I’m curious if anyone has ideas for new audio products you would like to see come to market. Where do you see opportunities? Or what would you personally like to buy if it was available?
Something that I don’t see readily available in the market is a simple network streamer that is price competitive along side a $100 dac / $100 amp - other than the intrepid Raspberry Pi streamer. If a company like Schiit could sell an ~$100 network streamer in the small magni/modi enclosure, I think it would sell very well with Schiit’s main clientele. Especially now, given so many companies coming out with CD quality streaming options, there’s a need for an easy way to get this high quality music to people’s speakers / headphones (apart from always being attached to a laptop), and including support for more common streaming services like Amazon and Spotify (not just audiophile stuff like Roon, Qobuz, Tidal, etc).
At the very least, maybe Schiit could come out with a RPi4 enclosure that exposes all of the required ports on the backside so it would stack nicely with other audio gear. (? $50 ?) It’s a DIY solution, but much nicer than dealing with the odd port placement on most RPi4 enclosures today.
Anyway - just curious if anyone else out there has had random ideas for products they would like to see built.
A total DAC/Headphone Amp/Speaker Amp that’s not crimpled in some way. The Sprout100 is around, but it’s not the highest quality… anything. If Topping or SMSL could get their heads out their asses and combine their $100-150 components into one case, 50w/8ohm speaker out, 1w headphone out, good DAC with a remote, there goes my money. But I know individual components carry more sales and interest.
Speaker stand monoblock amps… With wireless pairing for volume control with remote.
KSC75 with separate bluetooth modules built in to each side, that can detect when they’re worn to turn on. Charge ports are magnetic.
Some kind of signal sending/check for if a DAC or Amp is turned on, the other components come on as well. Would require wizardry, but that would be amazing (and reflect old stuff).
A combination monitor and speaker stand so you can have your desktop speakers flanking your monitor(s), at the same height as your monitor(s), and floating above your desk.
I’ve been waiting for a higher end Koss dynamic headphone. A more lineal upgrade path to the ksc75 in terms of just sound, not form factor. But while we are in that topic I have been interested in a fairly higher end Koss ksc75 with similiar form factor.
I just want an iPod Classic, but it syncs with Apple music. You just browse you’re library or an SD slot there’s no searching or adding, no editing, nothing but scrolling your existing library…Modern DAC chip and BT codecs.
Maybes:
SD slot
4.4 out
No apps, no touch screen, no crazy design that looks like it escaped from the set of Tron. I don’t even care if it has a color screen.
I just want to browse and play back my Apple Music library/local files without my phone when im out.
More 600 Ohm headphones to run balanced, something like the dt880 or dt1990 but with removable cables. Also higher impedance planars, similar to the lcd 4(200ohm).
True, there’s not as many high impedance new headphones, most are made for portable or low powered amps. It would be cool especially for more dynamics to be high ohm for tubes. Also for balanced amps, I’d like to see more stuff to use on my Mjolnir, it has a lot of power and I only have a few headphones that work on it, (power and balanced).
My ultimate desk setup would be dual monitors (productivity), each one having dual arms with arms holding speakers on the ends, speakers pointing inward.
With wireless pairing for volume control with remote.
With wireless pairing for volume control with remote.
