I have a look I prefer and it ain’t Schiit. This is NOT to say that Schiit looks like crap (it does not!) but rather I am aesthetically lost in the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayback! Think Lang’s “Metropolis”. I cannot hear any difference betwixt tubes and solid state but I can see it. And I prefer something along the lines of having lines that I prefer.

So even when I buy some Schiit for my self I do not keep it very long before I give it to a loved one that is also a stereo enthusiast. I bought a Modius for my son and later a Magnius for my self. And then I gave him the Magnius. I gave my older brother a Vali. I kept the Valhalla for a few years but I never listened to music through it much. Yes, the tubes glowed but there was some THING missing.

VU Meters. Oh how loathsomely shallow of me…I even bought a small stand alone set of VU Meters but have not used them or the hard-wired headphone setup for a few months now. I may have to hook it all back up and get used to hard wired again so that I do not get up and walk off pulling every thing behind me.

I know that the Skoll (reads like chewing tobacco to me, LOL!) is a phono pre-amp so perhaps I can buy and keep one of those. Perhaps. Maybe. Whonoze? I do not have balanced turntable so no chance to tempt me via cool looking cables (as opposed to foo-foo looking, i.e., HEXpensive cables!)

The Midgard has a cool name. No VU Meters tho’ so unless a family member or friend wants one I will not buy one. I suppose on the off chance that I make friends with a residentially challenged oenophile (RCO) who is also a music enthusiast with access to an active AC outlet, headphones and…I digress.

How could I not like something named “Hel” or rather “Hel+”. I gave my son (a) Hel2 a few years ago so it may be time to give him Hel again! I would give one to one of my brothers but he has a DAC/Amp in his computer room and I doubt if he would accept it. I may still give him one just because I can. Of late he is still much enamored of his Sennheiser Moe-3s and insufferably so. 😉

Hopefully someone here will test/review the Skoll (“Jess a pinch ‘tween yor cheek n buns” – *GACK*) to help me consider owning one my self.

No one else in my family enjoys spinning the licorice pizza so I must be careful not to buy something I cannot give to someone in the event it fails to sate my wanton desires for more than adequate looking audio equipment. I do not know that many RCOs and none of them spin records. Dammit. 😉

As for the Yggdrasil+ MIB DAC? Cool looking yes, with superb measurements to boot but beyond my ability to discern anything more than the fact that the 0s & 1s are magically changed into music. But outside of looking cool, that is all I ask of it.

Schiit makes excellent equipment that performs better than most other gear at a price that many more can afford. That is the sweet spot more marques should aspire to. Sir Jason of Stoddard has a MASSIVE thread over at Head-Fi that is populated by the most enthusiastic group of audio people one could hope to meet.

Said thread is filled with Schiit! And never forget Kittehs and Pooches! And more. They are into audio for the joy of music and the camaraderie and share amongst all who read that thread their life’s soundtrack. They really are a wonderful group of folks!

I coined a term for them – “Schiitizens”. And more than a few of them I am honored to call friend.

ORT