RMAF 2016

I was hoping for a relatively fast lunch (45-60 minutes), not a 90 minute thing. I want to see "every new thing" I also have a number of rooms I want visit in the tower.

I agree. 1 is pretty late for me. I was thinking 11:30. Last year they had some tables set up near a few food trucks. 10 day forecast shows Sat as sunny at 74. Obviously that could change, but it's a good sign.

 

Excited to get impressions from you boys

Destroy the Jude shill machine plz:

 

His high density shill-babble is giving me a headache.. Oh, and who can look at those IEMs without thinking:



?

 

A few comments to the HF video above:

• The new Sony flagship products look interesting.
• Re: Schiit: "Oh! And also, Schiit will have a separate exhibit room in the main RMAF exhibit area in the hotel featuring a loudspeaker-driving system, the details for which I don't currently have." Suck it Jude. [<-- link to our Schiit two-channel gear compendium]
• Seriously, "El-lee-yar" again? C'mon man. He even got Drew from Moon Audio to pronounce this incorrectly.
  • "By the way, I was able to reach out to Focal to find out what the name means and it turns out that it has nothing to do with the medieval warriors after all, sorry! Elear is a portmanteau of 'Elite Ears'. Now that’s a much more fitting name!" (source)
  • Proper pronunciation
• Zach from ZMF presentation starts at about 26:00. Two new headphones (our thread here). Zach will have Metrum's Musette, Menuet, and Pavane DACs.

 

I pointed this out on the HF utopia thread and Jude responded that is how he heard a Focal guy say it. It possible the focal guy had a French accent and it came out that way. If Jude keeps on doing now that he know it's not ee-Lee-yar, then he's just being pretentious.

I enjoy both HF and SBAF, but I think we can be above the ad hominem bullshit. Even marv recently closed a thread due to too much anti-HF talk. I thought SBAF was about SBAF, not about hating on HF. If there is bullshit there, call it. Is Jude very optimistic, possibly overly, in his video, yes. "Suck it"? We're better than that.

 

Oh so this time you're not outing a Schiit product before it's full intro? Could have kept that in mind before the Schiit Show earlier this year.

 

More like he let the cat out of the bag one too many times, and now he wont be told anything early anymore. At least that's what I hope...

 

It would be interesting if Schiit decided not to pander to Jude as much. Maybe they feel that they're in a strong situation; decent quality and competitively-priced products, sold with relative honesty- maybe they don't need to play his game as much any more (especially if he ignores embargoes for clicks)?

it would be a bit of a contrast to some other manufacturers and their relationship with HF (Dr. Fang springs to mind).

(I'm sorry, I know people would prefer to keep this civil- but Jude is not your friend. He is getting rich from lying to you while pretending to be a trusted voice in this little world- you really need to take what he and his elves say with a considerable skepticism.. especially if it's about very fancifully-priced and rapidly superceded goods.)

 

@insidious meme hit the nail on the head above, but since you're butt-hurt, I'll rephrase:

"Dear Jude, the 'details' for the Schiit two-channel gear have not been disclosed to you, probably because you always spill the beans early on your Hype-Fi TV announcement episodes. However, many such details are available in a number of posts by one of Schiit's co-founders, all of which are initially shared exclusively on your website. These details have been lovingly and painstakingly compiled over the past year by a number of users on a site you ban the very mention of. This compilation is available at [link redacted for reasons you may or may not understand].

Regards,
-zonto"

Why say all that when three little words will do?

 

Well to be fair, 2 channel stuff isn't HF, so its none of his beeswax. I don't want Schiit to cut ties with HF, because HF still helps Schiit. We do want Schiit to succeed, which means more cool stuff that's not elite priced.

Good business beats humoring us schmucks...

 

Good counterpoint, though I'm not sure I fully agree.

(I think the issue might be more about who has the whip hand, perhaps..)

 

Let's break that down. (Edits for clarity in italics below.)

If Jude doesn't have the two-channel gear details yet as he stated in the video, then his logical assumption would be that the preamp would also have headphone amp functionality simply because all of Schiit's more recent amp/combo products have both preamp functionality and headphone amp functionality, the latter which fall under Head-Fi's purview.

One may argue that Jude also may not know that Schiit is developing two-channel separates. Then, however, his logical assumption based on Schiit's product rollout history would likely be a Rangnarok-like product which powers both speakers and headphones, the latter which fall under Head-Fi's purview.

Of course, there's always the possibility that Jude does know certain details (that we also do, as they were gleaned from HF of all places, compiled here, and previously linked to in this thread), namely both that Schiit is developing separates and that the preamp(s) won't have headphone amp functionality, but lied about not having that knowledge per my quote from the video above.

Looks like Jude has gotten himself into a pickle.

 

I was half tempted to grab a plane ticket and head out to RMAF. Tickets from Atlanta are on sale for $79/one way. Never been, seriously thinking about it.

 

I thought Jason had already said that the preamp wouldn't have a headphone amp? I can't find the post right now, though- so you might need to do your own searching.

 

I have the same recollection.

 

Got it!

http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/sch...-most-improbable-start-up/11190#post_12659194

"Preamps are preamps, not headphone amps. That's all I can say for now."

Pointed to by Zonto, in fact, who provided a handy round-up of tittle-tattle:

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...eory-on-the-new-schiit.818/page-27#post-80315

..so not completely definitive, but for people who wish to speculate..

 

I would imagine that Schist knew, and approved, of the HF TV episode where Jude revealed the info. That kind stuff is usually well thought out. If you think Jude did some sort of disservice to Schiit, then I believe you are sadly mistaken. Look at all the hyped publicity for Schiit, and specifically the Jodie, on HF.

Now, back to RMAF please. Two days to go!

 

Usually. Jude violated the embargo date on the Massdrop-Fostex TH-X00 release, so there's precedent for him doing that.

 

I think you are right on this one. At the Schiit Show there was no announcement of the new amp, they were already out and people could wander into the listening rooms to hear them. There was no presentation of any kind, which there would have been if Schiit themselves were doing the world premiere of the amp. But the HF episode that came out the night before was a good overview of what the Joti is and what it can do.

The Schiit team were counting sales of the Joti the moment it launched on the site. That wouldn't have happened if people weren't prepared by the video Jude posted.

The non-info at RMAF could be Schiit figuring 2-channel gear isn't a HF concern, or maybe they've told Jude all the details and he's heard the gear and they've asked him not to share the details, could be lots of other situations.