As with my last review, a disclaimer that this review will have very little technical jargon or audiophile details and descriptions. If anything this review will be quite the opposite, relying on lots of subjective anecdotes and comparisons. I fully disclose that I am not very experienced or well-versed in audio yet. If you're looking for a more "typical" review style, this might not do much for you

I think the single best thing I can say about the MTW2 is that while I originally purchased them simply to use for working out, they ended up many times replacing an almost $2,000 over-ear headphone setup, even on sound quality.

An aside: although I'm not going to list the exact components of the setup here out of respect, I'm aware it can be easily found with a little research. All I'll say is that I believe that setup had poor synergy and simply combined into a particular sound I personally didn't find appealing; I'm sure the components each are fantastic and I simply had a beginner's learning experience with not knowing what my preferences are. I'd prefer not to talk about, it as I don't like to speak negatively if I can. I only felt it was necessary to mention in my review to give an idea of just how good I think the MTW2 sound.

Anyways, I originally purchased these buds to workout with. My criteria were something that first and foremost fit very well and had great comfort, had some sort of equalizer, and also had decent sound. I initially wanted to spend no more than $100-150, but saw the MTW2 on sale and had a classic "f*ck it" moment.

I'll quickly the address the comfort and fit. In short, outstanding. I can wiggle my head and they stay in place. They are very comfortable, never bother my ears, and never fall out even while working out. Easy 10/10 for comfort and fit.

So the sound. Wow was I impressed. Again I don't feel confident enough to use hifi terminology, but these sound extremely balanced and are so pleasing to listen to. Note that I always have the "High-End Sound Tuning" toggled on. These play well with every song. They're never fatiguing or harsh, which is something I personally place value quite highly. Considering that I tend to listen to a lot of modern "not so well-recorded" music when I work out and have never experienced sibilance or fatigue, I would make an educated guess that these likely have slightly smoother highs. I actually think the fact that my only complaint about these is "they don't get loud enough" is a testament to how smooth and non-fatiguing they are. Just simply enjoyable to listen to. This is where my greenness might show, but I don't think they're "V-shaped", as the vocals (my favorite part) are full-bodied and not recessed or veiled in any way, and from what I've gathered that usually isn't the case with a V-shape Either way, if you like vocals, these definitely have fantastic vocals that come through quite pleasingly.

During my research for a wireless bud, one of the most common praises I remember reading about the MTW2 was it's insane soundstage and imaging. That didn't really factor into my decision as I had other priorities as mentioned earlier, but holy cow do these things soundstage and image well. I'm not sure if it's the driver itself, DSP, or a combination of both, but these image with the same level of competency as a good full-sized headphone. The soundstage obviously isn't out-of-head as limited by, well, physics, but it's more than I expected. The imaging and layering though are what blow me away. Imaging is superbly accurate, and instruments are separated with a level of distinction and clarity that still manages to surprise me. I don't know what kind of magic-sauce is going on here, but it's damn impressive.

Detail, to be blunt, is something I still don't feel experienced or confident enough to cover yet, so I won't But if it's anywhere near the level of the soundstage and imaging, it's probably pretty good!

And on to the big selling point. As mentioned earlier, I recently owned a near-$2k desktop setup, and there are many ways in which the sound coming out of these is better to me. From what I've gathered and learned from talking to people, I think it's the dynamics and tonal balance. But that's just a guess. Regardless, I think the comparison is a pretty glowing recommendation. Just take it with a big grain of salt

So now to price. I've seen a lot of people saying these are on the pricier side and way too expensive for wireless earbuds. I actually disagree here. Granted I haven't heard other audiophile wireless earbuds, but I have to imagine these are pretty high up on the ladder for sonic performance. With how good they sound and how well they fit, I actually would say the price is justified. Maybe $300 is pushing it a little, but nowadays you can usually find them for 250-270, and I think that's just fine.

