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Schiit Gungnir DAC
Feb 9, 2015 at 11:45 AM Post #1,741 of 7,100
joebobbilly said:
 
No it is not. It was measured 2013 October... making it just a few months shy of the fazor ones. I am in fact curious about the fazor so I'm looking to see if anyone has a fazor one that they would be willing to trade with me.
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I have the Fazor, and it's my understanding that it's not as dark as the non-Fazored.  It has a similar frequency response as the HD650, but with less midbass bloom and more treble presence. 
 
Feb 25, 2015 at 10:35 PM Post #1,742 of 7,100
davidvanderbilt said:
  Just wanted to share my opinion on the Gungnir (Gen 2 USB). I have been looking for a DAC in the 500-1000 dollar range for quite some time now to go with my Bottlehead Crack and HD600s. I have purchased and returned an Emotiva DC-1 (twice actually the first one was defective) and Resonessence Labs Concero both of which I spent about a month with. I've also tried the NAD D1050 extensively. In my opinion the NAD D1050 was marginally better than my ODAC. I didn't really see the value. I had the same opinion for the Concero, I didn't like it at all. The sound signature was too close to the ODAC. I think the ODAC and Concero sound unnatural with harsh treble. The DC-1 was a lot more pleasing to listen to compared to the ODAC. It was more natural and full with more detail. The treble sounded less metallic and artificial. However, I just wasn't satisfied after a month of listening to it. I just felt like I was missing something. I guess I had "upgraditis" as they call it. 
 
I know the Gungnir is $350 more than the DC-1 but in my opinion it is definitely worth the price. It is substantially more detailed and a clear step up. I'm noticing details in most of my music collection that I've never noticed before. The sound stage is larger. An overall fuller sound. The bass is more defined and clear. Mids are amazing. Treble sounds more natural and pleasing. Cymbals sounds like cymbals. Background is completely silent, which I never noticed before in any other DAC. Even material that I have cringed listening to before sounds better on the Gungnir. I don't feel like anything is missing. I'm truly wowed by this DAC and would recommend it to anyone. It's definitely worth the money, especially over the other DACs I've tried.
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Update:
 
Okay I have to admit at first I was pretty blown away by this dac, but after I've listened to more of my music collection (I mainly listened to rock at first) and let the dac burn in for a couple weeks, certain things are starting to annoy me. For one thing, in my setup (hd600s and bottlehead crack) I feel like the bass is too much at times and distracts from the rest of the music. Also, because of this, or just the dac character in general, certain songs sound too dark and don't have enough treble extension. I removed some of the bass using the equalizer in foobar, but when I switch to a track that has a decent amount of treble, or even worse a bright track, it sounds too bright. It's completely track dependent and unfortunately I have a huge music collection including everything from electronic to rap to rock.  
 
I've been messing with the equalizer constantly and I can't seem to find a happy medium. It's driving me insane! haha. I don't have a ton of experience with other dacs besides the above mentioned, but it's crazy how completely different certain tracks sound on this dac in terms of bright/dark/bass/treble. I guess dynamic would be the technical term. Also I should mention that I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I'm sure that plays into my impressions of the dac. :) 
 
Feb 25, 2015 at 10:52 PM Post #1,743 of 7,100
It may be that what is happening is that you are hearing exactly what's on the recording and the mixing just doesn't suit your tastes.  The fact that you liked Gungnir at first and then started finding the warts suggests when you get past listening to the DAC and start listening to the music you are not happy with what you hear.  That's perfectly ok, there many poorly mixed recordings out there.  Sometimes I hear one and think "what were they thinking".  I'd be the first to admit that I have felt that way about big hits that everybody seems to like.
 
You may end up equalizing many of your tracks to match your preferences.  Try that before you keep swapping DACs.  It's less expensive and you have a good chance of liking what you re-equalized.
 
I'm saving up for a Gungnir and when I buy it I have decided it WILL make me happy for a long time.  And I haven't even heard it yet.
 
Feb 25, 2015 at 10:57 PM Post #1,744 of 7,100
audiobear said:
  It may be that what is happening is that you are hearing exactly what's on the recording and the mixing just doesn't suit your tastes.  The fact that you liked Gungnir at first and then started finding the warts suggests when you get past listening to the DAC and start listening to the music you are not happy with what you hear.  That's perfectly ok, there many poorly mixed recordings out there.  Sometimes I hear one and think "what were they thinking".  I'd be the first to admit that I have felt that way about big hits that everybody seems to like.
 
