I spouted off on Jason’s forum the other day re my complete disdain of crowdfunding. It led to questions which among others were:
Don’t you need public endorsement before you build something?
How do you decide what products you build?
Do we worry about obsolescence?
Given my experience, here are a few things I do know. Market driven companies will survey what they perceive their market may be, look at what their competitors have already built, and arrive at well or poorly founded conclusions of what needs to be built. Since Zap Electronics already makes a 1Kw amp for $99.99, how about we make another class D kilowatt amplifier with coffee cup warmer personalized to your desktop for only $89.95. Yeah! The fallacy of this logic is “Whatever all of our competitors know is superior to what we know – therefore we must win on price or features.” How boring; this is the definition of yet another “me too” company. These companies occupy the majority of the exhibit space at any given audio show. Definitely neither Schiit, me, nor Jason.
(This is not to be confused with marketing communication, which is Jason’s incredible area of expertise. This depends on how to present products already chosen. Forgive the digression.)
Engineering driven audio companies often rely on perceived (there’s that “perceived” word again) gee whiz topology and features desired by their crowned and blessed technology gurus. The valid (sometimes not) technological rationale too often relies on odd concepts translated to performance of little general importance to few at huge cost to all. To make it worse, they often sport user interfaces which adjust little necessary and all unnecessary parameters. This caters to the less than the 2% of the 2% who not only can understand but possess the persistence to read the 642 page poorly written user manual. The fallacy of this logic is the lie that “If I build it, people will buy”. This is the hubris of most high-end audio companies.
It is because music is a subjective, emotional thing that micro audio cultures evolve: tubes, analog, moving coil cartridges, balanced, single-ended, bipolar transistors, planars, electrostats, etc. etc. Designers’ imagined mandates prevail. It is impossible to argue in a cultural market on any level other than emotional. Design culture morphs into tribal chants. All logic becomes irrelevant. Any and all technologies have logical pros and cons. If you build a company culture solely on design culture you will soon design yourself into a corner and wither.
So the Schiit culture is a composite one not limited to tribal product design concepts. I am fortunate to be able to build whatever I need to, and have the resources to add whoever (Dr. Ivana) or whatever I need to bring never before built projects to fruition.
So I won’t anytime soon be meditating in communal bliss with the ascended masters to seek guidance for product development. My surveys consist of rants, mostly on this forum. One of my good friends who didn’t make it back from Vietnam was very religious. He used to say “God talks to me all of the time. The problem is that I usually don’t listen.” Funny how he taught me to listen to and read between the lines of those I meet on this long, strange, audio trip.
That is how I decide what to build.
