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Schiit not that Good?

Schiit was at AXPONA again this year. They were showing a Salk music server streaming into a Gungnir Multibit (?) feeding a Freya and two Vidars. Speakers were the Salk Song 3As.

 

So what happened?


Esoteric was just next door. This allowed attendees to move immediately from one room to another. Esoteric was showing a full stack of thier latest separates plus a VPI Avenger for analog. Speakers were a pair of Cantons I didn’t get the model of.

 

The Schiit room, while not bad, was completely destroyed by the Esoteric room. Esoteric played one SACD that unfurled a massive soundstage that I could sense even not being in the best seat. The sound of the Esoteric system, both via SACD and vinyl was dynamic, resolving, extremely musical, collected, vibrant, both large and delicately structured. It was a system that got all the minor details right. Such a good setup. The Schiit setup, while unoffensive, clean, and musical in its own right, simply couldn’t face the Esoteric in inner detail, soundstage, reality and low-level dynamics.

 

Why did the Schiit system fail so hard vs the Esoteric? Part of the reason might have been the junk cabling used by Schiit. Peaking behind the system I was Blue Jeans speaker cables and mess of power bricks, basic cabling, etc. I don’t know how much of the Schiit’s performance was compromised by inferior cabling, but I’m curious how close it would have come to the Esoteric had Schiit paid some basic attention to that area.


madavid0

Showing 1 response by tutetibiimperes

tutetibiimperes
202 posts
 
@chrshanl37 

That was actually my blurb from those rooms, Mark aggregated the content from the AVS members who attended the show.  

I stand behind my comments, the Salk/Schiit room sounded far better than the Canton/Esoteric room.  I don’t really blame that on the Esoteric gear, i’m sure it’s quality stuff, and it sounded phenomenal combined with Vac gear and the Von Schweikert VR11s in the big Von Schweikert ballroom (that was probably the best sounding room at the show).  

The big problem with the Canton/Esoteric room was acoustics.  Those big Cantons were overdriving the room hard and there were some really bad room modes.  If that demo had been in a room with two or three times the space it would’ve likely sounded far better.  

Poor acoustics were a killer for many rooms at the show.  It could also be that i like the ribbon tweeter sound, many of my favorite rooms were using ribbon tweeters.  
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