You can always buy a TOTL amp from Eddie Current and wait three to five months.
Or a Cavalli LG and wait two months, maybe less.
Or a TOTL amp from Head-Amp and wait several years.
Or get an A-GD Masturbater 1 or 9 or 14 or whatever from China and get it in weeks.
Lots of choices for great amps.
Surprise! I do have some uncomfortable issues with our beloved amplifier/DAC company. After 2 months of uses, Asgard 2 developed problem with noise on left channel. So it was RMA'd and they decided to send me a new unit instead of trying fixing my old one. Well, new one had a nasty habit to make 'tick' 'tock' sound when it warmed up. I talked to Schiit again, and they said it's normal to have such sound. Except, I never had such issue on my first Asgard 2. I closely inspected the amp and quickly found the problem; the grill on the vent was slightly misaligned. That misaligned area was making the sound due to thermal expansion from the case and grill.
You have missed my point. I have no problem for waiting. I do have problem on reliability.
No, it is not because I am impatient enough to cancel the order and buy another company's amplifier nor getting bitter about delay.Personally I'm impatient so I would probably be going nuts right now (if I were in your shoes). I know I probably annoyed the Moon-Audio folks when I noticed my HE-560s hadn't been shipped out after two days since my order. I called them thinking there was something wrong with my credit card or something and they said it just hadn't shipped out yet. So after I asked why it hadn't shipped out yet their response with a short chuckle was that they "weren't Amazon" which I kind of annoyed me but w/e because I really feel that after 8 working hours since an order, it should dropped off at UPS/FedEx but maybe that's just me. Like Marv and others have said there's a lot of great amps out there. Personally, the Ragnorak seems like it's more than what I need (given I don't care about the speaker amp portion) and I'm not keen on getting all of my headphones re-cabled to balanced (given the balanced is supposed to sound so much better than the SE output) so I'm looking at alternative amps.
Currently I am building my Torpedo amp right now, and the incident I just had brought back many bad memories, and made me realize that Ragnarok follows worrisome pattern.
I was searching Head-Fi for Torpedo amp build help. Then, I decided to check some impressions of Ragnarok, and 'left channel buzzing' portion quickly gained my attention. I remember this... Wasn't it very same issue that marv reported during the open beta period? And the answer is yes. I assume this is already reported, yet we are having same problems on the release version of Ragnarok. I do have sensitive cans such as Grado and LCD-X. I am concerned now.
I also noticed there are people having issues with power supply humming. Sure it can be explained because of the Circlotron circuit and complex transformer wiring... but again, with such a lot of power going on, it can be other issues, and I am also having some worries here as well. Stuffs like tap noise on volume control also raise my eyebrows too.
It is not like Schiit has clean record on launch unit problems. Even disregard first Asgard, we definitely had some problems with Asgard 2 and Vali launch units. Ragnarok is far more complex product and will be far more problematic if these problems persist.
I am not sure. I just learned other guy that order number is right next to me is saying his amp won't be done until 11/14. Laura told me my unit may be shipping at end of this week. I will probably ask her about my Rag shipping date next Monday again (sorry! Laura) and if my unit is also indeed delayed like his case, I might ask her either just cancel the order or postpone until all of these early issues are fixed.
That said, I do not have good experience with "Made In USA" stuffs.
I have zero illusion about these 'Made In USA' propaganda. The mere fact that I always have troubles with those USA manufacturers, particularly audio companies.
Byrnie, consider the ECP Black Diamond. Quite an amp for just 'unbalanced'.I will and thank you.
Personally, the Ragnorak seems like it's more than what I need (given I don't care about the speaker amp portion) and I'm not keen on getting all of my headphones re-cabled to balanced (given the balanced is supposed to sound so much better than the SE output) so I'm looking at alternative amps.
