Schiit's Upcoming Closed-Form Digital Filter?

[dubiousmike]

Curious what folks here think of Schiit's claims regarding their upcoming dac and "closed-form" digital filter algorithm?  Jason Stoddard posted a controversial history of consumer digital audio a couple of days ago on HF, hyping Schiit's new (or is it old?) approach: https://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up/1320#post_10629122  The next five pages or so make for a pretty interesting read as a couple of engineers jump into the fray and grill him a bit as to inaccuracies in his "history" and what is really going on with the digital side filters in their dac.  Finally Schiit's design guy comments, mostly leaning on his prior industry experience it seems to justify what they seem to suggest is the "mathematical" superiority of their digital side of their solution: https://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up/1365#post_10631927

Interesting reading.  I just wish I knew enough about EE to follow it all and decipher whether it really holds water.  Given BH's focus on the FPGA and digital filtering in the upcoming dac, I was curious whether this really sounds like some sort of innovative leap or really just more clever marketing.

[Doc B.]

Well, I know for sure that Mike has seen a three story building because the last time I saw him we were in one. And I'm with him on the notion of switching from talking about ideas to building something. That's why we do what we do.

Jason and Mike are very cool guys whose reputations precede them. We've all been in the business quite a while, and anyone who can last in this kind of struggle to vie for your disposable income deserves some respect because they must be putting out a product of value. I have a policy of not trying to raise our position by comparing our products or marketing approach against those of competitors and asking about this here is kind of begging for that. We have taken a little different approach to the way we do things, that we believe in. That's really good for you guys, you get lots of choices.

On a more serious issue, Jason was kind of a pussy when I challenged him to a tag team mud wrestling match.

[Grainger49]

I think Dan is slinging mud.  (tongue-in-cheek!)  Or, at least wants to.

[dubiousmike]

Thanks for the gracious and humorous reply Doc!  My interest here is really just in obtaining some greater understanding of the competing cutting edge approaches, and it seems like Schiit's in-house algorithm and BH's FPGA based filter (w/ John's custom programming) are both on the forefront of what's out there - or soon to be out there. 

While the benefits of employing a FPGA seem fairly obvious to me in digital signal processing, I don't quite get Schiit's reference to "closed-form" filter code and why that would be significant from a sound quality perspective.  No doubt both will be great, highly acclaimed products at the end of the day, but if anyone feels like attempting to present a lay perspective on the different approaches and philosophies to these DSP methods, I would be much obliged.  Alternatively, if that comes too close to running over the line with respect to BH's policies, I'm happy to let the matter lie and say no more on it.  Mostly just killing time waiting on that kickstarter announcement 

-Mike 

[Doc B.]

Well, Mike is gonna be the guy to ask about it since it's his idea. I don't know what he is up to any more than anyone else and unlike some fellows on head fi I'm not inclined to pontific-, um, I mean speculate about it.

Re the Kickstarter, it will be a bit yet before I have everything set up. We are making a couple of adjustments to the DAC prototype that will make it closer to the production model. I'm going to walk on the wild side and actually take a week off from work next week. I hear it's all the rage. Don't you guys trash the place while I'm gone or I'll tell your mom. When the updates are done and I get back to work I will continue the video and photography that I have already started for the Kickstarter.

In the meantime we have something unrelated, but new and a bit unusual that we will be announcing very soon...

[dubiousmike]

Hope you a great vacation!  We'll all be looking forward to the new announcement and completion of the kickstarter video etc. when time permits!