[RCBinTN]

Off topic (?) I know, but is there a Head-Fi gift exchange this year?
Perhaps I missed it - but I always like to participate.
Thanks in advance!

 

[RCBinTN]

Give it a rest, Pietro.
Winder's point, and I happen to agree, that you monopolize every thread that you post on regularly. You don't have to respond to every poster.
Problem is, you've antagonized him to the point where he's turned it into a personal vendetta against you, and that's soured this thread that I used to be proud contributing to because of its creative thinkers that provoked lively discussion. There seems to be a wealth of information on tap from the pool of posters following this thread, and we have all learned from it.

Unfortunately, a lot of favorite posters of mine have disappeared since its inception as this thread seems to slip more into the baseline noise of mundane and superficial chatter typical to so many other threads, and I have conscientiously resisted following suit to date. I'm still trying to keep a hand in hoping that we can sustain that unique spark of camaraderie and exchange of interesting information.

Please don't help turn Mike's thread into a playground of petty squabbles.
-Dennis

Well stated, Dennis. Thank you.
I find myself guilty at times, too.
The last thing we want is to chase away the creative, thought-provoking, discussion and people.
That's the reason we're all here!

 

[HumanFly]

So how would i2s look in a Schiit-consumer set-up?
I mean, let`s say Baldr makes an upgrade board for my Gugnir with those little pins on the back of it.
As a noob I would not be able to hook up just anything with an i2s output right?
A. Because there is no universal pin-order and
B. I would need a driver of sorts?
Or is the protocol itself a standard and would any connection with the right pin-order work?
And how much would I gain over BNC or coax?

And @Pietro Cozzi Tinin
I am afraid the picture of me dressed like a little mermaid has to wait a little longer. They had no mermaidsuits in my size.
Also my daughter thinks I would look like a whale so I just let her suit up and watched them tuttebel from the side of the pool.

 

[Alcophone]

We sadly have only one shop in Amsterdam selling this best choc ever.
Once you taste it your life will never be the same.

That's one more than Germany has! Lucky you!

 

[GearMe]

Give it a rest, Pietro.
Winder's point, and I happen to agree, that you monopolize every thread that you post on regularly. You don't have to respond to every poster.
Problem is, you've antagonized him to the point where he's turned it into a personal vendetta against you, and that's soured this thread that I used to be proud contributing to because of its creative thinkers that provoked lively discussion. There seems to be a wealth of information on tap from the pool of posters following this thread, and we have all learned from it.

Unfortunately, a lot of favorite posters of mine have disappeared since its inception as this thread seems to slip more into the baseline noise of mundane and superficial chatter typical to so many other threads, and I have conscientiously resisted following suit to date. I'm still trying to keep a hand in hoping that we can sustain that unique spark of camaraderie and exchange of interesting information.

Please don't help turn Mike's thread into a playground of petty squabbles.
-Dennis

Well said...

I think we all say some things we regret from time to time.

However, I've seen multiple occasions where Pietro has been called out for it....and he owns it and apologizes -- the mark of a big man. Can't say the same for some other folks.

FWIW, if I've missed those apologies, well...please forgive me!

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Standing by my damning assessment of Sennheiser Dacs. Hdv820 is causing my physical pain with the entry of the guests at wartburg and Carly Rae Jepsen.

iOS just tried to autocorrect Jepsen to heldentenor.

 

[Baldr]

On product lines in general and The Gadget:

In the customer (and potential customer) service world, it is quite true that 3% of the clients or potential ones are 97% of the volume, action, or trouble according to your view. Since we now have over 20 products to build (23 as of Jason's count), feed with parts buys, and juggle with other priorities in assembly, the superficial answer is don't build so many products. For some percentage of the products, there are too many of them crammed into so little price bandwidth that I even get confused as to which DAC to give my nephew for Christmas. It is an easy trap to fall into, as new products come online, in a LINE of DACs, the space between them narrows. As long as there is demand for the old closely spaced product remains, the necessity for simplification remains in the background. We then have to look at which products are th e top 20% of trouble to make. Factors there not only include sales, but how hard the parts are to reliably schedule, which have the highest yields, and which confuse our clients the most. More on this in a bit.