For my needs/preferences, my top choice is the AURALiC Taurus MK2. Keep in mind, I haven't heard the M9 or Rag and also that Anaxilus found it slightly bright (I think I'm quoting him accurately).Personally, the Ragnorak seems like it's more than what I need (given I don't care about the speaker amp portion) and I'm not keen on getting all of my headphones re-cabled to balanced (given the balanced is supposed to sound so much better than the SE output) so I'm looking at alternative amps.I would love it if there was a product that was basically a less powerful Ragnarok. Take out the speaker portion, probably give it less juice. I don't know, maybe that would suck the magic out but I don't see myself using it as a speaker amp.
For my needs/preferences, my top choice is the AURALiC Taurus MK2. Keep in mind, I haven't heard the M9 or Rag and also that Anaxilus found it slightly bright (I think I'm quoting him accurately).Personally, the Ragnorak seems like it's more than what I need (given I don't care about the speaker amp portion) and I'm not keen on getting all of my headphones re-cabled to balanced (given the balanced is supposed to sound so much better than the SE output) so I'm looking at alternative amps.I would love it if there was a product that was basically a less powerful Ragnarok. Take out the speaker portion, probably give it less juice. I don't know, maybe that would suck the magic out but I don't see myself using it as a speaker amp.
You have missed my point. I have no problem for waiting. I do have problem on reliability.
Seriously, if you have any doubts, cancel your order. Simple as that.
With respect to you other problems:
1. Bifrost: did you contact us regarding the cosmetic issues? What are they? It is certainly not our intention to send out cosmetic blems, unless they are sold as B-stock. If your Bifrost was A-stock, and not purchased through Fulfillment By Amazon (we are currently in a fight with them to return to us any returned products, rather than turning them around and selling as new), let me know and we'll make it right. If it is FBA, contact Amazon and return it, they will take care of you. Plus, it advances our case for never having them exercise their "judgement" about what is "resellable" or not.
2. Asgard 2: yes, the amp gets very warm, and steel and aluminum have dissimilar thermal expansion coefficients. So some of them make weird noises when warming up. The one on my desk does so. About 99.9% of them do not. If you'd like us to take a look at it, please let me know, and we will take a look at it, or swap it for another one.
With respect to other perceived "problems" with our gear, here are some real statistics:
1. DOA Units, 2014: <0.01%
2. Operational or cosmetic issues, 2014: <0.04%
3. Packing/Shipping issues, 2014: <0.5% (working on this, changed some procedures)
These numbers are despite having 6 product launches in 2014 to date, which usually results in some skewing of the numbers. The packing/shipping issue would be much less if we hadn't introduced, say, a 6VAC wall-wart that looks pretty much like our 16VAC wall-wart (despite resizing the power connector so that there won't be any "ahh, blown up product" moments.
Consider we are currently on a ship rate of 40,000+ products per year, and our entire repair staff is a single person who comes in one day a week—literally, for all products, from company inception.
Mike and I have been doing this for a *long* time, and I believe if we are good at anything, it's in making reliable products that stand the test of time.
It's simply slow going on the Ragnaroks, and lots of orders...do you want *right*, or do you want *fast?*
Still no problem canceling the order, if you aren't truly comfortable. We do not do the "hard sell." In fact, we have no sales staff at all.
Whining about cosmetic problems on the internet potentially costs a company a lot more than replacing your product, sir.
Hehehehe.. I like you, Jason. I wish I could also say "Don't buy it if you have doubts" to my clients, too.
And hell no. I am not going to contact your company for cosmetic issues unless they are too big and downright unacceptable. The time, effort and money spent to pay the shipping, packing the stuff, drive/walk to nearby postal office to ship stuff, wait for the stuff to be returned.. As a person who needs some precise delivery date to properly receive postal packages (Amazon lockbox is such a godsend to me), I can't afford to do it.
But I do afford to whine about it on Internet.
Thing is, many people I know of are in similar situations. They really do not have much time to try to contact customer services and get things right. It takes too much time, effort, and usually ended up with frustration. Instead they carry on with broken products. The number of products that have problem might be slightly higher than what shows up on your paper. (Then again, opposite also happens. I believe people just do not understand why Vali does microphonics)
Amazon is really an expert with this issue. The sole reason it's No.1 online retailer in USA.
