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

[Paladin79]

RFT? Hmmm. You holdin' out on us? Spill the beans, man.

Shirley you know the 6SN7’s

I also just bought some ECC 81’s since they were highly recommended. Those I gifted to a friend in Virginia. A bit of info on RFT....

"RFT stands for Rundfunk- und Fernmelde-Technik - a group of state-owned technology companies in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). This company produced valves for Telefunken and Siemens and made the famous Siemens EL34. These valves are of very good quality and have excellent consistency."

I will most likely send a Melz 1578 from the 70's or 80's along with a Tung Sol power tube, maybe just a 6080 along with the usual Winged C Svetlana.

 

[Kyyul]

Just 2 items left on schiit.com/b-stocks...
Maybe if we buy them they'll launch that new Tyr and maybe the CD transport. Achievement unlocked!

 

[StimpyWan]

It's pleasant when one of the oldest and simplest jokes makes you laugh

You referring to "Don't your arms get tired?" or @bcowen???

 

[dhcarquinez]

Thank you all for your replies to my multibit warmup questions.

I think @gljus gave some very good insights regarding the "how".

As for the "how long" question, I never meant to propose 30-60 minutes. It was intentional that I said "...AFTER a stable operating temperature has been maintained for, say, 30 or 60 minutes following a cold start." How long it takes to reach that stable state for the (relatively small) Bifrost form factor is open for debate, but I propose that would be measured in hours not days. I gave my use case above: on for an hour or 2, use casually for an hour or 2, then begin dedicated listening.

I know the conclusion can be as simple as "what can you hear?", and I do have a test planned. I was disappointed by a CD I purchased recently: Genesis - Foxtrot. The sibilance was terrible! (Supper's Ready: "Walking acrosss the sssitting room...." "Ssssitting besside you..."). It is a good candidate for comparing my BF2 right after a cold start, again after a long session, then perhaps again after leaving everything on overnight.

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

I know the conclusion can be as simple as "what can you hear?", and I do have a test planned. I was disappointed by a CD I purchased recently: Genesis - Foxtrot. The sibilance was terrible! (Supper's Ready: "Walking acrosss the sssitting room...." "Ssssitting besside you..."). It is a good candidate for comparing my BF2 right after a cold start, again after a long session, then perhaps again after leaving everything on overnight.

I look forward to reading your conclusions.

JC

 

[tincanear]

Thank you all for your replies to my multibit warmup questions.

I think @gljus gave some very good insights regarding the "how".

As for the "how long" question, I never meant to propose 30-60 minutes. It was intentional that I said "...AFTER a stable operating temperature has been maintained for, say, 30 or 60 minutes following a cold start." How long it takes to reach that stable state for the (relatively small) Bifrost form factor is open for debate, but I propose that would be measured in hours not days. I gave my use case above: on for an hour or 2, use casually for an hour or 2, then begin dedicated listening.

I know the conclusion can be as simple as "what can you hear?", and I do have a test planned. I was disappointed by a CD I purchased recently: Genesis - Foxtrot. The sibilance was terrible! (Supper's Ready: "Walking acrosss the sssitting room...." "Ssssitting besside you..."). It is a good candidate for comparing my BF2 right after a cold start, again after a long session, then perhaps again after leaving everything on overnight.

I have a number of Genesis CD's (the ones with the teal and red target logo, e.g. "And Then There Were Three") and some other titles as well, that sound sibilant. Info on the web regarding CD pre-emphasis / de-emphasis (a form of equalization) indicates some early-to-mid 80's CD's were improperly mastered (DEEM flags set in one of, but not both the TOC and within every S/PDIF sample). one of the reasons I bought a Lokius.

(added)
lack of properly decoding the DEEM flag results in about +3dB at 3.18 kHz increasing to about +10dB at 10.6 kHz up to 22.05kHz (half-Nyquist of 44.1k CD sampling rate).

AFAIK, the Schiit Multibit DAC's decode the DEEM flag properly, as long as the sending source (in my case, a CD player with coaxial RCA S/PDIF out) has the flag within each sample correctly set re whether it was applied during the mixing / mastering process or not.

 

[bcowen]

Shirley you know the 6SN7’s

I also just bought some ECC 81’s since they were highly recommended. Those I gifted to a friend in Virginia. A bit of info on RFT....

"RFT stands for Rundfunk- und Fernmelde-Technik - a group of state-owned technology companies in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). This company produced valves for Telefunken and Siemens and made the famous Siemens EL34. These valves are of very good quality and have excellent consistency."

I will most likely send a Melz 1578 from the 70's or 80's along with a Tung Sol power tube, maybe just a 6080 along with the usual Winged C Svetlana.

I've never tried an RFT 6SN7. I have some RFT 12AU7's with round getters and a couple with foil getters (thanks to @Wes S ). The round getters are pretty screechy and rude sounding, but the foil getters are quite amazing. Different vintages, entirely different sound. I can't see the getters clearly in that 6SN7...look like a pair of horseshoes?

