Schiit Modius E

Today I am looking at a new Schiit Modius E (aka Modius Maximus). Recently I was testing a Schiit Midgard headphone amplifier and thought that the Modius E with its similar form factor would match wonderfully. And it did.

This is a story of my recent experience I had with the Schiit Modius E dac with a Schiit Midgard “Halo” headphone amplifier. I have been a fan of Schiits True Multibit ™ dacs since the beginning. Gone thru several Schiit MB dacs but never had the real desire to try their low cost DS dac like the Modi + with the ESS 9018 chip. After years with a Bifrost OG and then lastest updates I never thought of looking a DS dac again. Well things change. Covid. Chip shortages, AKM fires and lots of crap. Curiosity.

For months now my favorite dac has been the Schiit Multibit 2 with the genuine Analog Devices AD 5547 D/A chip. Comparing to other dacs costing tons more I seem to come back to the sound signature of the MB2. Never even thought I would look at another D/S dac. Most of them I have tried are too bright, emphasize the high end too much for me. ESS chipped dacs were known for their bright presentation. Some refer this to the ESS "glare".

Jason's comments alluded to things that one can do with the newer ESS 9028 dac chip...some "secret sauce" ? So the timing was right and we have both the Midgard and Magnius E in house. My Midgard impressions are on the site as well for you to read.


Internal Glamor Shot! Where is that ESS 9028?


Right Here!

This part is more focused on the Modius E and how it sounds and a comparison to some other of my dacs, like the Schiit Multibit 2, Soekris 2541, ifi Pro DSD. How well would a $229 D/S dac stand up to its Schiit MB2? Many have asked this.

Well its physically bigger, called the "Modius Maximus" in house. 9 x 6 x 1.5 " to be exact and weighs in at 2 lbs. But wait there is more! Like Black or Silver.

So whats the Modius E all about? Low Cost, entry level dac for $229. 2 year warranty. Specs that are really decent. Heck a THD+N of 0.0003%. S/N >118 db. IMD of 0.0004%. Duh....pretty decent and do these measurements really mean anything at this level to to actual listening experience? Hmmm. Its DC coupled and a OPA 1656 op amp for the SE output and a LME 49724 fully differential op amp for the balanced output. Totally seperate. Good Stuff.

Inputs: USB, Toslink SPDIF, Coaxial and AES. The USB is of course Schiits own Unison USB (tm). 4 Inputs all the bases covered.

Outputs: XLR balanced and RCA single ended. The usual 2.0 volts RMS for SE and 4.0 RMS volts for balanced. The Balanced and single ended output are completely independent. You can use them at the same time. Think of the testing comparisons you can do. Nice.



There is no external power needed unless your using a "0" ma power draw device like a phone or tablet. For this Schiit has provided an small auxiliary power adapter. Neat thing is its a USB-C cable as well, If your just using it with a PC USB out you use this cable and not the power adapter. Schiit has you covered here. I only used the connection from the PC to the dac with the cable.

The front panel is very austere, simple. One large silver button to press and select one of the 4 inputs. NO power switch on the back! Smile. No special USB drivers needed with the later versions of Windows the Modius is fully UAC2 compliant. One thing to check especially if you have multiple dacs is make sure the sound panels in Windows has the dac enabled...also there are a few settings in there that you want to make sure that are correct.

So there you have it a great dac for $229, weighing in at whopping 2 lbs. Mates very well with the Midgard. Thinking of the Modi E at $99? Well for the extra bucks you get a ESS 9028 dac vs the ESS 9018 dac chip. The Modi E's analog stage is based on a OP1656 chip while the Modius E has two totally separate output stages. Just a tad more advanced IMO, and again both outputs are active at the same time. Balanced vs only SE outputs. And Schiit added AES as well. Well worth the upgrade here.


Simple Stack Black Matches Very Well


One thing that stands out for some of us is Schiit is using a switching power supply internally. Reason stated on their website is to hit the price/performance they were aiming for. In their usual funny way the state: "Dont worry. Its a very nice switcher! I have a few amps that use switching supplies, one is a DIY PassLabs ACP+, one is a Rupert Neve Amp and they state they designed their amp with a switching supply in mind etc...Depending on how they are done, filtering etc..its really in this case a don't care for me. Folks go out and buy a linear supply, but in this case it doesn't do you any good. The supply here is internal. Looking at the specs I don't see any detriment here at all.

