[watchnerd]

   
Ooh! Me! I want one! With one of those tuning eyes on the front! Yeah!
 
We have GREAT FM radio up here in Canada, and a great manufacturer of radio gear, Magnum Dynalab. But my old FT-101 got traded away a long time ago, and my little Advent 300 needs the tuner section serviced, and radio over cable sounds like ass, and I would LOVE a little Schiit radio. Magnum Dynalab have evolved into a company servicing the 1% - well beyond my price range - they need some lean, mean competition.
 
I know Schiit is constitutionally opposed to displays of any kind (other than selection LEDs), but I can totally picture a Magni/Modi-sized chassis* with a numerated tuning knob and a Magic Eye. After all, it is a tube!

 
*Now that I think about it, the chassis would probably have to be one of the taller ones - at least Asgard sized - I don't think there's enough vertical room on the little Schiits to mount a forward-facing Magic Eye. But that would give you enough room to use an internal power supply rather than a wall wart.
 
EDIT: And no, I don't need a remote, although five or six presets might be nice, and a power switch on the back is just fine by me.

 
I think you would need to use at least an Asgard-size case, but in addition to the magic eye you could fit in a knob like this:
 

 
Or like this:
 

 

[valiant66]

  I think you would need to use at least an Asgard-size case, but in addition to the magic eye you could fit in a knob like this:
 

 
Or like this:
 

 
That is an Asgard sized case. That's why I called it the GARD - It was easy enough to photoshop out the AS. I can't match the corporate font - or I probably could but this is just for schiits 'n' giggles so it was just a quick 'n' dirty 'shoop.
 
As for the tuner knob, I like the second one you posted above - it almost matches the Aluminium case, but my all-time favourite tuning knob is actually on the Advent 300:
 

 
It's graduated in such a way that for every degree you turn the inner black knob, the outer silver dial only turns half a degree. Even after, what, 40? years, the knob is buttery smooth and it gives me great pleasure to watch the outer ring turn more slowly than I turn the knob.
 
Unfortunately the tuning guts inside are gakked so it only pulls in the strongest local stations at a whisper.

  But it's currently doing yeoman service as my headphone amp and to run my LS3/5As.

 

[watchnerd]

If I was going to list my personal requirements, it would be:
 
-Modern chip-based tuner  (the old analog ones with the flywheel will never fit in the case)
-Discrete analog stage
-Tubes in signal path in manner similar to Vali / Lyr to allow for tube rolling
-Class A operation
-Enumerated round dial to select frequency (much like a Tivoli radio)
-Balanced XLR outputs
 
 
Nice to have:
 
-Magic eye, but can understand why it would make the casework hard

 

[watchnerd]

Hmm, now I'm wondering if I get an Asgard case, or find a busted one, and try to prototype it myself...

 

[Anavel0]

@tonykaz

I know your background in the audio industry. I've enjoyed many of your post and "insider" info you add to discussions.

I just find 70,000 analog systems in a world of over 7 billion people to be on the low side. I certainly understand that analog will never replace digital just because the physical size alone. Not to mention any of its other format specific limitations. That' doesn't mean analog is dead.

I'm in the automotive industry, so I'll give you analogy that maybe relates what I'm saying better. Vinyl is a lot like a sports car. The sports car market is barely a percentage compared to all other forms of road going transportation. They suck for grocery shopping, carrying more than 2 (sometimes 1) people, comfy long distance trips, etc. For a select few people with a specific desire they're magical. Clearly the Ford Focus will out sell all Ferrari models combined every year. This doesn't mean that the sports car market is dying. It's actually growing; but it's still and will always be just a small sliver of the auto industry.

 

[tonykaz]

Mr.Anavel0,
 
I'll accept your hesitation with my numbers, they do feel small compared to our shared life experiences as hobbyists, the Glossy Press stand with you on this matter as they continue to tout Vinyl as a useful format.  My home City has a population of 12,000, other than me we have only one other aspiring audiophile who collects Vintage Solid-State Marantz Recievers, Vintage Vinyl & all the Bose Models from 201 thru to 901s, he's re-living his Rock & Roll youth.  We had one other man, ( just past this year ), who's widow was selling off his B&W speakers at her Garage Sale in preparation for her moving into a small Condo, I tried to locate a buyer for her, everyone I know has moved on to Bose Radios or Sound Bars for their Flat Screen TV's ( my generation still calls TVs as Flat Screens ). We old-school Audiophiles are dying-off, if it wasn't for headphones I'dve gone Sound Bars too. 
My Video Editing neighbor has Genelec Active monitors at work but a Best Buy Sound Bar at Home.  
 
Conversely, as I travel, I see a vibrant headphone market everywhere, I see little white wires dangling from ears, I see over ear headphones that look like ear muffs being worn on the streets of every city, I see hand held devices ( probably iPhones) carefully held before watching eyes and ungloved fingers pecking away on the screens.
 
