Happy as a Pig in Schiit: Introducing Modi Multibit

[adydula]

Well there are many of us that believe that our Schitt Multibit dacs sound just as good after 15-20 minutes of being turned on as if leeft on for hours and hours. I like some of you have listened with my dac and dont hear any real world differences..period. Some of you do. Great.

But our experience is just as valid as yours.

and I am not going to tell you that your beliefs are like spitting in the wind....

Enjoy what your hear...and let others enjoy what they hear...

Over and out...
Alex

 

[SpeedSmith]

Well there are many of us that believe that our Schitt Multibit dacs sound just as good after 15-20 minutes of being turned on as if leeft on for hours and hours. I like some of you have listened with my dac and dont hear any real world differences..period. Some of you do. Great.

But our experience is just as valid as yours.

and I am not going to tell you that your beliefs are like spitting in the wind....

Enjoy what your hear...and let others enjoy what they hear...

Over and out...
Alex

I'm a big fan of folks finding what they like and sticking with it. But I can't help but admit that I'm intrigued by this thought of warm up.

However, I'm posting about a different question that may also yield some thoughts on this warm-up debate. Until recently (today in fact), my Schiit stack consisted of a Magni 2 Uber, a Modi 2 Uber and the EITR to convert this Schiit show to SPDIF. With Wintel as the source (in this case) I'm a big fan of the EITR. IMO, Windows does a crap job with USB. But this is off topic and can be debated in another thread. Today I added a Modi Multibit as I wanted to hear the difference everyone is talking about. I'm A/B switching with a Sys which allows me to (very unscientifically) adjust the volume differences between the 1.5v Uber and the 2v Multibit. The Multibit is noticeably louder "uncorrected". So far I find the differences to be quite subtle. There is certainly a positive difference (to my untrained ears). I find the Multibit to provide more extension at the edges of the music, which is to say music is more extended, natural, even livelier. The only analogy I can come up with is the difference between a great bottle of wine that has been allowed to breathe a little. The first taste is great, but after 30 mins or so the wine has opened up providing a little more detail and a longer finish. If that doesn't resonate, I'd say that the bass and treble are more engaging and the mids are just a touch more lush. The Uber sounds slightly softer or more rounded off by comparison.

Now...I'll admit I was expecting a bigger difference between the Multibit and the Uber. I'm certainly happy with my purchase. There is a difference that I like and that's the most important thing. But now I'm wondering if there will be a bigger difference if I allow the Multibit some time to warm up (open up if you get my silly wine analogy)? The Multibit has been on for 3 hours and 30 mins. I'm going to walk away from the stack and come back to it tomorrow. I'll report my (untrained) findings then.

Until then I have to share a pic of this ridiculously tall stack of Schiit.

Oh and I'm using Pyst cables to/from the DACs and the same SPDIF cable length and brand coming out of the EITR with an AudioQuest gold plated splitter to eliminate as much source difference as possible.

 

[adydula]

Nice stack!

I will be interested in your listening experience!

Alex

 

[ColtMrFire]

But now I'm wondering if there will be a bigger difference if I allow the Multibit some time to warm up (open up if you get my silly wine analogy)?

The vast majority of Mimby owners agree the Schiit multibit DAC sounds better the longer it is left on. In my experience, the sound evolved, with the most obvious changes happening in 2 days, with more subtle changes happening after, leveling off after about a week or so.

I experienced the exact same thing with my Gumby, with the exception being Gumby changed fairly radically again after about one week. Leave the Mimby on for a week and then compare them. I doubt the differences will be as subtle.

 

[ColtMrFire]

Well there are many of us that believe that our Schitt Multibit dacs sound just as good after 15-20 minutes of being turned on as if leeft on for hours and hours.

What is your chain? As in, what amp and headphones are you using? And are you using MImby's USB or Coax or Optical?

 

[adydula]

Hey,

It boils down to this for me....I believe as an old Electrical engineer and technician for many, many moons...that most if not all equipment indeed need or should
come up to "stable" level to meet the circuits design...with vacuum tubes the chemistry in this old school tech certainly needed to come up to the temps required for proper operation
so thermionic emission could take place properly etc...with SS stuff the time for stuff to heat up to a chips designed temp is a lot less in most cases.

