Schitt Creek

What's going on up Schitt Creek?

Corry Greenberg reviewed the JVC-XLZ050TN CD Player ($800.00, 1992) back in 1992 for Stereophile. A basic 8x-oversampling CD player (bitstream), it's S/N ratio was 114 dB, channel separation 110 dB, and frequency response 2Hz–20kHz. Pretty darn good. And only $800.00 USD.

Today, Schit Audio has to be one of the most aggressive marketers in Hi Fi.

The Schit Audio Yggdrasil DAC ($2,299.00 USD) today has S/N of 117 db, and a measured crosstalk of 120.4 dB. Frequency response is unspecified as a whole for this DAC, but given as  20Hz-20Khz, +/-0.1dB, 0.5Hz-200KHz, -1dB for the analogue stage, only.

The Schit Audio Yggdrasil DAC ($2,299.00 USD) - not so gorgeous - is widely bandied about by Computer Audiophile and others as being competitive with the Berkley Audio Design Alpha DAC RS ($16,000.00 USD) which we think is gorgeous past-prime trash, and EMM Labs DAC 2X ($15,500.00 USD) which we think is pretty bold.



We shouldn't care about this stuff, other than we would be interested to buy it. It's a bit like Burson. Well priced, and marketed right in our range. That of the hobbyist. Only we have experience.





Back in the days of SoundBlaster (Pro), AdLib (at em) and Roland, computer audio products were abysmal. We bought quite a few.

11Hz to 27kHz, +/-0.5dB

In fact, you could pile all together (SoundBlaster Pro, Gravis UltraSound Max (1024), Roland Sound Canvas SCC-1 General MIDI Card, Roland MPU-401 MIDI Card and Roland MT-32 Sound Module) and route through a 24-channel mixer (low noise) and still come out with a pile-of-shit.

True, you could get decent quality with a NeXT workstation ($6,500.00 USD), and above-decent with a Synchavier

Even the Gravis UltraSound was an Ultra POS, sound-wise.
We're talking of noise, distortion and over-all sound quality.

Now let's look at one other product related to Schitt Creek. That is the Woo Audo WA7 Fireflies - only that it includes an optional TP. You've got to be pretty deep up Schitt's Creek to consider "TP" optional, but in the case of the WA7, it really is.



One rather strange thing about the WA7 other than the optional TP is the DAC, a PCM 5102 by TI supporting 32-bit 192 Khz playback. That's a rather strange rate and bit-depth combination.

JVC-XLZ050TN CD Player ($800.00 USD)

If you'll look at the slide-rule chart above, you'll see that even 24-bit audio is greater than 140 dB in dynamic range, and thus should be, to listen, in signal-to-noise (SNR) as well.

In fact, 24-bit audio is actually spec'd at 144 dB (amazing...) while 32-bit is 193 dB (superfluous, but perfect for mixing where you'll wish the dynamic extra-headroom for digital mixing mathematics).

The S/N of the Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies DAC / Headphones Amplifer ($ USD) is 95 dB. You'll see that's right under CD's (and MP3's) 16-bit level (96). We're all used to loosing one bit to noise with dither so this is about right.

Distortion is rather high at 0.03% and frequency response is rather stunted at 11Hz to 27kHz, +/-0.5dB, though fine for mastering.


For headphone enthusiasts, Schiit Audio and Creek Audio

You'd expect from some coming from Sumo (Jason Stoddard) and Theta (Mike Moffat), that Schiit products would be built to exacting specifications.

Take the ASUS Xonar Essence ST, for example.

Channel Separation: 120 dB
Signal to Noise (SNR) Ratio: 124 dB
Frequency Response: <10Hz–90kHz, –3dB
THD at –3dB: 0.0003%

A/D input S/N: 118dBA
A/D input THD at –3dBFS: 00002%


JP 2016/02/11
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