[riffrafff]

Not sure there is a *ton* of Holo Audio and Schiit overlap. The pricing of the products Holo makes seem in a higher cost category than Schiit generally speaking. But I could be wrong. There's surely support in the hobby for DDC's, but Jason has said in the past that he doesnt feel like he should make a thing just because some other company does it, and IIRC didn't Schiit have a DDC before (Eitr was a usb to spdif converter, yeah)?

EDIT: Jason answered this post while I was typing it up, so go peep Jason's post and ignore mine

Yeah, they made the Eitr. Mine's been repaired twice. I'd love to see Schiit build a DDC that lasted more than two years.

 

[Ableza]

Mac Mini for the win. I've looked at streamers and for the life of me I can't personally see a use-case that would make me get one in addition to or in replacement of my M1 Mini. the MM will stay in my stack until its magic smoke goes "poof!".

For me the use case is I have multiple units at different locations in my house, and one music server. So they allow me to have music where I want it while maintaining only one library. If I only listened from a single location, I likely would not use them.

 

[XERO1]

4. DDC? Not convinced there's real demand for that.

Anyone who wants/needs to run two (or more) independent DACs from a single USB source (like Yours Truly, and countless others) NEEDS To Use A DDC to do this!!

While there are plenty of Chi-Fi options available to choose from, I'd much rather buy a Made In The USA, high quality product from a company that I love!

 

[Plautus001]

Okay, those answers from Jason should be good clarification for those wanting info on those points. Now if I can just get him to answer whether Midgard ended up eating into Asgard 3 sales or not... (sales data may not be something Jason wants to talk about early into the lifecycle of a product, IDK, I still keep going to that question when seeing midgard talked about. My prediction was that they are sufficiently different enough to not have one product eat the other in sales.

Midgard sounds enticing, but after listening to my Asgard 3 with Grado RS2x, I think I'm good. If a had more high Z headphones the Midgard might be a good idea.

 

[33na3rd]

This has already been mentioned a couple of times lately, but another great feature of Yggdrasil + GS2 is that it allows one to move their Bifrost 2 to their desktop system.

How's that for a win-win?

 

[ScubaMan2017]

....and yet, still no Bluetooth streamer with glowing VU meters in a durable cardboard enclosure.

I swear I thought I saw JS' eye twitch when we started going on about VU meters. And then he started raving about subscription fees... followed by a gulp of red wine. So, it looks like I'm DIY-ing my own creation. In my case, such analogue meters are for decoration. Full stop.

Or they don't make many of them because it is an extremely niche product.

Also, we don't do things just because others are doing them.

If we do something in this realm, it will be extremely meaningful...and it won't just convert or resample.

Edit: oh wait, it's a network streamer too? That's not a DDC. That's a streamer. No thanks x2.
Edit 2: oh gawd, it's a pi in a box? Holy moly. Not us. Not us at all. Also explains limited availability.

Want a streamer? Get a Mac Mini. Done. Then you have a computer that can do other things if you want it to. Or not.

...and then some wag got him onto streamers. Both eyes started twitching. And Dave (guy off the camera [engineer dude?]) gave a HARD 'no' to that option. Once our ILLUSTRIOUS leader (not sorry) calmed down somewhat, he did make a good point -- get a Mac Mini. Here is what How To Geek has to say about these round-edged creations from big bad Apple. In my case, I have an overpowered Pi, a daughter SPID/F board, touch screen packed up in a box somewhere. I'll make my own. When I get bored mid-winter, I have another DIY to do. Interested? Visit this site.

I'm interested in sales information in this case because A: he had a prediction, B: sales of products can cause products to be killed off bc everything's a thunderdome now. I don't want Jason to tell me how many midgard is sold at the moment vs how many asgard 3. A simple ratio or a "oh Asgard is fine" or "oh Midgard is great but not cutting into Asgard" or some other answer.

Basically he made an offhand comment that got hooked in my mind and I'd love to know if it panned out. I don't feel I am owed an answer but I'll surely ask it. When I met Jason at Canjam in Dallas, he was super chill to talk about products so I felt confident in asking this. If he doesn't want to answer it, I'm not gonna get upset. Just putting it out there.

Oh, forgot my last reason for asking: I am looking forward to an Asgard+ or something, and I am guessing sales of Asgard 3 could inform Jason or Schiit more broadly that a revision is primed for the making, or it could inform them that there's little reason to update the Asgard. So I have a personal interest in this beyond a question getting hooked in my brain!

I'm curious to see how companies like Schiit Audio Ltd. and JDS Labs will get new, YOUNGER users to climb on board the good-audio-bandwagon? Re: last night's comment... Wired headphones are what gamers are using. I wonder if Schiit wants to chase after this market? @Jason Stoddard made it crystal clear -- no plans for Bluetooth connectivity. Perhaps the company will pair up with a smaller company who WILL develop wireless technology customized for the competitive gaming community. Hell, Schiit paired up with Dan Clark Audio and produced that nifty kit. It's not targeted at me -- and that's cool with me (when my niece & nephew get their inheritances unlocked, I might point them to such pairings [if good audio is what they desire]).

