[BShaw]

You can always re-knob it.

So glad this is a classy enough place that no one stooped to knob-job jokes.

 

[Ripper2860]

That's because you beat me to it.

 

[decooney]

Thinking of picking up lokius, jot2 and bifrost2 but what color do people get now? Since the silver increased in price, plus color matches on silver. But then why knobs on black is silver except lokius

If you don't want to remove the switch, scuff, and paint it with spray paint, or semi-flat black electrical tape and a razor. The dac is worth more than color of a switch if you just leave it alone. Its subtle as-is. My only silver button in my rig right now. Looks nice as-is, imo.

In Silver its easy to locate (by design) at night when room lights are low - - if you are switching from Megacomboburrito filter to NOS mode and back.

 

[decooney]

Digital Filter modes (Bifrost 2/64):

• NOS mode - pulsing light. Sounds neutral to me. Nice and flat frequency presentation. No boost. Stage is placed well.

• Megacomboburrito mode - solid light. Sounds a little boosted in lower register bass. Boosted in upper register detail.

Speaker room setup, no headphones.
In my case, I run custom 12" active-powered Scanspeak stereo subwoofers (one on each side) barely turned up and it sounds best in NOS mode for my particular setup. When I switch to Megacomboburrito filter mode there is a little too much bass-boost for my setup and room.

With subs, some may prefer NOS mode. With no active subwoofers some might prefer the MCB filter mode.

Fun to be able to easily switch between filter modes, your experience may vary in different setups and rooms.

Not sure how it sounds on headphones. May need to get some

 

[Neweymatt]

Thinking of picking up lokius, jot2 and bifrost2 but what color do people get now? Since the silver increased in price, plus color matches on silver. But then why knobs on black is silver except lokius

Depends what you like and if paying more just for the colour bothers you.

Depends on what you're picky about, I guess. I like the silver, but the pattern/texture might vary, depending on which model and when it was made. My silver Jot2/BF2 stack doesn't perfectly match, but I'm probably the only one that would notice. I'm not crazy about the silver knob on the black models, but if I had a matching stack it would be just fine.

Same, for whatever reason my BF2 is not quite as 'silver' as the Jot2, but the room has to be bright enough to notice it, and I'm not the type to care about this at all.

If I get a Lokius I'd probably get black just to have one bit of schiit different to the other 2. And with the tanking $AU, I'd have to make it up to my inner cheapskate somehow...

 

[automojo]

Huh… I have a black Van Alstine Transcendence 10RB tube preamp.
Standard are black knobs… the silver ones make it look way better IMHO.. goes with the lettering.
Just my opinion , as long as the stuff looks decent, not all beat up, I’m fine.

 

[cgb3]

Thinking of picking up lokius, jot2 and bifrost2 but what color do people get now? Since the silver increased in price, plus color matches on silver. But then why knobs on black is silver except lokius

There's only one color. Silver. I'd pay much more than Schiit is asking for the silver version.

Yea, there's some color differences (silver) in my units. So what? They're aluminium covers.

 

[timiambeing]

Just for anyone who might be into classical and might be thinking of running a Bifrost 2 with their planers...

After much deliberation and help here I managed to secure a pre-owned Bifrost 2 to audition (seems like the only available Bifrost 2 in the UK?) and was really looking forward to seeing how it improved on my little Soncoz LA-QXD1 I am looking to upgrade. I've read all the reviews so was expecting the R2R type 'realness' yet still an open airy top end, what I got in comparison to the Soncoz was a more deliberate presentation, not at all unpleasant, but something was definitely lacking. After lots of swapping backwards and forwards (both units had been on and playing all morning so nicely warmed up) I realised I needed to get serious because what I was hearing wasn't what I was expecting from a £199 vs £720 comparison.

