[Hawaiibadboy]

  Value can neither be mandated nor created; it is not even tangible.  It is the quantification of perceived benefit.  It is strictly in the mind of the beholder.  Jason and myself expend much energy in the quest to provide exactly this in our products.  Now the trick here is to realize that value belongs not just to us but to our users as well.  Value cannot exist without both a provider and a user.  The key idea here is empathy with our users.
 
The higher the value, the more willingness there is to buy.  Marketing is necessary only to the extent of a lack of value.  More plainly stated, marketing is only necessary to sell products which no one wants.  At Schiit, we have no marketing department, only a brand.  This leaves us free to redeploy misguided marketing resources to further value.  
 
If a company does not believe in value, it is not that it believes in nothing.  It will just have to resort to campaigns of coercion to succeed or go out of business.

 
 
“You’ve got to live right, too. It’s the way you live that predisposes you to avoid the traps and see the right facts. You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It’s easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally. That’s the way all the experts do it. The making of a painting or the fixing of a motorcycle isn’t separate from the rest of your existence. If you’re a sloppy thinker the six days of the week you aren’t working on your machine, what trap avoidance, what gimmicks, can make you all of a sudden sharp on the seventh? It all goes together ... The real cycle you're working in is a cycle called yourself. The machine that appears to be "out there" and the person that appears to be "in here" are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Qaulity together.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
 
 
 
 
You gotta read this book if you have not.
 
You sparked this quote in my brain. I'll get me some schiit sometime.

 

[MandoBear]

 
“You’ve got to live right, too. It’s the way you live that predisposes you to avoid the traps and see the right facts. You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It’s easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally. ”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
 

Hmm... Up to a point.  Remember that some of the world's most perfect paintings were painted by some remarkably flawed human beings.
Vincent van Gough, anyone?
 
And as a personal observation, perhaps the purpose of art or painting is not to be perfect, but to stimulate a response in the beholder?

 

[BeyerMonster]

  The doctor : and what about this one ?

If you have to spend money to impress people you like, you've still got a problem.

 

[rtaylor76]

 
Or, in other words, deliver value that nobody else can touch, and you'll always do fine.

 
Not that I am an advocate of the semi-reality TV show Shark Tank, but this is pretty much the message every time if you are paying attention. Well...that and can you deliver said value and a short-term profit at the same time. Those high dollar investors want to make their investment back pretty quickly.
 
I will also add that they likely would have never invested in Schiit because they would have seen it as A) a hobby business, and B) not a market exists for this, and C) would want to sell them through conventional channels and raise the price to increase sales and profits quickly.
 
Not that Jason would ever seek out such investors.

 

[J&J]

Thank you Jason!!! for validating what I've learned about this hobby that is it is driven by paranoia  the feeling that someone out there is hearing more detail sound stage, dynamic range, tighter bass, treble sparkle etc you all know the buzz words. Just to illustrate the point I have a lot of really great measuring expensive headphones and truth be told they all sound great but my old Sony MDR V6 (available used on ebay for <$50.00) are just fun. Maybe just fun is OK

 

[monkuboy]

If it is "just fun" and you think that is okay, and you are not suffering anxiety over your current choice of equipment, then obviously you are not an audiophile. Why are you even here??? 

 

[RCBinTN]

  Thank you Jason!!! for validating what I've learned about this hobby that is it is driven by paranoia  the feeling that someone out there is hearing more detail sound stage, dynamic range, tighter bass, treble sparkle etc you all know the buzz words. Just to illustrate the point I have a lot of really great measuring expensive headphones and truth be told they all sound great but my old Sony MDR V6 (available used on ebay for <$50.00) are just fun. Maybe just fun is OK

 
Enjoy your music!!
 

RCBinTN

 

[ScottFree]

If it is "just fun" and you think that is okay, and you are not suffering anxiety over your current choice of equipment, then obviously you are not an audiophile. Why are you even here??? 

Wherever there is mystery and the unexplained, cosmic forces shall draw me near.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[tonykaz]

HifiMan at CanJam,
 
Tyll's video introduces the new "little brother" to the HE1000! 
 
Fang tells the Camera that they (he) will decide the Sale Price based on the Show reactions to the "X" headphone. 
 
They fixed all that was wrong with the HE1000: no nano, lower price, black and much higher efficiency !  
 
So, they base their pricing on Show reactions? 
 