So how does it sound?

To keep it sane here, I used the Midgard as the amp, My ZMF VC's for the headphones. 300 Ohms. 99db sensitivity.
All these impressions are my own with my music (all ripped flacs), my brain and my bias's. YMMV. Smile. Remember we all hear differently.


Lots of Fun Testing, the SYS makes things easy to switch

First up was Modius E compared with its bigger brother (sister?), the Modi Multibit 2 or MB2 as its known as.

Ok this was really interesting. Depending on the source material some of these observations here were more noticeable than using other material. Modius was clearer, more articulate or resolving, brighter, comes across as a tad hotter. The MB2 was warmer, more closed in sound, a tad veiled in comparison, Smaller sound-stage to me. Now these first impressions are my own subjective thoughts. Both are very, very good and these differences are very close.
At times its hard to like one over the other. Some folks would call the MB2 a tad more musical and the Modius E more technical. I think if your headphones are on the warm side you might prefer the Modius E over the MB2. If your headphones are on the bright side, think Grados or Beyerdynamics, then you might prefer the MB2 over the Modius E. Also brighter recordings of old like good ole Kenny G's sax, more enjoyable with the MB2 here. The neat thing with the addition of a Schiit SYS you can easily have both dacs in house and change very easily. Foobar 2000 was the player I used and its easy to change dacs on the fly. Depending on what headphones I an using I might pick one or the other. Winner here both tie for me. My ZMF VC's like the Modius E over the MB2 by a hair.



I did try this with my D8000 Pros, the impedance here is 60 ohms and sensitivity is close to the ZMFs at 98db.
The listening test were harder to discern the differences in the two dacs. Hmmm. The Modius E on some songs was indeed a tad brighter...but really a nail bite'r. Wondering if the impedance difference is impacting this? OBTW Midgard was only used from the SE output. No Halo(tm) to muddy the water.



For grins I did try the MB NOS mode in contrast to the Non NOS mode: I noticed a slight difference in the sound-stage.
NOS was wider and slightly recessed, Non-NOS was in your face focused and slightly more narrow. My preference is the Non -NOS mode.

Second up was Modius E vs Soekris 2541:

Well another surprise. Both dacs are pretty much the same here ! The thing I do notice is the placement and voicing. A tad different. One is just a little back (Soekris) the other is more up front (Modius E)...splitting hairs here. This for the price differential is simply amazing. Winner here is the Modius E. Sorry. And the Soekris costs a ton more than the Modius E. Oooof! This one was easy. Either one pleases me again dependent on the headphones and source material.


A really nice pairing

Third and lastly Modius E vs iFi Pro DSD:

This one was easy. The Modius E tries really hard here, but the winner is the iFi Pro DSD. Its more open and even wider than the Modius E, more resolving in the minutiae with a wider sound-stage. Just a wonderful overall musical presentation, the Modius E sounds a bit harsh in comparison, reminds me of ESS sound in the past. But until I compared both I didn't notice this. The price differential here is astronomical. So there is that. For the Modius E to come close to a multi thousand dollar dac, well thats a statement all by itself. (recent price for Ifi is $3249, Modius is $229). Again these are my opinions you may think just the opposite....the only way to tell is for you to listen and decide for yourself.




Conclusions:

Schiit has a very good low cost entry level DS dac. Yup its really decent compared to many of the DS dacs of old.

The thing here for me is we are talking about different flavors, yes different and noticeable. Do they matter? That depends on you and your tastes. I don't like stating one is really better or the winner often. Its more of there are so many different flavors of sound. Endless combinations. Along the road to audio perfection you often realize there is more than one answer....your experience may be totally the opposite of mine and thats fine.

For me Schiit with this $229 ESS 9028 dac chipped Modius E have come along way on the road to audio perfection at an affordable price for many of us. I would not hesitate to buy this dac over many others. The combination of the Modius E with the Midgard is really great value IMO. Made in the USA for the most part, assembled in Texas!

Again Congrats to Schiit for a nice product at a decent price.

Alex