That said, I guess I will put some trust on you and Mike's effort. I won't cancel the order then. Let's see how it turns out....
Since you responded to this thread, let me ask about the progress of Ragnarok. I am in order number #20681. The person in Head-Fi whose order number #20682 says his Rag order shipping date is delayed til 14th of November. Am I in same boat? What happened?
Currently I am building my Torpedo amp right now, and the incident I just had brought back many bad memories, and made me realize that Ragnarok follows worrisome pattern.
I was searching Head-Fi for Torpedo amp build help. Then, I decided to check some impressions of Ragnarok, and 'left channel buzzing' portion quickly gained my attention. I remember this... Wasn't it very same issue that marv reported during the open beta period? And the answer is yes. I assume this is already reported, yet we are having same problems on the release version of Ragnarok. I do have sensitive cans such as Grado and LCD-X. I am concerned now.
I also noticed there are people having issues with power supply humming. Sure it can be explained because of the Circlotron circuit and complex transformer wiring... but again, with such a lot of power going on, it can be other issues, and I am also having some worries here as well. Stuffs like tap noise on volume control also raise my eyebrows too.
It is not like Schiit has clean record on launch unit problems. Even disregard first Asgard, we definitely had some problems with Asgard 2 and Vali launch units. Ragnarok is far more complex product and will be far more problematic if these problems persist.
That said, I do not have good experience with "Made In USA" stuffs.
I have zero illusion about these 'Made In USA' propaganda. The mere fact that I always have troubles with those USA manufacturers, particularly audio companies.
Some more answers, after some more reading:Hehehehe.. I like you, Jason. I wish I could also say "Don't buy it if you have doubts" to my clients, too.
You can. Anyone can.
Oh jeez. I am not going to use quotations because this is getting long, and you look very frustrated.
About your amazon comments. Indeed no.3 and no.4 are not something I was clearly aware of (selling B-stock as New definitely raised my eyebrows), but I doubt about no.1 and no.2.
Well, they were kinda first, but there were tons of competitors, and they were about as early as Amazon.. Such as Ebay and Yahoo Auction (and hey! our country also had Auction.co.kr. Too bad they had to give in and absorbed into Ebay). Sure, Amazon was acting as a retailer and Ebay & Yahoo were auction sites... but they had same goal essentially (and as of today, both two are very similar). Except Amazon had a better idea what customers liked (Amazon Prime, return policy, and recently lockbox) while Ebay didn't do well on that... unfortunately.
And of course, they are retailers, and they should care about selling stuffs. Sure, I feel disturbed by all of horror stories at fulfillment centers and recent debacles with book publishers, but the point is they are indeed best at making me buying something. There are other tons of companies downright terrible at selling products to their own customers, it is not something we can easily disregard as a mere trick. Sure, I typed "13" retina Macbook Pro" and I am getting just covers and stuffs... but there is a clear limitation on in-site search engine and other competitors (i.e Ebay) is worse in this regard.
About 'Made In USA' part, well... duh.... I get it you guys are just stating the fact. Surely my choice of word 'propaganda'. I am sorry about it. But this 'Made In USA' mark is heavily abused in recent years. I still remember Google tried to sell its overpriced home-server product and touted as "100% made in USA" and Apple's focus on 'Made In USA' for their Mac Pro (while not mentioning the fact that rest of their products are made in China, and in abused, harsh, worker-hostile environment). So let's just say I got allergic toward that claim.
I am not sure it can be said I am disinclined from being satisfied with USA-made gear. As another member said, I probably had a lot of bad luck on USA products in past, and probably more hesitate toward USA-made gears, that's it. If I don't have any more troubles and good experience (like, all of Koss products and recently this amazing SP540 headphones), then my perspective changes. It is not that I am completely fixed into the root, saying "Dur hur hur, all USA-made are terrible! Anti-USA! Glory to Soviet Russia!" People change over the time, and I look forward your company's Ragnarok accelerate that process (as well as your incoming product, Fulla as well.)
