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The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

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Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#11

Post by CamperBob2 »

cthalupa wrote: post #10
CamperBob2 wrote: post #8

From the company's 'About' page: Do you seriously make your stuff in the USA? Yep. We worked long and hard to get our designs and chassis so they could be assembled by first-world labor for prices similar to the Chinese. ... But wouldn’t it be cheaper doing it in China? Maybe. But we’re not going to find out. Well, hell, all your parts are probably Chinese anyway, right? Um, no. The majority of our parts, on a total…

I'm not entirely sure that I'd consider that insulting, but, from the forward: Be memorable—this isn’t about getting everyone to like you, this is about getting some people to love you. The company isn't built around catering to a massive amount of people, but instead a niche. And there's definitely a market out there that is very much swayed by the "Made in the USA, from parts sourced in the USA" line of rhetoric

Yeah, absolutely, and I really like a lot of what I'm reading in the .PDF that darinf put together.

But this is still an instance of taking the low road. We all live on the same planet, and commercial jingoism isn't the way forward.

Edit: if you "aren't sure if you consider it insulting," try reversing the roles. Imagine a Chinese company that brags about how they avoid using parts and labor from the US whenever possible. How do you suppose that will play in Peoria?

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#12

Post by hoipaloi »

NwAvGuy is the truly interesting story, NwAvGuy was some anonymous person who went to audio forums and warred on Schiit pointing out technical problems with their products and the way they do their marketing. I guess someone said if he knew so much about audio why didn't he go out and design and build his own stuff and so he did exactly that designing a headphone amp that has "legendary" status, and then he disappeared... His headphone amp: http://nwavguy.blogspot.com.br/2011/07/o2-headphone-amp.html

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#13

Post by ggreer »

darklajid wrote: post #5

I didn't know about this company. Can anyone explain to my if this [1] is something more than snakeoil? 1: http://schiit.com/products/wyrd

Some of their products are worse than snake oil. When powering off, Schiit's Asgard amp can output enough DC to damage some headphones. One Head-Fi user recorded a video of this happening. NWAvGuy tried to get answers from Jason Stoddard and ended up being banned from the Head-Fi forums. The whole fiasco is summarized on NWAvGuy's blog.[1] Of course NWAvGuy isn't the most tactful person, but Head-Fi's reaction seems quite overzealous.

1. http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/banned-at-head-fi.html

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#14

Post by mkozlows »

ggreer wrote: post #13
darklajid wrote: post #5

I didn't know about this company. Can anyone explain to my if this [1] is something more than snakeoil? 1: http://schiit.com/products/wyrd

Some of their products are worse than snake oil. When powering off, Schiit's Asgard amp can output enough DC to damage some headphones. One Head-Fi user recorded a video of this happening. NWAvGuy tried to get answers from Jason Stoddard and ended up being banned from the Head-Fi forums. The whole fiasco is summarized on NWAvGuy's blog.[1] Of course NWAvGuy isn't the most tactful person, but Head-Fi's reaction seems…

Your tenses are wrong. They used to have that problem, but they fixed it (including a retro-fix for previously sold units), and no current models have that issue.

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#15

Post by [deleted] »

ggreer wrote: post #13
darklajid wrote: post #5

I didn't know about this company. Can anyone explain to my if this [1] is something more than snakeoil? 1: http://schiit.com/products/wyrd

Some of their products are worse than snake oil. When powering off, Schiit's Asgard amp can output enough DC to damage some headphones. One Head-Fi user recorded a video of this happening. NWAvGuy tried to get answers from Jason Stoddard and ended up being banned from the Head-Fi forums. The whole fiasco is summarized on NWAvGuy's blog.[1] Of course NWAvGuy isn't the most tactful person, but Head-Fi's reaction seems…

[deleted]

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#16

Post by bootload »

"... But when it came time to order screws, that $800 almost brought the whole mess down. ..."

