[33na3rd]

You don't think that's a 50% solution?

Stop it!
That's camera humor, folks!

 

[macdonjh]

Yep, familiar with industrial scale - doubt anyone wants or needs a 54" water pipe, or cooling towers 20m tall, 720 m2 floor space for personal electronics.

If only...

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Is the Schiitr still requiring appointments?

 

[OldRoadToad]

Headfonia review of the Jot!

https://www.headfonia.com/schiit-audio-jotunheim-2-review/

If only there were a card for toads...You know. Toads with opposable thumbs, jobs and had digital stuff that used Coax or Toslink outputs
One would think I was asking for a pair of builtin VU Meters.

ORT

 

[Scott Kramer]

Neither could this one...at least very well...

Cheers!
-HK sends

Octo*****?

 

[JS27]

On the detail work notes, this includes the final tweaking for Folkvangr, which has a chassis that is now acceptable thermally, but will still run very warm. This shouldn't surprise anyone who's had a tube amp before, but it may surprise a lot of first-time users. Now it's just down to the wait for the chassis parts.

For what it's worth in this crazy world.....greatly looking forward to Folkvangr. Day one purchase for me, I've been eaglery scanning the updates/checking Schiits website each week looking for a peek. Still love the VH2...not sure if Folkvangr is an evolution of the VH2 sounds or it's own tonal beast, but can't wait to have 10 tubes of fury blazing on my rack!

 

[Scott Kramer]

Hey all,

Just a quick update, since it's been a while since the last chapter. Or, if this was a chapter, it'd probably be entitled, "The Future's So Dark, I Gotta Wear Shades."

Sounds bad? Well, it isn't. It's just the now-familiar dance of "what parts are out of stock, and what can we use instead?" The timelines for some parts have gone far, far out (up to 84 weeks in the case of some D/A converters.) This shouldn't affect availability of our True Multibit DACs, because we are typically very well stocked, and in the case of Yggdrasil, we have alternates now.

As a side note, I don't think the LIM will be out of stock as long as we feared. Boards are coming in--but then again, they need to be built, etc, so don't expect us to deliver Less is More tomorrow.

On the subject of the LIM approach being applied to Bifrost 2, I think that's very interesting, though of course that would be Mike's final decision. That also may be somewhat dependent on lead times for the Analog Devices D/A converters. So, we'll see.

Lead times, supply chain disruptions, etc...let's just say the future is, ah, murky. As I mentioned before, there haven't been any super-insane showstoppers yet, but who knows? We're in close communication with all of our partners--purchasing, PCB assembly, etc, and we are doing everything we can to keep things manageable. And, at the same time, I'm getting a couple of new things to their final "shipping" state--currently here in CA working on big iron--finishing up some detail work on a couple of other new things, and working on a couple of new ideas. So, all in all, normal. Just compounded by the parts uncertainty.

On the detail work notes, this includes the final tweaking for Folkvangr, which has a chassis that is now acceptable thermally, but will still run very warm. This shouldn't surprise anyone who's had a tube amp before, but it may surprise a lot of first-time users. Now it's just down to the wait for the chassis parts.

On the new ideas notes, I think I may have identified a new product that might be what a lot of people are looking for, but cannot easily articulate. We'll see. I'm usually wrong about such things.

On the more topical subject of operations, we're shipping Fullas, Hels, and Vidars again, and, in general, I think we're getting a better handle on keeping things in stock. Stop laughing. I know, there's still a ton of stuff that is attaining semi-legendary status, but I do believe Sagas have been sighted in the production line. At the very least, we're trying to give you a better idea of what's in stock, how long you might have to wait, and allowing you to easily bow out if you're tired of the delays with one-click order cancellation.

That said, here's where "the future is dark" comes in. I mentioned a while back that we were having problems with the silver grained finish, and those problems continue. In fact, they are worse, as one of our metal suppliers who once was able to do consistent grained finish has lost enough expertise that we can no longer count on them, and the other supplier now is getting mill finish metal that only allows for maybe 25-30% markless silver.