So I organised a Roon group and connected both DAC's via USB to identical P4's running Ropieee so all I needed to do was mute and swap the RCA's to my Rebel amp between each listening. I really wanted to hear the better and more expensive DAC make a clear case for itself, but it definitely didn't do that. First of all I'm not too sure why Schiit make all this fuss about their USB input, its ok, so is the Soncoz - but coax had the slight edge via the Allo DgiOne HAT (when I tried that in desperation trying to find the Bifrost's best side!). I was expecting Unison to improve the Pi USB as that's what I presume it is for, but it seems the Pi4 USB is quite fine enough anyway.

Listening to a varied selection of music it was hard to put my finger on what was missing when I switched to the Bifrost, certainly everything was there, just put together a bit differently. So I resorted to exclusively comparing the two with the music they will be used to listen to, classical, and chose a favourite Sibelius symphony with lots of texture, rumble, massed strings and the works. Here it became obvious the Bifrost was not resolving the same kind of detail the Soncoz was, you could say the Soncoz was just less subtle and sharper in the treble, but it was more than that. In passages you would consider fillers leading to the main deal on the Bifrost, the Soncoz delivered those subtle audible 'build up' clues that made the hairs on the neck stand up. The bowing texture of massed strings for instance was really obvious, it was clearly lots of strings and lots of bow hairs. When switching to the Bifrost however the same sounds were most definitely there, but the texture and detail was recessed. I'm not going to use words like smeared or rounded off as that's not the case, but for classical music the way the Bifrost put those digit back together made whole sections of the piece uninteresting to listen to, subtle clues were not presented as the finer details were absorbed into the mix. Maybe there is a case to be put for delivering all the data without prejudice in the way these modern delta sigma DAC's do, leaving the ears to pick out what to focus on - even though I am and always will be a fan of manufacturers that go a different route and bring some organics into their designs.

What I am describing is most likely the expected multi-bit effect, and I am sure if you weren't comparing with a typically clean and clear delta sigma DAC and you were perhaps making a better case for the Bifrost with the type of music you were listening to (several reviewers have said its so much fun on dense rock and electronic) all would be hunky dory. I have experience with R2R DAC's in the main system and always the difference is more about 'reality' and the tonal representation, detail is there but its less digital and more 'real', maybe for that you need a proper resister ladder and not a multi-bit chip? The real eye opener however is how the little baby Soncoz stood up and delivered such a performance that I can now look upon with greater respect! Today it seems great DAC's start at £100 (the little Topping E30 I had also punched well above its weight!) and the difference as you go up the 'ladder' is not what you might expect!

I might try the Soncoz SGD1, not for vast improvements as I wouldn't expect that now, but maybe for more of the same Soncoz style with a little bit of layering, placement and depth information possibly? Its fun and its my hobby, and I dare say I shall have dozens of DAC's and amps and headphones before I slope off into the big hifi show in the sky, but what an interesting time to be buying electronics! I am not of the ASR opinion that all DAC's sound the same and that measurements are all, but certainly the quest for great measuring DAC's has levelled the playing field don't you think? Plus getting that synergy right with different methods of delivering those digits and matching that with appropriate amp and phones is a lifelong pursuit.

Just thought I would drop my findings here, your mileage I am sure may well be different as not only do we have different systems but more importantly different ears!

 

[automojo]

Nice review.
I agree.. if I was listening heavily to classical music, the BF2 would not be my first choice.
But then again mine plays through Heil and Emit speakers.

 

[MacMan31]

Nice review.
I agree.. if I was listening heavily to classical music, the BF2 would not be my first choice.
But then again mine plays through Heil and Emit speakers.

So what would you recommend for classical or instrumental type music?

 

[automojo]

So what would you recommend for classical or instrumental type music?

Well, I think if you have highly resolving speakers- classical sounds more then good.
(I listen to all types a genres.
And the IG BF2 does all of them IMHO more the justice.)
Myself I use a pair of recapped and modded Infinity RSiiia’s and highly modded ESS AMT 3’ with Great Heils
But I could certainly think a Chord DAC would be on my short list if I was heavily into classical music.
It’s like Chords DACS have a voicing sound ideal for this type of music, jazz and folk.

