Does Anyone Buy Schiit for the Sake of Schiit?

@dancarlson10

That is an exceptional reaction. I sure do not have a technical answer to why your unit must have been defective, but it must have been. I have owned a dozen DACs an auditioned more, including an iteration of a Dragon… and the Berkeley Refersnce Alpha 3 ($22K).. As I mentioned I own a Gungnir and have had in my system a Yggdrasil, a Dragon is not in the same universe as the Schiit. Absolutely none of your criticisms of the Yggdrasil would be possible of a fully functional one. It is a shame you somehow got a bad unit. This is just not how they perform. I guess it happens. If I heard what you heard, I would send it back as well.

I don't since their DAC did not last 3 years.

Way overpriced looking that way. 

Better value at Monoprix than the two you cited.

BTW the first unit they shipped on my dime was bad and they acted like the problem was me. Maybe it was me for trusting them to send another that puked way too soon.

Shenzhen is cheaper, sounds more musical and better customer support.

@ghdprentice

 Thank you. As it turns out it was a functional unit. I contacted them. The problem is that it is not a natural live sound from what I hear in concert halls or on stage. Something about the timing or natural decay and ring to the notes is not right. The cobalt is much more accurate to my ears in this regard.  Ultra processed clinical, bright, and coarse to my ears is the schiit.  I don’t know what to say other than I disliked it and that it was a functional unit. I even had someone who knows their products listen to it. Also another classical musician listened to it and much preferred the Cobalt in a blind test. Luxman dac, schiit and then cobalt. Cobalt was an even split with Luxman in that test although very different timbres. Luxman warmer and a tad polished but a bit fat and slow and inflexible. cobalt leaner but cleaner and natural better flow. He also hated the schiit for its thin sound and brightness. When I told him 300 bucks for the cobalt he responded, that is annoyIngly good for that price. A bigwig in the industry turned me on to the Cobalt, and I am certainly glad he did. From what I have heard it absolutely crushes it’s price point however annoying that is. Having said that my Wadax streamer is exceptionally quiet and great and the cobalt plugs via usb into it. So maybe it is the combination that really works. Who knows Anyways everyone has a different system and there is no wrong answer in this hobby, Just someone’s ears and what they like or don’t like. 

Seems to me , this type of thread is always going to attract guys who have a grudge or else an unfounded bias or have heard something negative somewhere . . .   they're happy to pick up a rotten banana and hurl it whatever the brand in question might be. The OP started the ball rolling with the "where workmanship and materials are less critical"  premise and gravity will take care of the rest. There's very expensive gear with thick faceplates sculpted into fancy profiles. . . are the workmanship and materials more "critical" to the SQ in such components? I don't think so!