Don Hills
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Split from the Introductions thread:
I was surprised to see Schiit in the list because all their marketing material that I've seen has been almost devoid of any puffery or woo, in contrast to the other companies in your list. To use your example of USB decrapifiers, the marketing material for their box (the "Wyrd") says, in part:
I agree, their hardware isn't bombproof. The hardware from small companies (and sadly, some large ones) rarely is. But they are transparent about the design and debug process, which does appeal to me, being a technically minded person. I assume you've been following Jason's "blog" thread over at Head-Fi?
As for Mike's "Gadget", it falls under the same category as the Loki (A tone control / equaliser). If you like your sound the way it comes off the source, you don't buy it. I have no reason to doubt it does what he says it does. I don't see how it can be an improvement on the source(*), but I am interested in hearing it in action. Hopefully there'll be some before/after samples posted once people start getting their hands on it.
(*) Same for MQA. I'm interested in the technical details of how MQA actually works, though.
... I'm not a great fan of Shakti Stones, clever little clocks, wooden boxes of dirt with wire terminals on the back ("grounding devices"), products manufactured by Synergistic Research (or the aptly named Schiit), or the various USB "filtering" products that non-engineers have been selling. ...
... What don't you like about Schiit Audio products? ...
1) Lots of marketing bluster without the engineering chops to back it up
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/budget-dac-review-schiit-modi-2-99.1649/
AND
2) nonsense like this
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/schiit-gadget-music-tuning-box.1980/
I was surprised to see Schiit in the list because all their marketing material that I've seen has been almost devoid of any puffery or woo, in contrast to the other companies in your list. To use your example of USB decrapifiers, the marketing material for their box (the "Wyrd") says, in part:
Improves Sound, Color Printing, Data Stability
Yes. Some listeners say Wyrd improves the sound of their system. We won't make any such claim to sonic nirvana—sorry, creating expectation bias and neuro-lingustic programming ain't something that we do. Sonic improvements are for you to decide. The rest of it—color printing and data stability—that’s like saying charging your iPhone off Wyrd makes the battery last longer. Have fun with that one.
I agree, their hardware isn't bombproof. The hardware from small companies (and sadly, some large ones) rarely is. But they are transparent about the design and debug process, which does appeal to me, being a technically minded person. I assume you've been following Jason's "blog" thread over at Head-Fi?
As for Mike's "Gadget", it falls under the same category as the Loki (A tone control / equaliser). If you like your sound the way it comes off the source, you don't buy it. I have no reason to doubt it does what he says it does. I don't see how it can be an improvement on the source(*), but I am interested in hearing it in action. Hopefully there'll be some before/after samples posted once people start getting their hands on it.
(*) Same for MQA. I'm interested in the technical details of how MQA actually works, though.