Schiit Fulla E DAC & Amp Review

[Jim Shaw]

Well spoken for a lawyer or a Schiit fanboy.
To a regular consumer and/or a consumerist; you might as well have used the standard excuse for shoddy hardware of "but... but.. the dog ate my homework!"

Neither. An engineer (Reg. P.E.) with decades of experience with the Uniform Commercial Code and expressed and implied warranties. Recalls are generally restricted to proven product safety issues, your product satisfaction notwithstanding.

Your qualifications? Never mind...

 

[pseudoid]

Neither. An engineer (Reg. P.E.) with decades of experience with the Uniform Commercial Code and expressed and implied warranties. Recalls are generally restricted to proven product safety issues, your product satisfaction notwithstanding.

Your qualifications? Never mind...

What do 'qualifications' got to do with price of rice in China?
Shoddy audio hardware w/such problems from manufacturers who [pretend to] serve the hi-end audio market, make a mockery of the consumers and the industry as a whole.
I don't think anyone needs a Reg. P.E license to call Schiit Fulla exactly what its name implies.
But making excuses -- especially as an engineer -- for shoddy design/test/manufacture practices even gives engineering a bad name.

To be more blunt; We used to call such QA practices (... or lack thereof) "WSS" << as in "We Ship Sh*t" and remove such companies from our qualified parts management systems.
But again, I am from the Caveat Emptor camp more than I would like to brag about my education and experience. YMMV.

 

[Jim Shaw]

What do 'qualifications' got to do with price of rice in China?

You're funny when you lose it.
Funny peculiar becomes funny haha...

 

[Jimster480]

this used to be a quite better option before the massive waves of highly competitive products in the 100bucks category. I know performance is not so good but with a mic port, this compact size and the narrative that is more directed at "gamers" instead of "audiophiles".... I think it's still going to be a nice for some, albeit not the best bang for the bucks.

The performance overall isn't bad but the firmware clock bug needs to be fixed ASAP.

Also @amirm what about the channel balance and mic/line in performance?

 

[TonyJZX]

schiit is a funny company

i think to me nothing says 'Schiit" more than the Freya 'non tube' vs. Freya 'Tube' reviews.

One gets the "hole in the one', the other gets the 'hanging panther'... how does a company acheive this incredible milestone?>

and so it leads me to this $100 unit... I think their design screwed up that's it... is it fixable via firmware? does it matter

this product will be done and gone in 18 months with an upgraded version coming out

overall i'm not surprised when a $100 thing like this doesnt measure up... its just endemic when they neeed to push product out asap

 

[Jimster480]

schiit is a funny company

i think to me nothing says 'Schiit" more than the Freya 'non tube' vs. Freya 'Tube' reviews.

One gets the "hole in the one', the other gets the 'hanging panther'... how does a company acheive this incredible milestone?>

and so it leads me to this $100 unit... I think their design screwed up that's it... is it fixable via firmware? does it matter

this product will be done and gone in 18 months with an upgraded version coming out

overall i'm not surprised when a $100 thing like this doesnt measure up... its just endemic when they neeed to push product out asap

I mean its a pretty cool device that could enhance the quality of sound for gaming headsets and other entry level audiophile headphones. The thing is though that most gamers use wireless headphones to game with (as do I) because the sound quality in games like COD isn't the most important thing. So I think it will be a hard sell for many "gamers" .The other thing is that the default output is 1/4th which means that no gaming headset would plug in natively since everything is 3.5mm....

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Disappointingly sloppy on the attention to detail, but on a $100 product, seems to make the mark. I think this is suffering from it's new life as a desktop unit, really it started as a dongle and I would think someone who doesn't want portability would use Hel (bigger, far more powerful version of Fulla).

Nothing on the mike input? What about listening? Does any of the problems you showed come out in listening tests?

Maybe include some Audio Technica 40x (those are the best value I read) as gamers are unlikely to use Sennheiser or DCA with this device.

 

[Jimster480]

Disappointingly sloppy on the attention to detail, but on a $100 product, seems to make the mark. I think this is suffering from it's new life as a desktop unit, really it started as a dongle and I would think someone who doesn't want portability would use Hel (bigger, far more powerful version of Fulla).

Nothing on the mike input? What about listening? Does any of the problems you showed come out in listening tests?

Maybe include some Audio Technica 40x (those are the best value I read) as gamers are unlikely to use Sennheiser or DCA with this device.

Basically; I can't imagine anyone using actually expensive headphones with this unit especially with it being targeted at gamers.
Let us see if they can fix the firmware issues first though

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Some kind of partial recall would be warranted in my opinion if the clock sync issue identified by @amirm in his original review is audible. If it is, and the firmware on these units is not user-upgradeable, Schiit should issue a statement and offer to upgrade the firmware on all the affected units in the field.