Over the years, a strategem which began by accident has solidified this tendency. For example, I began the multibit DAC line with Yggdrasil, followed by the lesser priced Gumby, Bimby, and finally by MultiModi with a price drop of roughly half each step down. This resulted in some cannibalism of higher priced sales by lower priced units. At the same time the sigma delta DACs were built from the bottom up, with the resulting count of 6 DACs from $100 to $2300.

Of those 6 DACs, the top 4 are upgradable. That adds complexity, and makes more work for us. I will alway offer upgradable DACs because it is the best I can do to honor loyalty. There are those who believe that it is a ploy to extract more money and hose our clients forever as long as they remain using our products. I pay little attention to those as many of them believe any company/corporation exists solely to screw them; they will never be happy. There are those of use who use hobby to have pleasure. I am a people pleaser, believe it or not. Those are the people I work for. One of the ironies of being unemployable is the reality is that you always have to work for someone, in my case clients. The better I do at making what you want, the better I do myself, Yes, marketing exists – but if you believe it makes you want to buy one of my products you really do not want, then you are selling yourself really short. If I want to be a part of this market, I want to hang out with my peers – not a group of gullible dolts. That is why I chose it. (A huge plus: It is a phuc ton of fun.)

So What does this have to do with The Gadget? Something like this. It is another product for our mix. That means it should be fully baked. Yeah there are some DSP issues in the first gadget for 192KHz stuff. It is a very minor problem, and can always be redone later in a faster proc. The problem is that I came out with it at the same time as Eitr. Yeah, Gen V sound baby. In all of my wisdom, I wanted to bring it out at $200, which meant Magni/Modi chassis. To make the $200, with USB/Coax in (It was never intended to be the Coax only in out that I brought to RMAF, just what we had at the time.) it had to be Gen 3 USB in and was still really space constraining the Magni/Modi chassis. That's all fine except Gen 3 (or any non isolated USB) sounds like hemorrhoidal ass.

Then we have the fact that it is a single purpose component for $200. Worse, it is a single purpose component that no one understands. At the show and at the Schiitr people look at it and say "What is that?" The factual explanation is C=256. You can't even get to relative and absolute pitch before their eyes glaze over. A capella singers, adjusting flat to C=256, yada, yada. makes them comatose. Only if they are a musician who can actually read music and understand music theory do they understand. How do No one knows how to write a flyer for the Gadget. The reality is it is really simple.

The Flyer:

How do I use it, you ask? It is just like masturbation. You fool around with the knob until you get it. And when you get it, you GET it! There is only one knob, for God's sake.

But as a standalone product for $200 with yesterday's USB today that no one knows how to use – naah. Buried inside a DAC or a better EITR – Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

It is coming folks. Just a bit more down the road

 

[Rowethren]

On product lines in general and The Gadget:

In the customer (and potential customer) service world, it is quite true that 3% of the clients or potential ones are 97% of the volume, action, or trouble according to your view. Since we now have over 20 products to build (23 as of Jason's count), feed with parts buys, and juggle with other priorities in assembly, the superficial answer is don't build so many products. For some percentage of the products, there are too many of them crammed into so little price bandwidth that I even get confused as to which DAC to give my nephew for Christmas. It is an easy trap to fall into, as new products come online, in a LINE of DACs, the space between them narrows. As long as there is demand for the old closely spaced product remains, the necessity for simplification remains in the background. We then have to look at which products are th e top 20% of trouble to make. Factors there not only include sales, but how hard the parts are to reliably schedule, which have the highest yields, and which confuse our clients the most. More on this in a bit.

Over the years, a strategem which began by accident has solidified this tendency. For example, I began the multibit DAC line with Yggdrasil, followed by the lesser priced Gumby, Bimby, and finally by MultiModi with a price drop of roughly half each step down. This resulted in some cannibalism of higher priced sales by lower priced units. At the same time the sigma delta DACs were built from the bottom up, with the resulting count of 6 DACs from $100 to $2300.

