[US Blues]

  Honesty is most important to me.
 
I would like to have an amp and a dac called:
 
" It doesn't get any better than this..... sonically"
 
A vendor that would state this headphone amp will drive any headphones from 32 Ohms to 300 Ohms to their fullest sound levels based on their specs.
 
It doesn't add a thing to the input signal, or take away anything from the input signal....a straight wire with gain.
 
The cost for a pair of these not to exceed $500.
 
Do whatever you have to for sonic perfection, don't care about looks, zillion dollar step attenuator vol controls etc,.,.,. just the best sonically, transparent etc.
 
No Balanced support need apply.
 
For guys who want to buy an amp and dac and know 1000% for sure it really doenst get any better sonically than this...... no matter HOW big the caps are or how regulated the power supply is.........a good solid combination that just works VERY well and one that the next day I am not thinking of "should have I bought the Burson, or the Oppo HA1, The Denton XXX, the Audio, or the whatever system of the week...."
 
The least desirable thing about present system: TOO MANY CABLES and COMBINATIONS, COMPLEXITY SUCKS.
 
A. 

 
These products exist, they are called "Yggdrasil" and "Ragnarok." Sorry they didn't hit your price point, but proper engineering requires more.

 

[evillamer]

How about Yggdrasil lite?
 
Same DSP, half the amount of DAC chip. Only usb input and single ended. In a smaller more cost effective chassis with redesigned power supply.

 

[Edoardo]

  Honesty is most important to me.
 
I would like to have an amp and a dac called:
 
" It doesn't get any better than this..... sonically"
 
A vendor that would state this headphone amp will drive any headphones from 32 Ohms to 300 Ohms to their fullest sound levels based on their specs.
 
It doesn't add a thing to the input signal, or take away anything from the input signal....a straight wire with gain.
 
The cost for a pair of these not to exceed $500.
 

[...]

The least desirable thing about present system: TOO MANY CABLES and COMBINATIONS, COMPLEXITY SUCKS.
 
A. 

I think every "combo" producer call their combo's that way. They do not always price it that cheap though.

 

 

[rmoody]

 
One of the best emails I have received was from a customer who was certain that his Valhalla was broken because the LED wouldn't turn off.  When he unplugged it and the light was still on he thought it could be possessed.  The light stays on because the capacitors in Valhalla take a VERY long time to discharge (as in days).  Opening a Valhalla that has been powered up is a unique opportunity to zap the hell out of yourself.  About a month or two after Jesse and I started working in the shop, Jesse was working on converting some Valhallas from 230v to 115v.  These units had already been burned in so the capacitors were all carrying a charge.  I'm plugging away at orders and I hear, "son of a *****."  Jesse had shocked himself.  About an hour later, "******!"  Shocked again.  Jesse has big bushy curly hair.  Each time he yelled his hair was getting bigger and bigger.  A bit later, "crap!"    We still raz him about his "near death" experience with the Valhallas.  Jason even made Jesse a special poster:
 

 
That's funny. Is this because the capacitors are so high a farad rating or something about the tubes that cause them to drain that slow? What is the farad rating on the caps? Just curious, guess I could talk bigro into opening his Valhalla to see (kidding).

 

[yay101]

The one thing I dislike the most about my system right now is that TIDAL doesn't have a remote control app! Come on TIDAL!  I built a PC music server for my stereo system and I would like to control all of my music via my Android phone. I currently use FoobarCon Pro to control Foobar (for the music I have on my SSD) and it's excellent. What I end up doing to control TIDAL is the MS Remote Desktop app. It works, but it's not the most streamlined solution. So there's that.     

Bubble upnp.

 

[Rem0o]

   
That's funny. Is this because the capacitors are so high a farad rating or something about the tubes that cause them to drain that slow? What is the farad rating on the caps? Just curious, guess I could talk bigro into opening his Valhalla to see (kidding).

 "with over 2,000uF of filter capacitance" from Schiit website. If you want to know why it takes so long, read that article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RC_time_constant

 

[slefty]

Haven't read everyone else's suggestions, so I may duplicate other comments.
 
1. A low noise line stage, keeping it simple, but functional. Preferably tube or hybrid (based on Valhalla or Lyr?), 3 or 4 inputs, two outputs (one that could be switched between fixed and variable output). Offer two versions, with or without a built in headphone amp. Optional simple remote for volume and muting. Needs to be geared for use in full range speaker system, not just a desktop system. Target would be a starting price under $1000.
 
