[Jason Stoddard]

This may seem bizarre to many but regarding Jason's method, and maybe most everyone does this his way and I haven't caught on yet



but I put product/shipping boxes and unimportant papers that accompany it from shipping in the recycle bin. If it's something inexpensive that may need some sort of return service it goes to the "to be recycled holding area" in the garage. Then later recycled.

I do not throw anything away that can be recycled. If I have to flatten the box so be it. Weird, I know. It gets recycled.....at least that's the cities claim.

Now granted Texas may not have anyway to recycle. Some counties in Florida are planning on discontinuing it. Don't know if this is good or bad for bcowen!

But, even if you can't recycle, living in Florida I've spent over $800.00 shipping Schiit back to California over the last decade for warranty...not complaining that's the way Schiit does it but to not have the box?

Has anyone paid UPS to package a product their official way so it can be insured for damage? I recently sold my 2 Aegirs and shipped them to Boston.

I asked the nice UPS person how much for UPS to do it with their boxes (as a selling point they told me Schiit boxes do not have a high enough rating) Total for the two Aegirs would have been nearly $300.00.

I used my Schiit boxes and it cost $125.70 with the knowledge they can't be insured for damage.

YMMV, sorry for the lengthy post.

You guys either have really really big houses or wives that don't have collectoritis like mine. (Minimalist>Normal Person>Enthusiast>Collectoritis>Hoarder)

I'm to the left of minimalist on that spectrum...comes from growing up in an 8 x 10' bedroom with frequent purges required for sanity, maybe? Before I was married, I packed my 2400SF house to move in 90 minutes.

Rina? Her part of the master closet in CA is 43 x 8'. And it's full.

So no, unless I'm using it, I don't keep anything.

Also, yes, of course, throw away = recycle. Yes, even in Texas.

I know I'm weird.

 

[docBliny]

... than navigating to the website, find it, download it, open it, pan it, zoom it, etc.

 

[corndog71]

I’m no hoarder, but I do have a few tube amps and speakers that I probably don’t need anymore. My girlfriend is surprisingly tolerant of my hobby.
So if anyone in the Chicagoland area is looking for speakers or Dynaco-style tube amps (modified), hit me up.

 

[valiant66]

You can find the page-in-time and manual at the Internet Archive, but that's not really an optimal solution for finding historical manuals for deprecated products.

You are then relying on a third-party supplier that could also fold. And in fact may be taken down sooner than later if the movie and music cartels are successful in their ongoing legal challenges.
.

 

[valiant66]

Niche, for sure. Law firms that are all Mac, researchers/authors, or educational institutions would be markets for it. It does have quite the devoted fan-base. It keeps getting updates and a 3rd-party book or two, so it's a viable business. It's an impressive program.

I remember trying the Devon suite back In the OS8 days. It was overkill for my needs at that time. Glad to know its still being developed.
.

 

[valiant66]

.
Just buy a Raspberry Pi

.

 

[rkw]

Online lookup isn't half as convenient as physical.

Completely opposite for me. Any manual that I actually use is saved on my computer and instantly available if I want to look at it again. I can also search for text and zoom in on diagrams.

 

[Adam Balm]

You guys either have really really big houses or wives that don't have collectoritis like mine. (Minimalist>Normal Person>Enthusiast>Collectoritis>Hoarder)

I'm to the left of minimalist on that spectrum...comes from growing up in an 8 x 10' bedroom with frequent purges required for sanity, maybe? Before I was married, I packed my 2400SF house to move in 90 minutes.

Rina? Her part of the master closet in CA is 43 x 8'. And it's full.

So no, unless I'm using it, I don't keep anything.

Also, yes, of course, throw away = recycle. Yes, even in Texas.

I know I'm weird.

I sure hope Rina's boxes are all labeled with what's in them.

 

[Timster]

Limited Edition Sine Wave(TM)

 

[Bowmoreman]

To follow up on the manuals opinions: yeah, we hear you. No decisions at the moment. Don't be surprised if we test a couple of different approaches.

However, I can say that anything involving video, longer form manuals, reformatting for different sizes (print or screen), options to select a manual at checkout, or anything else that increases the workload or complexity is automatically out. The goal here is to have more accurate, more maintainable manuals that are more closely coupled to the product, not to add a new department to the company.