Of those 6 DACs, the top 4 are upgradable. That adds complexity, and makes more work for us. I will alway offer upgradable DACs because it is the best I can do to honor loyalty. There are those who believe that it is a ploy to extract more money and hose our clients forever as long as they remain using our products. I pay little attention to those as many of them believe any company/corporation exists solely to screw them; they will never be happy. There are those of use who use hobby to have pleasure. I am a people pleaser, believe it or not. Those are the people I work for. One of the ironies of being unemployable is the reality is that you always have to work for someone, in my case clients. The better I do at making what you want, the better I do myself, Yes, marketing exists – but if you believe it makes you want to buy one of my products you really do not want, then you are selling yourself really short. If I want to be a part of this market, I want to hang out with my peers – not a group of gullible dolts. That is why I chose it. (A huge plus: It is a phuc ton of fun.)

So What does this have to do with The Gadget? Something like this. It is another product for our mix. That means it should be fully baked. Yeah there are some DSP issues in the first gadget for 192KHz stuff. It is a very minor problem, and can always be redone later in a faster proc. The problem is that I came out with it at the same time as Eitr. Yeah, Gen V sound baby. In all of my wisdom, I wanted to bring it out at $200, which meant Magni/Modi chassis. To make the $200, with USB/Coax in (It was never intended to be the Coax only in out that I brought to RMAF, just what we had at the time.) it had to be Gen 3 USB in and was still really space constraining the Magni/Modi chassis. That's all fine except Gen 3 (or any non isolated USB) sounds like hemorrhoidal ass.

Then we have the fact that it is a single purpose component for $200. Worse, it is a single purpose component that no one understands. At the show and at the Schiitr people look at it and say "What is that?" The factual explanation is C=256. You can't even get to relative and absolute pitch before their eyes glaze over. A capella singers, adjusting flat to C=256, yada, yada. makes them comatose. Only if they are a musician who can actually read music and understand music theory do they understand. How do No one knows how to write a flyer for the Gadget. The reality is it is really simple.

The Flyer:

How do I use it, you ask? It is just like masturbation. You fool around with the knob until you get it. And when you get it, you GET it! There is only one knob, for God's sake.

But as a standalone product for $200 with yesterday's USB today that no one knows how to use – naah. Buried inside a DAC or a better EITR – Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

It is coming folks. Just a bit more down the road

A DAC with a knob, what is this madness!

 

[Rowethren]

Regarding different tuning, I went to a small front room consert (about 30 people) last weekend and the fiddle player had different fiddles for different songs as they were tuned differently. I have to admit that the details were over my head but his oldest <circa 1550 fiddle was the best sounding to my ears and apparently it was a pre Stradivarius shape/tuning and it just had a smoother more relaxed sound to it. He had a modern Stradivarius style one as well and it was much harsher but to be fair it was a much cheaper instrument as well.

All very interesting even if I dont really understand the intricacies of it.

 

[wink]

Off topic (?) I know, but is there a Head-Fi gift exchange this year?
Perhaps I missed it - but I always like to participate.
Thanks in advance!

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/are-gift-exchanges-not-every-year.867249/

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/2016-head-fi-holiday-gift-exchange-sign-up.825294/page-11

 

[RCBinTN]

Thanks, @wink.
We've had gift exchanges the last few years...maybe I should have organized this year instead of just hanging around.

 

[Ableza]

On product lines in general and The Gadget:

In the customer (and potential customer) service world, it is quite true that 3% of the clients or potential ones are 97% of the volume, action, or trouble according to your view. Since we now have over 20 products to build (23 as of Jason's count), feed with parts buys, and juggle with other priorities in assembly, the superficial answer is don't build so many products. For some percentage of the products, there are too many of them crammed into so little price bandwidth that I even get confused as to which DAC to give my nephew for Christmas. It is an easy trap to fall into, as new products come online, in a LINE of DACs, the space between them narrows. As long as there is demand for the old closely spaced product remains, the necessity for simplification remains in the background. We then have to look at which products are th e top 20% of trouble to make. Factors there not only include sales, but how hard the parts are to reliably schedule, which have the highest yields, and which confuse our clients the most. More on this in a bit.

Over the years, a strategem which began by accident has solidified this tendency. For example, I began the multibit DAC line with Yggdrasil, followed by the lesser priced Gumby, Bimby, and finally by MultiModi with a price drop of roughly half each step down. This resulted in some cannibalism of higher priced sales by lower priced units. At the same time the sigma delta DACs were built from the bottom up, with the resulting count of 6 DACs from $100 to $2300.

