[jrprana]

A tube Mjolnir would be nice.

 

[reddog]

A media server combo would be great. If not a simple cd transport.

 

[reddog]

Best chapter yet, Jason!

And I'll throw my guesses in to the ring. Tubed Mjolnir and media player of some sort, not necessisarily DAP though!

A tubed mjolnir would be great.

 

[Odin412]

Thanks Jason for another great chapter. The Modi and Magni were the first Schiit products that I purchased and I was very pleased with both their performance and how sturdy their build quality is. Later I purchased a Valhalla and a Bifrost with USB and the Uber analog stage. Of course I was eventually tempted to compare the Modi to the Bifrost and the Magni to the Valhalla, and that’s when things got interesting. First, I hooked both the Magni and the Valhalla up to the Bifrost using a Y-cable and then hooked up the headphone (Beyerdynamic T1 in this case) to each amp in turn. Both amps sounded great, but I could hear fairly easily that the treble of the Valhalla is clearer and cleaner. So far, so good. Next, I hooked up the Modi and the Bifrost to the Valhalla using the Schiit SYS to be able to easily switch between the two. Using the T1 again I thought at first that I had made a mistake – I couldn’t hear any difference between the two DACs! After a while I realized that the output level of the Bifrost is slightly higher, but even after compensating for that I had a really hard time hearing any difference. Finally I heard (or think I heard) that the treble of the Bifrost is slightly clearer, but I was blown away at how small the difference was!

So, based on a (very) limited sample size of two my observation is that there’s a bigger difference in the sound from different amps than from different DACs. Very surprising as I expected it to be the other way around. Have other folks had a similar experience, or is this caused simply by the Modi just being a really good DAC?

Anyway, congratulations to Jason and Mike for being able to engineer such high performance into $99 products. Keep up the good work! Now it’s time to listen to some music – using the Sennheiser HD650, which although not as revealing as the T1 sounds truly magical with the Valhalla.

 

[saxelrod92]

  Thanks Jason for another great chapter. The Modi and Magni were the first Schiit products that I purchased and I was very pleased with both their performance and how sturdy their build quality is. Later I purchased a Valhalla and a Bifrost with USB and the Uber analog stage. Of course I was eventually tempted to compare the Modi to the Bifrost and the Magni to the Valhalla, and that’s when things got interesting. First, I hooked both the Magni and the Valhalla up to the Bifrost using a Y-cable and then hooked up the headphone (Beyerdynamic T1 in this case) to each amp in turn. Both amps sounded great, but I could hear fairly easily that the treble of the Valhalla is clearer and cleaner. So far, so good. Next, I hooked up the Modi and the Bifrost to the Valhalla using the Schiit SYS to be able to easily switch between the two. Using the T1 again I thought at first that I had made a mistake – I couldn’t hear any difference between the two DACs! After a while I realized that the output level of the Bifrost is slightly higher, but even after compensating for that I had a really hard time hearing any difference. Finally I heard (or think I heard) that the treble of the Bifrost is slightly clearer, but I was blown away at how small the difference was!

So, based on a (very) limited sample size of two my observation is that there’s a bigger difference in the sound from different amps than from different DACs. Very surprising as I expected it to be the other way around. Have other folks had a similar experience, or is this caused simply by the Modi just being a really good DAC?

Anyway, congratulations to Jason and Mike for being able to engineer such high performance into $99 products. Keep up the good work! Now it’s time to listen to some music – using the Sennheiser HD650, which although not as revealing as the T1 sounds truly magical with the Valhalla.

Personally I have only been able to hear a few very random dacs, like the bifrost uber, my dad's old goldmund dac for his speaker set up, my computer of course, and the ipod classic. Obviously the main comparison being bifrost uber to my dad's old dac. And despite one being used with speakers and the other with headphones, I could still hear the familiar aspects in the sound that I know are there because of a good dac, and what parts get affected by different amps. On top of that I have definitely talked to people with more listening experience who felt the order of sound influence in a chain goes: headphone first, amp second, and dac third. Which to a degree makes sense, since as long as a dac is well made, tuned to be relatively neutral, and has the right input implementations, it shouldn't really be doing too much to the sound other than converting it into analog properly. Different amps have a lot more variables involved, and those variables can have much more significant changes to the sound. An easy way to demonstrate this is use a bad amp with a good dac and you'll get bad/ not so great sound (depending on headphones of course), but use a good amp with an ok dac and you'll get a pretty good sound in comparison.

 

[darkfireblade25]

I would love it if Schiit came out with a music server. It also would go hand in hand in slowly integrating people into their solutions like Apple does except instead of through design, it is through design and value. It would save me from building a CAPS too. Probably would be cheaper also.

 

[StanD]

   
Definitely.
 
A modern DAP is mostly a software project. Fewer things in our life need software, not more. I hate when perfectly good devices get junked up by bad software. I hate software. And I'm a software developer. I can't even imagine what the hardware guys think of it.