2. A basic stereo amp based on the Ragnorak Wonder how much the cost could be lowered by not having any volume control or multiple inputs? Target price around the $1000 range
 
3. A linear power unit with multiple outputs, where an entire stack could be plugged in directly to replace all the wall warts. Make at least some of the outputs user-selectable for voltage (and offer both AC and DC) so they could be used with other brands and models regardless of the required voltage. I have no idea what something like this might cost. $200 or less would be nice.

 

[Zojokkeli]

Emotiva might be a big thing in the US, but I don't find it pleasant to order from them. I would definitely buy a desktop Schiit stereo amp in Bifrost size. Also a TOTL stereo amp in Ragnarok measures would probably find its audience. Combined amps and dacs are very popular among newcomers, so one-box solutions in affordable price range sound like a logical thing to do.

 

[Padgett]

  A music server is highly exciting, a natural extension to your current lineup and an opportunity to dominate in a space with some lack-luster and overpriced products. 
 
The Vision.
The Schiit Movement takes your audio from wherever it’s stored and delivers it via our all new USB Gen 3 output to any DAC. We’ve built a tiny computer, wrapped it in our signature aluminium case so it matches the rest of your Schiit and developed a beautiful application that lets you explore, discover and queue your music from a web browser on any mobile or desktop device connected to your network. The Schiit Movement brings the online experience of cloud services like Tidal and Spotify locally, to *your* music collection.
 
Connect the Schiit Movement to a USB drive, NAS or portable hard drive for as much storage space as you need. Connect it to your network via wired gigabit ethernet, or wireless N or AC wifi.
 
The Schiit Movement - you’ll feel better once you’ve had one. 
 
Yes, it absolutely matters.
I work for a software development company and the biggest 'thing' right now is the recognition that design, specifically user experience design in software is one of the biggest factors that affect purchase decisions for consumer products, or ‘apps’ if you prefer that term. This is something that people who commission custom software have been slow to recognise and embrace as it adds a significant cost to the development phase of an application. Companies who recognise that providing a seamless, beautiful, user centred experience (think Uber, AirBnB) are owning their markets, and herein lies the opportunity for Schiit. No one else with a music server product does this well, or cost effectively.
 
If you can take the Tidal, Spotify, Rdio etc experience and apply it to your customers own music, on their own hardware and network at a reasonable price point, then you will capture the market because your customers will want to use your product. And hey, they can then untether their laptop as well.
 
A music server isn’t about the hardware, it’s not about being technically bit perfect – those problems have already been solved. It’s about providing the Apple experience of software that’s simple to setup and just and ‘just works’. 
 
I don’t want to call out competitors products here. Im summary, I’ve used several – and they fall into one of three categories for me: Schiity software that ruins the experience and causes frustration, prohibitively expensive and closed systems, or no longer supported by the manufacturer.
 
On doing it cheaper.
Your point about a music server just being a computer is spot on, and that has some advantages – you have a large choice of cheap, readily available and widely supported hardware. The specification for a music server hardware is pretty low – you need enough processing power and memory to run a web server, you want a good USB chip and you probably want network expansion options: wired ethernet and the various flavours of wifi. I don’t see need any need for bluetooth. I don’t think you need a display either. The https://volumio.org/ project shows that this can be achieved at an audiophile level on a Raspberry Pi. A dedicated board mass produced would be cheaper.
 
Yes, you will need software support, maintenance, patching etc. This isn’t to be dismissed in terms of overhead – but it can be managed and streamlined to control costs and effort. A build server with continuous integration / continuous deployment for your custom software, a forum for user support and a development roadmap that balances your budget against feature releases is achievable on a manageable budget.
 
The good news is that as you control the hardware platform, you don’t need to account for variance in operating systems/hardware.
 
The majority of costs will be in developing your software stack. This is labour intensive, and will require a team. At a minimum, you want someone to manage the project and own the product. You want a talented developer (or two), a designer and a tester. The best software is built by teams – you wouldn’t get the bricky to architect, design, build and decorate your house - you want experts in each field. You can outsource this, though It would be worth running a business case to hire the product owner or dev in house, so that once the initial release is complete you have someone to cover the maintenance, support and product planning. If you outsource, like the Schiit case manufacturers you’ve written previously about, you want a partner that will proactively support you.
 
