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Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
Apr 11, 2017 at 10:19 AM Post #18,736 of 150,082
us blues said:
Paul McGowan, the co-founder and President of PS Audio sends out a short, daily email with his thoughts regarding audio reproduction. Today he shared a story regarding the importance of cables, featuring our very own Baldr:

Tying it together

I would be remiss if I didn’t spend a few words on tying our system together with cables: power, interconnect, speaker.

I remember when cables were an afterthought. Zip cord and cheezy RCA drek did the trick until we realized they mattered.

My first encounter with cables came from one of the founders of Schiit Audio, Mike Moffat. Mike worked as a tech at a California stereo shop called Absolute Audio and Stan and I showed up to pitch our first product, the phono stage. I think this must have been around 1974. Mike gave it a listen and was impressed but before we left he turned our world upside down with an A/B between zip cord and Polk Sound wire (then called Cobra Cable – Litz wire) on a pair of Quad electrostats.

Mike wouldn’t tell us what he was doing. It was simple. Listen to this—now listen to the same thing after I make a change. Hear any difference? Holy crap! As I said, it was life changing. Literally.

Cables matter and how much you spend on them really depends on your budget.

During this series, I have emphasized putting limited funds where they matter most. The fundamentals are critical: speakers, source, AC power, amplification.

Somewhere in the mix, you’re going to need to get good cables—and they don’t have to cost a fortune. But, they matter. A lot.

If I had to make a recommendation of the order of importance, it would look something like this:
  • Speaker cables
  • Audio interconnects (and always go balanced when the equipment permits it)
  • Digital
  • Power

Get those right and you’ll build a strong foundation supporting the time, effort, and expense you’ve gone through building your system.

It all matters.
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Never knew Paul McGowan was a shadowrunner.
 
Apr 11, 2017 at 11:46 AM Post #18,741 of 150,082
darkarn said:
Don't worry, I think I am young enough to get the reference but I unfortunately don't know the connection too
wink.gif
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Oh thank you. You're a gentleman.
Being old is no problem.
Being old, ignorant and stupid would put a spot of bother on my mood indeed.
 
Apr 11, 2017 at 12:58 PM Post #18,742 of 150,082
darkarn said:
Don't worry, I think I am young enough to get the reference but I unfortunately don't know the connection too
wink.gif
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"Zip cord and cheezy RCA drek did the trick until we realized they mattered." Drek is shadowrun slang for ****.
 
cozzi said:
  Care to explain for the ancient people (like me) among us?
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Shadowrunners were mercenaries/vigilantes who inhabited the cyberpunk/fantasy world of Shadowrun RPG series. I highly recommend reading the books or playing any of the games.
 
Apr 11, 2017 at 1:16 PM Post #18,744 of 150,082
Jason, I love my Freya. But I am finding I really miss it not having a Home Theater pass through. Is it possible in any way to have it modded by you guys. If not, have you considered a "Freya+" model with HT passthrough and maybe the ability to turn off the tubes when using JFET or passive modes? If that came out, I would sell my Freya and buy the newer model if I could do it w/o costing me much over ~$200.
 
Thank you,
Brad
 
Apr 11, 2017 at 1:33 PM Post #18,745 of 150,082
humanfly said:
  Anybody try swapping the tube in saga yet? Does it make a difference?
And what kind of tube would I wanna be looking for? Is it a `standard` sized tube?
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The nice thing is you can get your feet wet with Saga if you don't have any other tube gear, but just a little bit. I've said before Freya is like a gift as it's an affordable way to get some truly stunning imaging and soundstage in a two channel system especially with some of the classic tubes over the stock or new production tubes if you want to and can try it. If you can't afford that right away you have the stock tubes and the JFET buffer.
 
Apr 11, 2017 at 1:39 PM Post #18,746 of 150,082
brad1138 said:
  Jason, I love my Freya. But I am finding I really miss it not having a Home Theater pass through. Is it possible in any way to have it modded by you guys. If not, have you considered a "Freya+" model with HT passthrough and maybe the ability to turn off the tubes when using JFET or passive modes? If that came out, I would sell my Freya and buy the newer model if I could do it w/o costing me much over ~$200.
 
Thank you,
Brad
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I'll echo this, with the addition of trigger outputs and trigger inputs on the eventual Vidar. Yeah, feature creep, but things playing well together makes life simpler
 
Apr 11, 2017 at 3:29 PM Post #18,747 of 150,082
brad1138 said:
Jason, I love my Freya. But I am finding I really miss it not having a Home Theater pass through. Is it possible in any way to have it modded by you guys. If not, have you considered a "Freya+" model with HT passthrough and maybe the ability to turn off the tubes when using JFET or passive modes? If that came out, I would sell my Freya and buy the newer model if I could do it w/o costing me much over ~$200.

Thank you,
Brad
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+1 for HT passthru.
 
Apr 11, 2017 at 5:02 PM Post #18,748 of 150,082
I actually asked for this earlier in the thread. I asked for either a dedicated input or to make it just activated when the power was off (like the Rogue Audio RP1) .

The reaction from Jason (or Mike) was abject horror to having an input that bypassed the volume control. They didn't like the idea that some bobo might wire a cd player to the ht input and blow out their speakers. (My words not theirs).

I would buy one as fast as I could for my TV system if Freya had this. I still want one for my stereo, but I am so happy with my Rogue Audio Cronus integrated amp, it is hard to justify there.
 
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