Ripper2860
Headphoneus Supremus
I'd hate to be anywhere close to it if a string were to cut loose!! They look like cables used on suspension bridges!! 
Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
- Thread starter Jason Stoddard
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- schiit audio schiit-audio
Jason Stoddard
Sponsor: Schiit Audio
2019, Chapter 19
Lucky 13?
Those of you who have been reading for a while know what this is: the year-end wrap-up chapter. For those of you who are new, this is the 5th time I’ve done this.
Ironically, the first time I wrote a “year in review,” the subject was “One Year, 12 Products.” Which seemed like an insane amount of products. And an insane pace. I never thought we’d do something so crazy as releasing 12 friggin products in one year ever again.
Until this year, when we did 13…and got very close to 14!
So, let’s start by comparing the crazy days of 5 years ago to today. Am I nuts for releasing so many products in a year? After all, I said it wasn’t such a great idea because of the sheer complexity of product introduction (there are a ton of moving parts you don’t see, from purchasing to photography to testing to manuals), and because if we introduced too many products, the press might not have time to focus on any one of them.
But today, things are different:
And there’s less of a need for a ton of product introductions in 2020. The line is much newer than when we started the year…
…but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll get to that later.
I think a fair question to ask right now, in this runup to the good/bad/ugly/changes etc that are the core of a yearly wrap-up, is:
“What did we say about last year, and did we deliver on it?”
Last year, the mood was totally different. A combination of product delays, global parts shortages, projects that grew too large, and internal issues meant I was ready to slam the door on the year. I just wanted everything behind me. And it was an attitude shared by a good chunk of the company. The year was exhausting, and we delivered, well, almost nothing for the exhaustion.
This year, we may be a bit tired, but we’re hugely upbeat. Across the board, products have been reinvigorated, we’ve introduced a bunch of new stuff, including some new, unique technologies, and we started doing things in new and more exciting ways. We’re not looking to slam the door, because it’s been a great year!
That said, we haven’t had our mishaps. Here’s what I said last year:
So did we deliver on this? Largely. Sol is dragging on, of course, but I’ll get to that.
Instead, let’s start the wrapup…and let’s do something weird, let’s start with the good stuff.
The Good Parts
We’re starting with the good stuff because there’s tons of good stuff…and in the rapid pace, it’s easy to lose track of it. Can you believe that Aegir was only introduced this spring? It feels like years ago.
Good Part #1: Lots of new products!
Sounds pretty basic, I know. But a lot of new products is a good thing, especially when they’re replacing some of the oldest products we have, improving what we offer, or moving into new markets. And we did all of those last year.
Good Part #2: Several key new technologies introduced.
Again, this may sound kinda silly, or, at worst, just a celebration of marketing fluff. But the thing is, this isn’t just a collection of wankerish names for a collection of basic reference designs, or techniques that are decades old (feedforward, I’m looking at you). Our technology is an important differentiator. We’ve always had a solid technological basis on the digital side (even if everyone didn’t agree with us), but now we’ve extended that to the analog side as well.
Good Part #3: A new way to trial stuff.
Ask people what they want, and they’ll tell you. Problem is, that might not be what sells. So, in 2019, we started introducing multiple product variations in “Thunderdomes.” The ones that sell survive and the ones that don’t…don’t. (Of course, they continue to be supported.) Of course, if they all sell well, then we may have more than one winner. But the key thing is, this gets us real data on what people want, and has already resulted in several strategic learnings that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Expect to see more Thunderdomes in the future!
Good Part #4: A whole new way to meet…and listen.
2019 is the year we also started the monthly SchiitrMeets. Initially conceived as an old-style audio meet, where people could bring their stuff and swap listening stations, this quickly morphed into a “blind listening shootout.” We’ve done blind listening for:
Good Part #5: Moving into new markets.
Fulla 3 and Hel got a toe into a new market of gamers (and, paradoxically, people stuck in offices as well.) And the way they’re going, it looks like there may be more products coming. We’ve struck a chord, even without some features the gaming market wants. Expect to see more here.
Sol also got us into the turntable market…at least briefly. We’re now back in beta. More on that later.
The Not So Hot Stuff
Are we perfect? Of course not. Heck, I think the first chapter of this book, I said, “When you find out how much we screw up, you probably won’t buy anything from us ever again.”