My only gripe/negative comment about the MTW2 is that I wish they'd get a bit louder. I always find myself saying "man that sounds good, give me a little more!" But on the other hand this could also be another compliment. Maybe the fact that I always want them to be louder is a statement to their pleasing signature and lack of fatigue? Or they could just in fact be too quiet, it could be either one

I don't have much to say on touch controls and connectivity, as I haven't used many Bluetooth products. While I can't say the controls are good or bad as I don't have much to compare to, I can at least say there's nothing that stands out as irksome or annoying. The touch controls seem to do their job well and respond consistently.

All in all, I can confidently recommend these without a doubt. Sure they're not going to compare to multi-grand flagship headphones, but they are seriously impressive for wireless earbuds. Not only is the sound top-notch, but they are supremely comfortable and never fall out. I originally purchased them with the intent to only use during workouts, but now find them in my ears almost all the time. If that's not a sign of a good product then I don't know what is!

Disclaimer: This review is primarily intended for newcomers to the hobby (such as myself), and/or individuals who are curious about making the jump from Delta/Sigma DAC’s to Multibit/R2R DAC’s. If you’re already versed in high end audio, you probably won’t get much from this review! There will be very little technical jargon and terminology in here; rather, this will more so be a story of my own “discovery” of what DAC’s can truly be. If you’ve only had experience with cheaper D/S DAC’s up to this point (as I did a year ago), I encourage you to read on!
It is quite lengthy, but I decided not to give a TL;DR as the context of the story is extremely important for the review, especially given the target audience mentioned above.



Roughly a year ago, I was about to quit the audio game entirely. Why? I just couldn’t hear it. I read on forums every day, scrolling through thread after thread, only getting more confused the more I read. The way that people described music, the sounds they heard and things they experienced while listening to songs, I just couldn’t hear any of it. It felt like everyone was speaking a foreign language that I couldn’t understand. But I didn’t want to give up; I was determined to keep trying to hear this magical sound. So I went all out and bought the Focal Stellia, which were $3,000 flagship headphones known for their outstanding detail retrieval and technical capability. Yet even with these headphones, I felt like I was living on another planet. Music just sounded the same as it always did to me; I was even getting worried my ears weren’t working properly.

So I was about to give up. I figured if even with my flagship headphones I still couldn’t hear what people with headphones a tenth of the price were describing, then I never would. But I decided to give the whole hi-fi game one final shot. I had a theory that had been in the back of my mind for a long time. I had always wondered, what if even with absolute top-of-the-line gear (such as the Stellia’s), performance could be limited if there was a weak link in the chain? It obviously wasn’t my headphones. And I doubted it was the amp, which was the THX 789. So I figured by process of elimination, maybe it was the DAC.

My DAC was the Topping E30. I chose it because at the time, it was shattering records everywhere with its world-class measurements. Previously you might had needed to spend 5-10x the price to achieve the measurements it achieved. It was all the buzz and everyone was going crazy over how this tiny little $130 box was matching toe-to-toe with thousand dollar plus DAC’s. When I was looking for a DAC, the E30 had just come out, so after reading all the news I thought “wow I got lucky!” and purchased it excitedly.

This is the paragraph that I think might really relate with a lot of people, and why I didn’t want to write a TL;DR. I’ve always been very OCD when it comes to technology. Whether it’s chasing the highest framerate numbers in gaming, getting the very best 4k resolution TV, or having the latest and fastest smartphone, I love chasing technology. The thrill of chasing those ever growing specs is something I can’t help but do. So when I found a new hobby in audio, my OCD naturally followed with me. How did it express itself in this novel hobby? The same way it always does. Chasing specs. That’s why the E30 was so attractive to me. Those sky high record-breaking numbers screamed at my brain “we’re the best there is!”, so I pulled the trigger.

Fast forward to me being about to quit the whole audio game completely, and thinking of trying a new DAC. I had always heard that measurements don’t always correlate to sound quality, and that non Delta/Sigma DAC’s like Multibit and R2R can actually sound amazing, despite “measuring poorly.” My OCD couldn't bear to believe it. But since I was about to give up on the whole hobby entirely and leave anyways, I decided “what the heck, might as well try it”. And WOW, am I glad I did.

