[automojo]

Second statement sounds exactly like a DAC Box S FL.

And that’s a great sounding DAC when fully warmed up.
The problem I have found is it doesn’t always work for all types of music.
Especially synthesize base type music.
But others as well, I just can’t recall at this time.

 

[automojo]

Frankly if anyone’s interested
this is probably the wrong forum to listening to the MUSE Version of this… send me a PM I know I have one stored way somewhere with a power supply
TDA1543a x 4.
They pretty much sound identical, at least you get the jest of the sound

 

[timiambeing]

A fully broken in BF2 warms up in about 1/2 hour-very unlike the Yig or Gumby, or Bifrost MB

Hello! Can I jump into your conversations please, I would love to pull the trigger on a BF2 but with ladder DAC’s in my speaker system I have always believed they need to be on all the time… and this cant happen with my headphone listening station. It is a bedside cabinet on wheels, with a rack and power installed, power goes off after every listen as it moves from room to room as required. Would I be able to warm up my BF2 if I bought one in 20-30mins like the rest of the stack then? If so this is no longer a deal breaker…

 

[automojo]

Hello! Can I jump into your conversations please, I would love to pull the trigger on a BF2 but with ladder DAC’s in my speaker system I have always believed they need to be on all the time… and this cant happen with my headphone listening station. It is a bedside cabinet on wheels, with a rack and power installed, power goes off after every listen as it moves from room to room as required. Would I be able to warm up my BF2 if I bought one in 20-30mins like the rest of the stack then? If so this is no longer a deal breaker…

Yep-should be fine

 

[Neweymatt]

Hello! Can I jump into your conversations please, I would love to pull the trigger on a BF2 but with ladder DAC’s in my speaker system I have always believed they need to be on all the time… and this cant happen with my headphone listening station. It is a bedside cabinet on wheels, with a rack and power installed, power goes off after every listen as it moves from room to room as required. Would I be able to warm up my BF2 if I bought one in 20-30mins like the rest of the stack then? If so this is no longer a deal breaker…

More like 5 minutes max. This was something I wondered about before I bought mine, but the reality is that it's only the first minute or 2 you may notice a slight treble glare or harshness, but it's gone pretty quickly if you even notice it in the first place.

 

[timiambeing]

More like 5 minutes max. This was something I wondered about before I bought mine, but the reality is that it's only the first minute or 2 you may notice a slight treble glare or harshness, but it's gone pretty quickly if you even notice it in the first place.

Thanks both! That makes a huge difference to my choice I realise nuggets of perceived wisdom about things like this are handed down and often we haven’t even tried it ourselves (I’m guilty if that for sure!) so it’s great to receive some first hand experience.

 

[FellowTraveller]

Hello! Can I jump into your conversations please, I would love to pull the trigger on a BF2 but with ladder DAC’s in my speaker system I have always believed they need to be on all the time… and this cant happen with my headphone listening station. It is a bedside cabinet on wheels, with a rack and power installed, power goes off after every listen as it moves from room to room as required. Would I be able to warm up my BF2 if I bought one in 20-30mins like the rest of the stack then? If so this is no longer a deal breaker…

I turn my BF2 on in the morning usually a little before I start my work and/or listening day. I turn it off every night. I don't notice any problems at all, and I would like to second the other two commentators who think you won't have any problems.

 

[decooney]

New Bifrost 2/64 arrived yesterday from Schiit.

Here is my early burn-in report since some people say they cannot hear a difference from new. I sure can. I don't normally post here but saw this related thread.

Running it in on my main system, all tube power preamp and tube mono block amps. Large custom separate main speakers and stereo subs. Comparing the BF264 to my other MHDT Orchid R2R Tube Ladder NOS DAC which I like quite a bit. Followed the 2/64 design changes enough to buy/try it. All of the best previews came from you head-fi folks - right here. Appreciate what Schiit is doing in search of real value. Giving this dac a serious evaluation.

