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NwAvGuy has some not-very-nice things to say about Schiit. Basically, that they don't know how to design audio gear. He discovered that one of their amps could

by chroma 11y ago

NwAvGuy has some not-very-nice things to say about Schiit. Basically, that they don't know how to design audio gear. He discovered that one of their amps could damage your headphones. For this warning, he was banned from the Head-Fi forums: http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/banned-at-head-fi.html http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/banned-at-head-fi.html

ericzawo 11y ago
Whoa, never spotted this. Thanks for the relay
sanoli 11y ago
Not only banned him, but tried to deny his findings at first.
cthalupa 11y ago
NwAvGuy has his side of the story, Schiit has theirs. http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up/765#post_10463052 http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of... Personally, I'm extremely satisfied with the variety of Schiit gear I own, from my work Modi/Vali setup to my home Ragnarok/Yggdrasil
- chroma 11y ago
  I have some issues with Schiit's accounting. First, that much DC is simply unacceptable, even when removing power from an amp. Amps don't just lose power because they're deliberately turned off. Sometimes people trip over a cord. Sometimes, a circuit breaker trips. Sometimes, the power goes out. Sometimes, batteries die. None of this circumstances should endanger downstream equipment. Second, the fix is extremely simple. As Schiit admitted, it took less than a day to develop and ship boards without this issue. There is only one reason why a company would sell a device with this problem: incompetence. If they'd cop to screwing up, I'd respect them. Instead, they dissemble and equivocate. Third, so what if their own experiment didn't manage to destroy a pair of expensive headphones? "I can't reproduce this failure." doesn't mean, "This failure can never happen." The headphones only survived because they were designed with extremely robust safety factors. Even then, it's quite likely that Schiit's amp damaged the headphones. 1-2V of DC is way out of spec and has –in some cases– damaged and destroyed equipment. There is video of Schiit's amp distorting headphone drivers. That's crazy. No equipment should be doing that. Fourth, "other audiophile gear also does it" is not a valid excuse. As NwAvGuy has shown, Sturgeon's law[1] applies to this stuff. Just because there's lots of terrible gear out there, that doesn't mean it's OK to produce more terrible gear. After reading Schiit's accounting, I'm certain they lack the engineering knowledge to build safe, effective audio equipment. I think their intentions are good, but there's simply no excusing such a glaring oversight. In my book, Schiit is an anti-brand. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
- qb45 11y ago
  Exactly. The horse parent is beating has been dead for years now. It's been fixed and they've sold thousands of devices since then.
deleted 11y ago
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by chroma 11y ago

ericzawo 11y ago

Whoa, never spotted this. Thanks for the relay

sanoli 11y ago

Not only banned him, but tried to deny his findings at first.

cthalupa 11y ago

NwAvGuy has his side of the story, Schiit has theirs. http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up/765#post_10463052 http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of... Personally, I'm extremely satisfied with the variety of Schiit gear I own, from my work Modi/Vali setup to my home Ragnarok/Yggdrasil

chroma 11y ago
I have some issues with Schiit's accounting. First, that much DC is simply unacceptable, even when removing power from an amp. Amps don't just lose power because they're deliberately turned off. Sometimes people trip over a cord. Sometimes, a circuit breaker trips. Sometimes, the power goes out. Sometimes, batteries die. None of this circumstances should endanger downstream equipment. Second, the fix is extremely simple. As Schiit admitted, it took less than a day to develop and ship boards without this issue. There is only one reason why a company would sell a device with this problem: incompetence. If they'd cop to screwing up, I'd respect them. Instead, they dissemble and equivocate. Third, so what if their own experiment didn't manage to destroy a pair of expensive headphones? "I can't reproduce this failure." doesn't mean, "This failure can never happen." The headphones only survived because they were designed with extremely robust safety factors. Even then, it's quite likely that Schiit's amp damaged the headphones. 1-2V of DC is way out of spec and has –in some cases– damaged and destroyed equipment. There is video of Schiit's amp distorting headphone drivers. That's crazy. No equipment should be doing that. Fourth, "other audiophile gear also does it" is not a valid excuse. As NwAvGuy has shown, Sturgeon's law[1] applies to this stuff. Just because there's lots of terrible gear out there, that doesn't mean it's OK to produce more terrible gear. After reading Schiit's accounting, I'm certain they lack the engineering knowledge to build safe, effective audio equipment. I think their intentions are good, but there's simply no excusing such a glaring oversight. In my book, Schiit is an anti-brand. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
qb45 11y ago
Exactly. The horse parent is beating has been dead for years now. It's been fixed and they've sold thousands of devices since then.

deleted 11y ago

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