[sceleratus]

I’ve owned Schiit DAC’s for over three years.  Bifrost/Bifrost-Uber/Gungnir/ and now Gungnir MultiBit.
 
The upgraded Gungnir arrived on Friday.  Overall it sounds great, however, there is one problem that I’m not very happy with.  Specifically, I hear a very audible “Click Noise” from my speakers or HP’s when a subsequent  song has a different bit rate from the prior song.  Say 44.1kHz to 96kHz.  
 
This noise occurs simultaneously with the electro-mechanical click of the muting relay.  After 3 years I’m used to that sound.
 
However I don’t want to hear Noise of Any Kind coming from my speakers.
 
I’ve been working with Schiit Support.
 
Their first response was:
“That is most likely the slightly higher noise floor of the Multi-Bit analog circuit. It shouldn’t be too loud but may be audible where the Delta-Sigma isn’t audible.”
 
Then is was “check your cables, try a different source, etc…. “ I told them I can replicate the noise time and again.  Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[theveterans]

That relay click when switching sample rates is normal coming out of DAC ONLY, at least on my Bifrost Multibit. If you hear it coming out of headphones or speakers, I believe it's not normal.

 

[jcn3]

Agreed. DAC makes a clicking sound, but the sound should not be coming out of the speakers.

 

[sceleratus]

Agreed.
Sadly the sound Also comes through the speakers.  It's a distinct "Click"   Go figure...
 
Am I the only one having this problem with a MB Gungnir?

 

[sceleratus]

It's been almost 48 hours and I've heard nothing from Schiit.
Just say'n

 

[theveterans]

Why would a relay click be transferred to headphones? To me, it looks the clicking is being transferred to the analog stage of the DAC so there must be a shielding issue inside the DAC? No idea though.

 

[sceleratus]

All inputs/outputs are differential

 

[sceleratus]

UPDATE:
 
[size=medium]There has been no response from Schiit in 2 1/2 weeks.  Nick T. last email was Jan 31st.  He wanted to know if I had another source.  I replied to Nick and copied @Jason Stoddard on Feb. 1,    I have yet to receive a response.[/size]
 
Guess What?
I discovered I don't need to play music at different bit rates to produce the problem!
All I have to do is push the Input Select button.  Each time I press it I get a click from my speakers.
 

 

 

[NiHM]

I hear a very faint click that comes out of the right channel on my headphones that occurs simultaneously  with the click from the muting relay.  I wasn't sure at first because I was listening through open-backs, but once I put on my Alpha Dogs it was clear that it was coming through the headphones.  It is very faint and doesn't really bother me.  With that being said, different things bother different people and I certainly can understand someones annoyance with it.  I would imagine it is exacerbated when heard through full size speakers.

 

[sceleratus]

It happens when I select (or land on) USB or Optical.  The others are quiet.
Only the USB is plugged in to my MAC Mini.  It's a PANGEA Brand cable.
 
When I have my LCD2's on it is far from "faint".   It's a very distinct click.
I believe it's both channels 

 

[sceleratus]

I emailed Nick again and he replied right away.  He said he must have missed my email.   Who knows. maybe I missed his.  
He's setting up an RMA so I can send the Gungnir in.
 
I told him I that I am using the balanced outputs.  Here's his reply....
"I wouldn’t expect to see a problem with the summed output…this is most likely a DC servo problem, which will affect the balanced outputs only."
 
​Found that to be encouraging. Stay tuned.

 

[NiHM]

I should have provided more info in my post in the event that it proves helpful to you.   I'm using the single ended RCA outputs, not balanced.  Perhaps that's why the click does not seem to be as severe as in your case.

 

[Sunshine55]

There would be 3 main sources of an audible click associated with switching to another input source.
1- A residual dc on a devices output that has not depleted until it has the load of the Gugnir's input in the circuit.
 
2- The switching should also entail muting of the audio when the CPU does the switching so clicks are not heard. Sometimes if the muting is not done before the switching is done #1 comes into play. Software/firmware problem.
 
3- Direct injection into the audio signal line from the relay coils magnetic field collapsing. If this is the case everyone would have the same problem.
 
All 3 of these reasons should be handled by the muting circuit within the Gungnir. Keep at them. It will be your problem until they do a fix around in their machine. Not the cables that is just silly. Possibly one of your sources having a little dc offset gathering on the output stage but that to should be handled with the muting cir. If you can put a 10K ohm resister across the input signal to ground. If it goes away there is your problem.
My best guess would be the muting cir is not muting "long enough" to allow the switching transients, or re-configuring of the DAC's speed, to end/collapse before reconnecting to new source. You could suggest it in your next correspondence with them and see what  they say.  I hope this is of help to you. Luck be with you.
Laurie.

 

[sceleratus]

Wow Laurie!
Thanks for schooling me.

 
Early in the thread I mentioned that it happened "most of the time" when there was a file type or bit rate change.
Sometimes I could reproduce it by changing songs with different attributes and sometimes not.  Intermittent, the worse kind of problem.
 
Then one day I hit the select button and "snap" or "chunk" came out loud and clear.   I never have had a need to change inputs.
Sure enough everytime I cycled through the inputs I would get the noise when USB or Optical was selected.   There is nothing plugged into optical.
 
The good new it's in Schiit's hands now.  I hope to get it back soon.
 
Luke 

 

[Sunshine55]

Lets hope they will sort it out. From your explanation it still sounds to me like it is DC offset. Just now it seems it's a dc offset produced by their own optical drive circuit and the USB drive cir. Both these cct's have their modules inside between the plug and the input switching cct so yes you would hear the noise when it switched to them even if nothing is plugged into it. Just like a  phono-pre-amp input is another added module (amp) between the regular input and the phono-cartridge when you switch to phono input with the selector sw. It shouldn't be too much of a problem for them to bleed the residual DC from these outputs. Almost sounds as if they forgot some parts!! It seems other people are experiencing the same although to a lesser degree. I'll be interested to read what they say.