Gungnir 2 most interesting because he has said the Singularity plays very well with Folkvangr, and that would be a very good stacking opportunity. Need to resist throwing a loki max into that stack though...

Eventually, my time renting in this little village will end, and we move our circus into our new off-grid home in the woods (shameless link here). By then, I will have spent time with fellow dudes (Bruce Men's Shed)... to make more friends... and possibly get my woodcraft groove on. My spouse promises me a rose garden AND a 2-channel system. Re: Gungnir 2.x ... ... I want to get another DAC... as my current Bifrost Multibit is reserved from my listening nook (shed). I would like a product that's between whatever future Bifrost 2.x is offered and a honkin' oversized YGGDRASIL . Heh, we'll see what 2024 and 2025 brings!!!

Key terms: DAC, Men's Shed (non-toxic social groups), Gungnir, Bifrost, Pi, streaming hardware, marketing, VU analog, Bluetooth.

 

[Rattle]

@Jason Stoddard
Hi Jason, sorry to ask this, I know skoll hasn't been out long. Really like to get one to match my silver Freya S, gungnir and Aegirs. Anyway we might get silver skolls eventually? Thanks for taking the time to answer all our questions.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

@Jason Stoddard
Hi Jason, sorry to ask this, I know skoll hasn't been out long. Really like to get one to match my silver Freya S, gungnir and Aegirs. Anyway we might get silver skolls eventually? Thanks for taking the time to answer all our questions.

Eventually. No date. Jason's Law applies even if I had a date.

 

[Menkau-ra]

Edit: oh wait, it's a network streamer too? That's not a DDC. That's a streamer. No thanks x2.
Edit 2: oh gawd, it's a pi in a box? Holy moly. Not us. Not us at all. Also explains limited availability.

Holo Red is a streamer, but it's also a DDC, it has USB in. It's popular because of its perfect DDC functionality.

 

[AstronomerXI]

I thought that MacOS had issue with sample rate changes between tracks and you needed to use an app like LosslessSwitcher to handle the sample rate changes on the fly--is this issue fixed? Not saying Mac Mini is a bad streamer, just trying to make sure I understand the functionality of Mac Mini as a streamer.

No idea. I wasn't even aware of the issue. I just set the speed in Audio Midi Setup at whatever Apple Music streams at (192kHz) and forget about it. Something to read up on.

 

[Nick76]

I thought that MacOS had issue with sample rate changes between tracks and you needed to use an app like LosslessSwitcher to handle the sample rate changes on the fly--is this issue fixed? Not saying Mac Mini is a bad streamer, just trying to make sure I understand the functionality of Mac Mini as a streamer.

This is only when using Apple Music, qobuz auto switches along with everything else with a proper exclusive mode. Plus the lossless switcher takes two seconds to install and it’s free. It works perfectly if you are an Apple Music user.

 

[AstronomerXI]

For me the use case is I have multiple units at different locations in my house, and one music server. So they allow me to have music where I want it while maintaining only one library. If I only listened from a single location, I likely would not use them.

Kind of the same: Mac Mini, Mac Studio Max, Apple TV, and iPhone or iPad in the work office connected to a DAC via the Apple Camera Adapter, all either streaming from my Synology NAS or Apple Music.

 

[LrrTx]

A few comments:

1. Yggy SE output "gimped?" No. It handles SE in the proper way from a hardware-balanced (one DAC channel per phase) implementation: it is summed from the balanced output. Yggy A1 and A2 SE measure worse because it is a simple two-FET summer doing the summing. LIM and MIB measure exactly the same balanced and SE because an op-amp is doing the summing. And FR, as in "frequency response?" Ah come on. Literally every product we make, and literally every product made by any manufacturer is ruler-flat, unless it's not intended to be (EQ or phono preamp) or has limitations such as tubes running through transformers. Can we put this one to bed?

2. Waiting for tube phono? Bring a big wallet. It won't be much under 2K. And yeah, most likely really a limited run.

3. Multichannel amps? Sure, maybe sometime, maybe soonish. We have other priorities. And it won't be a big power amp, maybe Aegir power, so don't get excited about a billion watts x 16 or anything like that.

4. DDC? Not convinced there's real demand for that.

As far as number two, the phono pre, is there a list to get on for that, will you take deposits or preorders?

 

[eliottj]

@Jason Stoddard
How about a Modius Multibit Balanced Dac to sit between the MM3 and the BiFrost? I think you'd sell a good number of them at that price and use point.
And I too would like to see a full featured DDC.
Thanks for all,
Eliott

 

[ludvigrollover]

No idea. I wasn't even aware of the issue. I just set the speed in Audio Midi Setup at whatever Apple Music streams at (192kHz) and forget about it. Something to read up on.

Citizen, you are demonstrating insufficient amounts of Nervosa. Please stand by to be re-educated by shills for $500 USB cables.