That said, it wasn’t too bad of a year. Here’s what we messed up:
Stumble #1: Late Products. As usual, we were late on pretty much everything we wanted to introduce. Well, maybe with the exception of Magni 3+ and Heresy. But those were relatively simple products that used the same sheetmetal. Yeah. So I’m not reaching hard to pat myself on the back for that one. The reason for late stuff? Mainly late parts. When the parts are late to the assembly house, the products are late. Not magic, but frustrating. We’ve improved communications to (hopefully) tighten up on this.
Oops #2: Borked on Bifrost. On our second most complex product ever, we had funky firmware. And some bad capacitors. The funky firmware makes no sense, because a dozen protos and betas were made and run around for almost a year before launch. It makes even less sense that Unison USB hasn’t been a problem at all—a much more complex bit of code than the firmware that ran the product. The good news is that Autonomy meant that we just had to provide new firmware, rather than pull all the products back. The bad news is that it happened in the first place. The capacitors? Luck of the draw. Schiity luck, but they are out of the system now, and the “desktop Yggdrasil” is taking off.
Idiocy #3: Screwup on Sol. This is the big boy. I think we just had been running prototypes for so long that we figured everything was fine. But between parts tolerance issues, bad machining, and other production glitches, we went from “selling” back to “beta” in just a few days. We continue to work on this product with the voluntary beta-testers (anyone who wanted out was given a full refund, including shipping, and beta testers were given a discount), but it’s slow going. Don’t be surprised if there are further delays. This is a complex product, and, if we start selling again, we want it to be right.
“Hold up, did you say, ‘if’ we start selling it again?” you might ask.
And yes, that’s exactly what I said. If we can’t make this a stellar product (consistently), we may not continue with it. In that case, all beta testers get 100% refunds and that’s the end of that.
Let’s talk about this some more.
Sol had a long gestation, and although there are people here who care deeply about the product, caring only gets you so far. It has to be clearly better than the competition, or serve a unique need, for us to produce it. The world doesn’t need more me-too products. Nor does it need products that are a source of continual frustration.
So, if we get it worked out to our satisfaction, and to the delight of the beta testers, we will re-introduce Sol. If not, we won’t.
Which way will it go? I don’t know.
Ouch #4: Heavy investment year. Many products, especially products that require lots of tooling and large runs like Sol, means heavy investment. Which means this year’s results are less than stellar. Not a huge deal, we run very, very conservatively and have plenty of reserves. But it does temper our enthusiasm for more years of 13 product intros!
2020 Vision (Yes, I Went There, Barf)
So what’s coming next year? Let’s start with the easy stuff, then let’s backtrack to the big picture, and then let’s try to bring some of the more provisional stuff into focus.
The easy stuff:
Beyond that, we need to zoom out. What are we going to do in general? Someone commented that we “were becoming more like a real company,” now, and worried about us losing our way and becoming yet another me-too, reference-design-producing company.
Well, let me reassure you: not a chance.
In fact, you’ll probably see more weird stuff from us in 2020 than you’ve seen in a long time. Why? Because, as I said elsewhere, Thunderdomes give us a powerful, blunt tool to bludgeon real data from what-ifs.
More than that: there’s an internal seismic shift, related to two things we introduced this year: Thunderdomes and blind listening. Those two things together are a whole new way of looking at things.
And I think that's a theme.
Time to re-examine everything. The world has changed. Not just the audio world. The amount of change just this year is staggering. I don't think the old way of "let's research/focus group/test/launch a product and bet on it for 1/2/5/10 years" is the way to go anymore. The Reality Distortion Field only goes so far when you have literally everyone looking at a product, rather than just your pet, paid press.
Blind listening takes away the internal "my baby is best" factor (Bifrost 2 almost didn't launch before an internal blind test) and Thunderdomes take away the external "loudest voice" factor. Both are foundational for us for 2020.
And because of this new foundation, we can decide to take some bolder directions. We can choose to play more, worry less. And at the same time, be better.
Confused? Let me explain.
You’re gonna see two areas of focus from us next year.
Direction 1: it’ll be a heavy digital year. It’s time to shake things up again. Bifrost 2 was one of our most significant product introduction in a long, long time—debuting Unison USB and the Autonomy platform, making both hardware and firmware upgradability easy for any owner, significantly improving performance, introducing our first DAC remote control, and literally redefining what you can expect as its price point—but Bifrost 2 is only the start.
