[AndreYew]

Fantastic product. Never really thought of stripping it down this far!

This is a $99-ish product from us if done in a Modi-sized box. Worth doing?

Especially if there's a 1-button HT bypass!

 

[Jason Stoddard]

@Jason Stoddard, I'm truly speechless. I had no idea you'd actually consider my idea as worthwhile for Schiit. Thank you!

You know I'd think it's a good idea. I'm a teensy bit biased, though.

Jon

Nah, we all have blind spots. I'm embarrassed I never thought of scaling the ladder down that far. I should ask you if you're cool with us even talking about this idea.

Here's the problem with most products: the chassis costs a lot. Bigger chassis cost a lot lot. Modi is about 2x Fulla, Modius is about 1.5x Modi, Asgard (thicker top, taller) is about 2x Modius, Freya is 2.5x Asgard...you get the picture. I hate putting almost nothing into an expensive chassis.

In reality, if you had a front volume knob, some kind of volume indication, two inputs, 5V in to run it...maybe $99 is a bit thin in a Modi-sized chassis. Not sure. I have a ton of stuff to work on, and this is a neat diversion that distracts me from some of the boring work like BOMs and manuals and stuff like that. I'm not sure if anything will come of it.

 

[AndreYew]

Yes, but if you are listening to a live recording of Goldberg, you do not want a 2 second gap between tracks. It takes you out of the moment.

I hardly use it either, but when I am listening to Beethoven 5, I want the 3d movement to go RIGHT INTO the 4th movement. ATTACCA. And if it doesn't it RUINS THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE!!!!

Yes, exactly. There are so many pieces that have movements specified attacca that a gap placed there by a player is really terrible. Even if not attacca, classical music recordings often have continuous ambient noise and hearing that drop out even for a little bit can be pretty annoying. Audiophiles worry about mostly inaudible floobydust already when there're clearly audible issues like this that would improve the listening experience.

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

and then there's Pink Floyd...

JC

 

[LobalWarming]

Nah, we all have blind spots. I'm embarrassed I never thought of scaling the ladder down that far. I should ask you if you're cool with us even talking about this idea.

Here's the problem with most products: the chassis costs a lot. Bigger chassis cost a lot lot. Modi is about 2x Fulla, Modius is about 1.5x Modi, Asgard (thicker top, taller) is about 2x Modius, Freya is 2.5x Asgard...you get the picture. I hate putting almost nothing into an expensive chassis.

In reality, if you had a front volume knob, some kind of volume indication, two inputs, 5V in to run it...maybe $99 is a bit thin in a Modi-sized chassis. Not sure. I have a ton of stuff to work on, and this is a neat diversion that distracts me from some of the boring work like BOMs and manuals and stuff like that. I'm not sure if anything will come of it.

I hate paying for almost nothing in an expensive metal box. Maybe utilize the 'packaging' know-how of @bcowen, develop an inflatable metal foil chassis.

Or go the full McLuhan - the packing 'medium' (box) is the message (chassis).

 

[cricket]

I really love the spirit of going beyond that so many people demonstrate here. Just “beyond.”

Thank you for the compliment. I'm totally amazed with the responses.

 

[Birch]

There are some 10-segment LED bars that are affordable. That, plus a custom 3D printed light pipe might not be bad. But it would be green or red...LOL.

Every once in a while there's a hue and cry about LED's and their number and/or brightness. What about only one LED illuminated arranged around a clock-face/volume knob/circle. (with help from MS paint & the volumio logo). The position of one LED tells everything

 

[macdonjh]

Or even a single white led that becomes progressively more bright! The BF 2/64 in NOS mode seems to have a pretty good range of brightness while the led is "breathing".

MORE bright? For a Schiit LED? Remember who you're talking to, don't encourage @Jason Stoddard.

 

[Dr. Cube]

The catch is volume indication. We could do old-skool Freya/Saga (with a non-motorized pot), but it can be overridden by the remote control. Motorized pots are too large to be viable in that size, bigger size means it's getting too expensive.

I've seen an LED array used for volume indication, say five LEDs and then five brightness steps for each LED as the indicator is going up. No idea whether this is small enough or cheap enough compared to a motorized pot.

 

[theeclone]

MORE bright? For a Schiit LED? Remember who you're talking to, don't encourage @Jason Stoddard.

