Fiddle, Fiddle

Audiophilia is a cyclic phenomenon that goes through long periods of stability, then erupts into fits of fiddling.

I'm in the fit of fiddling right now. This is enjoyable, albeit a bit costly. It's OK; I haven't gone in for audio equipment in quite a while, so I think I've been due. What's funny about this time around is that I'm spending less. Instead of following the usual audiophile path of always spending more and more on increasingly esoteric gear, I'm streamlining.

That's because I've decided to hitch my wagon to a quirky but fascinating audio company that designs and manufactures high-end stuff without high-end price tags. No one-piece milled aluminum cases, no knobs made of mahogany from 1000 year old Brazilian trees, and most of all, no slavish adopting of the latest fads. They sell direct only, from their own web site. No dealers. No lovely storefront with cushy listening rooms and ultra-attentive salespeople. Those can be dang nice, but I'd rather spend the money on the equipment, and not the teakwood floors and meticulous acoustic treatments.

The company's name is designed to appeal to younger buyers: Schiit Audio. It's a smart move. It's a fun name. Understand that it's pronounced exactly as you think it should. So you can say that your sound system is Schiit. This company's large and loyal customer base has a median age below 30, which has to be a first for any audio company that isn't making mass-market crap. Furthermore, they've won awards all over the place. But as far as I can tell, they don't have a single product priced more than the mid $2000s, and even that's pretty rare for them. Most of their stuff is priced sub-$1000.

Old farts such as myself can look at that name and think: oh, my. Perhaps I shouldn't buy their stuff since I have to tell people the brand name. Which should be something properly dignified and audiophile-ish, like Boulder or Aurender or McIntosh or Carver or Bryston or whatnot. Can I really tell anybody that I have stuff from Schiit?

Yes, I can.

Recently I added a pair of their Tyr monoblocks to my system. At about $1600 each, they came out to $3200 plus tax and shipping, but they perform at a level of gear costing 5 or 6 times as much. They're decent looking, actually pretty snazzy. More to the point, they really gave my system a boost. Before the Tyrs I was using a Luxman 505u integrated amplifier, a truly fine piece of kit but a bit underpowered for my speakers, at least in my opinion. Which was vindicated when the Tyrs got to work and opened things up a lot, to be expected given that they put out twice the power of the Luxman. They're heavy, at 55 pounds each, but they aren't all that big. They fit nicely in an audio rack. They're utterly without silly bling; they amplify, they do that very well, and that's all they do.

Tyr Monoblock (2 required for stereo)

So I decided to go the next step and replace the Luxman altogether, since after the arrival of the Tyrs it was being used only as a pre-amplifier. While it can handle that very well, the fact is that there's a power amp in there chugging away unused, serving no purpose except to get warm and run up the electric bill. And the Luxman is big, and heavy. Most of that weight goes into the transformers for its amplifier stage.

So I replaced it with Schiit's Kara F preamplifier, a solid state job that follows what I'm coming to recognize as the company paradigm: it's a preamplifier and nothing more. No digital-to-analog stage, no phono stage, no streaming ability, no network access. No. You plug the analog output of your components into it and then send its output to the Tyr monoblocks. It weighs 11 pounds. Controls are simple — source selector, volume knob, mute. No record in/out, no tone or balance controls. It has a good remote, but even better, Schiit puts out an app called Forkbeard that lets you control it from your iPhone or iPad. And it has a first-class headphone port, not surprising coming from a company that makes an entire line of high-end headphone amps. My headphones of choice are Sennheiser HD 800s, notoriously hard to drive properly. The Kara F lights them up just fine.

Kara F Preamplifier

This is where it starts getting really fun because now I'm listening to something that's almost a different system than it was just a few days before. I'm getting used to it, as one needs to. It's getting used to me, in a sense, given that all this new hardware needs a little time to play in and bloom to its fullest potential. That might sound ridiculous, but in fact audio equipment of any quality generally needs some time to ripen. Right out of the box it will tend to sound a little thin, a little hard, even though the folks at Schiit gave it a four-day burn-in. In just 24 hours it has opened out considerably, and I can expect it to bloom more. Last night there was a bit of graininess to the treble, especially with violins. Tonight the graininess is disappearing.

I learned about bloom time with my first 'nice' sound system, i.e., not just a mass-market jobber. I went to a good stereo store where the salesman put together a system for me based on my description of my needs. It sounded absolutely glorious in the store, so I bought his recommended components – an Arcam integrated amplifier, Bowers & Wilkins 805S speakers with their matching stands, and a Rotel CD player. When I got the nice new system in my living room set up and running, it didn't sound all that good at first. But in a week or so, it was delightful. Heck: I still have those 805S speakers upstairs where they anchor the surround-sound system for the TV.

So the Kara/Tyr combo is settling in and showing itself to be crystal-clear and detailed, with a superb soundstage (left to right) and excellent depth (you really can tell where things are front to back.) Bass is clear, and that's a big deal. I can't stand muddy bass, or grainy treble, both endemic to mass-market stuff. And it has tons of power for the big orchestral showpieces and the like, important since it's driving a pair of Bowers & Wilkins 803D speakers, big puppies that like plenty of power to do their thing.

So I'm going one more step. The Bryston BDA-3 digital-to-analog converter in my system at present is a first-class product with audiophile cred backwards and forwards. However, I can't say I've liked it all that much. It's been in the system for over a year now and I've always found it just a little too clinical for my tastes. And I really hate the way it implements the USB connection to the computer – critical in my system – since it involves clicks and delays. Annoying.

So I'm replacing the Bryston with Schiit's highly regarded Yggdrasil DAC, their top of the line product at $2400. One of the senior gurus amongst audiophile reviewers has ranked it as fully competitive with stuff like dCS Vivaldi at $35,000. But that's not why I got it. Everything I read about it raved about its musicality, and that's what the Bryston somewhat lacks. So it's ordered and should be here sometime later this week.

Yggdrasil (Yggy) DAC (Digital to Analog Converter)

I understand that Yggys need a good burn-in and run-in, although apparently the newest models don't quite need as much as the past ones did. So I'll have more time to hear it bloom and grow from its original state.

And then I think fiddle time will be over. For now ...