Seems fishy   ><)))'>   to me, somehow.  
 
Crazy even.
 
What the hell is going on here???
 
Tony in Michigan

 

[Rem0o]

 
HifiMan at CanJam,
 
Tyll's video introduces the new "little brother" to the HE1000! 
 
Fang tells the Camera that they (he) will decide the Sale Price based on the Show reactions to the "X" headphone. 
 
They fixed all that was wrong with the HE1000: no nano, lower price, black and much higher efficiency !  
 
So, they base their pricing on Show reactions? 
 
Seems fishy   ><)))'>   to me, somehow.  
 
Crazy even.
 
What the hell is going on here???
 
Tony in Michigan

Greed. 

 

[SearchOfSub]

Okay, time to get a bit snippy (not with you, but with the suit-wearing theorists who have never made a product in their life.)

Hell with theory, here's a fact: charge such that your products have by far the highest value, and you won'twaste money on research, advertising, A/B testing, customer coddling, psychoanalysis, fancy packaging, product variants, line extensions, channel support, retail management, optimal rate of return, neural algorithms, and all the nonsense you need to support "charge what the market will bear," plus your company won't go kerploof when (not if) a competitor providing stunning value undercuts you.

Or, in other words, deliver value that nobody else can touch, and you'll always do fine.

Yep, skills - The rest will just play on its own when the product is delivered - But, the mass market does not appreciate skills over thrills and hype/marketing on a product. Beats Audio - design and marketing is what got Beats billions when Apple bought it. We all know HE500 sounds better than Beats pro studio but the 99% of the market do not know what Hifiman is - nor do they care. But it's very true that unless your thinking about owning a million dollar yacht - knowledge will always bring the engineer more joy and that you will do fine.

 

[tonykaz]

Herb Reichert,
 
Holy Cow, Schiit gets a super review in Stereophile, 
 
for an under $130 RIAA Amp. Geez
 
One hell-of-a-story and write-up!  Definitely not your typical infinite Praise, genuflecting, gotta consider type of scribbling the Glossy press are known for. 
 
A straight-up description of the little amp and it's creator: M.Moffat.  Even goes back to the earlier days of Audio.  
 
This is what JA has to worry about: His reviewers are sneaking off to visit Schiit and then Schiit starts happening and before you know it, poof, he's lost his team to headphones and all that's destructive to Big Box, mega buck, Analog Audio.  
 
Tony in Michigan
 
ps.  Tyll's video CanJam coverage shows a good bit of excitements, it's well worth looking at. 

 

[Hawaiibadboy]

  Hmm... Up to a point.  Remember that some of the world's most perfect paintings were painted by some remarkably flawed human beings.
Vincent van Gough, anyone?
 
And as a personal observation, perhaps the purpose of art or painting is not to be perfect, but to stimulate a response in the beholder?

 That quote was not meant literally
 
like:
 

 When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he's insane, which is not to see him at all.

 
 
The book uses perfect in a mocking sense. All things are imperfect due to the creator...us...however the attempt to obtain,achieve even strive for perfection itself is the fuel that drives the machine called quality. The quote I gave was more aimed at the observation that folks cannot be lazy with one thing and awesome with another. Never happens. You are always on or you are never on. All these years later with my own little business and it all makes sense and I stomp on my competition because it makes sense...perfect <<<<see wat I did there....sense. And my friends mail it in...and their life is kinda mailed in.
 
Sorry for the OT

 

[tonykaz]

U of M vs. Michigan State Football , Saturday October 17th, 2015  
 
On U of M Home Turf. The Rivalry Game of the year.  Michigan led the entire GAME!!  
 
U of M had the game wrapped-up, only had to ride out a few seconds of Clock.
 
Then they made a big bo-bo: bad hike, followed by a fumble, kerpow, State grabs the loose Ball and with only enough time to run to the End Zone SCORE the Game Winning points. 
 
The U of M Staff were in Shock. 
 
Lesson here is :  A winning Lead can be lost in an instant, poof.  
 
Tony in Michigan
 
ps.  I lost my bet on that game.  It was amazing to watch. Never saw anything like it.

 

[jimmers]

 
U of M vs. Michigan State Football , Saturday October 17th, 2015  ....

In a business sense, for dropping the ball see
 
Intergalactic Digital Research vs Microsoft in the IBM PC Arena
 
Kinda OT though