[gevorg]

Looks like powering Gumby is a repeating theme of this thread. Yet, the solution is pretty simple for most, just keep it on.

The difference of Gumby powered just for a few hours vs. several days is not as big as the difference you get by possibly improving the USB signal before it gets inside Gumby. The bus-powered USB CMedia board is Gumby's weakest link, not the fact that its best to keep it on all the time. Many other sensitive electronics need time to stabilize/etc, this is not unique to DACs.

 

[sheldaze]

So I must say that powering off for 24 hours, and back on for 15 minutes, I like the sound of the Gungnir Multibit. It plays to my personal taste for a euphoric, gleeful, stress-free nature of listening to music, on a Friday. Hey - I've been listening to the HD650 for over 10 years - I have the really dark version. It's my thing!
 
Today however, I'm listening to a DNA Sonett and original HD800 headphones (same as I did last night just before powering down my Gungnir for a 24 hours rest). In short, this ship should be pretty tight. But all the pieces are jumbled all over the place. It's sort of a midrange, gooey mess, with some treble thrown into various places. And the bass is gone. I just cannot place anything, front to back on the stage. On the fourth song of my 5-song setlist as I type this, and the vocals get louder. But they never seem to move towards me. It reminds me a lot of when the multi-channel mixes that came out with the introduction of DVD-Audio and high resolution surround. The audio engineers would just place things anywhere they wanted, just because...
 
There's some good sound in the middle, and there's stuff dancing all around it. The bass is just a complete mess...

 

[captblaze]

Looks like powering Gumby is a repeating theme of this thread. Yet, the solution is pretty simple for most, just keep it on.

 

 
 
and now part "B" has commenced and I can tell you this... if I had to base my decision solely on listening to my very new and very tight 800 S then I would definitely keep Gumby on indefinitely. My HD 650s have closed in a bit, but nothing totally awful. the 800 S got real tinny sounding although the sound stage remained spacious and not as closed in as the 650s.
 
Granted this is still in the first few minutes from allowing Gumby to go cold (well room temperature). Although I am skeptical that a 10 minute warm up is gonna smooth everything out to the way it was with Gumby having a good thermal equilibrium established.
 
And yes this debate has been rehashed and yes the folks at Schiit Audio recommend you leave Gumby nice and warm all the time, but I wanted to do my own test to prove the theory for my own enjoyment... As always YMMV
 
Update - the sound characteristics of either headphone hasn't changed after 20 + minutes. Myth Busted?
 
Conclusion...  I'm gonna leave Gumby on from now on and make sure all my rechargeable items (power banks / cellphones etc.) get charged by the sun. That should balance out my carbon footprint

 

[prismstorm]

Notwithstanding all this talk on whether the GMB gets better by being on all the time, isn't being on all the time detrimental to the life span of all electronics? Just like any digital product, heat is a constant enemy, and it's not like the Gumby has a smart OS that does power management and offers fancy 'sleep' mode that preserves the longevity of the unit. Are we killing the life of the components by leaving the DAC perpetually on?

 

[Mediahound]

Notwithstanding all this talk on whether the GMB gets better by being on all the time, isn't being on all the time detrimental to the life span of all electronics? Just like any digital product, heat is a constant enemy, and it's not like the Gumby has a smart OS that does power management and offers fancy 'sleep' mode that preserves the longevity of the unit. Are we killing the life of the components by leaving the DAC perpetually on?

Actually I think the repeated heat up/cool down is worse for electronics than leaving on all the time. That said, you would likely not meat a MTBF for that in the lifetime of the product. 

 

[ToTo Man]

Notwithstanding all this talk on whether the GMB gets better by being on all the time, isn't being on all the time detrimental to the life span of all electronics? Just like any digital product, heat is a constant enemy, and it's not like the Gumby has a smart OS that does power management and offers fancy 'sleep' mode that preserves the longevity of the unit. Are we killing the life of the components by leaving the DAC perpetually on?

 
An audio electronics engineer told me that leaving stuff powered on 24/7 will significantly shorten its life.  Capacitors etc that may last 10 to 20 years in normal use will need replaced much sooner.  
 
I have gear that is pushing 40 years old and still going strong with all of its original stock internal parts, and I am certain this would not be the case if it had been run 24/7.  
 
I suppose whether this is relevant to modern gear depends on how many years you are planning on keeping it, and/or whether you are confident you'll be able to source replacement internal parts for it when the time comes.

 

[pavement714]

   
An audio electronics engineer told me that leaving stuff powered on 24/7 will significantly shorten its life.  Capacitors etc that may last 10 to 20 years in normal use will need replaced much sooner.  
 
I have gear that is pushing 40 years old and still going strong with all of its original stock internal parts, and I am certain this would not be the case if it had been run 24/7.  
 
I suppose whether this is relevant to modern gear depends on how many years you are planning on keeping it, and/or whether you are confident you'll be able to source replacement internal parts for it when the time comes.

