Schiit's 15 years old. That's 180 months of being "flavor of the month." And it's long enough for us to introduce hundreds of thousands of new listeners to high end audio. But that's not enough time for us to stop being silly.
Started in a garage.
Actually, we started in 1/3 of a garage. Plus a bunch of storage space in the attic, between the cars, in the living room, on the back patio, etc. People who've bootstrapped companies understand this. But the fact is, we started in a garage, no VC, no loans, just Jason and Lisa stuffing boards by the light of the TV. Now we have two wholly-owned facilities in Texas totaling more than 20,000SF of production area.
Reinvigorated US manufacturing.
It was a big crazy idea to make things in the USA in 2010. But that's what we decided to do, and to be transparent about everything we do. That's why we say where things are made (like, our chassis are made in California, for example, and our PC boards are made in California or Utah). Aaaand that's why we're now in the process of verticalizing--bringing PC board assembly in-house, so we can maintain our high value.
Saved the world from delta-sigma.
Big claim? Yeah, look back at 2010. Aside from a handful of car- and house-priced products, multibit was dead dead dead. We're the crazies that stumped for it, trumpeted it, brought our own digital filter to it, and, in the space of 1 year, brought the entry price for our own multibit products down from $2299 to $249. So, as you enjoy a wide range of DACs today, remember those dark times when we were heading for a delta-sigma monoculture.
Refused rapacious pricing.
We don't do over-the-top audio jewelry, and we make a lot of everything we make, so we can keep prices, well, reasonably sane. Ish. From the start, though, we've been told "you could charge a lot more." We never have. And we never will. Even though the same guys who said "you can charge more" will point at our insane investments in our own technologies, and say "you can claim to amortize that." Yeah. Cool. You do you, we do us.
Brought back discrete design.
Delta-sigma wasn't the only monoculture we were heading for. When we started, the idea of discrete design was, well, a little bit passe. Some said it wasn't up to "the latest" integrated circuits. And many companies, even high end ones, were busy integrating. Not us. Even today, the $119 Magni is a fully discrete design--that provides state of the art performance.
Rejected silly unicorn formats.
For a while, it seemed like every decade a new format would appear, prompting many to re-buy their favorite recordings...again...again...and again. And sure, that was fine when those new formats provided true advancement, but when the benefits got murky, we dug in our heels and said, loudly, "we aren't going to be part of it." Now that format is dead. You can thank lots of skeptics for that, not just us.
Crafted unique topologies.
Discrete is fine, but actually using discrete design to address some of the most interesting challenges in audio is much more interesting. And doing new things in digital is something that a lot of people think only big companies can do...but we do all the time. From interesting low-feedback, high-performance, inherently differential gain stages, to DC-all-the-way-through tube hybrids, to our own USB receiver, to multi-bit DACs with unique digital filters, we are actually changing audio. Hopefully for the better!
Attracted the youngest audience.
In high end, we have (as far as we know) the youngest audience out there. Is it because we're silly? Is it because we're innovative? Or is it the simple fact we provide solid, affordable products that allow the "high end curious" to discover what it's all about? In any case, over 60% of our customers are under 35 years old.
Broke planned obsolescence.
One of the first things we did was to introduce an upgradable DAC. That was followed by modular products that allowed customers to add a DAC or phono amp, or change with the times when DAC technology changes. With our upgradable products, change isn't something to be feared; it's something we've planned for.
Reinvented the UI.
And, finally, Forkbeard. Now that the newest edition of the only unified, modular audio control system is out, you're probably starting to get an idea of how insanely powerful it is. Complete control of multiple products in multiple systems from one app? Sure. Answering questions that no other company can, like "is this amp enough for my speakers?" And doing this with no wifi silliness or account creation? Yeah, that's Forkbeard, the most advanced audio control system on the planet.
I'm mature or immature? You decide.
