Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Anyone familiar with Schitt audio products out of California

Is it pronounced: "Scheeeeeeit?"

Yep. Part of their irreverent attitude that I mentioned in my last post. I like it. It gives those guys, and their company, character.

Read me again It’s OK to buy what you like. However your ears are just your ears. You might as well be totally deaf and love how a sledge hammer sounds. That doesn’t make it music. Which is why some people need objective data. And that’s also OK.

I remember one of my favorite things I would do in college (other than party) was to head to the basement of Mugar Library and before beginning my study session head to the magazine section a find the latest edition of Stereo Review (and Car and Driver of course) I would pour over every review. Studying all the data, the frequency response, the THD, is it .001 or .003 because you know that could make a difference. I learned about the apparent importance of interconnects, that jitter is bad and heat sinks were good. One of the columnists that I particularly liked to read was that of Julian Hirsch. Some of you may remember him. He was a maverick of sorts who seemed to speak his mind but more often than not any product that he reviewed ended up being a positive one and a review that made you want to go out and buy the piece of equipment. (I, of course was just an 18 year old college student who couldn't afford anything he was reviewing- but I could dream couldn't I.)

You could say I was an audiophile and once I graduated from college I was always hunting for that bargain priced but high quality audio equipment so I can just laugh at all those other audiophiles wasting their money. In one edition of Stereo Review I remember Hirsch basically putting his foot down and making a confession. He said something to the effect of, [let's be honest with ourselves here, most audio equipment considered of reasonable quality is pretty good equipment whether it be a $500 dollar piece of equipment or a $5000 piece of equipment our ears simply can't tell the difference.] He was a technician and he recorded tons and tons of data but in the final analysis he said, "“Calm judgment and judicious language serve us best in the world of hi-fi. Some audiophiles insist on calling a flaw ‘serious’ when it takes hours of listening to discover it. I don’t.” I distinctly remember the time when we were going from vinyl to CD's in the mid 80's and there was (and I believe still is) the belief that CDs produced music that was less organic to which he simply replied, "“To the extent that individual preferences in sound — digital, analog, or live — arise from a listener’s personal idiosyncrasies, one can hardly take issue with anyone else’s beliefs about sound quality. . . Listen for yourself. If you agree with those who say that CD sound is ‘unmusical,’ don’t make the change."

You gotta love the guy, but I have to admit when I read this particular column I kind wondered to myself then what the heck was I doing wasting my time reading all these reviews if none of this simply mattered. He kind of burst a lot of audiophiles bubbles, but he had a good point.

In regards to Amir's findings- without having read the entire thread but the OP I thought to myself. Yeah your data may be objective but it looks like your conclusions could be biased. If anything his sampling of Schitt's products was not randomized. So he drives 150 miles to meet up with a couple of his high end audiophile buddies from the local audiophile chapter meeting to borrow their Schitt devices. Mind you these are not normal audio listeners but audiophiles who probably drive their components harder than most and particular in this case take them apart to see what makes them click. So should we be somewhat aghast that he finds aberrations in these particular samples? That's not how you do a test. He also said he may have introduced some errors in the testing he was performing because he was in a state of stress at the time. Yes he repeated the tests, but still. And finally, how can you offer unbiased conclusions after you admit that you had been banned from a popular forum where Schitt "principals" frequented? I think he should have listened to himself when he commented that the aberrations he found in the low frequencies were basically inaudible to the human ear.

The Schitt engineers were right when they asked, but what do they sound like? Amir says why should I pay $2500 for a piece of equipment that was flawed he himself said it was considerable bargain amongst similarly featured DACS. I decided to purchase the Schitt Modi 3 and SYS. I'm paying $150 for a pre-amp and an outboard DAC with a quality chip. I'm not going to worry about a few frequencies below the human threshold of hearing if that be the case with these devices as well. As I'm finding out, there are indeed many good reviews of Schitt's products. In fact, fabulous reviews. It's all about perspective.

The prices are right and there is a return policy. No downside as far as I am concerned.

You're not my alum after all. How disappointing.

Eagles, Huskies?

I just read the links. So apparently he recommends both the SYS and Modi 3 "whole-heartedly". I plan to use the S/PDIF inputs only from my Bluray CD transport and the optical output of my mac mini. I'm not planning on using the USB input so the drivers are a non-issue with me.

Ah but I also is a state of GAS purchased the desktop version of Ravenscroft which I barely use because of latency issues. Maybe this will solve some of the problems though serendipitously.

I recently purchased a Jotunheim. I use it with an MP 11SE and Focal powered monitors, also Beyerdynamic headphones. This has been the best sound I have achieved both with the Kawai pianos and Pianoteq. I tried a couple of audio interfaces and did not care for the sound. This is obviously my preference but I think there maybe something different in consumer audio products vs. pro level. Schiit products have a strong following in the audiophile headphone community.

Shiit is a well regarded company in the HiFi business. I have used their Eitr USB to SPDIF interface to connect a Raspberry Pi to a Naim DAC and it worked flawlessly. I never used the Modi 3 but if you check the Audiophile Style forums you can probably get some advice on that specific DAC.

I have a Schiit Magni 3+ preamp/headphone amp which I use to interface the usb dac connected to my Kawai VPC2 with my headphones and active monitors. It's a great piece of equipment.

Got a pix of that VPC2..?? I have been patiently waiting its arrival...

Sorry that was a Freudian lapsus. It is a VPC1 :-(

haha..no sweat..I can stop looking !!!

DACs are mature technology. They mainly all sound the same nowadays.

But speakers, headphones, amplifiers - and the interaction between them - still vary a lot in how they sound. Although whether you will like the sound or not, is ultimately subjective.

Let's have some fun......

DACs are mature? Therefore they sound the same?

Speakers are not mature? 1874 is when they started.... they were part of the first commercial technologies developed by Bell Labs going way way back.... and that means they all sound different?

Something is amiss.... cool reading here: https://www.aes-media.org/historical/html/recording.technology.history/loudspeaker.html


Peace
Bruce in PHilly

The answer to this question about DACs and Amir's reviews of them, is probably that they would sound the same in blind testing. So his obsession with measuring them is interesting to him from an engineering point of view, but these measurements do not imply anything that your ears could notice.

I hear you. Give a man a hammer ...I don't need a technician and his gear to tell me what sounds good. I have ears.

I do think Amir is doing a good job overall though. Even if all he does is to stop people from getting scammed into buying those expensive interconnects...

And with all his pointless and inaudible DAC measurements - he does usually recommends cheaper products, so at least people are not being tricked into buying more expensive products than they need.