Everything completely changed. Suddenly, I was hearing all of the things I had read in the forums. I didn’t feel crazy anymore. I finally got it. Music just came to life. Detail, imaging, and texture went through the roof. People often mention the diminishing returns principle regarding technology. I agree with the premise and believe it to be true, but not in this case. I’m pretty sure the aforementioned traits increased by quite literally 3-4x that of the E30. The biggest thing I absolutely became mesmerized by was vocals. Singers suddenly felt like they were actually singing in my room, and I could reach out and touch their voice resonating in the air. Previously, vocals sounded like a robot’s failed attempt at the recreation of a human voice, resulting in a flat and lifeless sound. Now there was literal texture to voices. How does a voice in a song played from a laptop through a cable have texture? I honestly don’t know. But the best way I can describe it is vocals now were 3-dimensional. Voices now occupied a physical space in the song with a back and front, left and right, and top and bottom. And inside that space was reverberations, pockets of air being pushed back and forth, and vibrations that sound like the intimacy of a human voice singing.

Vocals are my favorite part in a song to listen to but for the sake of time, the same analogy mentioned above applies well to everything. With the Bifrost 2, the whole song becomes holographic. The soundstage widens, but now also deepens and rises. You can reach out and touch the exact spot in the air where every instrument is located, and there’s no longer “bundles” of multiple sounds congested in the same spot. That expression you always hear of people saying they’ve heard things in songs they never did before? I always thought it was an exaggeration; it’s not. I literally DID hear things in songs I had never detected before. It’s almost as if before, I was only hearing bits and pieces of a song, never the full picture. Not to be cliché (because of the “multibit” name), but now it was like all the missing bits of the song came back and completed a previously unfinished puzzle. Whereas before I was listening to fragments of a song, I was now listening to the whole song completed, and with those new bits came bits of the song I had quite literally never heard before.

I think it’s quite obvious to say that I am extremely happy that I suppressed my desire to chase numbers and specs and made the leap of faith into multibit and R2R DAC’s. If I had never tried the Bifrost 2, I would have given up on audio a long time ago, and thought all the people on hi-fi forums were crazy and delusional

For sound quality alone, and especially considering value at its price point, the Bifrost 2 is easily 5 stars. No if’s and’s or but’s. So why the 4-star rating? QC. It kills me to type this, because it sounds so damn good. But my personal experience with Schiit’s QC has been quite unpleasant, and I want this review to be 100% honest for both the good and the bad. I had 3/3 defects from Schiit within a year, resulting in an essentially 100% failure rate for me. I purchased an Asgard 3 a while ago (before this story began), and that turned out defective. After I purchased my Bifrost 2, I turned it on one day to find it scorching hot to the touch, giving off a strong burning/smoking smell and emitting a sparkling/crinkling sound from the back; I honestly was scared it might explode. I sent it in to Schiit for a repair, only for it to break again 2 weeks after receiving it back. Two products and three defects in the timespan of a year. I even wondered if the breakdowns might have been my fault or something related to my room or setup, so I emailed Schiit asking if the engineers could think of anything that might be causing all the failures, but they said they couldn’t think of anything (for the record I can’t think of anything either, but I just wanted to be sure). Now I’m sure this is just me having really, really, really bad luck. With how successful Schiit is, I'm sure I am the rare case, so please don’t let this deter you from giving the Bifrost 2 a try. I just needed to include this for a fair review.

Anyways, I have to dock a star for my personal experience with Schiit’s QC during my time with their products over the course of a year. But I want to end by emphasizing that I am likely the .01%, and on audio quality alone, the Bifrost 2 is absolutely exceptional and the easiest 5/5 stars I can give.


P.S. I no longer have the Bifrost 2 (or anything else), as I actually ended up having to sell my entire setup due to covid unfortunately. However, I've had this review written up for a long, long time, so nothing is based on memory or recall. I just never posted it because it wasn't a "professional" style review, so I wasn't sure if I should