What type of sound are you going for? Would you want something warmer, something more analytical, or in the middle?
Something in the middle
This is what I would go with if you donāt mind b stock
Took some time to troubleshoot some noise issues, but overall, this amp is a great buy. After listening to my usual tracks, I feel that my 4XXs sound much more refined on this amp than just running off of the headphone port on my PC, where it sound like everything is being thrown at it with no cohesion. Canāt speak on the DAC units just yet, but my next big purchase is gonna be the Multibit card. Will post my thoughts here when those arrive.
Iām casually looking around for some new headphones though, and my eyes right now are set on the Nighthawks. Maybe later down Iāll grab either the HEXX or LCD-2Cs, but thatās gonna take awhile to get towards. In the meantime, Iām totally satisfied with my first headphone amp, canāt imagine me switching off of this unit anytime soon.
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Direct from Schiit FAQ for Bifrost2:
No, seriously, I donāt believe this True Multibit stuff. 18 bits? What about 24 bit music?
Well, leaving aside the fact that there probably aināt nowhere near 24 usable bits in any recorded music, no matter the audiophile cred, if youāre looking for resolution below the 18-bit level, take a look at our measurements, showing Bifrost 2 clearly resolving a -144dB signal. Thatās -24 bits. Boom.
Yes they are dithering, or basically using delta sigma to get the rest of the bits.
Most modern delta sigma DACās are actually āmultibitā, but just 4 or 5 bits, the top few bits are directly off the ladder, and you switch the bottom bit on and off rapidly at vey high frequency, feeding the result through a filter to get the rest
I thought the Bifrost 2 is ONLY a multibit dac and there is no more DS Bifrost with the advent of Bifrost 2?
Yes the bifrost 2 is now only multibit
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Yup, I have one here in front of me, as I was reading thru the posts I noticed that one post kind of had it backwards!! No harm.
Had the B1 and B2 here for sometimeā¦both great, the B2 is just better designedā¦
Alex
Honestly shiit is actually getting their shit together lol. I really never liked anything except their totl dac and really would never recommended it with the issues it had (peaky signature, unrefined sound, compression, poor timbre), but with the asgard 3, magni heresy, and bifrost 2 they are headed to make more actually good products lol
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I couldnt agree with you moreā¦I had the original Asgard and Lyrā¦both long goneā¦Jason and Mike over time have a great lineup at a fair price and good warrantyā¦in most cases 5 yrs and the low price stuff 2 yrsā¦
For $99 the Magni Hersey is a measurebators dreamā¦
The B2 has been touted as a mini Yggyā¦and its improvements are very well thought out.
Yes there is a lot of good stuff out there and its a great time to be in the hobby for sure!
Alex
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Yeah Iāve owned a lot of dac and amps in the past and the budget stuff is just getting better and better, real nice
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Kind of like David and Goliath!!
Good to see stuff low priced for folks with small budgets and there is always room at the middle and top for those of us that want the thick billet cases, bells, lights, VU meters etc!! ā¦
Yeah the high end stuff goes high lol (not sure if I personally have the budget to go higher but who knows, stuff just keeps getting better)
Iād personally take an Enog2 Pro, El DAC II or Topping D50s over the Modi 3 and the Modi Multibit.
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Do people recommend getting this with the multibit, 4490, or just a separate dac entirely?
Iād say separate. Can always upgrade to a different dac when itās separate.
It depends on what you want. I personally would grab a d10 with the A3 instead of the 4490 internal card, but if you want a sleek all in one the 4490 isnāt bad. I would actually suggest looking for a used bifrost multibit instead of getting the internal card
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that would be a nice neat stack.
Then you could always upgrade as you please.
Since you have the option of getting this without a dac, is it possible that you could mod it and make a dac yourself to add into it?