Oh and I've recently made a purchase with a flagship dac from Yulong, DA8.

A lot people are saying the USB is so good that I might as well just sell my ilink. The DA8 also has its own built-in power supply juicing the 5v. I am anxiously waiting for the DA8 to arrive to compare.

Hey all,
 
To clear a few things up:
 
1. The new USB Gen 2 input is really, really good. I'll put it up against any converter under $500, and many over that price. Why? Because even with the best USB-SPDIF converter, you're still dependent on how good the DAC is at SPDIF. Now, Gungnir is VERY, VERY good at SPDIF due to the unique Adapticlock system--it is the only DAC out there that assesses the input center frequency and jitter in order to assign it to the best clock regeneration system. But the USB Gen 2 measures even better. Now, measurements are not everything, but the fact remains: USB can outperform SPDIF, at least in measured performance.
 
2. The Gungnir's USB input doesn't need any conditioning, auxiliary power, cables that cost more than Gungnir itself, plutonium rectifiers, magic faerie dust, rituals involving swinging a dead chicken by the light of the full moon, or any other quantum arcana in order to achieve top performance. Get a good USB 2.0 cable. Connect it. Done.
 
Hope this brightens everyone's day!
 
All the best,
Jason

jason stoddard said:

  Hey all,
 
To clear a few things up:
 
1. The new USB Gen 2 input is really, really good. I'll put it up against any converter under $500, and many over that price. Why? Because even with the best USB-SPDIF converter, you're still dependent on how good the DAC is at SPDIF. Now, Gungnir is VERY, VERY good at SPDIF due to the unique Adapticlock system--it is the only DAC out there that assesses the input center frequency and jitter in order to assign it to the best clock regeneration system. But the USB Gen 2 measures even better. Now, measurements are not everything, but the fact remains: USB can outperform SPDIF, at least in measured performance.
 
2. The Gungnir's USB input doesn't need any conditioning, auxiliary power, cables that cost more than Gungnir itself, plutonium rectifiers, magic faerie dust, rituals involving swinging a dead chicken by the light of the full moon, or any other quantum arcana in order to achieve top performance. Get a good USB 2.0 cable. Connect it. Done.
 
Hope this brightens everyone's day!
 
All the best,
Jason

Click to expand...

Jason,
 
are you able to tell us from which serial no onward  is this new USB2 install & what the different between them.
 
"The Gen 2 USB board ships standard with every new Bifrost USB or Gungnir USB. ...."
 
Just wondering is mine come with the new USB2...
 
rgds

Couldn't agree more with Jason. Despite still running with a 1st gen USB in my Gungnir, I found that using a USB cable from an external Yamaha CD writer (yes I still own such a thing) produces such an amazing result that I have no doubt that my system sounds even better than it did with the well done Sabre 32 DAC in my Audiolab 8200CD, which was no slouch at all.

jason stoddard said:

  rituals involving swinging a dead chicken by the light of the full moon
 

Click to expand...

 
I believe the chicken must be plucked for best results.

Anybody got a Loki and tried it with a Gungnir yet?

arven said:

Anybody got a Loki and tried it with a Gungnir yet?

Click to expand...

Loki is a standalone DAC, pairing it with any DAC won't make any difference.

I just used a different USB port on the MAC to avoid using the switch and all the cables. I've powered it up and checked that Audirvana sees it - yes.

I've a request for Schiit Engineering. Please have the DACs "name" themselves to the OS by their product name instead of the Company Name. OS X sees two USB devices with the same name currently. It would be nice to see "Loki" and "Gungnir" instead. I should have a report soon. Will probably pull the DSD out of an existing SACD ISO rip. Too bad Audirvana can't do this automagically instead of converting to PCM.

Cheers
Frank

I'm certain this has been covered, but I'm too lazy to read all 80 pages.
 
Why on earth does the Gungnir have three feet instead of four?
To prevent stacking?
Do I need to contribute to the Disabled DAC Foundation to get a fourth foot?

sceleratus said:

  I'm certain this has been covered, but I'm too lazy to read all 80 pages.
 
Why on earth does the Gungnir have three feet instead of four?
To prevent stacking?
Do I need to contribute to the Disabled DAC Foundation to get a fourth foot?

