Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

[Tuco1965]

So now we've had a bit of a Schiit tease. How much do we need to put aside for this Gadget? Asking prices for something we don't have a clue on seems fair.

 

[Ableza]

I was just in Los Alamos two weeks ago and saw NOTHING with Schiit on it, so this whole idea of a new Manhattan Project gadget is an obvious red herring.
 

 
All I know is I look forward with great interest to something new from the minds of Moffat and Stoddard.

 

[Jones Bob]

A digital bit purifier. For the Schiit bit perfect DACs?

 

[45longcolt]

I suspect the only thing Jason enjoys more than dreaming up new products is messing with the minds of us Schiithedz.
 
Oh, and kudos to JS for using the word "salve" a few posts ago. Brings up the tone of Head-Fi.

 

[AndreYew]

I'll add my guess for posterity ... I think it's a digital source device. I'd guess a desktop-sized thing with its own storage since Jason said no streaming. Anything available right now is either pint sized and limited in user interface and perhaps audio quality because of size and power, or crazy expensive. There is a market for a something that is not expensive, but also endgame in usability and quality. Digital outputs and definitely analog outputs with Schiit's DAC technology, and maybe analog volume control so you can feed it straight into an amp.
 
It'd be easy to use: you could drag and drop files to it from a Mac or Windows because it would look like a network share, or maybe copy from a USB stick or as a USB device attached to a computer. I have no idea how it's controlled. Maybe an iPhone app or a some controls from the front panel? Like a classic iPod on steroids?
 
It's going to be software-heavy, but the bits and pieces are out there already, waiting to be integrated by someone other than a knowledgeable hobbyist.
 
Or maybe I'm just being wishful because I want such a thing on the market.

 

[StefanJK]

Originally Posted by Peaceofmind 

Is this a DAC we're talking about?

Originally Posted by Baldr /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
 
No...
not per se
Completely different purpose

The 'per se' is doing the work here, I hazard.  A DAC with a 'completely different' purpose.  Which is?  I assumed it was room correction or some form of digital cross-over, but I'd not count that as completely different purpose.  

 

[artur9]

  I'll add my guess for posterity ... I think it's a digital source device. ...
...
It's going to be software-heavy, but the bits and pieces are out there already, waiting to be integrated by someone other than a knowledgeable hobbyist.
 
Or maybe I'm just being wishful because I want such a thing on the market.

Me, too.  But the Schiit guys don't like software heavy things.
 
Not room correction but does would that include speaker correction, like Devialet SAM?
 
I guess "never been done" precludes some sort of active crossover tech...?

 

[ThePianoMan]

Is a crossfeed device of some sort out of the question? I suppose devices exist out there though, so that doesn't make any sense...

 

[AndreYew]

  Me, too.  But the Schiit guys don't like software heavy things.
 

That's what I thought too, until I saw the quote below from Mike (bolded part):
 

 
 
Funny you should ask -- I am taking a long look as we speak of alternative filter algorithms for "The Manhattan Project".  This is a completely new and unprecedented audio component.  We already have a running prototype of "The Gadget" (absolutely hair-raising) but have yet much software to try.  It can be frustrating, as this device has NO precedents for audio.  But then again, neither did the first pre-Theta stuff 30+ years ago.

 
So the filter algorithms are in there which means some kind of upsampling is happening and it involves digital audio. You could use that for an internal DAC, or perhaps some kind of standalone upsampler, but that last thing seems kind of pointless.

 

[Jones Bob]

DAC direct to headphones with no power amp stage involved?

 

[madwolfa]

DAC direct to headphones with no power amp stage involved?

 
I wonder how many more times Jason has to come into this thread and say that it's not a DAC.
 
Also it doesn't make sense.

 

[Jones Bob]

It does if you think about it.

 

[wink]

DAC direct to headphones with no power amp stage involved?

This is even better. Source to ears...
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/779102/did-sennheiser-just-reveal-the-orpheus-successor#post_11871085

 

[wink]

It does if you think about it.

Ohhhh... c'mon... who does that these days...?    

 

[Torq]

My guess would be a decoupling of the raw DAC and the filter (as opposed to the transport and the combined DAC/filter being separate which was one of Mike's early innovations) ... with the filter having user-adjustable time and frequency domain optimization (since I'm assuming optimizing for one affects the optimization of the other).