I've also heard on this forum of people owning hifi gear for decades that was left on and works great still. So who know really haha

 

[SuperElf]

 

Notwithstanding all this talk on whether the GMB gets better by being on all the time, isn't being on all the time detrimental to the life span of all electronics? Just like any digital product, heat is a constant enemy, and it's not like the Gumby has a smart OS that does power management and offers fancy 'sleep' mode that preserves the longevity of the unit. Are we killing the life of the components by leaving the DAC perpetually on?

 
An audio electronics engineer told me that leaving stuff powered on 24/7 will significantly shorten its life.  Capacitors etc that may last 10 to 20 years in normal use will need replaced much sooner.  
 
I have gear that is pushing 40 years old and still going strong with all of its original stock internal parts, and I am certain this would not be the case if it had been run 24/7.  
 
I suppose whether this is relevant to modern gear depends on how many years you are planning on keeping it, and/or whether you are confident you'll be able to source replacement internal parts for it when the time comes.

 
That's the dilemma: what sound best vs. what is best for the electronics' life spans.
 
I shut down my whole stereo system only when I'm going to be away 3+ days.  Don't know about my Gungnir MB, but my preamp and amp both state that it takes 24 hour after switching on before they attain an optimal state.  (In the case of my power amp, it means Off vs. Stand-by;  from full On (vs. Stand-by) it takes a hour before sound best.)
 
I had a Phase Linear power amp for 22 years and it was still working OK.  I had the PS filter capacitors changed and it still sounded like ****.

 

[SuperElf]

Looks like powering Gumby is a repeating theme of this thread. Yet, the solution is pretty simple for most, just keep it on.

The difference of Gumby powered just for a few hours vs. several days is not as big as the difference you get by possibly improving the USB signal before it gets inside Gumby. The bus-powered USB CMedia board is Gumby's weakest link, not the fact that its best to keep it on all the time. Many other sensitive electronics need time to stabilize/etc, this is not unique to DACs.

 
This is a good reason to get Schiit's Wyrd USB hub which cleans up the power going to the CMedia board.

 

[Ableza]

Yes, in my experience the "weak link" is not the USB receiver inside Gungnir, it is the USB sender it is connected to.  Wyrd helps immensely in removing the influence of that weak link.

 

[ToTo Man]

  Yes, in my experience the "weak link" is not the USB receiver inside Gungnir, it is the USB sender it is connected to.  Wyrd helps immensely in removing the influence of that weak link.

 
Would this apply to a 2010 Mac Mini?  Someone recently posted that MacBook Pro USB ports provide cleaner audio signals than MacBook Air USB ports, and therefore that MBPs won't benefit from a USB decrappifier as much as MBAs will.  What about Mac Minis?

 

[theveterans]

 Yes, in my experience the "weak link" is not the USB receiver inside Gungnir, it is the USB sender it is connected to.  Wyrd helps immensely in removing the influence of that weak link.

 
I saw a post before that the USB inputs for Bifrost and Gungnir are not powered by the DAC, but the USB source itself. That's one of the reasons I use a USB Decrapifier like Wyrd, but in my case, iFi iUSB.

 

[Ableza]

   
Would this apply to a 2010 Mac Mini?  Someone recently posted that MacBook Pro USB ports provide cleaner audio signals than MacBook Air USB ports, and therefore that MBPs won't benefit from a USB decrappifier as much as MBAs will.  What about Mac Minis?

I don't know.  But it's actually less about the USB audio signal and more about improving the DC power provided by the USB source.  Wyrd (or iFi Micro USBpower) does a good job of this.

 

[gevorg]

Yes, in my experience the "weak link" is not the USB receiver inside Gungnir, it is the USB sender it is connected to.  Wyrd helps immensely in removing the influence of that weak link.

True, its just when majority of "senders" cannot provide a clean enough power and a stable enough signal for the sensitive DAC, it is the DAC that should be prepared to receive that "crap" and not rely on USB power, hence the "weakest link". For example, the Matrix X-Sabre has a better overall USB implementation than the CMedia USB in Gungnir, due to its more stable XMOS USB board that does not get much benefit from USB regen devices. With that said, USB was not even designed for audio, definitely not for hi-fi audio, USB audio is more like an add-on feature to USB protocol. For most DAC designers, USB is just another input that they can provide with the off-the-shelf board. This is one area where audiophile manufacturers need computer science engineers/etc. Or maybe USB should be abandoned for Ethernet, but that would still require computer science for the embedded Ethernet receiver.

 

[nordkapp]

True, its just when majority of "senders" cannot provide a clean enough power and a stable enough signal for the sensitive DAC, it is the DAC that should be prepared to receive that "crap" and not rely on USB power, hence the "weakest link". For example, the Matrix X-Sabre has a better overall USB implementation than the CMedia USB in Gungnir, due to its more stable XMOS USB board that does not get much benefit from USB regen devices. With that said, USB was not even designed for audio, definitely not for hi-fi audio, USB audio is more like an add-on feature to USB protocol. For most DAC designers, USB is just another input that they can provide with the off-the-shelf board. This is one area where audiophile manufacturers need computer science engineers/etc. Or maybe USB should be abandoned for Ethernet, but that would still require computer science for the embedded Ethernet receiver.

HDMI (I2S).....DAC manufacturers need to follow the likes of PS Audio and a few others already implementing this protocol.