[yonson]

Wow, I got one of the rare Schiit e-mails today! Keep an eye on your e-mail if you are subscribed!

 

[BraveNewWorld]

I don't leave Yggy on. I don't hear the difference. Sounds great when I turn it on. Makes me a total idiot to own a $2000 dac when I am evidently hard of hearing.

+1, I must be a total idiot as well.

 

[yonson]

Some of us never achieve equilibrium...maybe when we assume room temperature?

On the topic of 24-hour power for Ygg: I think it's a matter of burn-in. I left mine powered up continuously for the first six weeks or so. Ever since, I just power it up and down with everything else. Results completely satisfactory. YMMV, of course.

When I was listening to my system daily I would leave it on 24/7, now that it's less frequent I'll power down between listens since it can be a week or so between listens now days. I have noticed at power on the first few songs I'll listen to sound dull and lifeless, which was kind of disconcerting the first time it happened.

 

[Rensek]

Dont't have nervosa about your lack of audio nervosa. Be happy you enjoy your music/gear.

 

[Rensek]

I always thought my modi multibit wasn't as engaging for the first 20-30 minutes. Almost like how music starts to sound a bit better after that first drink. Maybe a PRAT thing?

I still dont know if its the DAC warming up or my brain adjusting. I dont obsess over it as much now with gumby or bifrost 2 og. But I also have 3 kids now instead of 1, and a job that is way busier. Less time to ponder such stuff.

 

[Paladin79]

Some of us never achieve equilibrium...maybe when we assume room temperature?

On the topic of 24-hour power for Ygg: I think it's a matter of burn-in. I left mine powered up continuously for the first six weeks or so. Ever since, I just power it up and down with everything else. Results completely satisfactory. YMMV, of course.

I did the same with Gungnir. I run so many class A tube amps I do not like to keep them running when not in use.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Get to it!

Hey, what's stopping you? I'd sign up for alpha testing

I would in a heartbeat.

What's stopping me to actually do so is that I don't have the time.

I'm at an age now where I don't start a new personal project unless I know beforehand that I can finish it to my own standards.
It would take me somewhere around two years of full-time work to create something that passes my own benchmarks and that offers a feature set similar to that of Roon, but at least at first without something like Roon's metadata backend. And then it would be for macOS only. Any additional platform, like iOS, Android, and Windows, would add about six to twelve months per platform.

Not unreasonable, though, right?

Well, let's play devil's advocate and do some back-of-the-envelope due diligence:
1) Audiophiles, the target demography of such a software suite, are mostly older men. And once older men have found something they like, they tend to stick with it. So getting people to switch away from Roon, a widely established and accepted brand, is a seriously tough proposition. Especially for me, who can't sell schiit if his life depends on it.
1.5) For most people, Roon is actually good enough. I hear very little complaints. Which is understandable, since most Roon users seem to be at home on Windows, where Roon isn't exactly any worse than most other applications.*
2) Establishing and maintaining even just a medium-sized audio library is a lot of work. The thought of having to start that process anew with a new software is off-putting for even the most livid ones among the potential Roon haters. That creates a similarly daunting sales hurdle as point 1) does.
3) A good chunk of existing Roon users are also streamers. As such, creating an audio library management and player software like Roon without support for at least Tidal and Qobuz would be pointless. Technically, that's not a big deal. But legally, it opens a can of worms the size of Texas. That kind of legal stuff I don't know the first thing about, and I'm in no mood to start working myself into that subject, either. I also hate the thought of handing money over to lawyers.

And that's just from the top of my head right this second. I'm sure there are more good reasons that would make a 'Roon killer' a hard sell if I thought about it a bit longer.

Technically, creating such a piece of software would be a fun project. From the software engineering side of things, there are very little unknowns; everything that would have to be written, I've already done in some shape or form in the past in other contexts.
But from a sales and legal perspective? Thanks, but no thanks.

Maybe if I knew a guy who knew a guy?
That would change things a bit.

But since I don't…

A very fair reply to all this would be:
"So, if it's so much work to write a 'Roon killer' and if it's so much legal hassle and all that, what do you complain about, then? Why not just use Roon and be happy?"

To which my reply would be:
Because I know that they could do so much better!

See, that's what angers me the most about all this:
They have such a strong brand. They have such a great following, who are all willing to pay a serious premium. They have their undeniably valuable metadata backend. By their own statements, they were able to grow their team to be at least 50 people strong. And they did all that by bootstrapping and by growing organically, with no external institutional funding, retaining full control over the whole endeavor.
That's a crazy amount of success by any standard, and my hat goes off to the founders and the entire team.

But to then see that they can't be bothered to put in the work and talent so that their core product is as good as it could be?! All that revenue they create? All that manpower?

For a piece of software that's really just "good enough" instead of actually great?