 

[timiambeing]

So what would you recommend for classical or instrumental type music?

I think I’m maybe now coming to the conclusion that all those, what I used to call boring and analytical well measuring Chinese DACs (based on one example years back) might be the way forward? One could argue if the source is at least pumping out ‘everything‘ then if we want to tweak our sound for a more organic and ’real’ feel maybe further down the chain is best?

The problem is, which boring and analytical Chinese DAC to sample next? Topping have dozens, SMSL bring out a new one with a new flavour every week it seems. Plus most of them are not available in the UK except via Chinese source or Amazon with a long wait (from Chinese source) even Soncoz now don’t seem to be stocked by Amazon UK. Looking at UK mail order hifi stores it’s all the usual suspects we don’t really ever talk about on here, Lehman, Audiolab, iFi, Musical Fidelity, Cirrus - the usual dealer mark-up brands.

I’ve studied every YouTube video review on the planet, going back over the last couple of years or so, and it’s really just Topping, SMSL, Aune, Soncoz, Singxer, Gustard as the major delta-sigma DAC players - Chord FPGA DAC’s are a little outside my range in this situation, I’m talking in the £500-700 ish price bracket really.

So who’s tried what and what did you find?

 

[MacMan31]

Well, I think if you have highly resolving speakers- classical sounds more then good.
(I listen to all types a genres.
And the IG BF2 does all of them IMHO more the justice.)
Myself I use a pair of recapped and modded Infinity RSiiia’s and highly modded ESS AMT 3’ with Great Heils
But I could certainly think a Chord DAC would be on my short list if I was heavily into classical music.
It’s like Chords DACS have a voicing sound ideal for this type of music, jazz and folk.

I've never tried a Chord DAC. But it seems except the Mojo they are fairly expensive. Easily over a thousand dollars.

I think I’m maybe now coming to the conclusion that all those, what I used to call boring and analytical well measuring Chinese DACs (based on one example years back) might be the way forward? One could argue if the source is at least pumping out ‘everything‘ then if we want to tweak our sound for a more organic and ’real’ feel maybe further down the chain is best?

The problem is, which boring and analytical Chinese DAC to sample next? Topping have dozens, SMSL bring out a new one with a new flavour every week it seems. Plus most of them are not available in the UK except via Chinese source or Amazon with a long wait (from Chinese source) even Soncoz now don’t seem to be stocked by Amazon UK. Looking at UK mail order hifi stores it’s all the usual suspects we don’t really ever talk about on here, Lehman, Audiolab, iFi, Musical Fidelity, Cirrus - the usual dealer mark-up brands.

I’ve studied every YouTube video review on the planet, going back over the last couple of years or so, and it’s really just Topping, SMSL, Aune, Soncoz, Singxer, Gustard as the major delta-sigma DAC players - Chord FPGA DAC’s are a little outside my range in this situation, I’m talking in the £500-700 ish price bracket really.

So who’s tried what and what did you find?

I've had a Topping D70, Drop SDAC balanced, Marantz HD-DAC1 in the past to name a few. I've long wanted to try the Denefrips Ares II.

 

[automojo]

A used Chord 2Quet usually aren’t too bad price wise.
Looking for something non boring, and a fun listen? Try a Project DAC BOX FL.
Not pricey by any means.

 

[MacMan31]

A used Chord 2Quet usually aren’t too bad price wise.
Looking for something non boring, and a fun listen? Try a Project DAC BOX FL.
Not pricey by any means.

I'm looking here. https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/sea...min=&price_max=&province=&zipcode=&radius=100

You mean this? https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/det...v-optical-audio-from-smart-tv/images/3935509/

Or this. https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649448013-porject-dac-box-ds/