So what might you expect?
Heh heh.
Besides what you see, both Mike and I are working behind the scenes on new approaches, some of which are completely fundamental. And by “fundamental,” I mean, “this can change everything…or it might not be feasible.” T
But, QP, OG, WIYG, and LL (not their final names, just internal references) are four things I’m working on. I started playing with all of these ideas just in the last two months.
Oh, and one other thing:
I expect you’ll see some kind of 10-year celebration from us around June, since that’s the anniversary of our launch. I had no idea we’d ever go from garage to (semi-) large audio company, but life is weird like that.
As always, thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think.
I hope you all have an excellent 2020!
Lucky 13?
Those of you who have been reading for a while know what this is: the year-end wrap-up chapter. For those of you who are new, this is the 5th time I’ve done this.
Aside: Holy moly, I’ve been writing this thing for 5 years…
Ironically, the first time I wrote a “year in review,” the subject was “One Year, 12 Products.” Which seemed like an insane amount of products. And an insane pace. I never thought we’d do something so crazy as releasing 12 friggin products in one year ever again.
Until this year, when we did 13…and got very close to 14!
So, let’s start by comparing the crazy days of 5 years ago to today. Am I nuts for releasing so many products in a year? After all, I said it wasn’t such a great idea because of the sheer complexity of product introduction (there are a ton of moving parts you don’t see, from purchasing to photography to testing to manuals), and because if we introduced too many products, the press might not have time to focus on any one of them.
But today, things are different:
- Product development, while complex, is something we’re better at. The pace this year didn’t feel hurried or frenetic. Heck, I had enough downtime to play with a pet idea (the Jotunheim R) which was almost a 14th product for this year, and will be shipping soon. I also had enough thinky-time to come up with a quad of really wacky foundational ideas that I’ll be playing with this coming year. That’s how (comparatively) relaxed it was. We’re also better at the mechanics of getting products out the door, so, while there were some hitches on the most complex stuff, it wasn’t so bad.
- Confusing “the press” is less of a factor. 5 years ago, “the press” was the big print outlets and a weighty forum or two. Today, the press is a continuum of forums, YouTube reviewers, trusted personalities, and other online outlets, in addition to some surviving print. The capability of this continuum to digest new products is much higher than the past. It would be difficult to overload it.
And there’s less of a need for a ton of product introductions in 2020. The line is much newer than when we started the year…
…but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll get to that later.
I think a fair question to ask right now, in this runup to the good/bad/ugly/changes etc that are the core of a yearly wrap-up, is:
“What did we say about last year, and did we deliver on it?”
Last year, the mood was totally different. A combination of product delays, global parts shortages, projects that grew too large, and internal issues meant I was ready to slam the door on the year. I just wanted everything behind me. And it was an attitude shared by a good chunk of the company. The year was exhausting, and we delivered, well, almost nothing for the exhaustion.
This year, we may be a bit tired, but we’re hugely upbeat. Across the board, products have been reinvigorated, we’ve introduced a bunch of new stuff, including some new, unique technologies, and we started doing things in new and more exciting ways. We’re not looking to slam the door, because it’s been a great year!
That said, we haven’t had our mishaps. Here’s what I said last year:
Because 2019 is a new beginning. A year to shake everything up. A year to take chances. A year to break things. Sol may radically change the complexion of the company. And at least one other product may have the same effect. Beyond new products, you’ll see at least a couple of technology intros. You also may see some familiar names go by the wayside, or be reborn in radically different ways.
Bottom line, if there’s one word for 2019, its this: intense.
Bottom line, if there’s one word for 2019, its this: intense.
So did we deliver on this? Largely. Sol is dragging on, of course, but I’ll get to that.
Instead, let’s start the wrapup…and let’s do something weird, let’s start with the good stuff.
The Good Parts
We’re starting with the good stuff because there’s tons of good stuff…and in the rapid pace, it’s easy to lose track of it. Can you believe that Aegir was only introduced this spring? It feels like years ago.
Aside: If you want to read how we’re stupid, skip to the next section. You won’t be disappointed.
Good Part #1: Lots of new products!
Sounds pretty basic, I know. But a lot of new products is a good thing, especially when they’re replacing some of the oldest products we have, improving what we offer, or moving into new markets. And we did all of those last year.