Day 1-2 burn-in:

• @hr1 cold startup the BF264 is slightly forward stage and little grainy first hour of play time - as expected.
• @hr5 started smoothing out some at about 5hrs of constant-on play time. Stage opened a tad, and recessed back slightly.
• @hr24 a little more smoothing and some midrange glare disappeared that I was hearing in the first warmup hours. Gone now.
• BASS: for whatever reason around 24-28hrs a little more low octive bass started coming in. Having to click down both subs a notch.
• MIDS: some of the forward stage midrange I noticed in the early burn-in hours settled down a little more. Settled back some now. Nice.
• HIGH: no grain, smooth, can still hear detail yet its ever so slightly rolled off in a nice way. Detail w/o too much sizzle. Perfect, actually.

Burn-in?:
I suspect what @automojo reported earlier about "needing to let it run in for at least a week" is true for me based on what I hear so far. My plan is to turn it on early morning on the days i plan to listen to it later in the afternoons or leave it on over weekends for sure. All my gear sounds its best with at least 4+hrs power on, no debate, just what I do. Applies more to my big pre / amps with massive transformers that sound magical once fully heat saturated.

Filters:
I'm enjoying the sound of the Megacomboburrito filter mode more than I thought I would. NOS switch mode is nice, and enjoying both modes in different ways.

Early observations:
Already liking what I'm hearing and particularly so far for the price. Sounds "alive", nice tone, guitar, piano keys, voices, nice. Premature to jump to conclusions yet this might be a keeper. Sounds unique enough to want to keep it. Finding myself wanting to listen to every track vs. skipping around. A very good sign on my end.
FUN to listen to music so far with this new 2/64 dac. I helped a few buddies on their systems over the years to buy Schiit, yet this is my very first Schiit product.

Appreciate what you guys do here on this forum, Thx.

 

[timiambeing]

New Bifrost 2/64 arrived yesterday from Schiit.

Here is my early burn-in report since some people say they cannot hear a difference from new. I sure can. I don't normally post here but saw this related thread.

Running it in on my main system, all tube power preamp and tube mono block amps. Large custom separate main speakers and stereo subs. Comparing the BF264 to my other MHDT Orchid R2R Tube Ladder NOS DAC which I like quite a bit. Followed the 2/64 design changes enough to buy/try it. All of the best previews came from you head-fi folks - right here. Appreciate what Schiit is doing in search of real value. Giving this dac a serious evaluation.

Day 1-2 burn-in:

• @hr1 cold startup the BF264 is slightly forward stage and little grainy first hour of play time - as expected.
• @hr5 started smoothing out some at about 5hrs of constant-on play time. Stage opened a tad, and recessed back slightly.
• @hr24 a little more smoothing and some midrange glare disappeared that I was hearing in the first warmup hours. Gone now.
• BASS: for whatever reason around 24-28hrs a little more low octive bass started coming in. Having to click down both subs a notch.
• MIDS: some of the forward stage midrange I noticed in the early burn-in hours settled down a little more. Settled back some now. Nice.
• HIGH: no grain, smooth, can still hear detail yet its ever so slightly rolled off in a nice way. Detail w/o too much sizzle. Perfect, actually.

Burn-in?:
I suspect what @automojo reported earlier about "needing to let it run in for at least a week" is true for me based on what I hear so far. My plan is to turn it on early morning on the days i plan to listen to it later in the afternoons or leave it on over weekends for sure. All my gear sounds its best with at least 4+hrs power on, no debate, just what I do. Applies more to my big pre / amps with massive transformers that sound magical once fully heat saturated.

Filters:
I'm enjoying the sound of the Megacomboburrito filter mode more than I thought I would. NOS switch mode is nice, and enjoying both modes in different ways.

Early observations:
Already liking what I'm hearing and particularly so far for the price. Sounds "alive", nice tone, guitar, piano keys, voices, nice. Premature to jump to conclusions yet this might be a keeper. Sounds unique enough to want to keep it. Finding myself wanting to listen to every track vs. skipping around. A very good sign on my end.
FUN to listen to music so far with this new 2/64 dac. I helped a few buddies on their systems over the years to buy Schiit, yet this is my very first Schiit product.

