I think the Gumby will happen after the Yaggy…
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That would make sense as the parts and newer tech would go to the flagship and the past gen yggy stuff going to the Gungnir.
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I’m not speculating anything. Bifrost 2 is fantastic for headphones right now and I REALLY hope they don’t mess with a thing. If I were Schiit, I’d redo the Gungnir with the replaceable hardware architecture. The Analog 2 board seems to be spot on and I’d finish clearing out the GS edition Yiggy’s before even hinting at a Gungnir revision.
But Schiit has their DAC line up practically mint right now, I wouldn’t mess with it right now except for some new delta sigma analog boards and push for blind testing. I totally bought the Bifrost 2 fully waiting for a swap to Delta Sigma to just take a good chassis and add some variation. If you don’t read the blind testing post… internally they admitted in blind testing they liked the delta sigma stuff better on occasion.
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Oooo. Check this out Schiity friends.
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This may be a left field question, but how does this compare to an SMSL VMV D1? I wonder if anyone has experience with both… I’ve been curious about R2R dacs, would love to hear what people got out of these options.
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I mean personally I prefer the bifrost 2 to the vmv d1, but I would say if you wanted to get something a bit higher tier, you would be looking at perhaps a used Holo audio spring2 or a soekris 1541 or something along those lines. The mdht orchid is also pretty sweet in that range
Edit: also what do you think of the zmf on the tube now that you have had more time with it?
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First thing you notices it separation of instruments seems to be better. Certain songs with some transient like sounds have sound to the them that seem to be more like vinyl (more transparent? you decide). The biggest issue is Sigma Delta’s start out cheap and ok, mid-tier offerings is where you start seeing R-2R DACs do REALLY well. Then in the uber expensive stuff it’s more about implementation and features and less about the underlying tech.
That’s my take on things, when in doubt just believe in M0N. I do want to make a note here that I think needs to be clear, multibit sounds and R-2R sounds on my limited sampling are not one and the same. FPGA ladder DACs maybe done different with a greater degree of variance than a multibit that DAC that manages to handle the entire ladder DAC all in silicon. Resistors for FPGA based solutions will use expensive precision resistors in large quantities meaning the end result may vary a bit from runs. Chips however are MUCH easier to control the manufacturing.
Result? I think multibit DACs (I suggest the Bifrost 2 from Schiit and up, not their cheaper offerings) are more accurate and consistent than other non sigma delta DACs. Also, anymore I am a believer that pairing of the proper DAC and amps matter more than individual components.
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Thanks for the replies!
@M0N I switched out the stock tube for the Mullard and it made a really great difference! I got all the highs and lows back, and everything has a really nice excitement to it, a couple degrees more realism. I’m very happy right now! I have been a bit busy lately, working from home kind of blurs time, but I am looking forward to putting more hours on it over the weekend.
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So comparing the TOSLINK and USB on the BF2… I can say the BF2 sounds SO MUCH better off of USB. Is this a known issue where it seems like the sounds seems smoother and less detailed on other DACs?
I’m mostly asking seeing how some reviewers seem to prefer to use not USB with their DACs or if this just a more unit specific thing I’m noticing?
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So it really depends on the implementation actually. The lower end stuff their most recent USB update I think it’s unison USB is most favored for sound quality. But actually when you get higher up, yggy people tend to prefer to use aes with it over usb lol with nicer ddc for better sq. So it really depends
I haven’t touched aes yet but I know when I get there, that will be a thing. I think I finally have gear to let me hear a difference with toslink and USB. I checked again and I wonder if the difference was just with that particular song. I can see the appeal now to vinyl, digital implementations + sources can really change the experience. At least with vinyl you don’t have to question as much where the bad sounds are coming from.
Actually I think you have way more imo lol. Is it your phono pre, is it your cart/stylus, is it dirty vinyl, is it your alignment, is it improper vibration control, etc. Well I guess though that someone who knows their stuff could probably figure it out, I just know I would be a tad lost lol
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So this discussion came about with a friend that has been introduced to my Airist R-2R. He hooked up his Stax L300 to the Airist after using his DragonFly Red as his best DAC… He heard things and is now looking at a Soekris 1541. Because I’m a supportive person, I’ll mail down my Bifrost 2 since the differences noticed with Airist R-2R between USB (sounds best) and optical (sounds less aggressive unfortunately) are noticeable. But a crackling noticed with the USB on the Airist with Doom Eternal (first noticed) has him nervous about USB implementations. So now before $1200 is spent on a Soekris, BF2 to the rescue.
So… Now my buddy is in love with the ladder DAC design but worried about USB implementations. I’m hoping the Bifrost 2 wins him over since the USB implementation is fantastic. The comment about vinyl is, the lack of worrying about driver implementation really simplifies the experience. It’s just the chain of input to output is just sensitive. But analog issues can be addressed, closed source driver implementations and corresponding closed source sound generation usually cannot.
That could either be unclean USB power or a samplerate set too high
It’s sampling rate however games bypass the windows settings. Some music players do as well. Part of the reason why I love the BF2 so much is that the USB is REALLY well done to the UAC2 standard. Also as someone that has written code on a PIC32. Pretty much if you have the tools you can debug anything on those chips which SHOULD yield fantastic code quality. Microchip also makes a lot of parts for cars, so the parts are made to handle abuse and last for years.
I’ve found some solutions with C-Media chips for USB to be poorly implemented or at least the execution not being focused on the USB side as much.
Pretty sure you would have to use something like wasapi or asio for this to happen, otherwise everything is upsampled to what is set in the windows audio setting. I don’t know of a game that has wasapi or asio implemented (there most likely are a few, I just can’t think of any off the top of my head)
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@M0N, I got approval to buy this, thanks to my SU8 giving me problems. Are there any XLR interfaces that could get close to this for the same price or less?
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XLR interface as in like an audio interface?
Yeah. It would be cool to add that functionality to my set up. I have a few mics, but haven’t used them in years.
I would have ordered from schiit already, but they’re backordered at the moment
Hmmmm. So for listening I would personally say no from my experience, perhaps a ua audio apollo twin mk2 would be up there, but in terms of raw dac quality I would say that I would prefer the bifrost 2. But if you needed a neutral response then the ua audio might be a better choice (or a soekris dac1421)
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