[bigro]

  .... and here, I thought it was all about the [REDACTED].......
 
 
Just goes to show how one can be led astray.

I was just thinking How I am So Anxiously waiting for the release of the [REDACTED] and I don't even know what I am waiting for. It Could be a steaming bag of schiit for all I know but boy am I Excited. 

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

I was just thinking How I am So Anxiously waiting for the release of the [REDACTED] and I don't even know what I am waiting for. It Could be a steaming bag of schiit for all I know but boy am I Excited. 

 
Any word yet on whether the [REDACTED] will be available in black?

 

[aamefford]

  I was just thinking How I am So Anxiously waiting for the release of the [REDACTED] and I don't even know what I am waiting for. It Could be a steaming bag of schiit for all I know but boy am I Excited.

Pretty sure it will be a steaming box of schiit.......

 

[bigro]

   
Any word yet on whether the [REDACTED] will be available in black?

I don't know but there seems to be a conspiracy or some good Photoshop work. A Black Yggy !!! Scroll down and look at the picture.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/667711/new-schiit-ragnarok-and-yggdrasil/8460#post_11813803 
 

  Pretty sure it will be a steaming box of schiit.......

Even Better I wonder if this will be available in Black?

 

[Ableza]

[REDACTED} will only be available in {REDACTED}

 

[aamefford]

I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that I am (REDACTED), (REDACTED), (REDACTED) tired of the word (REDACTED).....

 

[marcoarment]

While everyone's speculating about the new products, given what Jason's said recently, I think these are both plausible and potentially interesting as a customer:
 
Mjolnarok: (please don't call it that) Mjolnir is awesome and very powerful. Ragnarok sits comfortably above it, offering far more power, the fancy relay stepper, speaker outputs, the managed signal path, and the unbalanced summer. The Measurements chapter suggests a 50W minimum for "speaker amps", even though Schiit only offers one today, at twice that power. I don't know anything about engineering, but I think it's plausible that a product could exist in the middle — likely just the Mjolnir 2 — that added 50WPC speaker outputs, and nothing else, to the Mjolnir. (A summed unbalanced output would be great, too, but that might be unrealistic for the Mj's board space and price range.) As differentiators, the Rag would still have twice the power, the relay stepper, the more sophisticated managed signal path, and (probably) the unbalanced output.
 
A consumer XLR-to-USB microphone interface. Current market is dominated by Mackie, Focusrite, Avid, Tascam, Apogee. Maybe I'm out of touch with reality here because I'm so into the world of podcasting, but I see the hallmarks of a Schiitable market:
 

1. Increasing demand from hobbyists and prosumers, as podcasts grow like crazy and home-recording is the norm for so many of today's musicians.
2. Lots of terrible-sounding, ugly, poorly made options for $100–400, with the only great-sounding ones usually above $600.
3. Lots of people using big, clunky, ugly, complex "pro" gear at home because there's nothing else.
4. Fully integrated alternatives, USB mics, are mediocre at best (Blue Yeti, Shure PG42-USB, Rode Podcaster).
5. Any dependence on PC/Mac software is usually an unreliable, unnecessary annoyance, with all-hardware products generally superior and successful.
6. Requires expertise in high-quality, low-noise audio component design, including amplification, DACs, and ADCs, with standard USB sound interfaces, paired with low-cost production, into nice-looking final products.

 
Maybe it's a pipe dream, and maybe (probably) I don't know the market at all. But I think there could be something there if they wanted to address it.

 

[Ableza]

XLR to USB?  Already plenty of those.

 

[marcoarment]

  XLR to USB?  Already plenty of those.

There were also plenty of headphone amps before Schiit came around. Plenty of great existing solutions? Reason for caution. Plenty of mediocre-to-bad existing solutions? Opportunity.
 
And having used many of these, I can attest to the category's mediocrity. You have either noisy, awful mic preamps in an ugly $100 box that dies after a year; or preamps that can supply enough clean gain for a high-needs dynamic mic like the SM7B or PR40 in a $600+ box that relies on comically terrible software to operate and includes complex screens, dongles, etc. that will break or die after a year.
 
The cheapest, smallest all-hardware design I know of with high-quality preamps is the Sound Devices USBPre 2 — my interface of choice. But it's nearly $900, and has lots of features I don't need.

 

[morethansense]

And having used many of these, I can attest to the category's mediocrity. You have either noisy, awful mic preamps in an ugly $100 box that dies after a year; or preamps that can supply enough clean gain for a high-needs dynamic mic like the SM7B or PR40 in a $600+ box that relies on comically terrible software to operate and includes complex screens, dongles, etc. that will break or die...

If you're looking for a combined mic pre and AD converter you'd be hard pressed because most decent pres are designed for a pro market with a separate 'proper' AD conversion section. The all in ones like Blue Icicle intended for budding vlogists and YouTube artists looking for a cheap entry into the market.
I'm most impressed with my Black Lion Auteur for performance for the money. But there's pres like the focusrite ISA one which are really nice without having to fork out for channels like UA610 which are simply excessive for non-pros. These are all made with a separate interface or AD conversion in mind.

Side note, getting good levels out of a SM7B is really easy with a fetHead or Cloudlifter. Both same principle and you'd be hard pressed to find a difference other than convenience of device location which is subjective.

But I definitely want to see what Schiit can do in this area. One of Jason's diddlings with balanced topologies would definitely be a unique addition to the market.

 

[wink]

 Originally Posted by JohnnyCanuck 
   
Any word yet on whether the [REDACTED] will be available in black?

It will be only available in various shades of brown...    

 

[Pirakaphile]

http://schiit.com/terms/terms-conditions
 
My new favorite page on the Schiit site.

 

[FrivolsListener]

  Pretty sure it will be a steaming box of schiit.......

 
That was bad and you should feel bad.

 

[dysonapr]

Jason, when can we expect to see a Schiit "Sturm"? You know you want to do it.

 

[FrivolsListener]

@Jason,
 
I was just looking at the Bifrost FAQ about Linux compatibility, and it mentions that Linux works with Modi.  You do mean Bifrost, I assume?