Of those 6 DACs, the top 4 are upgradable. That adds complexity, and makes more work for us. I will alway offer upgradable DACs because it is the best I can do to honor loyalty. There are those who believe that it is a ploy to extract more money and hose our clients forever as long as they remain using our products. I pay little attention to those as many of them believe any company/corporation exists solely to screw them; they will never be happy. There are those of use who use hobby to have pleasure. I am a people pleaser, believe it or not. Those are the people I work for. One of the ironies of being unemployable is the reality is that you always have to work for someone, in my case clients. The better I do at making what you want, the better I do myself, Yes, marketing exists – but if you believe it makes you want to buy one of my products you really do not want, then you are selling yourself really short. If I want to be a part of this market, I want to hang out with my peers – not a group of gullible dolts. That is why I chose it. (A huge plus: It is a phuc ton of fun.)

So What does this have to do with The Gadget? Something like this. It is another product for our mix. That means it should be fully baked. Yeah there are some DSP issues in the first gadget for 192KHz stuff. It is a very minor problem, and can always be redone later in a faster proc. The problem is that I came out with it at the same time as Eitr. Yeah, Gen V sound baby. In all of my wisdom, I wanted to bring it out at $200, which meant Magni/Modi chassis. To make the $200, with USB/Coax in (It was never intended to be the Coax only in out that I brought to RMAF, just what we had at the time.) it had to be Gen 3 USB in and was still really space constraining the Magni/Modi chassis. That's all fine except Gen 3 (or any non isolated USB) sounds like hemorrhoidal ass.

Then we have the fact that it is a single purpose component for $200. Worse, it is a single purpose component that no one understands. At the show and at the Schiitr people look at it and say "What is that?" The factual explanation is C=256. You can't even get to relative and absolute pitch before their eyes glaze over. A capella singers, adjusting flat to C=256, yada, yada. makes them comatose. Only if they are a musician who can actually read music and understand music theory do they understand. How do No one knows how to write a flyer for the Gadget. The reality is it is really simple.

The Flyer:

How do I use it, you ask? It is just like masturbation. You fool around with the knob until you get it. And when you get it, you GET it! There is only one knob, for God's sake.

But as a standalone product for $200 with yesterday's USB today that no one knows how to use – naah. Buried inside a DAC or a better EITR – Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

It is coming folks. Just a bit more down the road

1) Don't release it until it does everything you want it to do. If that means waiting 6 months for faster processors then so be it.
2) Use Gen 5 USB. You'd be foolish not to. And then put it in whatever size case that means: Gungnir?
3) Price it appropriately. Keep it under a grand and it's still an instant buy for me.
4) For marketing, get a few professional musicians to fiddle with it and give them a freebee in exchange for using their comments. Along the lines of Jason's brilliant "Obsolete" ad, call it "Throwback:" using the most advanced technology and algorithms in the world to create the sound of the past. Or "Eargasm" (unless that is trademarked.) Or something like that.

And, as Steve Miller wrote, keep on rockin' me, baby.

 

[belgiangenius]

1) Don't release it until it does everything you want it to do. If that means waiting 6 months for faster processors then so be it.
2) Use Gen 5 USB. You'd be foolish not to. And then put it in whatever size case that means: Gungnir?
3) Price it appropriately. Keep it under a grand and it's still an instant buy for me.
4) For marketing, get a few professional musicians to fiddle with it and give them a freebee in exchange for using their comments. Along the lines of Jason's brilliant "Obsolete" ad, call it "Throwback:" using the most advanced technology and algorithms in the world to create the sound of the past. Or "Eargasm" (unless that is trademarked.) Or something like that.

And, as Steve Miller wrote, keep on rockin' me, baby.

Ableza nailed this one.

USB in. Gen 5. AES/EBU out. Make it a tunable high-end Eitr.

 

[liamo]

......balanced with 8 band equalizer. Knobs aplenty.

 

[Alcophone]

Schiit's own USB implementation (gen 6?) should be smaller, maybe allowing to keep the Modi-sized case. Faster chips might be bigger, but in general that's just a matter of time.