You may end up equalizing many of your tracks to match your preferences.  Try that before you keep swapping DACs.  It's less expensive and you have a good chance of liking what you re-equalized.
 
I'm saving up for a Gungnir and when I buy it I have decided it WILL make me happy for a long time.  And I haven't even heard it yet.
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That's a good point, I have considered that too. Can you EQ specific tracks in foobar or any other software like jriver? 
 
Feb 25, 2015 at 11:42 PM Post #1,745 of 7,100
davidvanderbilt said:
   
That's a good point, I have considered that too. Can you EQ specific tracks in foobar or any other software like jriver? 
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There's also a bass boost settings in the cmedia driver that you can use to adjust the bass.  Just a thought.
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 12:05 AM Post #1,746 of 7,100
I think you need to find software that does this track by track. Could be a cool hobby to create tracks the way you like them. I use Audacity on a Mac and it does quite a bit. It's free and it's available for Windows and other OS. There may be many other programs used in producing music that would be appropriate. Anybody know?

Google Audacity
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 12:12 AM Post #1,747 of 7,100
One of the things that simply drives me crazy these days in this passion/hobby is how many poorly made some CD's/albums/music files are. I can play a CD's for you that are so clean and transparent that you can hear every little detail, like taking a breath before singing the next verse and the soundstage is huge, deeper than my back wall and wider than the room's side walls. Other's are so compressed that the music lacks dynamics and most everything is hanging there between my speakers with no life/spark to it.
 
In my opinion, compared to other DAC's in and around its price range, the Gungnir does the best job being faithful to the signal its feed. Give it a great sounding signal and you'll be more than pleased, but feed it a compressed, lifeless signal and that's what you will hear through either your speakers or headphones. Recordings vary greatly in sound quality and the best we can hope for is that the recording industry will someday soon get their acts together. In the meantime, I simply do my best to overlook the poorly recorded music that I still love and hope that a better copy will be available soon.  Good luck! 
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 5:36 AM Post #1,749 of 7,100
davidvanderbilt said:
  For one thing, in my setup (hd600s and bottlehead crack) I feel like the bass is too much at times and distracts from the rest of the music.
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The Gungnir has a very dark tonal balance compared to a lot of DACs.  Great match for bright amps or cans, not so much if you pair it to also warm gear.  For me it paired really well with the Mjolnir but on the GS-X mk2 it was too dark.  Long story short, I believe there is a reason a lot of a the HD800 fans are also Gungnir fans and that reason is the Gungnir really balances out the otherwise thin HD800.
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 10:43 AM Post #1,750 of 7,100
solude said:
   
The Gungnir has a very dark tonal balance compared to a lot of DACs.  Great match for bright amps or cans, not so much if you pair it to also warm gear.  For me it paired really well with the Mjolnir but on the GS-X mk2 it was too dark.  Long story short, I believe there is a reason a lot of a the HD800 fans are also Gungnir fans and that reason is the Gungnir really balances out the otherwise thin HD800.
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That makes sense, however, everything I've read actually says that the gungnir isn't a good pair with the HD800s due to harsh treble. I think it's just entirely track dependent. I guess it's all personal preference though. 
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 11:00 AM Post #1,751 of 7,100
davidvanderbilt said:
That makes sense, however, everything I've read actually says that the gungnir isn't a good pair with the HD800s due to harsh treble. I think it's just entirely track dependent. I guess it's all personal preference though. 
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The harsh treble? That is interesting. If anything, the Gungnir's treble might be accused of being too smooth for some setups. I wonder if it is because of its strong dynamics that may be interpreted as being aggressive by some.
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 11:02 AM Post #1,752 of 7,100
davidvanderbilt said:
   
That makes sense, however, everything I've read actually says that the gungnir isn't a good pair with the HD800s due to harsh treble.
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That's not the Gungnir, that's the HD800 lower treble "definition" boost.  The Gungnir is butter smooth.
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 6:52 PM Post #1,754 of 7,100
liu junyuan said:
The harsh treble? That is interesting. If anything, the Gungnir's treble might be accused of being too smooth for some setups. I wonder if it is because of its strong dynamics that may be interpreted as being aggressive by some.
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I ahree the treble is not harsh at all. Now I have heard some say that the HD800 has harsh treble.
 
Feb 26, 2015 at 6:54 PM Post #1,755 of 7,100
I also don't find the Gungnir to be dark.
 
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