- Aegir and Ragnarok 2 moved us from a “speaker amp dabbler” to a “speaker amp company,” giving you more high-value options for two-channel systems. Heck, Aegir even earned a Stereophile Class A rating, by far the least expensive product to do so. This is a huge deal.
- Saga S, Saga+, Freya S, and Freya+ gave you new options in the 2-channel preamplifier world and complemented the amplifier line. They also introduced key usability improvements that make them one-and-only products, especially Freya+.
- Asgard 3 gave you a new, affordable modular amplifier that provides a one-box solution for the desktop at a very compelling price.
- Bifrost 2 allowed us to move beyond the limitations of a very old platform, introduce some key new technologies, and give you a super-high-value balanced, upgradable DAC option at a price you might never expect.
- Fulla 3 and Hel gave both gamers and office workers new options for high-quality listening…with correspondingly high-quality microphone input, as well. It’s also getting us some great feedback to continue to improve in this new market.
- Magni 3+ and Magni Heresy give you the choice of two high-power, great-measuring amps at a 2-figure price point.
- Jotunheim R almost made it this year, and it’s literally the first and only headphone amp designed to drive ultra-low-impedance ribbon headphones. (We’re talking 0.2-0.4 ohms here, basically a screwdriver.) When it appears, it will eliminate the need for speaker amps and interface boxes to run the Raal/Requisite SR1a.
- Sol taught us a lot. More on that later.
Good Part #2: Several key new technologies introduced.
Again, this may sound kinda silly, or, at worst, just a celebration of marketing fluff. But the thing is, this isn’t just a collection of wankerish names for a collection of basic reference designs, or techniques that are decades old (feedforward, I’m looking at you). Our technology is an important differentiator. We’ve always had a solid technological basis on the digital side (even if everyone didn’t agree with us), but now we’ve extended that to the analog side as well.
- We extended our Continuity™ constant-transconductance output stage topology to its first speaker amp application (Aegir) and an affordable headphone amp (Asgard 3).
- We introduced Nexus™, a unique discrete balanced, differential topology that offers two high-impedance inputs (even with feedback) and does not exhibit the N/N+1 gain relationship of an instrumentation amplifier. We’ve called it the “holy grail topology.” It appears in Ragnarok 2, Freya S, and the upcoming Jotunheim R.
- We introduced the Autonomy™ platform, a complete hardware- and firmware- upgradable DAC platform that ensures you won’t have to send the product back to us, in Bifrost 2.
- We introduced Unison USB™, our own UAC2-compliant USB implementation based on a general-purpose Microchip microprocessor, offering superior and source-invariant performance, the result of over 2 person-years of R&D.
- We formally named the True Multibit™ topology, our unique combination of time- and frequency-domain optimized digital filter and 16-20 bit multibit DACs.
Good Part #3: A new way to trial stuff.
Ask people what they want, and they’ll tell you. Problem is, that might not be what sells. So, in 2019, we started introducing multiple product variations in “Thunderdomes.” The ones that sell survive and the ones that don’t…don’t. (Of course, they continue to be supported.) Of course, if they all sell well, then we may have more than one winner. But the key thing is, this gets us real data on what people want, and has already resulted in several strategic learnings that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Expect to see more Thunderdomes in the future!
Good Part #4: A whole new way to meet…and listen.
2019 is the year we also started the monthly SchiitrMeets. Initially conceived as an old-style audio meet, where people could bring their stuff and swap listening stations, this quickly morphed into a “blind listening shootout.” We’ve done blind listening for:
- Preamps (all the Saga and Freya variations)
- Power amps (Aegir, Ragnarok, Vidar)
- Tubes (double-blind, sent in from a Schiit owner in PVC pipe!)
- Multibit vs Delta-Sigma (and True Multibit won!)
- Multibit vs Delta-Sigma (and True Multibit lost!)
- Phono cartridges (old)
- Phono cartridges (new)
Good Part #5: Moving into new markets.
Fulla 3 and Hel got a toe into a new market of gamers (and, paradoxically, people stuck in offices as well.) And the way they’re going, it looks like there may be more products coming. We’ve struck a chord, even without some features the gaming market wants. Expect to see more here.
Sol also got us into the turntable market…at least briefly. We’re now back in beta. More on that later.
The Not So Hot Stuff
Are we perfect? Of course not. Heck, I think the first chapter of this book, I said, “When you find out how much we screw up, you probably won’t buy anything from us ever again.”