The design of the DAC and amp parts are important. The PC layout can ruin sound as well. It's more than just software. On Android, there are player apps, like Neutron MP, that are very good and Schiit would not have to write that software. They could probably pull it off, only they probably don't want to expend the effort to make it small enough to be a portable DAP.
As far as software goes, they don't have to write Android, only the device drivers, many of which are supplied as reference for the chips or could be found in open source. Otherwise they'd have to be written. The really hard part of Android and the music apps are already done.
Or one could just buy an Apple iPod Touch 5G, damn thing is pretty good.

 

[ab initio]

   
Definitely.
 
A modern DAP is mostly a software project. Fewer things in our life need software, not more. I hate when perfectly good devices get junked up by bad software. I hate software. And I'm a software developer. I can't even imagine what the hardware guys think of it.

The design of the DAC and amp parts are important. The PC layout can ruin sound as well. It's more than just software. On Android, there are player apps, like Neutron MP, that are very good and Schiit would not have to write that software. They could probably pull it off, only they probably don't want to expend the effort to make it small enough to be a portable DAP.
As far as software goes, they don't have to write Android, only the device drivers, many of which are supplied as reference for the chips or could be found in open source. Otherwise they'd have to be written. The really hard part of Android and the music apps are already done.
Or one could just buy an Apple iPod Touch 5G, damn thing is pretty good.

 
... who would want to walk around with a Schiit in their pants all day, anyways?

 
Cheers

 

[Mondrow20]

Jumping aboard the speculation train, I believe that portable schiit or a little schiit as I'd like to call it would make sense because in Jason's first hint mentions movement and not wanting to become stagnant, meaning something to do with an on the go product aka the little schiit. 

 

[morethansense]

   
... who would want to walk around with a Schiit in their pants all day, anyways?

 
Cheers

 
If they used this as a marketing line, I'd buy it even if it cost me my first, second and thirdborn child.

 

[tronco]

Personally I think it is great what Schiit is doing. Taking the time and risk to build a good product for 99$ in the US. Respect. And it is an awesome marketing fact within the US. Every single review made about Schiit gear states "it's made in the USA". But for the 700 million potential customers in Europe, other things might be more important.
 
I don't have experience with "Made in the USA" stuff. Is it a good sign (like made in Germany) is it not? I don't know. The only things from the US we get here are blockbusters and big cars that don't really fit our tiny roads. So no emotions arise when I read "it's made in the USA". I'm neutral to this (and guess what, I'm Swiss).
 
For Schiit to stay inexpensive, they have to do direct sales. But to me as a potential customer from outside the US this brings disadvantages. I can't just go to the audio store downtown and try the gear before buying it. No one sells Schiit and if they would, it could double the price. Sure, I can order it and send it back within 15 days if I don't like it. Not many companies offer you this option. But I'm in Europe and shipping and transaction fee would set me back at least about 200$ for the bifrost/asgard2 combo without factoring in swiss customs and their handling fee. Thats a lot of money.
 
Even if I say "what the hell" and just buy the magni/modi combo, shipping and custums adds another 50% on the price. That's not so inexpesive anymore. 
 
I wonder if Schiit comes up with a good solution for this in the future.

 

[reddog]

Personally I think it is great what Schiit is doing. Taking the time and risk to build a good product for 99$ in the US. Respect. And it is an awesome marketing fact within the US. Every single review made about Schiit gear states "it's made in the USA". But for the 700 million potential customers in Europe, other things might be more important.

I don't have experience with "Made in the USA" stuff. Is it a good sign (like made in Germany) is it not? I don't know. The only things from the US we get here are blockbusters and big cars that don't really fit our tiny roads. So no emotions arise when I read "it's made in the USA". I'm neutral to this (and guess what, I'm Swiss).

For Schiit to stay inexpensive, they have to do direct sales. But to me as a potential customer from outside the US this brings disadvantages. I can't just go to the audio store downtown and try the gear before buying it. No one sells Schiit and if they would, it could double the price. Sure, I can order it and send it back within 15 days if I don't like it. Not many companies offer you this option. But I'm in Europe and shipping and transaction fee would set me back at least about 200$ for the bifrost/asgard2 combo without factoring in swiss customs and their handling fee. Thats a lot of money.

Even if I say "what the hell" and just buy the magni/modi combo, shipping and custums adds another 50% on the price. That's not so inexpesive anymore. 

I wonder if Schiit comes up with a good solution for this in the future.

You make some really good points, especially how the cost of Schiit goes way up when shipped overseas.

 

[StanD]

   
... who would want to walk around with a Schiit in their pants all day, anyways?

 
Cheers

Why not, we begin and end life doing just that. 

 

[fenderf4i]

I live in Canada, and I can say that most of the high quality products (Not just headphones) I own are made on the USA. Usually from smaller companies that really take pride in what they make. Malkoff Devices is one example. Small company, owner answers the phone, makes the best quality flashlights around.

 

[azteca x]

I, for one, eagerly await their $2000 statement external EQs, Quadraphonic processors and FM tuners.
 
EDIT: Forgot to mention the reel-to-reel and the cassette deck.  My bad.