Article: The Disruption Continues At Schiit Audio

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[LarryMagoo]

So proud to be associated with Jason and Mike by way of having their products in all my music kits!

 

Their TT will probably be another great value if Vinyl is your thing! 

[NOMBEDES]

This is what I have been bitching about for ... weeks, well, maybe months.  

 

Screw these people who build audio systems that only ship to Russia or China.  Few of the people who can afford these systems came by their money honestly.  Further, Computer Audio is only for serious hobbyists or computer scientists with advanced degrees.  I mean what the hell is a unbto frumisus bandersnach?  Have you read some of the posts on this site? Classical Hebrew would be more understandable than the techno-gibberish these people spout.

 

Now comes Schiit with some nice, affordable, kit.  This is the salvation we have been waiting for.  

Burn your copies of Stereophile, delete Mono and Stereo from your browser, audio porn has the same deleterious effects as old fashioned porn it destroys your enjoyment of good music on a good system. I see this comment all the time..."oh I can't be happy with my system, I need to upgrade to the model XYZ"  boo hoo I call BS.  

 

Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat deserve high praise for their down to earth approach to audio.

 

 

 

[firedog]

I have a Freya. I wouldn't call it a statement preamp, but it is very good. I think you would have to spend several times its price to get something better. 

I've also owned 2 under $100 Schiit products, both of which were great values.

 

It's good to see a company repeatedly creating real value for customers.

[Ralf11]

Great news!

[cjf]

Cool stuff...The amps seem like a great solution to power an Office or Bedroom rig at an affordable price point.

 

I wonder if the Eitr uses an SMPS Wall Wart for power? I'd be curious to see some Jitter measurements for the SPDIF Output on this guy.

 

Many people cry about how bad USB is as an Audio Interface but one thing thats hard to argue is how good the interface is at rejecting Jitter. That is of course assuming it was implemented properly and is of the Asynchronous type.

 

It seems the industry is constantly bouncing back and forth on the best way to stream audio from a computer. Asynchronous USB was developed to fix the Jitter issues with SPDIF and Optical and now we are heading back in the other direction to avoid the power line/noise related voodo supposedly associated with USB.

 

The fun never ends, it seems

[pas]

46 minutes ago, cjf said:

Cool stuff...The amps seem like a great solution to power an Office or Bedroom rig at an affordable price point.

 

I wonder if the Eitr uses an SMPS Wall Wart for power? I'd be curious to see some Jitter measurements for the SPDIF Output on this guy.

 

Many people cry about how bad USB is as an Audio Interface but one thing thats hard to argue is how good the interface is at rejecting Jitter. That is of course assuming it was implemented properly and is of the Asynchronous type.

 

It seems the industry is constantly bouncing back and forth on the best way to stream audio from a computer. Asynchronous USB was developed to fix the Jitter issues with SPDIF and Optical and now we are heading back in the other direction to avoid the power line/noise related voodo supposedly associated with USB.

 

The fun never ends, it seems

USB Input: 1 in (Type B) 
USB Mode: USB 2.0 (480Mbps), compatible with USB 3/3.1 ports 
USB Receiver: C-Media CM6631A
USB Isolation: Electromagnetic and electrostatic isolation via high-speed transformers
USB Power: 0mA required from source
Clocks: separate crystal clocks for both 44.1kHz and 48kHz multiples
SPDIF Output: 1 coaxial (RCA) output
Power Supply Type: linear, with precision low-noise voltage regulators
AC Power: 9VA 6VAC wall-wart
Power Consumption: 2.5W typical
Size: 5 x 3.5 x 1.25”
Weight: 1 lb

[firedog]

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[esldude]

Vidar looks like a pretty nice amp for the money etc.  OTOH, why is this disruptive?

 

For one comparison I don't see a big huge advantage to the very similarly spec'd, less expesnive, more powerful amplifier like this one here:

 

https://emotiva.com/products/amplifiers/300

 

Does the microprocessor in this one also cause odd behaviour like the Ragnarok tested by Stereophile?  I would think it does.

[ShawnC]

39 minutes ago, esldude said:

Vidar looks like a pretty nice amp for the money etc.  OTOH, why is this disruptive?

 

For one comparison I don't see a big huge advantage to the very similarly spec'd, less expesnive, more powerful amplifier like this one here:

 

https://emotiva.com/products/amplifiers/300

 

I don't think this amp can do mono.  The new Schitt one can, which has me slightly interested.  Although I'd just buy another Emotiva XPA2 and run both as mono, I think that would give me close to 1000 watts per channel, overkill?  Probably

[ZenGentleman]

I'm excited to be #22 in the queue for my USB Gen5 upgrade to my Bifrist Multibit! Upon further inquiry, the company stated that once I receive my RMA# Invite it should take 5 business days for the upgrade, once received. Thankfully, I live 20 minutes from the Schiit warehouse and will be saving a bit of time (and shipping costs) by dropping off my DAC and picking it up when it's done. Don't know how I'm going to live without it over those 5 days but I'm excited to hear some (hopefully) incremental improvements when it comes home to the rest of my Schiit stack (Valhalla 2 amp, Wyrd USB Decrapifier).

[rgom]

About the EITR, I've read in the Head-Fi forums that Mike M of Schiit explored the benefits of galvanic isolation from the postings of folks over there who have been using AOIP (Rednets) as their transport between PC and DAC.

This is the interface I am using and was quite shocked at the vast improvement in SQ.

I have no intention of ever going back to usb interface as a result.

[jimx1169]

One could take one step back in their product line for the DAC and pre-amp and come up with a system that probably would sound 99% as good as their flagship pieces.

Gungnir Multibit - $1249

Saga Pre-amp - $349

Vidar amp - $699

Total - $2297

That's a complete system for $2 less than cost of the Yggdrasil.  Serious value.

 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, jimx1169 said:

One could take one step back in their product line for the DAC and pre-amp and come up with a system that probably would sound 99% as good as their flagship pieces.

Gungnir Multibit - $1249

Saga Pre-amp - $349

Vidar amp - $699

Total - $2297

That's a complete system for $2 less than cost of the Yggdrasil.  Serious value.

 

Good point and shows the value they can give you. I bet that would be a seriously good system. Don't think it would be 99% of a "big brother" system, but for that price, killer. 

[jimx1169]

4 hours ago, firedog said:

Good point and shows the value they can give you. I bet that would be a seriously good system. Don't think it would be 99% of a "big brother" system, but for that price, killer. 

Yeah, I probably should have said "...would sound nearly as good as..."

Going to add a Vidar to complement your Freya?

[firedog]

12 hours ago, jimx1169 said:

Yeah, I probably should have said "...would sound nearly as good as..."

Going to add a Vidar to complement your Freya?

No, I only use the Freya occasionally. It's not in my main playback setup, which has active speakers. 

[unbalanced output]

On 18/07/2017 at 9:57 AM, esldude said:

Vidar looks like a pretty nice amp for the money etc.  OTOH, why is this disruptive?

 

For one comparison I don't see a big huge advantage to the very similarly spec'd, less expesnive, more powerful amplifier like this one here:

 

https://emotiva.com/products/amplifiers/300

 

Does the microprocessor in this one also cause odd behaviour like the Ragnarok tested by Stereophile?  I would think it does.

 

I second your opinion. They indeed have a disruptive marketing approach, however technically - I have yet to see it. 

 

I was once curious about their amplifier, however it apparently has problems driving high loads at low impedances. I'm very happy I bought an amp with a "reliable" toroidal transformer instead. 

 

And I quote Boris the Blade - "heavy is good, heavy is reliable. If it fails, you can always hit him with it"