Analog Vinyl has one quality that Manufactures value: it can't be downloaded!, otherwise it's a total pain-in-the-Ass as a product line.  Vinyl hit about 2 Billion per year Production at its' peak in the early 1980s so there's vast quantities available for re-sale on the used market ( I still have about 200 of the finest of the finest waiting for me to ebay them ).  So used Vinyl ( most of which is junky stuff ) drives the Roy Hall cheapo player sales ( which is taking place on the East Coast, mostly ) I can't see this product Market having legs, it seems a bit of a Fad. 
 
Sometimes I feel like the only Audio Industry person still singing a Requiem for Vinyl, I suppose it's because everyone else moved-on ages ago.
 
Tony in Michigan

 

[Argo Duck]

Hey Jason...love the ad! It enjoys a place on my desktop. Very cool.

But...has Yggy really gone up to $2399? Still listed on your web site at $2299! Or do my eyes deceive me - it's been a rough two days at work

A future Yggy buyer wants to know!

 

[earnmyturns]

  Yup ,that's what I want it for. The USB audio from my PC is surprisingly bad, though the wyrd halved the number of times the audio cuts out.

There's only so much that a buffer-reclocker can do if the USB audio drivers on your PC are really buggy, which seems to be the case. It kind of baffles me that so many spend multiple $K on DACs, amps, and transducers, and then try to feed them with general-purpose PCs with chips and drivers that were never designed for decently accurate USB audio output. A small dedicated computer whose only job is to move bits from storage to USB is much more likely to do the job reliably. Some people use a Mac Mini for this purpose, I use a $100 CuBox-i2eX with Volumio. A general-purpose PC (or even Mac) is a much dicier proposition.

 

[valiant66]

Did I miss this earlier? Yggdrasil was awarded DAC of the Year by Computer Audiophile.
 
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/675-ca%92s-best-2015-awards/
 
If I'm repeating this info, please disregard this post.

 

[tonykaz]

DAC of the Year,
 
I'll put CA in my Bookmarks bar, thanks for mentioning it!  
 
Hmm, kinda illustrates how outa-touch the Main-Stream Audio Press is now-a-days:  a Social Medium, not a revealer of technical truths.  Where in our Official Press will we find an Atomicbob? 
Automotive Paint is the main selling feature of the Vivid Loudspeaker at the most recent Dealer Event with Stereophile's Whistler doing the reporting and MCing, each of the four listing rooms having a different "Feel". Read all about it on the Stereophile Site.  The place was packed with people ( a picture of a few more than 10 souls sitting and seemingly attentive in some sort of passive manner, they did seem awake)
 
Musical reproduction has become a technically demanding endeavor, it takes folks like Stoddard, Moffat, Atomicbob, Tyll, Bob Katz, Oliver at Harmon, Novick at Audio Pecision to help us civilians to begin understanding it.  The Press could at least do some solid editorial writing with content thick contributing Authors, geez even Vanity Fair had guys like P.J.O'Rorke writing articles.  
 
Multi-bits are the Product of the Year
 
Tony in Michigan

 

[mtoc]

is the Manhattan thing a little physical plugin like Sonarworks?

 

[Deftone]

Hey Jason...love the ad! It enjoys a place on my desktop. Very cool.

But...has Yggy really gone up to $2399? Still listed on your web site at $2299! Or do my eyes deceive me - it's been a rough two days at work

A future Yggy buyer wants to know!

 
OT!
 
why do companies do that, the price thing, its always .99
 
2399 why not 2340? 

 

[jimmers]

   
OT!
 
2399 why not 2340? 

Because 2340 is a lot less than 2399 

 
 
Edit: which is kind of the point, you thought 2399 was closer to 2340 than 2400

 

[Koolpep]

   
OT!
 
why do companies do that, the price thing, its always .99
 
2399 why not 2340? 

I assume you mean: 2399 vs 2400
Pricing psychology - google it, very interesting things to find. The same with having options (but not too many, look up  Paradox of Choice). 
 
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-pricing-tricks-spend-more-105521967.html
https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice?language=en
 
 
Cheers,
K

 

[Jim85IROC]

 
Yep, you'll start seeing us (a bit) more...it's time the more traditional audio community knew about the DACs, at least.
 
And yes, the ad is deliberately provocative. After so many years of hearing the drumbeat for "high res, high res, DSD, DSD," and hearing about how every new DAC could do 24/96, 24/192, 32/384, 64/768, DSD256, DSD512, DSD1024, I figured that many audiophiles might want to, well, buy a DAC made for the music they had, rather than the <0.1% of music that is available in high-res. The euphoria over high-res seemed to gloss over the implication, which was: "Yes, and this also means re-buying all of your favorite music...are you cool with that? Again?"
 
We'll see if the message resonates, or if the Audio 1% take up pitchforks.
 

Great ad.  You should start a marketing company or something.