[hearditontheX]

RMAF Schiit love at 31:00 in

 

[GearMe]

Jason:

Just a heads up.

The Sol FAQ includes:

And why do I need patience?
Because you have to set up Sol for your specific cartridge. We do a basic setup at the factory, but you’ll still need to align the cartridge, set the VTA, and set the tracking force. You may need to do a few more tweaks to get it 110% perfect, too. But we cover how to do all of that on the videos at schiit-com/sol-videos

—

Schiit-com/sol-videos is not a well formed URL, it should be schiit.com/sol-videos.

Also, it is not live linked, and copy-pasting doesn't work of course.

And finally, and possibly of most concern, once you overcome those, there not actually anything there - it's a 404...

Cheers!
.

https://www.schiit.com/sol-setup

 

[bcowen]

The purple mesh is cotton, the cable itself is dual shielded with an internal metal mesh.

And purple sounds better. Black is too dark sounding, white is too bright, and pink is noise.

 

[winders]

The Sol did seem a bit high maintenance from that video.

It not so much high maintenance as it is involved setup. Unless you change cartridges or loosen the set screws there is little to do to the turntable beyond the initial setup. This is a table for people that appreciate the flexibility to setup the table perfectly for cartridge chosen. This effort should result in better sound.

Again, not a table for everyone.

 

[Paladin79]

And purple sounds better. Black is too dark sounding, white is too bright, and pink is noise.

Silver can be decent, if you work at it but you will know soon enough, and you can offer the opinion you rarely give out.

 

[bcowen]

It not so much high maintenance as it is involved setup. Unless you change cartridges or loosen the set screws there is little to do to the turntable beyond the initial setup. This is a table for people that appreciate the flexibility to setup the table perfectly for cartridge chosen. This effort should result in better sound.

Again, not a table for everyone.

Totally agree. The hardest part really is getting the cartridge aligned and set up properly, but that goes for every turntable out there. Well, perhaps an exception for P-Mounts, but those only go on record players, not turntables.

Personally I give Schiit a lot of credit for making the video and posting it right along with the rest of the info. Makes it easy for people to see if the Sol is for them (or not) before they plunk down their cash.

 

[yonson]

https://www.schiit.com/sol-setup

Wow, he makes the setup look really simple. Looking forward to eventually getting one...

 

[bcowen]

Silver can be decent, if you work at it but you will know soon enough, and you can offer the opinion you rarely give out.

Silver may take a whole week of cooking, but I'll give it the standard 3 days to start and not offer my opinion.

 

[tincanear]

Pretty sure Jason said a few (it could be 30 by now) pages back that there wasn't any way they'd do a cassette deck...

Now that Bifrost 2 and Asgard 3 are out, I wonder how long it is before we get a Unison Multibit card...

Jason mentioned (now many, many pages back, before the SOL release) that the Unison USB cards would not be released until Microsoft discontinues support for windows 7 (~Jan 2020). If you use USB streaming sources, and want (must have) Unison now, consider a Bifrost 2, as it has similar DAC chips to the Gungnir (same family but different linearity grade), but IC-based output buffers, and same as Gungnir 8X oversampling comboburrito filter too (Bifrost OG uses 4X oversampling) .

 

[Zer0.p0int.Zer0]

Sol is a bargain at its price

The Sol is FANTASTIC value for the money

Strong endorsements. I’m curious though, what are you basing it on? Cost alone? Or have you already had the privilege of using Sol or hearing a demo at RMAF, etc?

 

[rkw]

I give Schiit a lot of credit for making the video and posting it right along with the rest of the info. Makes it easy for people to see if the Sol is for them (or not) before they plunk down their cash.

That is not typical consumer behavior. Most will not bother to look at any instructions until they have received the product and opened the box. Like I just did with my undersink reverse osmosis water filter system.

There will be Sol buyers who didn't know what they were getting into. I'd wager that some proportion of those units won't be returned, but will sit unassembled for months and then go into storage.

 

[tincanear]

That is not typical consumer behavior. Most will not bother to look at any instructions until they have received the product and opened the box. Like I just did with my undersink reverse osmosis water filter system.

There will be Sol buyers who didn't know what they were getting into. I'd wager that some proportion of those units won't be returned, but will sit unassembled for months and then go into storage.

@Jason, prior to shipping SOL and charging the (potential) customer, Schiit could email the buyer to re-mind them of the assembly and setup process (and ask them to reply with two codes hidden throughout the setup video) prior to the item being shipped, or allow them to cancel.

 

[tin-ear]

Do you collect baseball cards?

I wish I had collected stamps. I used to collect phonograph records. At my peak I had over 3,000 LPs. Then life threw me curve balls and I had to move 5 times in about 10 years.

Every time I moved I wish I had collected stamps.

Over time I fired up the turntable less and less frequently than I did a CD. Just that extra effort. Eventually I sold off the LPs, turntable, and phono amp. Other factors were involved. But, every time I fired up the turntable I just melted into the listening seat. It was soooo soothing and relaxing compared to CD. I wonder how a Schiit DA converter would compare?

CD Player at the time: Rega Planet 2000, minor mod with a cap installed at the SC input
LP gear: Well Tempered Turntable and arm, Grado Platinum cartridge, AcousTec (now Sutherland) PH-1 phono pre-amp.
A little bit but not over top on cables and audio shaman approved accessories.

For what it's worth, the Rega uses a "24-bit Sigma Delta IC40 DAC, built to Rega's specifications..." It is definitely of the group of CD players that 'voices' the sound vs. those that just "turn those bits back to original music."
It replaced a Rotel 955AX ...

This, the link a few lines below about the DAC in the Rotel, confuses me. Sometimes I like being confused. Different reports on what dac chip it uses and how it is implemented. Is it a multibit ladder dac or delta sigma? I'm still confused.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/dac-info-on-tda1541a-rotel-rcd955ax.3698/

The Rotel was 'dry,' threw up a wide but distant soundstage. The Rega was not dry, instruments sounded full bodied, it made the Rotel soundstage seem flat, and the sounds were hollow? The Rega perspective was close. Not first row but in the conductors position. Interesting.

I think the LP sound I had had less editorializing going on.

 

[TylersEclectic]

And purple sounds better. Black is too dark sounding, white is too bright, and pink is noise.

THIS!!!!!

 

[thebmc]

I personally don't see what all the fuss is about. I'm new to vinyl and have a plinthless deck with a fully adjustable arm (although not unipivot) and floating motor pod that is in the budget category and it wasn't that big of a deal to set up. I went with this model over the others specifically for the added adjustability and better performance. An avid or a Mitchell gyrodeck are a little more complicated and cost way more, but you get what you pay for. I think the complexity of set up is understood and welcomed if the performance payoff is there. I'm interested in performance and once it's set, it's set. You shouldn't have to deal with it again. I'm sure there are other new-to-vinyl neophytes out there looking for a step up in performance from a plug and play mdf sqare who have done the research and know exactly what they're getting into.