Neck Deep in Schiit: Gungir Balanced DAC and Mjolnir Balanced Amp Announced!

[Kremer930]

Nothing wrong with having a small Schiit bedroom rig and a big lounge room statement rig! At least that is what I keep telling myself.

 

[judmarc]

Quote:

 
I'd take a long hard look at the specs of stuff in Gungnir's price range (and 2X), and see if you can find *any* true clock regeneration, outside of the hocus-pocus that "well, ASRC and delta-sigma mean it doesn't matter anyway," or "we gots magic stuff in the chip (that you conveniently can't measure) that make it all good." If a DAC doesn't have clock regeneration,it should be most properly compared to Bifrost.
 
Gungnir is the only DAC with both VCXO and VCO regeneration, and intelligent switching between the two. The difference between a properly regenerated clock and no regeneration is not subtle, and the technical achievement is no small feat. The difference between a DAC with only VCXO regeneration is that Gungnir will work with all of your sources. 
 

True clock regeneration at Gungnir's price point is pretty frickin' technically amazing.  Makes me curious to find out what goodies are coming our way in the statement DAC before deciding where I finally want to land in the Schiit DAC line.  Meanwhile, I'm absolutely loving the Bifrost.

 

[M-13]

+1 Me too

 
Quote:

Nothing wrong with having a small Schiit bedroom rig and a big lounge room statement rig! At least that is what I keep telling myself.

 

 

[gregeas]

Agree with judmarc. 
 
I recently picked up a Bifrost after owning many good DACs, including the Pico DAC, Benchmark DAC1 Pre, Ayre QB-9, W4S DAC-2, Audio-GD NFB-11, Arcam rDAC, Logitech Transporter, Modwright Transporter, etc. (Wow -- didn't realize the list was that long until typing it just now!) I've sold off everything except for the W4S and the Bifrost.
 
This little DAC is quite compelling and is one of the best deals I've come across in audio. Schiit is a company that deserves to succeed. I'm sure the upcoming DACs will be tough to beat even at higher prices. I'm also pleased to buy products that are made in the USA. 
 
The Schiit business model reminds me of what Oppo has done -- enter the market with low cost but excellent products, and then head upward from there, all the while keeping customers happy with great communication and high-quality products at below-market prices. It's certainly a tightrope, but the again, all new business are. 

 

[dleblanc343]

I heard a new dac was going to be released about 2 days after buying the bifrost, but you know what; I'm very impressed with the bifrost and wouldn't be ready to put 750$ on a dac quite yet anyways. Now I gotta save up 850$ for some hd800's by the end of the month!

 

[Maxvla]

The new DAC won't be around for another 4 months anyways so if you decide to get it later, you won't have wasted your money on a Bifrost in the short term.

 

[Audio-Omega]

What does "end game performance" mean ?  No competition ?

 

[sridhar3]

Quote:

What does "end game performance" mean ?  No competition ?

I don't think there's a single definition.  It's a matter of individual perspective.  I personally think "end game performance" represents the component that defeats your urge to upgrade any further.

 

[M-13]

For the time being...

 
Quote:

represents the component that defeats your urge to upgrade any further.

 

 

[Edoardo]

Quote:

What does "end game performance" mean ?  No competition ?

The best performance possible given the technology available.

 

[judmarc]

Quote:

What does "end game performance" mean ?  No competition ?

If I remember right, and it's possible I don't, the quote was in the context of responding to the fact that Gungnir is not the final DAC they have planned and it is moderately priced.  The response as I read it means they didn't build it as a mid-level component or a bridge to the "statement" DAC, they put some pretty awesome design and components in, given the price constraint.
 

 

[ninjikiran]

If they didnt release anymore dacs I think the bifrost might of been my personal endgame.  There is no end game with headphones though, they are all so goodily great.

 

[agisthos]

How is the Gungir power supply going to be better than the Bifrost's? IMO that was the big limitation of the Bifrost, 317/337 regulators are plain Jane. I hope Gunjir is pulling out some bigger guns.

As Judemarc says, having true clock regeneration at this price is amazing.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

How is the Gungir power supply going to be better than the Bifrost's? IMO that was the big limitation of the Bifrost, 317/337 regulators are plain Jane. I hope Gunjir is pulling out some bigger guns.

Well, I don't think the larger chassis will be just taking up empty space. 

 

[qusp]

quite interested to see the amp actually, I love solid state circlotrons! pity about the limitation on the usb input @ 176x particularly combined with this dac, as that speed has been 'defined' in early work as the container for DXD over USB standard, too late to change at this stage i'm sure, but maybe something for the modules? many manufacturers leave out this speed and thats why it was chosen to avoid conflicts, but it has caught a few manufacturers unaware for recent releases as many put it down to only being useful for oversampling and may or may not agree with OSF
 
also high voltage Jfet input stage hmmm...semisouth?
 
adapticlock has large fifo?
 
BTW I understand why you didnt go with the sabre with this particular range, it wouldnt fit with the ethos, I love it personally as you can see in my sig, but it requires quite a bit of babying to get the best sound out of it and special conditions and bias that other dacs do not need, adds at least 5 x extra regulators over the AKM etc. all in all a lot of work and if you want to go discrete quite massive size, did you try with OSF 'disabled' and synchronous clocking?
 
btw 2: no i'm not making a competing product, i'm just a badly addicted diyer, i'Il understand if you prefer not to answer, I just found the adaptilock description interesting but a bit vague, have you not patented it yet?
 
the dac i'm more just curious about, but if i can try the amp at a meet i may just buy it for the workshop