 

[StimpyWan]

I have a number of Genesis CD's (the ones with the teal and red target logo, e.g. "And Then There Were Three") and some other titles as well, that sound sibilant. Info on the web regarding CD pre-emphasis / de-emphasis (a form of equalization) indicates some early-to-mid 80's CD's were improperly mastered (DEEM flags set in one of, but not both the TOC and within every S/PDIF sample). one of the reasons I bought a Lokius.

(added)
lack of properly decoding the DEEM flag results in about +3dB at 3.18 kHz increasing to about +10dB at 10.6 kHz and "leveling off" at +10dB to 22.05kHz (half-Nyquist of 44.1k CD sampling rate).

AFAIK, the Schiit Multibit DAC's decode the DEEM flag properly, as long as the sending source (in my case, a CD player with coaxial RCA S/PDIF out) has the flag correctly set re whether it was applied during the mixing / mastering process or not.

I worked in the mastering department of a CD plant, and Pre-emphasis not being properly flagged in the TOC, wasn't unusual. We'd often find music encoded with emphasis, and the TOC paperwork did not reflect that. And vice-versa, where no emphasis was used in the recording, and the TOC showed it should be present. So, discrepancies were placed on hold, until the client confirmed what was correct.

Recordings coming in out of phase were common too. Recordings with DC Offset were another frequent discovery. Fun stuff.

 

[RickB]

I worked in the mastering department of a CD plant, and Pre-emphasis not being properly flagged in the TOC, wasn't unusual. We'd often find music encoded with emphasis, and the TOC paperwork did not reflect that. And vice-versa, where no emphasis was used in the recording, and the TOC showed it should be present. So, discrepancies were placed on hold, until the client confirmed what was correct.

Recordings coming in out of phase were common too. Recordings with DC Offset were another frequent discovery. Fun stuff.

I wish there was a database online of known recordings that are out of phase. Would be a fun way to use the phase switch on my Bifrost 2 remote.

 

[Paladin79]

I've never tried an RFT 6SN7. I have some RFT 12AU7's with round getters and a couple with foil getters (thanks to @Wes S ). The round getters are pretty screechy and rude sounding, but the foil getters are quite amazing. Different vintages, entirely different sound. I can't see the getters clearly in that 6SN7...look like a pair of horseshoes?

I will have to check tomorrow after Finnegan is done playing with the tube, he let’s me borrow GEC’s on occasion. The RFT rated pretty well in our 6SN7 testing but well under a particular Melz by 7-8 points but that is not exactly bad. We were working on chronographs earlier and he seemed to have taken a fancy to one of those. He has to sleep sometime so it is then I will recover some items including an RFT.

 

[Currawong]

I love this crazy company (which also does a pink unicorn-themed candy-flavored vodka, because you know, why not—but, full disclosure, I didn’t try this one, because, yeah, sometimes it can get a bit too weird). I want to see more stuff like this!

Crazy is easy to do if it involves alcohol, on all levels.

 

[433521]

Not Likely.

Yeah, here's where I get off a little bit from the bandwagon. If you're going to bother to make a great $249 headphone amp that outperforms many others and keep the price low and throw on an add in card, why limit it to usb? There are probably people who want to attach an Asgard to a TV for example.

 

[HL50]

I fly for a living but I'm not into computer simulation. However, the screenshots/videos of software simulation is phenomenal.
In many instances the perceived fidelity exceeds what I've seen in Level D sims at work. Very, very cool.
IMO, the destruction of Meigs stands as one of the greatest examples of mis-use of power in recent memory.

That was small potatoes next to his parking meter deal.

 

[Paladin79]

I've never tried an RFT 6SN7. I have some RFT 12AU7's with round getters and a couple with foil getters (thanks to @Wes S ). The round getters are pretty screechy and rude sounding, but the foil getters are quite amazing. Different vintages, entirely different sound. I can't see the getters clearly in that 6SN7...look like a pair of horseshoes?

There are top getter holders on RFT 6sn7's I have, they have the look of elongated cups, mini bath tubs if you will.



I was not kidding about Finnegan going after chronographs, I was checking out the lumes on a few of them last night and just laid them across my watch case late last night. I found the one above on the other side of the room. He goes after metal or leather bands equally well. Before I got the RFT back in the box this morning Finnegan was already there ready to play with it.

 

[bcowen]

There are top getter holders on RFT 6sn7's I have, they have the look of elongated cups, mini bath tubs if you will.



I was not kidding about Finnegan going after chronographs, I was checking out the lumes on a few of them last night and just laid them across my watch case late last night. I found the one above on the other side of the room. He goes after metal or leather bands equally well. Before I got the RFT back in the box this morning Finnegan was already there ready to play with it.

So there are foil getters, horseshoe getters, D getters, square getters, O getters, UFO getters. and now bathtub getters? This is getting to be confusing.