2017 SBAF Golden Schlong Awards

Discussion in 'Leaderboard, Overboard, and Deals' started by purr1n, Dec 13, 2017.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    2016 Golden Schlong Awards Here: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...rbaf-best-of-2016-golden-schlong-awards.3665/

    FORWARD

    I was not inclined to award any product the SBAF Golden Schlong Award this year and this sentiment seemed partially reflected in our nominations and voting. Twenty eight products were nominated, with each member of Friend status given five votes to distribute. This system is very much consensus based. Normally, we would see votes gravitate toward a half dozen products, but this did not happen this year with exception of one, maybe two. In fact, a good percentage of votes, 15%, were for “none”, and remaining were widely distributed among the nominees. Maybe SBAF members are a bit more jaded. Or maybe we are just tight fisted. I like this. Awards for audio products shouldn’t be given out easily if they are going to mean something.


    HONORABLE MENTIONS

    First off, I’d like to list the honorable mentions, the ones which received at least 7.5% of the votes.

    16.3% Focal Utopia - nominated for excellence (also won 2016 SBAF Googli Award)
    16.3% Koss KSC75 - nominated for value and longevity
    13.8% Schiit Magni 3 - nominated for value
    11.3% Koss Portapro - nominated for value and longevity
    10.0% Sony NW-WM1A/Z - nominated for excellence
    10.0% ZMF Eikon - nominated for excellence
    10.0% AZ PMx3 - nominated for excellence
    08.8% MrSpeaker Aeon Flow Open - nominated for excellence
    08.8% Schiit Vidar - nominated for value
    08.8% LFF Code-X - nominated for excellence
    07.5% ZMF Atticus - nominated for excellence
    07.5% ZMF Auteur - nominated for excellence
    07.5% Pioneer M22 - nominated for excellence and longevity


    2017 GOLDEN SCHLONG AWARDS

    The two winners of the 2017 Golden Schlong Award are the following:

    Schiit Saga
    Schiit Eitr

    The Schiit Eitr (value) USB to SPDIF converter received a whopping 38.8% of the votes. I had some reservations granting the Eitr a Golden Schlong because it is, after all, kind of a sundry accessory, like cables, power conditioners, etc. However, the members made a compelling case, pointing out how the Eitr, in fell one swoop, cured DAC USB nervosa, effectively ending the discussions in the USB nervosa, Rednet, Wyrd, and Rpi threads. Sure there are converters that might be superior to the Eitr, the BADA USB, the various i2s solutions, Lynx, Rednet, etc. But what the Eitr did was provide near the performance of these solutions without the complexity or at below the price of even the bargain ChiFi USB to SPDIF products. (I should point out that a good CD transport is still superior to the Eitr because USB sucks ass, just that the Eitr makes it suck less).

    The Schiit Saga preamp (excellence and value) received 23.8% of the vote. I most certainly did not expect this as I did not think there were that many two-channel speaker guys around here. The Saga most certainly deserves the award because of its transparency. The user can easily ascertain this by switching from passive to active mode. In active mode, the coloration of the tube, the 6SN7, is very minimal. If there are any colorations, they are positive, e.g., opening up of the stagesound. Any sins of omission are extremely difficult to notice, if at all. The downsides to the Saga are twofold: it only accepts single-ended connections, it looks extremely modest and unworthy. Yes, the Saga is a better preamp than the Freya.


    P.S. Golden Schlong graphics to be added later.
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2017
  2. atomicbob

    atomicbob dScope Yoda

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    Saga is a great preamp period. No qualifiers necessary.
     
  3. khragon

    khragon Acquaintance

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    Agreed, I want a Baga (balanced saga) and it's not Freya.
     
  4. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    @schiit Congrats for coming away with two new dicks in 2017!
     
  5. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Great, more accusations about Schilling incoming.

    Jokes aside, congrats to Schiit! Hope you guys get a distributor here in the Philippines eventually so us locals can demo your products (especially the multibit stuff). Thanks for all the (reportedly) awesome products, and looking forward to seeing what's in store for the future!


    ... Which some members of the super secret society probably already know about, but eh :p
     
  6. TeskR

    TeskR New

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    Guessing this means that the no double dicks rule from last year's awards has been relaxed now?
     
  7. winders

    winders boomer

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    You mean the rule has become flaccid? I just hope there aren't too many "crossed swords" jokes....
     
  8. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    No. It has to do with Viagra going generic on Monday this week. It’s cheap enough now we can afford a double Schlong.

    @schiit keep “up” the good work!
     
    Last edited: Dec 14, 2017
  9. Grahad2

    Grahad2 Red eyes from too much anime

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    No it means we're coming out as Schiit Best Audio Friends soon.

    It's really more of the year being really down on good stuff coming out.
     
  10. Grattle

    Grattle Friend

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    Has this been around long enough for a Platinum Schlong Lifetime Acievement award? Perhaps for year 5?
     
  11. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    The 2-channel love is awesome to see. Hoping there will be even more expansion of 2-channel discussions on SBAF and even more representations of great value products from other manufacturers as well - but for right now, Schiit are really putting out the best SQ/$ in most categories. Saga seems to be one of the craziest values when you consider the sound quality vs. what else is out there in the market anywhere near this price (i.e. squat!). Saga has been my first foray into tubes, but almost certainly not my last (I've already brought in a Freya to try out more tubiness, granted with a slight trade off in transparency). And Eitr / Gen 5 (I have both) are simply no brainers. Congrats @schiit!
     
  12. Victor

    Victor New

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    Will there be 2018 awards?
     
  13. OldDude04

    OldDude04 Friend

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  14. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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  15. Victor

    Victor New

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    Can't view it unfortunately, I will be patient.
     
  16. OldDude04

    OldDude04 Friend

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    Gotcha, thanks for the heads up.
     
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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