What a pile of Schiit


Sorry, most of us just can’t resist.

So I was looking at the Schiit Asgard and wanted it with a phono card. The web site does not provide the phono option on the drop down even though the owners manual clearly states this is an option. The only way to get it is to order it separately . When you do that, not only does it cost more but it voids the return policy even though Schiit installed it! Now if I ordered the phono card separately, and did a self install, I could return it. But, here again, you are not given an option on the site of purchasing it that way. Note the other preamps have drop downs that allow the option of factory or self installation of these cards at $50 savings either way. Insane.

So I emailed Schiit and Laura dogmatically states there is nothing that can be done, that’s the way it is.

 

Anyone else had similar experience with this company?

Has anyone listened to this phono card option on any of their modular headphone amps?

corelli

Schiit is an interesting company. The 2 principals of the company have decades of experience in high-end audio (Sumo/Stoddard & Theta/Moffat). Theta was a particularly visionary brand in early digital...one that resonates to this day with the growing popularity of multibit and NOS DACs. After 20-30 years in the high-end 2-channel trenches, these men started Schiit. In a way, that’s when things got way more interesting.

Headphone audio was never as big as high-end 2-channel audio (which itself was never close to big using any standard business metric). But headphone audio was vestigial back in the day. But since 2010 when Schiit was started, headphone audio has grown a LOT. It’s still not truly big, but it’s certainly bigger than before. And Schiit clearly had something to do with that growth.

Schiit was among the first headphone audio companies to offer a coherent product & model set, affordably priced and offering clear upgrade paths within the Schiit product domain. These guys really know what they’re doing as businessmen. This includes watching other meta-trends in audio, like the resurgence of vinyl, which was repeatedly declared dead yet never went away. And so Schiit launched a turntable a couple years ago.

As for me, I have a lot of headphone gear--not just the headphones, but also electronics (8 amplifiers, several of which are also preamps; 3 DACs; SPDIF/DDC boxes; etc). My headphone audio tastes (and wallet) took me higher up the audio food chain than Schiit. But I’ve run into them often.

Schiit is a big exhibitor at headphone audio shows. I mean large booths, multiple representatives staffing it, lots of product. They do it right. I’ve heard a number of their products at shows. I admire the clever design and product differentiation of the company’s gear.

I only bought one Schiit product. It was B-stock (a SPDIF converter). It didn’t work well, so I called, hoping to get the "no returns for B-stock" policy waived. No such luck. Schiit is matter-of-fact to the point of bluntness in their dealings with customers. No warm hugs and favors. That's who they are; they don’t apologize for it.

I have no axe to grind with this company. If you're getting started in headphone audio, you would do well to check out their stuff. Beyond their low-end lineup, their big DAC, Yggdrasil (not cheap, but also not terribly expensive by high-end standards) competes well with other big DACs (some far more expensive) in the high-end world.

In fact, that DAC’s name illustrates my only real beef with Schiit. The names (and nicknames) drive me nuts. Hard to say, hard to spell, hard to remember. The names seem affected. Beyond that, I wish them well...

I’ve got two Aegirs, a Freya and an Yggy. I don’t think you can get better SQ for the money.

HOWEVER, their customer service is pretty bad. Either there’s no high level person in charge of customer service, they don’t train their people, or they can’t find good people. Every manufacturer is suffering from the same problems since the COVID giveaways started.

 

Thats why I am a Bryston fan. I bought a used BDP Pi. MM error’d out first thing. I called up Bryston and said hey I know you dont have to help 😿 but blah blah blah. They shipped me the hardware,tools and instructions to fix it without a question and free of charge.

BOT-1 not even made or supported now but I shipped mine back and they checked it out, again for free.

@ cjveltman

Thomas Crapper, the Brit who invented the flushable loo way back in the day, might have a thing or two to say about this company.

Another, far more contemporary, enthusiast for what Schiit manufactures is Randall Messman, whose "brain housing unit" (that’s how Randall himself describes the seat of his thought processes) inspired him to become "The Cheap Audio Man." He is a big proponent of GOOD-VALUE-FOR-MONEY, INEXPENSIVE audio gear. Schiitt occupies a prime place in the top echelon of his recommendations. His many YouTube reviews are well worth watching: here’s one sample of his art: Room Treatment Doesn’t Work... Sometimes, Grunge Music is the Best, and Ron is BACK!!!!!! - YouTube

Randall’s reviews are a lot of fun to watch, and he has a great way of lightening up our sometimes-all-too-serious audiophile discussions.