About Schiit

Schiit got started when two audio industry veterans decided it was time to shake things up a bit. The two audiophiles are Jason Stoddard, formerly of Sumo, and Mike Moffat, formerly of Theta. Together, they have designed dozens of audio and A/V products, from the Andromeda III to the Cobalt 307 to the DS Pre and Angstrom 200.

So, yeah: fully balanced differential power amplifiers, fully discrete I/V conversion stages, audiophile D/A converters, relay-switched stepped attenuator volume controls in preamps. the first DTS home theater surround processor on the market . . . we’ve done a ton of stuff.

Why Start With Headphone Amps?
A realization. In the old days, audiophiles went up the food chain from the table radio to the console stereo to separate speakers the size of refrigerators and monoblocks that would cook a cat. Today, nobody starts with a table radio. Everyone—and we mean everyone—starts with an iPod and headphones screwed into their ears. Headphones are now the standard.

And what happens when someone decides to lose the earbuds and get some serious headphones? They quickly find that their iPod (or Zune, or laptop, you know what we mean) won’t drive them. Or sounds like crap. Or both.

Now it’s time for them to get a headphone amplifier. Which is where we come in.

Of course, we aren’t going to stop with headphone amps. Look forward to a full line of DACs (hey, Mike Moffat pretty much invented the standalone, DSP-based DAC, so what else did you expect?) and future products which will cross over into the two-channel realm.

So What Makes Your Products Special?
Mike Moffat separately aligns each molecule of every JFET, using a special Absolute Zero containment suit…er, well, no. What makes them special are three things:

Simple, Pure Circuit Topologies
No integrated circuits or discrete op-amps here. Everything we make is as simple as possible. That means fully discrete, Class A, single voltage gain stage, and zero-feedback on our power amps and discrete outputs on our DACs. It also means preserving as much as the original samples on the DAC side of things–you won’t see us using sample rate conversion, ever.

Designed For the Real World
All of our circuits are noninverting, because it’s not so simple to swap phase on headphones like you do on speakers. Also, we’re using low-noise FETs and triodes to keep noise to a minimum.

Built to Last—But Sensibly Priced
All of our products are overbuilt. They’re intended to be something you can pass down to your children. That’s why we back them with a full 5-year warranty. But, at the same time, our stuff is affordable, because we’ve taken great pains to make it easy to manufacture—so easy, we can make Schiit in the USA for prices similar to Chinese products. Just ask Rina, our production master and head of operations.

So, why don’t you check out our Schiit?