If it is a glitch with no audible impact, then we are in a grey area.

Where did you study law? You seem to have a 8 year old's sophistication with regards to how contract law works in the real world. You think the courts have time for your complaints?

Also, how would that ever be audible? Do you see all it is a very short dropout. No way to hear such a sort dropout with music. With a steady state tones, I don't know but I just don't think the speaker or the ear stops vibrating quickly enough to catch it.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Basically; I can't imagine anyone using actually expensive headphones with this unit especially with it being targeted at gamers.
Let us see if they can fix the firmware issues first though

You believe they'll have this fixed before the end of the year, assuming everyone's at work through the holidays.

Because you follow this industry enough to know.

 

[Jimster480]

Where did you study law? You seem to have a 8 year old's sophistication with regards to how contract law works in the real world. You think the courts have time for your complaints?

Also, how would that ever be audible? Do you see all it is a very short dropout. No way to hear such a sort dropout with music. With a steady state tones, I don't know but I just don't think the speaker or the ear stops vibrating quickly enough to catch it.

Actually they could be liable if it is indeed audible. And it could definitely be audible. Part of what they originally attacked me over was a similar firmware bug and that would cause pops and cracks on tracks with silent parts or very low volume parts. This made for an annoying listening experience to get a full amplitude pop/crack sound during a silent portion of a track.
I think that people thought of it as the sound that a record needle can make. However it's much more annoying and frequent during quieter tracks.

You believe they'll have this fixed before the end of the year, assuming everyone's at work through the holidays.

Because you follow this industry enough to know.

Depends on the company. When it comes to Chinese companies like topping they would have it fixed over our holidays because they don't mostly celebrate the same holidays as the West does typically. However if something broke over Chinese New Year then it would not be fixed usually until after Chinese New Year.
However they don't normally launch brand new products right before Chinese New Year for this exact reason.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Still got a few dingleberries as we see from Amir bustin' out the pack of Audio Precision wet wipes, but for the cost and size its not too bad. And yeah, the terrible puns can go on forever...

Still in such a small form-factor it would be nice for work or travel. Edit: The only real complaint is not being able to swing much past 2V so out of luck with anything other than low impedance headphones. Would have been nice to see some sort of BTL arrangement or a boost converter, but oh well...

If you need more power, pay for it. 1.2 v at 32 ohm, 109 sinad points. 200 buckaroonies.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Actually they could be liable if it is indeed audible

Really? You think the government has time to order a local company to fix something that all you need to do is turn it on and off anyway, and it doesn't happen. What's the relay, seconds? You can't wait?

It's a good thing chemical companies aren't putting anything in our food that can cause cancer. They'd be in big trouble.

 

[Jimster480]

If you need more power, pay for it. 1.2 v at 32 ohm, 109 sinad points. 200 buckaroonies.

You're totally right. Buy Topping. They have more power at the same price and portable too! Better sinad figures as well. Just skip This entirely. As a bonus you get to support a more honest company!

Really? You think the government has time to order a local company to fix something that all you need to do is turn it on and off anyway, and it doesn't happen. What's the relay, seconds? You can't wait?

It's a good thing chemical companies aren't putting anything in our food that can cause cancer. They'd be in big trouble.

They don't and won't because governments are mostly useless. This is just a theoretical situation assuming a government did its job, which is an oxymoron in itself.

 

[MaxBuck]

Adequate performance and high style nudged me to a "fine" rating for this inexpensive little guy. Not a product for me, but it certainly isn't a lemon.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

You're totally right. Buy Topping. They have more power at the same price and portable too! Better sinad figures as well. Just skip This entirely. As a bonus you get to support a more honest company!

They don't and won't because governments are mostly useless. This is just a theoretical situation assuming a government did its job, which is an oxymoron in itself.

Topping can do what I showed for 200? Which product? A dac and amp? 1.2 volts with 109 sinad and mic input?

AND a real Alps pot?

I don't doubt it just curious.

 

[birdog1960]

fulla shitte, really? Is that a thing? Rectum? Damn near killed em...

 

[ribonucleic]

I needed something cheap to plug into my laptop that could power a pair of Sennheiser 6XXs. I bought this. In fact, I'm rocking out with it at this very moment. [With assist from The Cult.]

If someone stole it, I would buy another one.

The panther yells "Fore!"

 

[dave_speed]

Is the sample rate bug fixed ? Is there a firmware update ?

 

[staticV3]

Is the sample rate bug fixed ? Is there a firmware update ?

Schiit doesn't do firmware updates.