[ColtMrFire]

Multibit versions have their own manuals, however.

All the DACs have manuals, yeah. What I'm saying is, AFAIK, Yggy is the only one that has a manual with the "leave it on" instructions. Mimby doesn't have it. My used Gumby I believe was upgraded, so it contains the original Gungnir manual, which does not have the multibit instruction. I am not sure what manual you get if you buy a Gumby/Bimby brand new (as in, no D/S version).

 

[ScOgLiO]

All the DACs have manuals, yeah. What I'm saying is, AFAIK, Yggy is the only one that has a manual with the "leave it on" instructions. Mimby doesn't have it. My used Gumby I believe was upgraded, so it contains the original Gungnir manual, which does not have the multibit instruction. I am not sure what manual you get if you buy a Gumby/Bimby brand new (as in, no D/S version).

Just checked on Schiit's website: you can find the manuals' PDFs in the "Download" sections. Anyway, I assumed every product had its very own manual based on the fact I saw the one for Mimby some weeks ago. I assumed the whole lineup had a manual for every version (i.e., one for the D/S version and one for the multibit), but apparently that's true for Modi only (which has 3: Modi, Modi Uber, and Mimby, each with its own manual).

This may be the reason why one doesn't find an indication for leaving multibit DACs 24/7, I guess. Still, they might think about writing it somewhere, since we now have multibit options for the whole DAC lineup.

 

[timb5881]

Huh, 20 bit DAC "only"??? That's what Schiit uses in the Yggdrasil. Gungnir is 18-bits "only". PCM63 can do up to 20bit/705.6kHz, that's what 16x oversampling means. These are real bits, not the ones claimed by Delta-Sigma architectures. It is the SPDIF intake and the digital filter in front of the PCM63 that's the bottleneck, if you swap those out with the CS8414/DF1704 upgrade kit from the Germans it shouldn't sound much worse than the Yggdrasil and comparable to the Gungnir on 24/96 material, if anything it is the ancient output stage that will hold vintage PCM63 DACs behind. The downside of the Adcom is that those chips are soldered in, so you'd have to desolder them first and put them on sockets, doable but finicky and prone to PCB damage. Parasound already has all the chips on sockets, so the swap is a 15-minute affair.

Too bad PCM63s don't support I2C, if they did a direct DIY I2C input into PCM63 would not be too big of a deal, then you could use a high-quality software-based digital filter such as those in HQPlayer or even SoX, and a DDC to feed I2C directly to PCM63s, I think the results would be magical.

I knew it had 4x sample but I did not think it would handle 96 kHz due it not being an even multiple of 44 kHz.

 

[gvl2016]

I knew it had 4x sample but I did not think it would handle 96 kHz due it not being an even multiple of 44 kHz.

Not a multiple of 44.1 but it is a multiple of 48. These DACs have 8x oversampling filters and support 32, 44.1 and 48kHz in their stock form. 44.1*8=352kHz or 48*8=384kHz this is what PCM63 sees. The upgrade replaces the SPDIF receiver and the digitial filter with more recent versions that allow up to 24/96, 96 would get upsampled 4x I think to 384 again and fed to PCM63. Not entirely sure what would happen with the 4 extra bits, ideally the digital filter would dither them to 20 but I suspect they are simply truncated and 20-bit are sent to PCM63 after the upgrade.

 

[timb5881]

Not a multiple of 44.1 but it is a multiple of 48. These DACs have 8x oversampling filters and support 32, 44.1 and 48kHz in their stock form. 44.1*8=352kHz or 48*8=384kHz this is what PCM63 sees. The upgrade replaces the SPDIF receiver and the digitial filter with more recent versions that allow up to 24/96, 96 would get upsampled 4x I think to 384 again and fed to PCM63. Not entirely sure what would happen with the 4 extra bits, ideally the digital filter would dither them to 20 but I suspect they are simply truncated and 20-bit are sent to PCM63 after the upgrade.

Wow, great to know.

 

[timb5881]

So, other than upgrading caps, resistors and maybe opamp’s, I think I will leave the Adcom stock. I would be better off buying a new Schiit Modi Multibit.

 

[gvl2016]

So, other than upgrading caps, resistors and maybe opamp’s, I think I will leave the Adcom stock. I would be better off buying a new Schiit Modi Multibit.

Unless you need above 48kHz/16bit don't bother with the Modi, from my experience fwiw. Even then the Modi is just 16 bits. Depending on your source you may get good improvement from a SPDIF reclocker with the Adcom, such as the iFi SPDIF iPurifier or the like. Use a quality Coax interconnect. If using with computer get a quality DDC and skip the reclocker in this case. Keep the Adcom, it's one of the better DACs in its league ever made and it will hold its own when compared with modern tech.

 

[timb5881]

Kind of what I suspected so I am keeping the Adcom stock

 

[ReignofError]

Baldr (i.e. Mike Moffat) himself, who created the DAC, hinted about leaving Schiit's multibit products always on, to have them reach and maintain the right temperature.
Frankly, I'm not looking for any further opinion, given he surely knows what he's talking about

Thermal equilibrium happens much faster than he thinks. No need to leave it on 24/7. Warm it up. Sure. As a mechanical engineer in the electronics industry who does thermal simulations, I find a lot of this laughable. Save your electric bill. And caps.

 

[astromo]

Thermal equilibrium happens much faster than he thinks. No need to leave it on 24/7. Warm it up. Sure. As a mechanical engineer in the electronics industry who does thermal simulations, I find a lot of this laughable. Save your electric bill. And caps.

Mike has been misunderstood / misquoted. Refer his clarification from an earlier post.

It is not the DSP which needs to thermally stabilize. It is the DAC chip which needs to settle into its INL spec. Regret the slow comment; I have been distracted by the Schiit Show.

 

[joeexp]

Best to leave all the Schiit Multibit DACs on all the time. The take days to stabilise.

 

[Robstarplus]

Does the Gungnir or Yggdrasil consume a fair amount of electricity when left on 24/7 and not actively in use? Power bills in my state are on the rise, I'd be awkwardly laughing if it went up 'noticeably'.

 

[joeexp]

Power Consumption:
Yggy: 35 W >> 306 kwh/year
Gumby: 20W >> 175 kwh/year

Depends on the price of 1 kwh in your area....

 

[adydula]

From Bimby manual FAQ:

Can I leave Bifrost on all the time? Sure, if you want to. It won’t hurt anything.

What I want to understand is "why" this is so?? Whats the technical explanation?

I have Bimby, but do not leave it on all the time. Seems to work as good when just on for a few minutes vs a few hours etc?

Alex

 

[joeexp]

Much has been written about the warm-up time of Schiit Multibit DACs already. The consensus is to just leave them on all the time.
They just take a lot of time to "warm up"/to stabilise (medical grade Analog Devices DACs).

I'm talking days.