That's just such a waste…


* Please note that I'm not hating on Windows or Windows application developers here. I spend a bit more than 50% of my professional life developing for Windows myself. It's just a fact of life that Microsoft doesn't offer the same quality of development tools as Apple does, and the result is that the overall quality and attention to detail is just lower on Windows than it is on Apple's platforms. That applies to 1st party software as well as to 3rd party applications. It's been like this for decades, don't ask me why Microsoft, with all their money and manpower, don't even try to improve on that. Maybe they just don't have to, they still sell more than enough regardless of overall quality standards or attention to detail.
As a natural result, Windows users expect a lower standard than Apple users do. On Windows, Roon is simply "good enough."
A similar argument can be made for the Android platform.

 

[ckG798a7]

I saw the e-mail earlier hoping for a Loki Max in Silver announcement. Oh well. I know I'm not the only one still holding out hope as (I think) it's the only full size Schiit item not available in a silver finish. I have no background in manufacturing or retail product design, so it would be interesting to learn more about the challenges specific to this particular item. Vent design?

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I saw the e-mail earlier hoping for a Loki Max in Silver announcement. Oh well. I know I'm not the only one still holding out hope as (I think) it's the only full size Schiit item not available in a silver finish. I have no background in manufacturing or retail product design, so it would be interesting to learn more about the challenges specific to this particular item. Vent design?

I don't think it has anything to do with that particular design, Schiit has done seemingly more complex tops in silver in the past.
My (highly uneducated) guess would be that it's still Loki Max's first run. If there ever will be a second run of Loki Max, I think there's a good chance we might see some of them in silver.
Will we see a second run, though? I'm not sure. If I'm right and this really still is Loki Max's first run it doesn't seem to sell well enough to warrant a second run.
I truly hope I'm wrong on all counts, though, because I'm one of those idiots who's actually holding back on planned purchases of two Loki Max precisely because of the lack of silver.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

1.5) For most people, Roon is actually good enough. I hear very little complaints. Which is understandable, since most Roon users seem to be at home on Windows, where Roon isn't exactly any worse than most other applications.*

For me, you hit the nail on the head here.

Post 100,053, where you gave several reasons why Roon isn't very good software by your standards, went way over my head but I got the gist of what you were saying.
At the end of the day, though, Roon just works for what I want it to do.

I know I'm in the minority of Roon users as I run my core on an Intel NUC running Roon ROCK, but I have to tell you that it has been absolutely appliance-like in operation. It ran for a year plus a week without needing to be restarted/rebooted and it would have gone longer if I didn't have to turn off a CB to install a ceiling fan in the office.
I truly appreciate your enthusiasm for maintaining high standards in your work.

 

[valiant66]

I truly appreciate your enthusiasm for maintaining high standards in your work.

One of the good reasons for hanging around in this forum. I would guess the majority of regular contributors share that approach. And it's from the top: @Jason Stoddard and @Baldr set the tone with their high standards.

Part of what makes this an enjoyable place to hang out...
.

 

[M Paul]

I love that pic, I've taken many heli rides to backcountry lodges, but I'm still to score a ski plane ride to a backcountry camp in Alaska or the Yukon, very much in my bucket list.

emt,

The AK fly and ski club is about the most exclusive there is up here with a long waiting list of ski bums. There is some good fly out, camp, earn your turns skiing on the Pika glacier via one of the turban otter air taxis in DNP out of Talkeetna. DM me for info.

I got whacked by a moose a couple years ago and never thought I would fly again. Sold The Batplane. Fast forward 2.7 years and I just got my medical back a few weeks ago, passed my bi-annul flight review, now I’m trying to convince the Boss I need another airplane… Thinking my bad ass bush flying days are done though, takes skills and proficiency to play on glaciers up in the mountains, beaches and sand bars, and rivers and lakes on floats, I might be over that part of aviating. I just want to make noise and rattle air molecules…

This it on the Kihiltna Glacier on The Big one:

 

[Roy G. Biv]

I know that's a Tri-Pacer but engine looks a bit larger than stock. O/IO-360?
Tri-gear better on snow than taildragger?
I've never flown off snow, looks to be great fun!

 

[ImagesbyMurray]

emt,

The AK fly and ski club is about the most exclusive there is up here with a long waiting list of ski bums. There is some good fly out, camp, earn your turns skiing on the Pika glacier via one of the turban otter air taxis in DNP out of Talkeetna. DM me for info.

Spent 12 days climbing "Little Switzerland" surrounding Pika - was a blast! Wondering if we've met........

 

[dhcarquinez]

When I was listening to my system daily I would leave it on 24/7, now that it's less frequent I'll power down between listens since it can be a week or so between listens now days. I have noticed at power on the first few songs I'll listen to sound dull and lifeless, which was kind of disconcerting the first time it happened.

Regrettably, I also have multi-day gaps between listening sessions on the 2-channel system, so I've recently gotten in the habit of leaving Bela Fleck - Flight of the Cosmic Hippo nearby and playing that, especially the title track, before settling in for active listening. Having my amps and speakers pump out Victor's low, low bass notes pushes some current and, I feel, gives the whole system a good warmup. Perhaps not valid from a physics and engineering perspective, but it's been working for me.