Aside: I think the difference between us and other companies isn’t that we screw up more, it’s that we admit it. I once had a long conversation with an automotive engineer about the various, er, stumbles that surround a new product launch, and it’s hair-raising. I’m glad our products are relatively simple.
That said, it wasn’t too bad of a year. Here’s what we messed up:
Stumble #1: Late Products. As usual, we were late on pretty much everything we wanted to introduce. Well, maybe with the exception of Magni 3+ and Heresy. But those were relatively simple products that used the same sheetmetal. Yeah. So I’m not reaching hard to pat myself on the back for that one. The reason for late stuff? Mainly late parts. When the parts are late to the assembly house, the products are late. Not magic, but frustrating. We’ve improved communications to (hopefully) tighten up on this.
Oops #2: Borked on Bifrost. On our second most complex product ever, we had funky firmware. And some bad capacitors. The funky firmware makes no sense, because a dozen protos and betas were made and run around for almost a year before launch. It makes even less sense that Unison USB hasn’t been a problem at all—a much more complex bit of code than the firmware that ran the product. The good news is that Autonomy meant that we just had to provide new firmware, rather than pull all the products back. The bad news is that it happened in the first place. The capacitors? Luck of the draw. Schiity luck, but they are out of the system now, and the “desktop Yggdrasil” is taking off.
Idiocy #3: Screwup on Sol. This is the big boy. I think we just had been running prototypes for so long that we figured everything was fine. But between parts tolerance issues, bad machining, and other production glitches, we went from “selling” back to “beta” in just a few days. We continue to work on this product with the voluntary beta-testers (anyone who wanted out was given a full refund, including shipping, and beta testers were given a discount), but it’s slow going. Don’t be surprised if there are further delays. This is a complex product, and, if we start selling again, we want it to be right.
“Hold up, did you say, ‘if’ we start selling it again?” you might ask.
And yes, that’s exactly what I said. If we can’t make this a stellar product (consistently), we may not continue with it. In that case, all beta testers get 100% refunds and that’s the end of that.
Let’s talk about this some more.
Sol had a long gestation, and although there are people here who care deeply about the product, caring only gets you so far. It has to be clearly better than the competition, or serve a unique need, for us to produce it. The world doesn’t need more me-too products. Nor does it need products that are a source of continual frustration.
So, if we get it worked out to our satisfaction, and to the delight of the beta testers, we will re-introduce Sol. If not, we won’t.
Which way will it go? I don’t know.
Ouch #4: Heavy investment year. Many products, especially products that require lots of tooling and large runs like Sol, means heavy investment. Which means this year’s results are less than stellar. Not a huge deal, we run very, very conservatively and have plenty of reserves. But it does temper our enthusiasm for more years of 13 product intros!
2020 Vision (Yes, I Went There, Barf)
So what’s coming next year? Let’s start with the easy stuff, then let’s backtrack to the big picture, and then let’s try to bring some of the more provisional stuff into focus.
The easy stuff:
- Jotunheim R. We’ll be shipping Jotunheim R in January. A slight miss from “before the end of the year,” but please excuse us for being a bit busy. Tyler asked me if this was the fastest product development cycle in Schiit history, and I let him know it’s actually #2—the fastest being the original Lyr. But hey, when you’re in a garage it’s fairly easy to move fast. The fact that we turned this one on a dime—during the busiest year for product intros in our history—is plenty good. Expect a full chapter on this one when it launches.
- Unison USB for all. We’ll also be shipping Unison USB for all upgradable DACs in January. This means you’ll be able to get your Bifrost, Gungnir, or Yggdrasil upgraded to Unison USB. Bifrost and Yggdrasil do not require a trip back to the mothership or a service center. Gungnir needs to have its motherboard firmware changed, so it does have to come back to us, or to an authorized distributor. You’ll also see Unison USB on new production Gungnirs and Yggdrasils (probably with an option to go to Gen 5 for people using older versions of Windows.)
Beyond that, we need to zoom out. What are we going to do in general? Someone commented that we “were becoming more like a real company,” now, and worried about us losing our way and becoming yet another me-too, reference-design-producing company.
Well, let me reassure you: not a chance.
