim 2 is a bit tighter and more dynamic, the midrange is a bit more open and the treble is smoother and more resolved. The treble on the 990 can be harsh and unforgiving, and to my ears that’s where the biggest difference is between the Asgard 3 and the Jotunheim 2.

Is the difference huge? Night and day? No, not at all. It’s actually very small and subtle. But it is noticeable, at least to my ears. So, what does this mean? IMHO first, the Asgard 3 is an amazing amp, especially at its price. Second, when you move up to the Jotunheim 2 you get genuinely better sound quality – a small but noticeable difference. Also, I’m relieved that the more expensive amp sounds better overall, not just brighter. All to often, audiophile equipment tends to just sound brighter the higher up you go in price. (The manufacturers and dealers often use words like ‘clearer’ and ‘more transparent’ to describe the higher-priced gear, but to my ears it all too often just sounds brighter and more incisive.) Congratulations to the Schiit team for making a pair of truly great amps!

Yes, but now you need to try a Lyr 3 instead. Get some tubage to really smooth those phones out.

 

[Brubacca]

Started a new job this year. As covid restrictions calm down a bit I'll be spending a few nights a month in hotels. At least I can get some good tunes:

Edit: Thanks Jason and co for making this possible!

 

[filthy mechanical]

So what does this mean for Gungnir and Yggdrasil? Gungnir analog boards are all we need to start shipping again. First articles are imminent. We should be able to start shipping again soon--noting that all sorts of wacky stuff can happen, and "soon" is open to interpretation. Yggdrasil we need analogs and motherboards. I saw analog first articles last week, and we're supposed to be getting motherboard first articles this week. Again, note the "supposed to be" and disclaimers about other shortages/unexpected people out/alien invasions/zombie apocalypses/all of the above.

Wooo! Got an empty shelf all set for the Yggdrasil (Ohms arrived today!)

And the before speaker:

 

[Varejao17]

Ohms - interesting! Let us know how they sound.

 

[Ripper2860]

Me too. I'm really curious, so I sure hope he does not offer any resistance or encounter anything that might be an impedance to reporting his experience with the Ohms.

 

[macdonjh]

Hey guys and gals!

I've been lurking around the forum for quite some time, but never really signed up and posted anything. This will change today, because I feel the urge to give @Jason Stoddard, Mike, and the rest of Schiit a huge compliment.

In early March, I ordered a Gungnir MB. Back then, its product page stated "ships March 31". Yes, the rolling backorder system Schiit switched to since hadn't even been put in place yet, that's how long ago that was. In the meantime, they even did this thing for a while where you had to check off that you understand that the "ships in x-y weeks" will remain the target for your order, even if the backorder estimate on the product page slips further down the road after you have placed your order. Hah, how much I wish that'd be true…

But alas, as of today, I have been waiting close to 21 weeks. That is almost 5 months, around 5 times the estimated shipping target as stated on the day I put in the order, and about twice the estimated "ships in 10-12 weeks" that the product page currently states for orders placed today.

I am not a patient person when it comes to businesses, regardless their size. I am a business owner myself, and I hold other businesses to the same benchmark I apply to my own. This benchmark includes not only that I take promises I make very seriously, but also estimates, as they will inevitably be understood by too many customers as kind of a promise, regardless of how hard I try to make them understand that an estimate and a promise are two vastly different things.
So if a business gives me a shipping estimate of about 3 or 4 weeks, and then repeatedly pushes their estimate further away, that just doesn't sit well with me. Especially if they do so more or less in silence, expecting the customer to proactively keep checking the current state of affairs.

I believe that it should not matter whether you work alone out the corner of your garage, whether you have ten employees, or ten thousand; you keep your estimates and promises. If for unforeseen reasons out of your own control you can't, then you proactively communicate that to your customers. And for that communication to have the desired appeasing effect, it will have to be directly, not via channels that maybe 10 percent of your customer base even knows of, like YouTube streams and the occasional post to some forum thread that's 5331+ pages long. That is in part why you collect email addresses when a customer puts in an order and why group email dispatchers exist.

All right. So you've been reading up to this point and you probably wonder where the compliment is that I mentioned. Well, here it comes:
If this was any other company, they would have irreversibly lost me as a customer many, many months ago.
But this isn't any other company.
This is Schiit, and no matter how you slice it, they make by far the best audio gear I've ever had the pleasure to treat my ears to. Their stuff is so damned good and ahead of the competition, in fact, that they're literally the only business I've ever come across, regardless of the kind of product or service offered, where I have no reservations whatsoever to ignore all of my principles and benchmarks and keep coming back for more.

So… Jason, Mike, Schiit; I know, this whole thing reads like a backhanded compliment, but I sincerely mean it when I say: Kudos to you, this is quite the unique animal you have created.

Yes, I'm not happy that I have to wait for my new toy to arrive. Yes, I'm not happy that I have to pester your customer support team every two to three months to quiet this nagging voice in the back of my head that my order might have fallen out the queue while you moved them to a new processing system. Yes, I'm miffed to see that the backorder-queues of high-volume products appear ('appear' being the operative word here) to receive more attention than the high-value ones that I happen to be sitting in. Yes, I don't think I should have to watch multiple hour-long YouTube streams or search for a needle in a 5331 pages long forum thread to figure out what the deal with Schiit's chip, board, and metal suppliers is. Yes, all this is a very 1st world problem to have.

But all of this isn't the point of this post. All of that princess-on-a-pea whining above is really only meant to underscore just HOW impressed I am with the quality of the gear you guys keep putting out, as well as how valuable your approach to PR is in keeping Schiit "human" and approachable, and as such really hard to stay irked with for very long.

This whole thing also made me realize that I seem to have at least somewhat of a masochistic streak after all. So… thanks, I guess? ;p

@Jason Stoddard's reply prompted this reply: I am good-naturedly frustrated with the delay in getting my Gungnir in for the multi-bit board. However, another Schiit innovation: the "reservation" system allows me to enjoy my Gungnir in its already enjoyable delta-sigma configuration until I get significantly closer to the front of the line than #77.

Good luck finding your patience. You know it's worth it.

 

[macdonjh]

Me too. I'm really curious so I sure hope he does not offer any resistance or encounter anything that might be an impedance to reporting his experience with the Ohms.

OMG...

 

[Ripper2860]

I know. I hate myself for posting that.

 

[artur9]

I like northern AZ right now: open spaces, dark night sky for my other hobby, but I don't think I have a snowball's chance in AZ of convincing my missus to move to such an arid place.

We just got back from Santa Fe. Very nice, liked it a lot. Technically, not an arid place as it's built on a swamp (literally).

 

[macdonjh]

I know. I hate myself for posting that.

I'm only replying to your post so I can -like- it again.

 

[Lvivske]

I have received shipping e-mail from Schiit!! I guess almost backorders of Bifrost 2 have been solved.

ditto, my order of Bifrost & Lokius on July 15 was sent out today, so expecting 8 week turnaround just vanished into a 1.5 week wait