Protective eyewear included in box.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Every once in a while there's a hue and cry about LED's and their number and/or brightness. What about only one LED illuminated arranged around a clock-face/volume knob/circle. (with help from MS paint & the volumio logo). The position of one LED tells everything

Sometime the simplest solutions are the best. Nicely done!

 

[macdonjh]

Protective eyewear included in box.

Not for $99...

 

[Paladin79]

This has been sitting in my Amazon wish list for well over a year, since I saw t mentioned here: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B096KLDMCV...H892MZHZ&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it

My versions are a bit more sedate.

Finnegan will not leave my chessboard alone so I built him one. Just a little black walnut and tiger maple.

 

[cricket]

Nah, we all have blind spots. I'm embarrassed I never thought of scaling the ladder down that far. I should ask you if you're cool with us even talking about this idea.

Here's the problem with most products: the chassis costs a lot. Bigger chassis cost a lot lot. Modi is about 2x Fulla, Modius is about 1.5x Modi, Asgard (thicker top, taller) is about 2x Modius, Freya is 2.5x Asgard...you get the picture. I hate putting almost nothing into an expensive chassis.

In reality, if you had a front volume knob, some kind of volume indication, two inputs, 5V in to run it...maybe $99 is a bit thin in a Modi-sized chassis. Not sure. I have a ton of stuff to work on, and this is a neat diversion that distracts me from some of the boring work like BOMs and manuals and stuff like that. I'm not sure if anything will come of it.

I'm absolutely cool with the idea. If nothing else, immortalize me in the silkscreen.

I fully understand what you mean about almost nothing in a chassis. I have difficulty leaving empty real estate on a board.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

There are some 10-segment LED bars that are affordable. That, plus a custom 3D printed light pipe might not be bad. But it would be green or red...LOL.

Would a 10-segment LED bar be considerably cheaper than ten white SMD LEDs? Or at least so much cheaper that the deviation from Schiit's usual white would be a worthwhile tradeoff?

I also wonder how much it would complicate production if one were to CNC a 300º 0.5 to 1.0mm wide arc into the top shell around the volume knob. With a custom-made light pipe behind it the ten LEDs could "fill" that arc from left to right according to the currently set volume. Kind of like a progress bar, but in the shape of a 300º arc around the volume knob. (Ten CNC-drilled holes around the knob would do as well, but a continuous arc might potentially look better and/or might be easier to see from a distance because more light can pass through the slit than through a hole.)

If the light bar is sufficiently translucent, it might even be enough for it to remain behind the metal, meaning it would not have to protrude into the slot itself to still be bright enough to be seen just fine in daylight. That would reduce the necessity for a perfect fit, making production and assembly a bit easier.

I would also play around with using PWM for the "highest" currently lit LED to have a form of smooth transition instead of just switching it from off to on once a certain value threshold is met. Let's say 10 LEDs are used to represent a volume range from 0.0 to 1.0, where 0.0 is fully attenuated and 1.0 represents maximum volume, each LED would represent a range of 0.1. Let's also say that the attenuator is currently set to 0.37. That would mean that the first three LEDs for that "progress bar arc" are fully lit, and the fourth is set to 70% brightness. This could provide an additional visual clue about the currently set volume level. Or it might look like utter crap. Or it might not really show up at all, depending on how much any given light pipe design would blur the area between the lit and unlit LEDs. Hard to tell without actually trying it out on a real-world, physical device.

Probably close to impossible with tops that will be powder coated, though. And I have a strong hunch that you can't CNC an already powder coated top shell without risking the coating to chip off.

I was also thinking about using a small stepper motor instead of a motorized pot or a rotary encoder. When turned manually, they produce a short pulse that could be measured and processed by a microcontroller. But you might need to implement some sort of protection circuitry to ensure that your TTL components will never see a pulse that goes above 5V, stepper motors are anything but cheap, and they don't produce a strong enough pulse to be detected reliably when the shaft is being turned too slowly. So even if you "calibrated" the knob's position during startup of the device, it would very soon drift from the "known" position when manually operated, essentially defeating the entire concept.

You also can't use a servo. They're noisy when they try to hold their position, and you can't operate them manually. At least not the ones that are small and cheap enough for this application.

You could also place a small DC toy motor right next to your pot and add a large gear to the pot's shaft and a small gear to the motor's shaft to make your own miniature motorized pot. But that feels kinda bonkers.

Weird that motorized pots that small don't exist off the shelf, I always prefer the simplest solution over something as complicated as all of the above.