Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

[Harum7]

FTFY

That stapler ran out of staples!

 

[donos]

And just to clarify:
I'm not arguing against any of this. It's all very good and solid advice. All I'm trying to say is that I don't understand why anyone would buy this device in the first place. If you don't have a good reason to trust the manufacturer to be honest with how they use the microphone that they ask you to install all over your home for them, and if you can't really reliably defeat those microphones without running the risk of bricking your device, then don't buy their products.

And this doesn't just apply to this particular manufacturer of audio and TV streamers that just so happens to be Chinese, it applies to everyone, including Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Apple, and pretty much all car manufacturers.

Apple has earned my trust to a sufficient degree with how they generally have been acting over the past decade regarding user privacy questions, which is why you will find their products in my home. Alphabet has proven to be a shady actor in this field at best, and Meta and Amazon have made abundantly clear that you can't trust them at all. So you won't find any hardware containing a microphone or camera from them in my home, period.

WiiM/Linkplay is an unknown actor to me. They might have the best intentions, but they haven't proven that they can be trusted, either. And until that changes, none of their products will remain switched on unattended for any length of time.


I'm not a tin-hat kind of guy. To the contrary, actually; most people will probably describe me as rather naive and probably a bit too trusting. But when it comes to this kind of stuff, I might have spent a little too much time in this industry to blindly trust some random manufacturer with their declared intentions by installing hardware in my home and place of work (where I regularly discuss trade secrets that are in part covered by NDAs) that can easily be converted into a sophisticated surveillance device with just a small, automated over-the-air firmware update behind my back.

Couldn't agree more.
Why would anyone buy it in the first place ? ... in my case, I wouldn't have done so if I'd done my research properly and realised it had a microphone.

 

[Ableza]

I for one welcome our eventual AI robot overlords. All our base are belong to them.

 

[Oveja Negra]

FTFY

Ahh this gif reminds me of that time when one my cats bite me just like that.

She was giving birth and the first cat got stuck just in the middle and obviously, it was painful for the mamma cause she began to run in circles screaming.

Me and my brother (at the time we were teenagers) were naive enough to try to help her. The idea was super simple: to pull the kitten in a very gentle way.

As usual, the Universe reminds us that on paper everything looks great but in practice... yeah, I wasn't able to pull a damn thing cause as soon as I touched her, she got bent at speed of light and bite my hand (yeah, it was painful as hell).

PS1: After a minute or so of the incident, the birth process went well and the mamma cat was happy with her 5 kittens.
PS2: After an hour or so of the incident, my hand wasn't well. It looked like a damn empanada (I had to go to the doc to aleviate that).

 

[Mike-WI]

I have no need for more headphone amps. I have many to choose from including 2 Ragnarok integrated/HP amps (v1 & v2 in different settings).
However, I just purchased an XLR switch in case I add the Mjolnir 3.

Pro Co Switch Witch Powered Monitor Switcher

Cheapest price was at Sweetwater and I already have an account.
(+Free 1 day shipping)

Any suggestions on XLR to RCA cables?
I already had these...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZVWTJ9W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title

 

[Harum7]

Ahh this gif reminds me of that time when one my cats bite me just like that.

She was giving birth and the first cat got stuck just in the middle and obviously, it was painful for the mamma cause she began to run in circles screaming.

Me and my brother (at the time we were teenagers) were naive enough to try to help her. The idea was super simple: to pull the kitten in a very gentle way.

As usual, the Universe reminds us that on paper everything looks great but in practice... yeah, I wasn't able to pull a damn thing cause as soon as I touched her, she got bent at speed of light and bite my hand (yeah, it was painful as hell).

PS1: After a minute or so of the incident, the birth process went well and the mamma cat was happy with her 5 kittens.
PS2: After an hour or so of the incident, my hand wasn't well. It looked like a damn empanada (I had to go to the doc to aleviate that).

I laughed in the funny parts. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Plautus001]

Good question. Would be a best practice to disable the mic if you're not running multiroom audio. And consider doing so even if you are.

While you're at it, if you have any listening devices at all operating in your home -- I'm looking at you Amazon, Nest, Apple, Android, Logitech, Netgear, and too many etc.s tom mention -- operating your network on a single physical/WiFi LAN, or running apps on your devices that may just be capturing keystrokes or other information -- like what podcasts or YouTubes you subscribe or listen to -- I would suggest you could be at some unquantifiable risk, even if you subscribe to CISA/CERT alerts and are otherwise obsessively paranoid. Hell, could be somebody is analyzing posts you make here and adding that analysis to your profile that's been developed. Almost certainly someone -- more than one someone, perhaps -- knows more about you than you know about yourself.

While I'm not suggesting we all move to Susanville and pepper our property with IEDs in case SHTF, it's at least a good idea to realistically assess your vulnerabilities and address the ones that make sense. And recognize that thinking you're insulating yourself from harm by not using a WiiM streamer, while Alexa is listening to you 24x7 may not be exactly true.

At least Amazon isn't owned by the most underhanded and deceitful country in the world.

 

[mikecheck95]

Gungnir filled that niche nicely until recently - they do pop up on the used market in silver pretty frequently (I've never seen a black one in the wild)

Singularity might fill that chassis size-role in the future, but no idea when that is going to make it to market ...

Hopeful for singularity!

 

[33na3rd]

Any Kara owners out there? Impressions?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm hoping that mine will be here by the weekend.
Short report to follow.

 

[Godaisan]

At least Amazon isn't owned by the most underhanded and deceitful country in the world.

At least Amazon isn't owned by the most underhanded and deceitful country in the world.

They just have their HQs in it.

 

[AndreYew]

Can anyone comment on pros v. cons of eq-ing with Roon DSP parametric eq vs. using a Schiit Loki Max? I’m trying to very slightly tame the mids on my speakers. I also have the necessary equipment to use REW though I’ve not tried it yet and don’t know how to add it’s result to Roon.

The Loki Max bands are a fixed width and frequency, whereas a parametric EQ has adjustable width and band frequencies. So if the mid peak on your speakers matches one of the Loki's bands in both width and frequency, Loki will probably be OK. Otherwise, the Roon will let you match your speaker's peak more precisely. Of course, there's also more rope to hang yourself with a parametric EQ since there are more things to adjust and mess up.

The other big difference is that Roon will work only on Roon sources, whereas the Loki will work with all your sources.

REW I believe shows its adjustments in parametric EQ terms, so they should be directly transferable to another parametric EQ.

 

[Ableza]

They just have their HQs in it.

As does every other large global company...

 

[Alcophone]

Mjolnir 3 won't be available in silver, sorry.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

Quick Mjolnir 3 update (get your dislikes handy): unfortunately, no 230V version is currently possible without changing the transformers to provide acceptable hum and vibration.

If there are more crazy people who want Mjolnir 3 than expected, however, I will keep the door open for a second run, where we can plan for 230V. Don't get too excited. We're in a "wait and see" mode on this for now.

 

[ArkNerevar]

That is extremely dissapointing, I was eagerly awaiting this amp, getting schiit products abroad was hard enough as it is, now we are told its not even possible.