Does Anyone Buy Schiit for the Sake of Schiit?

After hearing and reading a few reviews I bought a Loki it was a fun buy reasonably priced and it is fun changing the sound of my system. I initially was going to return the product and Schiits staff could not have been more helpful in that regard. I had second thoughts. So now it is up to its durability and reliability to win me over in the long run. 

What a crazy Hobby this is.  I haven’t had the pleasure of owning or hearing Schiit gear.  I have read about the history of their company, products, concepts of how they bring products to market.  Their model of using their technical expertise and experience to create products at more affordable prices while uniquely listening to their customer base, the customers being allowed to drive models / production while being made in the USA.  What about any of the above isn’t to like, weather you like the way their products sounds is subjective.  
 

The magic in this Hobby is that gear isn’t merely the sum of its parts.  A company can have a ton of R&D funding, put out products that have the best specs on paper but be bested by a one man shop who has a passion and talent to creatively implement those same parts differently, yielding different sonic results. But that “besting” is purely in the ear of the beholder.  
 

This hobby has so many success stories of passionate boutique shops making everything from speakers to DAC’s to Amps, to cables, to designing next level active speaker systems.  It also has mainstay house hold names like Mac, Krell, Luxman, the list goes on.  These iconic brands have their own large fan clubs.

So much depends on “you” what you think sounds good.  Some of the most heralded products are born from the marriage of highly engineered products that were tweaked, changed in ways that don’t necessarily make sense on paper but yield sonic bliss.  
 

Like their products or not, if you are into this Hobby Schiit’s model, success should be celebrated, admired.  Taking a Schiit on the company highlights the elitism, baloney that pushes people away from the hobby.  I hope we continue to see Companies like Schiit thrive and BTW, some of the other brands, products referenced in this thread are small, 1-2 man operations trying to replicate Schiit’s model / success.  

everything in life that can be bought is judged by what it provides relative to its cost... it is just that some judge this aspect more than others

schiit audio makes a lot of gear, some very inexpensive, some more expensive, all are well engineered and thought through - that said, it is a high volume outfit so you are not going to get super careful high end individualized care and service, but it is a pretty well run company that is by and large responsive to its customers

like all companies that make a lot of items, some items are better than others, from performance, value, market success perspectives - i would say its lower cost items are better, relatively speaking, as there is a degree of quality and assurance that is better than no name cheapo lowest-common-denominator stuff off ebay or alibaba... moving up in price there are more quality alternatives from other makers

it is what it is

I have been very satisfied with my Schiit gear, Gumby and Freya +, though admittedly I have not done any DAC comparisons. The Freya + was a significant upgrade to my NAD integrated's preamp.

Had to return the first Freya for an unknown problem in one channel. Customer service was professional and timely. Same with my Gungnir MB upgrade and queries on delayed orders. As with any support organization mutual respect goes a long way towards good service.

Overall I would say they offer a very high value product line.

Dies anyone have any experience with their two newer pieces of “Schiit”, the equalizers? I was thinking of trying one to help sort out a mid bass hump I have in my living room before I start putting any sound absorption devices in that my wife wouldn’t probably think too highly of.