Appreciate what you guys do here on this forum, Thx.

Yes I can certainly second that, not for every component I’ve ever had, but certainly the middle to upper end stuff. The last long burn in was for my Denafrips DAC, I really didn’t like it out of the box, a few hours later when I listened things were better, about 24 hours and a milestone seemed to be reached, 48 hours and it had given all it was going to give. Hard edged to start off with, loosening up and opening out, followed by sloppy bass then eventually bass stretching out and tightening - daft I know but that’s how it seems to go!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t listen during burn in, just a snatch every few hours maybe (can’t resist!) - because you are burning in your ears to brain interface as well of course, the music happens in your head, what hits your ears is just wind!

 

[automojo]

I agree when I first got my BF OG, I listen to it for a couple minutes and that was it.
IMHO It didn’t sound very good, and I clued in my wife and kids what was going on with the breaking period… as the system is enjoyed by the whole family, and the wife works at home.
Every day or two I would take a quick lesson but my strategy was to go for a week.
But even after a week it’s still took a couple more weeks to really settle in and stop changing.
But after a week you’re getting the majority of what it’s gonna sound like the rest is just fine tuning.
And I’m sure a lot of people I’ll say it’s just your ears, but it’s really not.
I’ve trained myself to be a pretty good listener over the last decade plus, and I make myself a lot of notes as reference so I’ve got a pretty good idea what happening.
You’re mine can play tricks on you but there’s a number of different things you can do to become a good listener to offset that tendency.
Differences in system resolution can mean some of these changes might be slightly different or less evident as well.

 

[decooney]

@timiambeing @automojo your practice and findings are consistent with what I'm experiencing in the first few days. Totally agree, 2/64 did not sound good the first few hours, kinda weird and artificial sounding at first. Also agree others may not be able to hear a difference - and that may be the case for them. Not all of us though. Some of that early weirdness all changed in day-2 for this new 2/64 in my rig. I don't make a lot of sudden changes in my system. Done a lot of cable testing-evals, past 30+ years, evals/demos for a few MFGs. This helped me to learn how to listen closely, and what to listen for in my own system, setup, room.

While I typically don't do any serious listening in the first few weeks with any product i do track some changes and make notes in a similar manner. I always have to make sure the rest of my gear is warm/settled in before doing any a/b comparison on components like this.

Last night I definitely heard a very nice change with some tracks and smoothing of instruments in the back stage. There are a few tracks that I re-use for listening for particular instruments, guitars, placement in the stage, grain/texture, tone, piano keys, and overall presentation of the track. The new Schiit Bifrost 2/64 is going in the right direction so far. Starting to become musical now too.

Good to know you continued to hear some change over time going in to week 1-2. Duly noted. I'll wait the full 2 weeks before making any real judgements. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[decooney]

I did notice a change to sound-stage depth and tone with one instrument after 48hrs of constant power-on time though. Will recheck at week-1, end of week-2.

 

[automojo]

Sure.
I still think ideally -if you can-you just leave it powered up.
After 10 years or so-if a power supply cap goes bad-oh well.
I leave my on unless going away for a couple days.
Schiit more or less suggests this-with ut actually mentioning it specifically.
"It's ok to leave it on"

 

[Farrellc]

Sure.
I still think ideally -if you can-you just leave it powered up.
After 10 years or so-if a power supply cap goes bad-oh well.
I leave my on unless going away for a couple days.
Schiit more or less suggests this-with ut actually mentioning it specifically.
"It's ok to leave it on"

Interesting, I'll have to give this a try. Normally I shut mine down every night, but I might just leave it running for a couple of days and see if I notice a change over that time.

 

[mformoriarty]

Have any you guys compared the 2/64 vs the iFi Zen Dac Signature V2? I'd like to know your thoughts.