What does this mean? Not silver paint, because we still haven't seen anything we're super happy with. However, it does mean that silver will become more scarce. If you want silver, expect longer out-of-stock waits. Also expect (very likely) higher prices. So yeah, the future is dark. As in, more black finish. I understand if that's not your thing. I personally prefer the silver.

Oh, the irony. I didn't want to do black, we resisted having black finish as standard for years and years, and now, it looks like black will be what carries the line. Black has been trending more popular than silver anyway, so this isn't a horrible outcome. But still...I like silver!

So what do we do about this, other than whinge?

Well, we can be defeatist and send the metal overseas. I've seen some very nice and consistent finish from overseas metal suppliers. But that (a) isn't what we're about, and (b) subject to vagaries such as the sea shipping delays that many companies are experiencing. And, to be frank, it is very sad that the easiest solution is abandoning local manufacture for much longer supply chains.

Or, we can decide to do something truly crazy, and foster more vertical manufacturing right here. Now, don't pass out; I'm not advocating that Schiit become its own metal fab--that's a big, big leap and it's something we don't know a whole lot about. However, I believe we may be able to work with one or more of our current fabs to expand to where the mills are, and create a much more close-coupled manufacturing environment that would allow us to build better products right here. As of now, our sheetmetal goes from mills near Corpus Christi to California stampers, then a bunch of it goes back to Corpus. What if we could locate right near the mills?

Of course, this is still provisonal, still pie-in-the-sky, still people-are-excited-but-nothing-is-firm-yet, but just think...what if we could help create a manufacturing nexus right near the mills? What would that mean for us? And for others? It's not like the stampers would be limited to audio products.

So that's what's happening. As with the beginning of the year, SNAFU. And a dark (finish) future. And yet we're still grinning...we still need those shades.

All the best,
Jason

PS: in the interim between our pie-in-the-sky sheetmetal nexus and today's reality, if you know any sheet metal suppliers who are interested in expanding their business (stop laughing), send me their contact info!

Haha: sheet-metal... go low polygon count SpaceX/TeslaTruck/LoraCroft1/StarFoxSNES stainless steel?

 

[Ableza]

Why sheet metal at all? Thermally-conductive polymers can be shaped and colored in nearly any geometry and then the chassis designed to be snapped together...

 

[macdonjh]

Why sheet metal at all? Thermally-conductive polymers can be shaped and colored in nearly any geometry and then the chassis designed to be snapped together...

Plastic cabinets in premium audio gear? Heretic! You'd think you were an escapee from NC where wet cardboard is the material of choice.

 

[tincanear]

@Jason Stoddard
And not one word or even a hint about Urd and Tyr status.

in Jason's post, the phrase "currently here in CA working on big iron" likely refers to the large steel core laminations of the Tyr's power supply transformer and filter choke (inductor).

 

[tincanear]

You don't think that's a 50% solution?

so 36% gray paint then?

 

[Ableza]

Plastic cabinets in premium audio gear? Heretic! You'd think you were an escapee from NC where wet cardboard is the material of choice.

It's the current design trend in the semiconductor equipment industry. Some carbon-impregnanted (and nano-tube) polymers look better than and are stronger than metal with similar thermal properties...

 

[HK_sends]

Octo*****?

No, that was a Bede BD-5J 'Acrostar' Jet: https://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/product/bede-bd-5j-acrostar-jet.
The is a (replica, I believe) Gee Bee Model R Super Sportster, a racing plane from the early Thirties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Gee_Bee_Model_R_Super_Sportster
Cheers!
-HK sends

 

[golfbravobravo]

so 36% gray paint then?

If only it worked like that

 

[Scott Kramer]

No, that was a Bede BD-5J 'Acrostar' Jet: https://www.jamesbondlifestyle.com/product/bede-bd-5j-acrostar-jet.
The is a (replica, I believe) Gee Bee Model R Super Sportster, a racing plane from the early Thirties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Gee_Bee_Model_R_Super_Sportster
Cheers!
-HK sends

Cool, it was a shot from the hip immediate, no context thought/joke... I really enjoy the scene in that Bond movie. Aside: I didn't censor myself, we are sooooo "sensitive" now ;D. Checking out the Acrostar!