Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

head-fi.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 51 posts

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#6

Post by cnkeller »

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.

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#7

Post by qb45 »

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

Their FAQ states that it provides its own 5V power supply for the downstream device and somehow retransmits the USB packets using a high accuracy clock.

The power issue is definitely legitimate. USB power supplies are noisy and the noise can bleed to analog outputs if the soundcard has poor power supply noise rejection - I once built a USB-powered soundcard on the at90usb162 microcontroller and it produced a lot of background noise which was annoingly correlated with CPU activity. It went away when I inserted a 3.3V stabiliser between the USB power rail and the MCU, making it run from this 3.3V power. Reportedly, some commercial devices have similar issues (no links, but googling "USB DAC scrolling noise" may be a good starting point).

OTOH, I'm not sure about the importance of reclocking. USB audio cards synchronize their DAC clocks to USB host clock and hence any USB clock jitter induces DAC clock jitter which causes some amount of distortion, but I know of nobody who verified whether this is important in real world scenarios.

IIRC, clock jitter caused some real problems with SPDIF DACs back in 1980s and some people still feel more comfortable using "high-precision clocks".

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#8

Post by CamperBob2 »

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 
   cost basis, come from right here in the USA, from 
   companies manufacturing their products in the USA. ...
As the Least Interesting Guy in the Hardware World, I don't always start companies, but when I do, I always make sure to insult 75% of my potential market.

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#9

Post by cthalupa »

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

At the very least, Schiit seems to be pretty upfront that it probably doesn't help with audio quality in most cases:

++++++++++

  Sonic benefits? That’s a lot of hoo-ha!

  You’re right. There’s no reason this should make any system sound better. 
  Although we can measure the difference in USB power supply noise, it really 
  shouldn’t matter. Despite this, some listeners have said that there are sonic 
  benefits from using Wyrd. Us, we remain Swiss on the matter—we don’t do the 
  hard sell by promising sonic nirvana.

  Are you saying I need to get this thing if I have a USB DAC?

  Nope, not at all. Most USB DACs work just fine when running on computer power, 
  without any hitches, glitches, or strange noises. However, if you have USB power 
  problems, this is a great way to eliminate them. Especially if it’s a USB-powered 
  DAC.

  Well, I could just buy a $20 powered hub if I’m having USB port power 
  management problems, right?

  Yep you can, and yep, that would solve that problem.
++++++++++

There's plenty of snake oil to go around in the audiophile community, but Schiit has always seemed to be especially forthright about what their products can and can't do.

(Disclaimer: I own a fair amount of Schiit gear and am a very satisfied customer, so I'm definitely biased positively towards the company)

Re: The Story of Schiit Audio (2014)

#10

Post by cthalupa »

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
Post reply on HN