I myself turn on the Schitt dac I have and usually let it warm up for 10-30 min at most, more often than not just a few minutes and its sonic bliss for me for the most part.

But if one leaves their stuff on forever, well the benefit of that is when you indeed listen it certainly will be up to temp for sure. I wouldn't do this with tube stuff, just for a fire safety reason.
And with tubes turning things on and off can and will degrade stuff.

That said, I have 9 head amps and three dacs, cables from wire your win to silver litz cables for interconnects.

Sources are several PC's all with Win 10.

I use USB, Spidf and coax. I went thru a listening session several weeks ago with a very good CD transport using its optical coax out vs Spidf and compared to USB both 3.0 and Schitts latest gen 5 ....quite an eye opener in itself.

Amps I have are the Schitt Asgard, Lyr, Vahalla 2 for the moment, Bottlehead Crack w/speedball, (2) O2's with mods, an ODA which is a DIY AGDR design of what the O2 desktop was going to be with 3x more current available than the O2, several DIY amps with TI's latest chips designed just for audio head amps OPA 1688's ...and three AVR's.

My headphones are now mostly Beyer's. Been thru dozens from Grado, AKG, Audio Technic, Audeze, but settled for now with T90's, T1's and DT1350's.

Dacs are HRT Tech MSii+, Several ODACS, Schitt Bimby.

If your hearing a difference that's great but for the most part except for the difference in headphones, the only real world differences that have made me say , OMG was the addition of the Bimby...which leads me into other questions....and this is with it...

Its a grand hobby isn't it?

Alex

 

[adydula]

Note I have used all the inputs with Bimby....inquiring minds want to know.

 

[joeexp]

Well there are many of us that believe that our Schitt Multibit dacs sound just as good after 15-20 minutes of being turned on as if leeft on for hours and hours. I like some of you have listened with my dac and dont hear any real world differences..period. Some of you do. Great.

But our experience is just as valid as yours.

and I am not going to tell you that your beliefs are like spitting in the wind....

Enjoy what your hear...and let others enjoy what they hear...

Over and out...
Alex

This isn't about religious beliefs.

Schiit Multibit DACs sound crap when not warmed up properly!
Of course you wouldn't know, you never leave yours on long enough.

End of.

 

[Coug]

Just googled inl. Integrated non-linearity. Likely had nothing to do with temperature, but instead operating time for feedback loops to correct the non-linearities. If (and I do stress IF) this is correct, its not warming up, but making corrections to be more accurate.

I know when I got mine, I was at first worried about the SQ. Kept checking in every couple of hours, and iit kept getting better. After a couple of days i found no discernable difference. Always left on.

 

[SpeedSmith]

Just googled inl. Integrated non-linearity. Likely had nothing to do with temperature, but instead operating time for feedback loops to correct the non-linearities. If (and I do stress IF) this is correct, its not warming up, but making corrections to be more accurate.

I know when I got mine, I was at first worried about the SQ. Kept checking in every couple of hours, and iit kept getting better. After a couple of days i found no discernable difference. Always left on.

This makes a lot of sense to me.

I'll provide my novice feedback tomorrow and will do one more serious A/B session a week from now.

 

[adydula]

Joe...wait until the sierra club and greenpeace find out that your leaving your stuff on all the time, contributing to global warming!!

Ok boys enjoy I am out of here.....its getting too religious here....

Over and Out
Alex

 

[alpovs]

You're talking sound science again. Please take it to the appropriate forum.

Is this sound fantasy forum?

 

[joeexp]

Joe...wait until the sierra club and greenpeace find out that your leaving your stuff on all the time, contributing to global warming!!

Ok boys enjoy I am out of here.....its getting too religious here....

Over and Out
Alex

What's that got to do with sound quality?

 

[oryan_dunn]

Until then I have to share a pic of this ridiculously tall stack of Schiit.


Oh and I'm using Pyst cables to/from the DACs and the same SPDIF cable length and brand coming out of the EITR with an AudioQuest gold plated splitter to eliminate as much source difference as possible.

I wish they'd make available an aluminum top plate for SYS...

 

[SpeedSmith]

I wish they'd make available an aluminum top plate for SYS...

Me too...that sucker stands out like a sore thumb. But it does its job well.