In fact, you’ll probably see more weird stuff from us in 2020 than you’ve seen in a long time. Why? Because, as I said elsewhere, Thunderdomes give us a powerful, blunt tool to bludgeon real data from what-ifs.
More than that: there’s an internal seismic shift, related to two things we introduced this year: Thunderdomes and blind listening. Those two things together are a whole new way of looking at things.
And I think that's a theme.
Time to re-examine everything. The world has changed. Not just the audio world. The amount of change just this year is staggering. I don't think the old way of "let's research/focus group/test/launch a product and bet on it for 1/2/5/10 years" is the way to go anymore. The Reality Distortion Field only goes so far when you have literally everyone looking at a product, rather than just your pet, paid press.
Blind listening takes away the internal "my baby is best" factor (Bifrost 2 almost didn't launch before an internal blind test) and Thunderdomes take away the external "loudest voice" factor. Both are foundational for us for 2020.
And because of this new foundation, we can decide to take some bolder directions. We can choose to play more, worry less. And at the same time, be better.
Confused? Let me explain.
You’re gonna see two areas of focus from us next year.
- More experimentation. Thunderdomes free us to experiment with weird ideas and get real feedback for rapid iteration and improvement. In the past, we might get stuck arguing which direction to go. Now, it’s, “Let’s build both and let Thunderdome work it out!” Couple that with a number of years of relatively incremental improvement, and you’ll see some more wild stuff from us next year. Especially on the digital side. More on that later.
- Overall improvement. At the same time, we’ve learned to really like tweaking and improving. Better products make you happier, and better quality products make everyone happier. We’re turning the screws, tweaking the designs, and coming up with new processes to make everything better. At the same time, don’t be scared of running changes—they’ll be called out, like we did with Saga+ and Freya+.
Direction 1: it’ll be a heavy digital year. It’s time to shake things up again. Bifrost 2 was one of our most significant product introduction in a long, long time—debuting Unison USB and the Autonomy platform, making both hardware and firmware upgradability easy for any owner, significantly improving performance, introducing our first DAC remote control, and literally redefining what you can expect as its price point—but Bifrost 2 is only the start.
So what might you expect?
- Well, directionally, you should ask yourself what happened to the Gadget technology.
- At the same time, you should look to the past, of physical digital media, but also know that we’ll be looking to the future…at the same time.
- You might be surprised at the kind of performance we are moving towards in the True Multibit realm.
- And at the same time, the delta-sigma wins haven’t been lost of us either.
- However, those of you expecting a Gungnir 2 and Yggdrasil 2 in the mold of Bifrost 2 may be in for a shock. Linear extrapolation doesn’t always work.
- How do Nexus and Continuity fit together in the speaker and headphone realms?
- What’s a truly modern, totally insane (but still analog) phono preamp look like?
- How do we up-size Loki Mini?
- How will the new QP and OG technologies impact everything, let alone the WIYG or LL ideas?
Heh heh.
Besides what you see, both Mike and I are working behind the scenes on new approaches, some of which are completely fundamental. And by “fundamental,” I mean, “this can change everything…or it might not be feasible.” T
Aside: and that’s the way things go. Sometimes they don’t work out. So don’t get too excited. We’re not all-seeing. Nor infallible.
But, QP, OG, WIYG, and LL (not their final names, just internal references) are four things I’m working on. I started playing with all of these ideas just in the last two months.
- One is an approach that make improve both subjective and objective performance (or it may improve only objective performance, or it may not work).
- One is the culmination of 2 years of frustration with Class D. Despite my complaints about cost, I’d love to have a small speaker amp to offer you guys, but I’m not going to do Class D (too me-too, and I don’t like my implementations—don’t yell at me, I said I suck at Class D, not other people, if you love Class D, have fun with it.)
- One is gonna surprise the heck out of you, because you’ll wonder why nobody ever did this before.
- And one is part of a completely insane new product…and again, you’ll wonder why it hasn’t been done before (though one of the guys I respect wrote about it recently)
Oh, and one other thing:
I expect you’ll see some kind of 10-year celebration from us around June, since that’s the anniversary of our launch. I had no idea we’d ever go from garage to (semi-) large audio company, but life is weird like that.
As always, thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think.
I hope you all have an excellent 2020!
Ripper2860
Headphoneus Supremus
Damn you, @Jason Stoddard!!! Why must you toy with us???!!!