I understand you and Mike put a lot of effort on product quality. I will definitely remind myself about it.
Take some sleep. I think you need it, and enjoy happy halloween.
You seem to be taking a lot of preconceived notions and misguided opinions about the evils of corporate America-and aiming them at Schiit for reasons unknown. Even after Jason is still trying to resolve your concerns and dig deeper into your problems, though you don't seem forthcoming (where you bought your A2 etc), making it seem like you have an axe to grind.
Just cancel your order, for all our sakes. Maybe Jason should take the liberty of doing it on his own.
Boo fucking hoo.
I can't believe waiting 2 weeks for 11/14 to ship is such a big deal to some people. [...]
Jason and Mike never even wanted to make Statement products for Schiit so I don't think they or whoever is behind you in line would mind if you cancelled. That's a lot of money to spend on something you don't seem to believe in. What's wrong with waiting and seeing other impressions and reviews?
If an audio company says 3 weeks and it ends up being 6 weeks, that's all right with me because it probably means it's putting the time in to get it right. But if it ends up being 3 months without an e-mail explaining the situation, although that could still have a favorable interpretation, it certainly raises some questions. This is not an issue here because there is no issue here.I hear you but I know I would still start getting a slightly impatient if it took twice (given your scenario).
My advice to OP, wait till you hear it a meet and save yourself the worry. Best luck!
I truly have never comprehended the expectation that boutique audio or even kickstarter campaigns need to deliver on a fast food or off the shelf schedule. What's the effin' hurry and why the unrealistic expectations? Does the world revolve around one person's individual schedule somehow? Learn to meditate or just go outside and look up at the sky. Geez.
The best things in the world are worth waiting for. You seriously make me want to burn my mail order bride catalog.
I've also noticed this thread is turning into a "lets gang up on wnmnkh" thread which is disappointing.
Things would probably have been a little different if it wasn't for schiit.
Everyone re-read the first post and replace Schiit with Audio-gd and Audeze with Hifiman. I'm sure the reactions would be a little different (less passionate).
t "It's going up, not down, and there's nothing you can do about it!
Go ahead, give me negative karma.
Yes, I noticed that too. But I'd rather let people have their say and let things naturally calm down. Unnecessarily locking down or deleting posts isn't the answer. We've had huge arguments about really stupid stuff like hamburgers before, and everyone was still friends afterwards. I hope this is still the case.Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting any moderation but maybe for future posts to be a little less confrontational/judgemental. Just my .02
Yes, if I unnecessarily inflamed this thread, my apologies. I'd much rather end up friends, even if we don't agree (ask Anax what he thinks about my taste in cars, for example).I think it was a collection of posts and I understand why you responded too.
However, one of the reasons I do take time to respond to threads like this is that, well, you don't know how much pain and suffering it is, for how many years, when someone reads the various facts/assumptions about our gear after a quick Google search and makes a snap judgement about it. It affects support, sales, and service for years to come.
We try very hard to be impartial in our product descriptions, declarations, etc...and we try very, very hard to deliver a quality product that will last. If we didn't, we'd be sunk. If we didn't, the warning signs would already be there--higher than average return rate, swelling service hours, multiple people dedicated to service, etc. But they aren't.
And yeah, sure, we've screwed up, but now that we (usually) don't talk about products before they launch, any last-minute glitches can be addressed before launch, with no time pressure to meet an artificial deadline.
And now, back to working on some new stuff...
LOL, you kidding? If it were AGD or HFM, we would still have suggested to him to cancel his order and buy something else. Probably even passionately more so.
However, one of the reasons I do take time to respond to threads like this is that, well, you don't know how much pain and suffering it is, for how many years, when someone reads the various facts/assumptions about our gear after a quick Google search and makes a snap judgement about it. It affects support, sales, and service for years to come.
ask Anax what he thinks about my taste in cars, for example
Your taste in women is far better. I think she was "Made in the USA" no?