[watchnerd]

Why would anyone want a speaker in their pocket?

 
Depends what your goals are.
 
Listening to music? Nobody.
 
But for engaging in other sensory pleasures......?

 

[monkuboy]

Ordered a Saga yesterday, got the tracking info today.  Don't they ever sleep over at Schiit?  Jason must be a slavedriver!  Or they have nothing better to do on the weekends... 

 

[mattlach]

Depends what your goals are.

Listening to music? Nobody.

But for engaging in other sensory pleasures......?

Lol. I think you found a whole new market for Jason and Mike to consider getting into.

That being said, a Schiit Vibrator sounds kind of gross

 

[aamefford]

Why would anyone want a speaker in their pocket?

It's not a speaker in their pocket ....... They are just glad to see you!

 

[ScottFree]

Lol. I think you found a whole new market for Jason and Mike to consider getting into.

That being said, a Schiit Vibrator sounds kind of gross

 
Reading that reminds of an earlier product. The Schiit Johnson.

 

[mattlach]

  And, of course, there are tons of people who aren’t looking at 1% gear at all, and for whom a $1000 or $100 system purchase requires a profound sit-down-and-think-on-it session before making the plunge.

 
I feel like while Head-Fi focuses a lot on more expensive stuff than I am willing to buy, this probably describes most of us on here.
 
Don't get me wrong.   I'm a professional and I have an income that allows me some small luxuries on occasion, but the most expensive piece of audio gear I've ever bought by a wide margin is my $449 Lyr 2, and that took some hemming and hawing before deciding to go ahead, and while I absolutely love it, leaves me wondering if spending that kind of excessive money on an amp was really worth it.
 
To me, things like the Yggdrasil and Ragnarok might as well me the car-priced DAC's you discuss, as chances of me ever spending that kind of money are rather remote, regardless of how great they may sound, as appealing as the concept of using a Schiit amp for both headphones and speakers may sound.
 
My personal goal is to get to the point where diminishing returns (in audio quality/enjoyment per dollar spent) really start to taper off.   On the amp side, I think I'm there with the Lyr 2. I'm not convinced spending any more money on an amp will get me more than marginal improvement.    I'm not sure if the Modi Multibit I have is quite at that point yet.  Maybe there is another upgrade (to a bifrost Multibit) in my future.
 
The only area I know for sure there is plenty of space for me to improve before the diminishing returns start seriously closing in, is on the transducer side. My Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro's (250ohm) are nice, but the V shaped consumer tuning on them is a little much.   I also have a set of Massdrops Sennheiser HD6xx's coming in December which might hold me over for a while.  Some day I may get to th epoint where I get over the lump in my stomach I get whenever I'm about to spend an irresponsible amount of money on something I don't need, and actually get a set of or Beyerdynamic T1's, Sennheiser HD800's or Audeze LCD-2's, but who knows.

 

[mattlach]

   
I have to admit, after many years of listening to CDs and lossless files (no less!), I do enjoy just relaxing and surfing the Spotify Premium every now and then.
And it sounds just fine. Great way to discover new stuff. Convenience trumps snobbery.

 
 

100% agree

 
 
I have to say I do too.
 
The 320kbit ogg that Spotify uses in premium subscription mode, with the high quality switch in the desktop app sounds good.
 
Maybe I don't have the "golden ears" of some of you, or a good enough set of headphones, but even when straining, I struggle with finding a difference.
 
That being said, I have intentionally avoided learning what compression artifacting sounds like.  I know I could look it up and read up about it, but a very wise man once told me that once you know, you'll hear it everywhere (whether it is there or not).
 
In this case I think ignorance is bliss.

 

[mattlach]

 
Hey, those glowing tubes glow because they are actually hot. It’s not cosmetic.

 
...except when backlit with range LED's? 

 

[OldRoadToad]

.

 

[mattlach]

  2016 Chapter 1:
A Longer Discourse On Marketing
 
<snip>

 
As an engineer, I've always appreciated a side to marketing that I don't even see in your write-up, and that is possibly because of the market you are in.
 
I've always found the up front marketing efforts the ones that are the most important.   This is where marketing serves as a expert on what is in the field, what your customers are like and what they want, where trends in the market are going all before you even start working on a new product.
 
They help conduct customer interviews, and market surveys establishing what your user needs and design inputs should be for your next product, so that you make sure that you are designing the product the market wants, not the product you want to design, and then have to coerce sales through advertising and promotions.
 
In a business like yours, in a small heavily specialized field, with the designers (You, Mike, Dave, anyone else?) intimately familiar with what is on the market and communicating with your customers through forums and other enthusiast communities, this need may not be as large, but in my field of medical devices, this aspect of marketing is absolutely crucial!
 
With a consumer or pro-sumer device like your own, the engineer can also be the user of the device which makes this easier.   When I am designing a device to be used by a doctor in surgery on a patient, and I am not a doctor, and will never perform surgery, having this type of support from Marketing is HUGE!

 

[earnmyturns]

  I'm wondering... what's the point in making speakers with both low sensitivity and low impedance. They are a "nightmare" for a ton of amps.
 
Do those specs give some sonic/electrical advantage?

@watchnerd included the KEF LS50s, which are nominally 8 ohm (min 3.2 ohm) but have a relatively low sensitivity of 85dB (2.83V/m). 

 

[wahsmoh]

Okay so Jotunheim was kind of cool. I want a full size preamp/phono stage thingy though. I mean the Jotunheim is great for a smaller setup.. but now I expect something in the Mjolnir/Gungnir chassis that is also a preamp. Would be nice to have a killer preamp in a world of overpriced crap. The only good stuff out there you can find used now.

 

[earnmyturns]

* OK, I guess Emotiva's XPA-1 is in the ballpark at 600wpc and $1k-ish. Still, I'd argue that $1400 and $2k (or $2400 not on sale) is a big gap. Like "add a Freya" big.

The real question is what speakers would benefit from this kind of power. And I don't mean "more is always better." I'm seriously curious about which not-unobtanium speakers could use all this juice...

With the KEF LS50s, moving from a Naim UnitiQute (30W/pc into 8 ohm) to a Bel Canto C7R (75W/pc 8 ohm) made a big positive difference in dynamics and accuracy. Similarly, moving from the C7R to Hegel H360 (250W/pc 8 ohm) with KEF Reference 1 speakers made a big difference. Of course other things changed too (DACs, amp design) but the H360's big power reserve seems to help drive these low-sensitivity speakers more accurately.

 

[watchnerd]

  but now I expect something in the Mjolnir/Gungnir chassis that is also a preamp. Would be nice to have a killer preamp in a world of overpriced crap. 

 
You mean the Freya?

 

[watchnerd]

   
 
 
 
I have to say I do too.
 
The 320kbit ogg that Spotify uses in premium subscription mode, with the high quality switch in the desktop app sounds good.
 
Maybe I don't have the "golden ears" of some of you, or a good enough set of headphones, but even when straining, I struggle with finding a difference.
 
That being said, I have intentionally avoided learning what compression artifacting sounds like.  I know I could look it up and read up about it, but a very wise man once told me that once you know, you'll hear it everywhere (whether it is there or not).
 
In this case I think ignorance is bliss.

 
For streaming, I had to go with Tidal's lossless offering because of the neuroses I was getting while listening to lossy.