The best line from this factory tour at SME [0], a maker of high precision audio [1] is, 'we make our own screws'. [2]

[0] History of SME, http://www.sme.ltd.uk/content/History-1307.shtml [1] http://www.sme.ltd.uk/content/History-1307.shtml [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2xQkexHT-M

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#17

Post by cthalupa »

ggreer wrote: post #13
darklajid wrote: post #5

I didn't know about this company. Can anyone explain to my if this [1] is something more than snakeoil? 1: http://schiit.com/products/wyrd

Some of their products are worse than snake oil. When powering off, Schiit's Asgard amp can output enough DC to damage some headphones. One Head-Fi user recorded a video of this happening. NWAvGuy tried to get answers from Jason Stoddard and ended up being banned from the Head-Fi forums. The whole fiasco is summarized on NWAvGuy's blog.[1] Of course NWAvGuy isn't the most tactful person, but Head-Fi's reaction seems…

>Some of their products are worse than snake oil. When powering off, Schiit's Asgard amp can output enough DC to damage some headphones.

Early versions of the product came without a power relay, with the implication being you should have the volume pot all the way down, and unplug your headphones before ever turning the amp on or off. That is fairly standard precaution with the higher end of audio equipment, which both Stoddard and Moffat came from. Not so much in the market that they were targeting with the Asgard.

Since then, they've added a relay to all of their amps that need one, and have offered to add one to any amp that was sold prior to this for free.

Stoddard goes over the incident with the Schiit side of the story at http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of...

NWAvGuy wasn't actually banned for his interactions with Schiit, but due to the very strict advertising rules at Head-Fi. http://www.head-fi.org/t/584763/the-wizard-appreciation-thre...

The Asgard never actually permanently damaged or destroyed any headphones. The Schiit Lyr, however, did kill a $1.5k pair of Ultrasones Ed 8s, but this was due to an actual defect with a specific unit. Schiit replaced the Ultrasone and the Lyr for the owner.

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#18

Post by throwawayaway »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #11
cthalupa wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not entirely sure that I'd consider that insulting, but, from the forward: Be memorable—this isn’t about getting everyone to like you, this is about getting some people to love you. The company isn't built around catering to a massive amount of people, but instead a niche. And there's definitely a market out there that is very much swayed by the "Made in the USA, from parts sourced in the USA" line of rhetoric

Yeah, absolutely, and I really like a lot of what I'm reading in the .PDF that darinf put together. But this is still an instance of taking the low road. We all live on the same planet, and commercial jingoism isn't the way forward. Edit: if you "aren't sure if you consider it insulting," try reversing the roles. Imagine a Chinese company that brags about how they avoid using parts and labor from the US whenever poss…

official chinese military grade stuff? sign me up. people who are opinionated can sometimes be talented, i don't take it as a negative indicator.

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#19

Post by sondr3 »

cnkeller wrote: post #6
darklajid wrote: post #5

I didn't know about this company. Can anyone explain to my if this [1] is something more than snakeoil? 1: http://schiit.com/products/wyrd

I don't have any experience with the Wyrd, but I have a MacPro connected to a Bifrost DAC and Asgard 2 amplifier running to a pair of Sennheiser 650 headphones (work/live in a noisy environment). Completely satisfied.

Did you upgrade straight to the Bifrost/Asgard or did you have something like the Vali/Modi before or? I currently have those, but I'm looking at upgrades some time in the future.

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#20

Post by CamperBob2 »

throwawayaway wrote: post #18
CamperBob2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, absolutely, and I really like a lot of what I'm reading in the .PDF that darinf put together. But this is still an instance of taking the low road. We all live on the same planet, and commercial jingoism isn't the way forward. Edit: if you "aren't sure if you consider it insulting," try reversing the roles. Imagine a Chinese company that brags about how they avoid using parts and labor from the US whenever poss…

official chinese military grade stuff? sign me up. people who are opinionated can sometimes be talented, i don't take it as a negative indicator.

Who in the world said anything about "military grade stuff"?

This site seems to be trying to be the next Digg.

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