I don’t think it would be hard to produce a BoM that would significantly under price products from Linn, Olive etc. The deciding factor will likely be the cost of software development against the number of units you anticipate being able to sell.
 
On doing it better.
    - Build a beautiful, attractive UI that brings the Tidal / Spotify / Rdio / Pandora style interface and experience to locally stored music. Think about how you explore, search and discover music on online services, versus the ‘browse by artist, album or genre’ that’s standard in most available music servers & players.
    - Make it web based, so that I can use my phone/desktop/laptop as a remote control.
    - Build it on an API that you publish the specs to, so that others can write add-ons and clients for your server.
    - Make the hardware look like all your other schiit.
    - Make it output data via usb so that the Schiit Movement can be used as a source for *any* DAC that accepts USB input
    - Commit to a regular release cycle to continually improve the software
 
I think that's worth getting excited about.
 
Woo, first post!

 
Adding what I dislike about my current/past setup(s):

1. Lack of knurling on knobs
2. Being tethered to a pc/laptop or raspberry pi / some cobbled together music server
3. Schitty, schiity music server software. 

 

[vocalstrance]

I found a simple solution to the problem of the bright light. I just put a minuscule piece of electrical tape over it. It's not the prettiest, but it's not noticeable either. Hope this helps you sleep better.
 
 

 

[MWSVette]

  I found a simple solution to the problem of the bright light. I just put a minuscule piece of electrical tape over it. It's not the prettiest, but it's not noticeable either. Hope this helps you sleep better.
 
 
 

I use these :
 
http://www.amazon.com/LightDims-793573834232-Original-Strength%C2%AE/dp/B009WSJNCW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432475599&sr=8-2&keywords=dim+its
 
You barely see them...

 

[vocalstrance]

A much more appealing solution.

 

[45longcolt]

Two preamps, since the one which would satisfy everyone would satisfy no one;
 
A basic selector/volume box, using the stepped attenuator and source hardware from Rag, along with a simplified microprocessor. I suspect this combo could be crammed into an Asgard-size case, if some of the jacks were set into the top of the unit (like the balanced input pairs.) And if the volume hardware is too tall for that case, put the volume knob on top as well. Wouldn't that look interesting? And I wonder if it could be powered by a wall wart?
 
Then for non-purists, a full-on feature-fest pre. This would have to be in at least a Mj-size case, or a Rag-box if Jason decides to take my suggestion and include a touchscreen (and, no, I ain't holding my breath...)
 
The basic box would sell to the Head-Fi crowd, while the bells&whistles bigboy would appeal to the rest of the audio universe.

 

[Ableza]

Preamp: Yggdrasil DAC (which already has multiple digital inputs) with a couple of analog inputs added in, then add the volume control out of the Ragnarok.  Oh, and a simple input select/volume remote control which means the Ragnarok volume control will have to be motorized.  Crap, forgot about that.  And I suppose to make it fit into a Rag/Ygg case you'd have to compromise somewhere, so cut the DAC down to 1 per side and/or reduce the size of the power supply.  Maybe an external P/S... and please, no video displays or meter.

 

[Pirakaphile]

I do like the idea for some pre-amps, 'specially since I'll be going the speaker route after the Yggy, and really the only cool preamps I've found that don't cost zillions of bucks and are totally passive are by Khozmo. I mean, damn those things are sexy, massive oversized industrial stepped attenuators.. And the case is nice too! But it'd be neat to see different preamps from Schiit, to audition different ones, get a great bang for the buck, and keep the aluminum fetish going.
As for speaker amps, I'm not sure how anyone can compete with Emotiva's price/performance ratio since they outsource to China but still don't cheap out on the hardware inside the boxes, but if Schiit could make some amps that'd deliver Magnepan-power-level charge for close to the price Emotiva asks, I'd probably choose Schiit. I trust you dudes enough to be able to compete with pretty much any other manufacturer, and you have an attitude I enjoy that I don't see in a lot of other companies. 
If no amps'll be made, I'd settle with some sexy attenuator balanced preamp to put between Emotiva and the Yggy. Maybe a foray into the speaker market would introduce some more people to the headphone world though, or get people looking at their DACs and wondering what they could get that'd be better or somethin'. Who knows, I look forward to the future of Schiit, especially since I'm going to be saving up for quite a while so I'm banking on you dudes staying in business for a while. Otherwise I'll cry. Or something more manly. 
Anyway, good to see Schiit asking questions about what customers want in the future, always a good sign that there are still people working there.