For those who are curious, this is how I use manuals:

1. Get new product in box.
2. Open box.
3. Take out product.
4. Throw the rest away without looking at any of it--warranty cards, manuals, safety screeds, free sweepstakes, whatever. Usually stickers too, unless they are interesting. And yes, this includes the box, unless it's a $13-33k Audio Precision machine that I know will need to go back for recalibration from time to time.
5. Look up anything I need to look up online.

#5 used to be limited to surround processors and Jura superautomatic coffee machines (cleaning, argh), and only after initial setup. A new jobsite table saw I bought made me look something up before I used it, because it had a whole bunch of integrated widgets and safety stuff I'd never seen before.

For the most part makes a LOT of sense. But, it fails the “durability test”. What happens to the user of the gear 25 years from now, when it’s not possible TO “look it up” anymore (in many cases), or extremely obtuse and requiring understanding of context and nomenclature that may well be generationally “expired”.

Example: Some of my gear (all of which, excepting my new Schiit) is 34 years old (SME 309 tonearm, SOTA Star Sapphire III, Classe DR6/9, Tice Power Block/Titan, and Apogee Duettas. Only some of which can re-yield their printed documentation today. Otherwise it’s a tedious “gain tribal knowledge to even know how to look/ask” gain….

You could “solve”even that w/o increasing any workload OR complexity. Just have a dedicated place for OFFICIAL historical “docs”; indexed/searchable by product name (and/or serial number). Then any and all - across all time - could easily find and get/print what they wanted. Then it doesn’t MATTER about printed in, or on the box or not, etc… just a simple: on day 1 of GA, file the official docs as part of making product order able.

 

[Bowmoreman]

I sure hope Rina's boxes are all labeled with what's in them.

Hahaha

We moved twice cross-country (2018 and 2022) from Mass to TX, and then TX to Mass. On the move DOWN (after having lived in our 3000 sq/ft house for 15+ years during most of the raising of our boys, we filled a 53’ commercial moving truck AND a 20’ UHaul. 2500 Records. 20,000 BOOKS, 1500 bottles of wine… we had over 600 numbered/indexed BOXES of Schiit (and that was after filling two complete 8’x6’x20’ dumpsters)… On the way back, with ME doing all the packing (boxes thence to PODS) we filled Three PODS and One 20’ Uhaul. Had the indexed box-count down to just over 440.

Despite the anal-retentive ness of indexing every box/item and KNOWING I put things into those PODS, and took them out the other end… we still can’t find some Schiit.

I refuse to admit that records, books, and wine are “hoarding” symptoms…I could live with something closer to Enthusiastic Collector, though… <wink>

 

[valiant66]

The never ever exist Streamer, may be .....

Go and buy this, print/build it, stick a raspberry pi in it, be happy.

.

 

[valiant66]

I also just go to the Internate Archive's Wayback Machine which has Schiit's entire web life preserved for all eternity.

See above.

Edit: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...hive-for-digitizing-obsolete-vintage-records/
.

 

[valiant66]

Limited Edition Sine Wave(TM)

Hahahahaha!!!!!
.

 

[bcowen]

You guys either have really really big houses or wives that don't have collectoritis like mine. (Minimalist>Normal Person>Enthusiast>Collectoritis>Hoarder)

I'm to the left of minimalist on that spectrum...comes from growing up in an 8 x 10' bedroom with frequent purges required for sanity, maybe? Before I was married, I packed my 2400SF house to move in 90 minutes.

Rina? Her part of the master closet in CA is 43 x 8'. And it's full.

So no, unless I'm using it, I don't keep anything.

Also, yes, of course, throw away = recycle. Yes, even in Texas.

I know I'm weird.

Packing up just last week, I put the receiver I bought in 1977 back in its original box. Hoarder? Well, it's cardboard. My precious.

Like @corndog71 , I'm admittedly OCD when it comes to audio component boxes. I save them all. I've been known to move around a lot, and having the original boxes has provided much value...for me. Plus I've been fortunate to always have room to store them without having to keep them in a stack in the middle of the living room floor. But the shipping boxes for everything else are discarded, and always recycled when possible. I'll therefore claim to be a Minimalist Hoarder.