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

[jseymour]

My Yggy is the best looking piece of bent metal I have ever owned.  If the audio jewelry crowd is turned off by Schiit's looks, then maybe they are not in the hobby for the right reasons, being the music and the search for the best sound within budget.

 

[US Blues]

  My Yggy is the best looking piece of bent metal I have ever owned.  If the audio jewelry crowd is turned off by Schiit's looks, then maybe they are not in the hobby for the right reasons, being the music and the search for the best sound within budget.

 
Some of those folks have a larger budget than most folks. Schiit will do really well among the majority of audio enthusiasts with their new 2-channel kit, because they will be offering amazing performance for the dollar.

 

[AudioBear]

  I also thing the Saga/Freya, and soon the Vidar, are absolute game changers for the company..so the fact they are dominating the thread is no surprise.
 
Makers of preamps that cost more than my annual property tax bill will have a lot to answer for.  But then again, reverse price prejudice may come into play.

I totally agree with you that these three and maybe soon to be more pieces of equipment are game changers.  We ought to talk about them here.  My interpretation of the comment to which you were responding is that it was really directed at taking the tube rolling discussion to a forum topic of its own.  I too think these tubed wonders ought to have their own. thread where members can share experiences and opinions about different tubes.  It's part of the fun of the hobby--no doubt about that.  It's just when there are pages and pages of nothing but tubes we really are no longer talking about Schitt Products and the World's Most Improbably Company.  I'm a little surprised Jason hasn't steered the discussion back down the main stream.
 
Don't misunderstand, the discussion is a good and lively one.  It caused me to spend hours studying tubes I was unfamiliar with and added new sellers and I don't even have a tube equipment.

 

[watchnerd]

  My Yggy is the best looking piece of bent metal I have ever owned.  If the audio jewelry crowd is turned off by Schiit's looks, then maybe they are not in the hobby for the right reasons, being the music and the search for the best sound within budget.

 
That's your reason.  
 
They can have a different reason.  Just like guys who buy yachts could care less about getting the best fishing for the dollar.
 
The tragedy is when people confuse price with performance.  That even happens amongst Schiit fans; most assume the pricier products are better in some real sense, when the reality is that Schiit gear is subject to diminishing returns like everyone else.  It's just less diminishing because it costs less.

 

[Pandahead]

Those sound like great options. Are any of those 6sn7 tubes? From a quick search I'm seeing treasure CV181-T and CV181-Z as 6sn7. The T is more expensive so I'm assuming they are better??? Lol a matched quad costs almost as much as a quad of RCA red base (maybe, at least from my quick search).

 
You might want to read what Grant Fidelity is doing along thes lines, there's also reviews at 6Moons if memory serves.
 
http://psvanetube.com/wordpress/store/products/cv181-tii-pair/
 
They are a clear improvement over a pair of Robert Shaw CV-181's that came in my Icon Audio headphone amp. (I also have a Mjolnir 2 and prefer my Mjolnir 2) Clear, precise detailed imagining but they're a bit thin in the bass compared to the 6sn7/5692's that I have and just lack the dynamic tube magic. I've had them in Saga and they just don't have that magic there also. But if you never try a red base you would appreciate their (Psvane CV-181) step up quality. I'm sure Freya will be quit the experience but it doesn't come til Wed.

 

[belgiangenius]

   
You might want to read what Grant Fidelity is doing along thes lines, there's also reviews at 6Moons if memory serves.
 
http://psvanetube.com/wordpress/store/products/cv181-tii-pair/
 
They are a clear improvement over a pair of Robert Shaw CV-181's that came in my Icon Audio headphone amp. (I also have a Mjolnir 2 and prefer my Mjolnir 2) Clear, precise detailed imagining but they're a bit thin in the bass compared to the 6sn7/5692's that I have and just lack the dynamic tube magic. I've had them in Saga and they just don't have that magic there also. But if you never try a red base you would appreciate their (Psvane CV-181) step up quality. I'm sure Freya will be quit the experience but it doesn't come til Wed.

After what felt like significant research, I bought and used PSVANE 12AU7 and 12AT7 in a DAC for months before I tried some decent NOS tubes.  It was only then that I realized how god awful sounding the PSVANEs were.  I quickly sold them and haven't touched new production tubes since.  Although, in hindsight, even the new production Electro Harmonix tubes that originally came with the DAC sounded better than the PSVANE.  Wow, those PSVANE tubes sucked, and they weren't cheap either.   That's my experience.

 

[1mctous]

MQA is the ransom-based scheme you're talking about, the music industry's latest pay-to-play?  How will we know if it's actually lossless, since many companies upsample 16/44.1 and call it hi-resolution?

 

[DigitalFrontEnd]

   
The audio jewelry crowd will never buy Schiit.

Nope. Neither will the one crowd impressed by the bill of materials...and the use of overpriced, exotic parts in non critical areas.

 

[DigitalFrontEnd]

 
I totally agree with you that these three and maybe soon to be more pieces of equipment are game changers.  We ought to talk about them here.  My interpretation of the comment to which you were responding is that it was really directed at taking the tube rolling discussion to a forum topic of its own.  I too think these tubed wonders ought to have their own. thread where members can share experiences and opinions about different tubes.  It's part of the fun of the hobby--no doubt about that.  It's just when there are pages and pages of nothing but tubes we really are no longer talking about Schitt Products and the World's Most Improbably Company.  I'm a little surprised Jason hasn't steered the discussion back down the main stream.
 
Don't misunderstand, the discussion is a good and lively one.  It caused me to spend hours studying tubes I was unfamiliar with and added new sellers and I don't even have a tube equipment.

No doubt, as we follow the story, there will be more game changers. 
 
Actually, the comment I was responding to was specific to any Freya discussion. Not tube rolling. But none the less I do admit, the Freya has been a dominant topic for numerous pages. 

 

[schneller]

I had a dealer ruin me by playing me a system with the CDx2 as the source. I didn't realize at the time that it was a 7k CD player. I own a UnitiQute and have heard a system that was a Nait 1 with Rega Apollo R.

So I'm familiar with the Naim sound. I'd be very interested how a Freya/Vidar system sounded compared to a Naim Sou ding system. Is your Meridian Explorer your Dac or are you using it as a USb/ SPDIF bridge for your CAPS?

The Director is my DAC. HTPC > USB > Director > RCA/DIN > Naim SN2.

Whether I stick with Naim or go for a Freya/Vidar setup, I'd love something like HTPC > New Schiit Dongle > AES into Yiggy.

 

[artur9]

  How will we know if it's actually lossless, since many companies upsample 16/44.1 and call it hi-resolution?

That's the reason I like primephonic.  The have a spectrogram of the music on the album page so, if you can read a spectrogram, you can tell if it was upsamplled, or originated with DSD and converted or whatever.

 

[RoundRound]

You jest,
but I can see a scenario where Schiit really decides to go after the audio jewellery market and launches a 'Nicer Schiit' range - where the product are identical to the normal ones but cost 100% more and look 'nicer' - I bet Schiit could do some really interesting things design wise - and it'll still be far cheaper and less ugly than a Chord Dave, for example...

 

[1mctous]

You can polish turds, but they still smell just as bad.  Seriously, this isn't Schiit's market.  Above all their customers look for value (maximum performance/price).

 

[bigro]

Schiit Has Audio Jewelry, They Have The Limited Edition Black Series.

 

[ScottFree]

Schiit Has Audio Jewelry, They Have The Limited Edition Black Series.

[VIDEO]https://youtu.be/pAgnJDJN4VA[/VIDEO]