Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

Setting up a company - the good, the bad and the ugly. Certainly worth a read. Great title!

It's kind of hard to categorize this book. It's part autobiography of the author, and part bio of some of his colleagues and partners. It's part business book. It's part history of one company (Schiit Audio). It's part rumination on the state of the audio business. It's also part comedy, as it's light-hearted view on all the above is fun to read. The book is based around the creation and development of the Schiit company, and the lessons learned in the process.For those who are in the audio or high-end audio world, a lot of this is familiar or at least assumed content: the change the audio world saw with the rise of the internet and e-commerce; the changing tastes of the audio consumer, and the big names in the business (big not necessarily in size, but in product quality). Those who know audio will find a few gems in the book, while those new to the area will learn more. However, while there's decent explanations of some audio terms, such as the classes of amps, there's often a reference to something that isn't explained well or at all. A good example is "tube rolling", which is mentioned early on; while those of us in the audio world know what the term means, anyone outside the audio world will not be aware (for the record, it refers to replacing one manufacturer's tube with another manufacturer's to hear any differences affecting audio quality).I have to be honest; I do not own any Schiit gear, mostly because my headphones are powered by amps that are in the higher-priced end of the market, but that doesn't mean I don't respect what Schiit did and is doing. Many colleagues have reasonably priced Schiit gear on their desks for listening at work, which is something I can't do with my megabuck headphone amps. After reading this book, I started to look at the Schiit balanced headphone amps and...who knows! Maybe this book is a great marketing tool!The business lessons imparted here are not new, nor earth shattering. Anyone who has been in business for a while will know all this stuff. But it never hurts to condense the lessons down to simply forms, and use anecdotes to illustrate the lessons, which this book does really well.Did I learn anything about audio from reading this book? No. Did I learn anything about engineering from reading this book? No. Did I learn anything about business from reading this book? No. Was it a great read? Yes! It was fun, interesting, and a change from dry books that take a high-and-mighty attitude to convey simple messages. But the biggest part for me was simply the fun of reading through. Highly recommended.

Ein großartiges Buch aus der Praxis, ein wirklich Wissender berichtet spannend und sehr humorvoll von der Realität eines aktuellen Businessabenteuers.

Consigliatissimo a chi ama l alta fedeltà e vuole comprendere i suoi meccanismi ed il processo che porta a creare nuovi prodotti di qualità

Il libro è simpatico e risulta anche ben scritto.Racconta in maniera semplice e ricca di aneddoti la storia della più improbabile compagnia di prodotti hifi. Consigliato ai fan dei loro prodotti.