Click to expand...

 
Even 3 feet stack just fine. If you didn't know Gungnir is a budget piece of gear. So no fourth foot for you, er, unless you pony up the big bucks.

paradoxper said:

   
Even 3 feet stack just fine. If you didn't know Gungnir is a budget piece of gear. So no fourth foot for you, er, unless you pony up the big bucks.

Click to expand...

 
Please help Gungnir's around the world become stable and have a long and sturdy life, free from scratches.
Donate to the "Crippled DAC Foundation" today.
Operators are standing buy.

sceleratus said:

   
Please help Gungnir's around the world become stable and have a long and sturdy life, free from scratches.
Donate to the "Crippled DAC Foundation" today.
Operators are standing buy.

Click to expand...

 
Stop fussing with your Schiit or become stack free to be scratch free. 
 
Also, keep your behemoth a full arms length away.

paradoxper said:

   
Stop fussing with your Schiit or become stack free to be scratch free. 
 
Also, keep your behemoth a full arms length away.

Click to expand...

 
fuss, fuss.  sniff, sniff.  mean old poster, stop picking on me.
 
 
But they play together.  

sceleratus said:

I'm certain this has been covered, but I'm too lazy to read all 80 pages.

Why on earth does the Gungnir have three feet instead of four?
To prevent stacking?
Do I need to contribute to the Disabled DAC Foundation to get a fourth foot?

Click to expand...

From geometry - 3 points in space will always lie in the same plane. A group of 4 points may not. In fact, it's more likely than not that they do not share the same plane whereas with 3 point, it's an absolute certainty.

This means that the 3 footed gungnir will be a lot less likely than the 4 footed gungnir to... Umm... Wibble (you know, like when one leg of a table is shorter than the other three). This is of course providing that the centre of mass, projected on to the plane containing the 3 points, lies within the triangle fromed by said points. If you want to stack something on the gungnir, just make sure the centre of mass (projected on the blah, blah, blah...) doesn't venture outside the triangle and all should be fine.

neo0617 said:

  I have a problem with the Gungnir DAC. Let's see if anyone can input more thoughts into this ..
 
My setup:
PC (Optical Out) / Notebook (USB) -> Gungnir -> Meier Corda Classic -> HD650 / ES5
 
When I left the Gungnir open for about 10 ~ 30 mins, it will have a slight hum (like a ground loop noise).
It will grow louder and louder and reach a point I could not tolerate (about 1 hour later).
Then I switch the unit off for a night and the noise will go away.
However when I turn it on again it will repeat the same loop. 
 
I have sent the unit back to Jason and they have checked there is no problem. 
 
What I have swapped so far and they do not help ..
1. cabling 
2. power outlet 
3. amp (cheap China amp + some portable amp from RSA / Pico)
4. source file (no matter 16/44.1 / 16/48 / 24/96 )
5. DAC (again cheap China DAC, no problem with these setup)
 
Any thoughts / input are appreciated. Thanks all !!

Click to expand...

 
Hi,
If you still have the Gungnir, my story might help you to trouble shoot the humming noise. I went crazy for the humming noise when I installed Gungnir as a replacement of "Audio-gd" DAC. With Audio-Gd there was no humming, but with Gungnir I experienced humming noise with random or intermittent pattern with different loud level at different point of time within a day. I immediately made contact with Jason and as usual he pointed there might be a ground loop. But after many many hours of observation with different tricks and tips later I found it was due to poor voltage regulation or tolerance inside Gungnir. My Gungnir was 230V model, when my main voltage drops near 225V it's start to create noise with it's single ended output (XLR of course remain noise free). There is no problem of humming if voltage raise to 235 to 240 Volt, but on the lower side Gungnir is generating noise when mains is decreasing just by -5V from the rated 230V. It is totally unacceptable, I never found any international brand which failed just at 225V which manufactured with rated 230V. For example my NAD, DENON, Marantz, Audio-Gd never shown any sign of noise even at 205V. There are many countries where 220V is found to be standard Domestic Voltage, so in those countries with the present design Gungnir will fail to operate normally if some kind of extra voltage conditioning is not used. I have mailed Jason about this. He agreed to look into this matter.