Schiit Audio has always been more interested in delivering the best experience for the money. I think through ten years we have done well in that arena. We will still continue to deliver products that we enjoy and that we would want to own. However, there was a population of the audiophile community that we were not serving. Heresy is our first delivery to those denizens. Enjoy. We are far from done here.
I hope to continue to foster more conversations and discussions about these different philosophies in the future. I have a lot to learn myself and I look forward to bringing something new to the conversation.
Overall, Schiit has been good for the hobby and the industry!
Early Schiit products had some issues, but compared to the rest of the market 10 years ago, they were generally a good value and sounded fine - a lot of the alleged issues were of questionable audibility. Schiit's competition was generally a bunch of overpriced stuff that cost several times as much, and usually had its own issues with regards to objective performance. I think a lot of the criticism of "early Schiit" tended to overlook these points.
Over time Schiit has evolved and right now it has some great performing products. Folks can argue about specific Schiit products, but many of Schiit's current products are very competitive. I don't think you can point to too many audiophile electronics companies with a stronger or more varied lineup of products under $1K.
Topping, SMSL, and JDS Labs come to mind, but only JDS Labs (I think) is USA-based, which is nice for folks who live here and want to support American companies when possible.
Heresy is our first delivery to those denizens. Enjoy. We are far from done here.
I hope to continue to foster more conversations and discussions about these different philosophies in the future. I have a lot to learn myself and I look forward to bringing something new to the conversation.
By "those denizens," do you mean folks who value equipment that measures well?
Well, hopefully a lesson is learned here. Heresy (and competitor's products like the JDS Labs Atom) show that there's no need to choose. There can be gear at reasonable prices that measures great and sounds great.
After all, the only reason folks like us care about the objective, measurable performance of our gear is because generally, "what sounds good" happens to be gear that reproduces audio with minimal distortion.
Can't wait to see what's next!