[FoxSpirit]

 For 1k you should nowadays get something like 120WPC in a beautiful case, with some room dsp and adaptive loudness. With perfect, neutral sound. And you don't. I own a bunch of 1k HiFi amps and they are ****. Seriously. Marantz PM-8003? Sound great upfront but the soundstage has no depth at all. Same goes to the bass, just sounds flat. My Denon PMA 1500AE? Overall pretty good but the bass is again pretty bad. Lacks control and body. That said, the new Yamahas sound good, though they empahsise the attack a bit. Nothing I don't like. Lower end Musical Fidelity has again a bass problem in terms of flat for me.
 
So I am currently running my speakers directly out of my soundcard into a 125ASX2 amp and after recent auditionings with commercial speakers and my own amp I understand why people say my setup "sounds like 10k worth of audio". Because it does. And it's ridiculous. I mean, 30 hours of work but in the end I am at 1.1k budget. I have seen speakers using the exact same drivers of my DIY model going for 6.5k which is insane when the total material cost is $700, high end flexible verneer included. At signle item, consumer price. Any company buying directly from the manufacturers in numbers would completely trash my item cost. Instead, they take the drivers, paint them with 5 layers of balsamico laquer and craft 30k speakers from it because that's the market. We are in an era where a good sounding HiFi speaker for 4k is called "a great offering".
 
HiFi is dead because no competition at the price level happens. Because as an audiophile, you must be kinda nuts. I just learned this again recently. When 1k of speakers + amp does not completely trash an €150 Logitech you know things are ****ed. Which is why the Elac Debut line was so great. Decent sound quality and great bass. But otherwise? If I look what kind of powered studio monitors you get vs HiFi speakers it's just crazy.
 
Sorry, went from a wrong impression when I wrote this but after Jasons "Elephant in the room" post this is my own, late take.

 

[Ableza]

Beautiful case?  I don't care about beautiful cases.  I just need function, and for my HT system I need it to be black.

 

[RoundRound]

I hope I'm not crossing an etiquette line here, but ATI does very good current feedback amps: http://www.ati-amp.com/AT6000.php
I have the 6002 and it's a mighty partner for the Yggy. 
 
Incidentally there are some similarities between ATI and Schiit - both are value and performance oriented, doing away with retail distribution and 'audio jewellery' - thought I'll admit that ATI lacks the 'attitude'
 
​Would be really interesting to see Schiit's take on a proper speakers power amp. 

 

[rtaylor76]

Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't many Onkyo amps current driven?

 

[jfoxvol]

Onkyo claims their amp have high current drive capability. They're not current drive topology. Many use Darlington topology which can supply good output current.

 

[7ryder]

I hope I'm not crossing an etiquette line here, but ATI does very good current feedback amps: http://www.ati-amp.com/AT6000.php
I have the 6002 and it's a mighty partner for the Yggy. 

Incidentally there are some similarities between ATI and Schiit - both are value and performance oriented, doing away with retail distribution and 'audio jewellery' - thought I'll admit that ATI lacks the 'attitude'

​Would be really interesting to see Schiit's take on a proper speakers power amp. 

ATI owns Theta, so they use them for the audio jewelry.

 

[OldRoadToad]

I hear you.

It's funny. In the past, I once opined that there really wasn't any art in creating a TOTL amp..."just choose the best components regardless of cost and throw them together, and you're done." Or something like that. It was in a group of other designers (of higher-end gear than the Sumo stuff I did at the time). As you might expect, this comment went over like the proverbial fart in a car. And, to be fair, it is oversimplified...it's actually pretty easy to use good parts and get a real stinker of a product.

But, since then, we've actually moved beyond pricey components that might have value, at least in many cases. And that's even scarier.

Huh? Let me explain.

It's been a long time since I've heard about the lower ESR and other desirable qualities of certain brands of audiophile capacitors. Just as we've moved beyond hearing about linear beta and low Cob in certain exotic VAS transistors. And you don't hear much about super-exotic stuff like choke-input power supplies and relay switched stepped attenuators (a couple of the ultimate crazy high-end things that actually makes measurable differences). Instead, most of the time we hear first about the massive milled chassis, the big colorful screen, and the baroquely embellished industrial design...while inside the box, you find $2 volume-control chips proper to A/V receivers, switching supplies, Class D outputs, and off-the-shelf Bluetooth modules. 

To me, this is completely and utterly insane--engineering meets postmodern art. Complete with the well-dressed "guides" intent on helping you "understand" and "appreciate" (and purchase) things like dining chairs made of dog poop and single bent spoons nailed to a wall.

Sorry. Call me simple. I don't get it. Not in art. And not in engineering.

Just because a guy named "Art" makes something does not make it a "work of art". Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and love is often blind but I can be as objective as need be when it comes to audio save the following caveats. As regards audio equipment:

If what I see pleases my eye and what I hear is music (not the equipment) then the final question is "can I afford this?".

If yes, SOLD! If not...I simply begin saving up until I can afford it or I look elsewhere for musical satisfaction. Quality is important and from what I read from owners, Schiit makes quality products at reasonable price points.

No ENC allowed.

ORT

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

How expensive would it be to stick a lightning connector on a fulla?

 

[KoshNaranek]

How expensive would it be to stick a lightning connector on a fulla?

I doubt it is Schiit's purpose in life to save apple from it's own stupidity.

 

[AMRoberts]

From what I remember of the digging that occurred at announcement, Lightning is a proprietary connector (read licensing costs), where a legitimate implementation has active electronics in each half of the connector.  I think someone worked their way through all the glue/potting compound and found some at least one chip and other small surface-mount goodies.  Speculation with regard to "authentication chip for Apple-approved parts", "Thunderbolt protocol converter", etc. existed back in 2012.  That was four years ago and I haven't bothered to keep up, but do you really think Apple would have given up on BOHICA action for 3rd-parties that want to play in its Walled Garden?

 

[Ableza]

Fulla is USB powered, so there's more issues trying to connecting to an iPhone than the connector.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Unfortunately, most people out there could care less about sound quality and are probably all excited about the wireless earbuds.  Pretty soon people will be pointing and laughing at us dinosaurs with our wired headphones and our inability to adapt.  Meanwhile, Apple is laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I doubt it is Schiit's purpose in life to save apple from it's own stupidity.

Fine, how about USB-C?

 

[KoshNaranek]

Unfortunately, most people out there could care less about sound quality and are probably all excited about the wireless earbuds.  Pretty soon people will be pointing and laughing at us dinosaurs with our wired headphones and our inability to adapt.  Meanwhile, Apple is laughing all the way to the bank.

Sigh.

Unfortunately quite true. We are all collectively just rounding error on most companies' balance sheets.

 

[KoshNaranek]

Fine, how about USB-C?

If android phones follow suit and remove the headphone jack, leaving a USB C connection, there would most likely be a business case to make a compatible device. Assuming that the phone could power it for a reasonable amount of time.