OK. I've calmed down now. Congrats on an awesome 2019 and so looking forward to seeing what cool things you are cooking up for 2020. (CD Spinner, please. CD Spinner, please ...)
I'd also love to hear what about Bifrost 2 almost killed it until a blind test saved it. I am sure loving my 2 units.
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PioBeer
100+ Head-Fier
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Besides the gadget and the transport (definitely at the top of my list), I am excited to hear how you have spiced up True Multibit....oh yeah and that insane phono-preamp.....what's going on with that one??
Ripper2860
Headphoneus Supremus
I think I had a bit too much to drink at the time and don't quite recall what I wrote. Just post a link here and it'll be our secret.
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Very excited about the new analog stuff, especially the Nexus/Continuity combination. If it comes in an Asgard/Jotunheim-sized chassis, I'm in so hard it hurts.
I'll also be keeping an eye out for the bigger Loki and the phono preamp, although those might be a long way into the future for me (especially phono.)
I'm curious about the digital stuff too, but having just pulled the trigger on a Bifrost 2, I don't see myself buying a new DAC any time soon.
@Jason Stoddard When you eventually introduce those products with the funky code names, will you tell us what the code name for each was? I need closure after this massive tease
I'll also be keeping an eye out for the bigger Loki and the phono preamp, although those might be a long way into the future for me (especially phono.)
I'm curious about the digital stuff too, but having just pulled the trigger on a Bifrost 2, I don't see myself buying a new DAC any time soon.
@Jason Stoddard When you eventually introduce those products with the funky code names, will you tell us what the code name for each was? I need closure after this massive tease
Speaker/headphone amp with add in card
Loki max with loopback
Tube phono pre with loading capabilities
Digital side Id guess multi-bit with some more DSP features added. Gadget dsp and the new features from Bifrost 2. And for new technology probably i²s for the.
Maybe a front power switch on some new continuity product.
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garbulky
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2005
- Posts
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Jason it would be AMAZING if the new Yggy has a remote for input switching. Please and thank you 
valiant66
Headphoneus Supremus
Are there any headphones that reproduce 16Hz? I often see specs that say 20-20k hz, but I don't really know how authentic 20Hz from headphones would sound/feel.
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Ripper2860
Headphoneus Supremus
I'm gonna guess that this is a total SWAG!!
Hifiman Arya -- Pretty flat down to 20Hz, but not sure how much output there truly is at 8Hz.
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leonthebumme
100+ Head-Fier
And phase switching!!Jason it would be AMAZING if the new Yggy has a remote for input switching. Please and thank you
valiant66
Headphoneus Supremus
I'm using it to stream from my iTunes Library and Amazon Music (HD subscription). Last time I checked Qobuz did not have an Apple TV app. I've stopped my Tidal subscription.
I don't watch TV much anymore.
That's very similar to my use case also. I cast from my Mac to my Apple TV gen 3 when I want to listen to music. I can set up the system sound to send all audio to the Apple TV, or I can do it more granularly using Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil app on Mac. That lets me split audio on an app-by-app basis so I can keep random beeps and bloops on the Mac laptop speakers, but have music sent to the big rig.
That was the only way I found to send Amazon music to Google Chromecast Audio before I got the Apple TVs, since they don't play nice together otherwise. The Chromecast is currently deprecated in my system.
In addition to my laptop, I also have an old Mac Pro tower set up as a server, and control it with an iPad from my living room when I want to. I can cast from that too.
Besides iTunes and Amazon, I also use Plex.
Based on chatter in this forum, I may try Roon, but that will have to wait on finances, and some kind of Roon end point.
That setup lets me also send sound from my Apple TV gen 4 to the big rig when I want to. I used to use a HT receiver, but still haven't gotten it set up since the move, so TV/Netflix/Amazon video all goes by HDMI to my "TV" (an old repurposed computer monitor), while the sound gets cast to the gen 3 and thence to the stereo.
And, of course, if I want to send music from an app on my iPad or iPhone, that's easy too.
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JohnnyCanuck
Headphoneus Supremus
I'm gonna guess that this is a total SWAG!!
Hifiman Arya -- Pretty flat down to 20Hz, but not sure how much output there truly is at 8Hz.
and a whole lot of that is going to depend on the amplifier, too.
QueYo
Head-Fier
As one of those who was hoping for linear extrapolation to a Gungnir 2, I guess it won't be as simple as I hoped.
