[little dot]

Yes, all Bifrost2 have Unison, there has never been any other option.

Hi, Thankyou for your reply, I saw G10 - V1 and was a little bit worried. I thought it would have Unison printed on it, as I have seen images like this.

 

[Hyde00]

Hi, Thankyou for your reply, I saw G10 - V1 and was a little bit worried. I thought it would have Unison printed on it, as I have seen images like this.

I think you're thinking about this: https://www.schiit.com/products/bifrost-upgrades

But that is Bifrost 1, which is different shape and size than the Bifrost 2 version.

So I think you're in the clear lol.

 

[little dot]

https://www.schiit.com/products/bifrost

According to the picture from Schiit website, it seems to match.

Both says G10 USB v1.0 and also +3.3D.

Also as tafens stated, there's no USB options on Bifrost 2, so it should always come with Unison USB.

Hi thx for your reply.
I can rest easy now, was just a bit concerned as it was purchased 3rd hand for £270.
I have to say it sounds amazing. My source is dmp a6 ME with pd creative lps via usb, then xlr to my Violectric v222.
Also running node n130 with pd creative upgrade and S booster to a Sony ta zh1es via rca to v222. Love the musicality of both rigs. Headphones are lcd 2c - mdr zir and Aeolas.

 

[Jbucla2005]

My Schiit Bifrost 2/64 sounds great as a DAC for my Antique Sound Lab MG Head OTL and my Cayin MT-12N amps. I use NOS mode exclusively. I use XLR -> RCA adaptors to get the second single-ended output.

 

[little dot]

I think you're thinking about this: https://www.schiit.com/products/bifrost-upgrades

But that is Bifrost 1, which is different shape and size than the Bifrost 2 version.

So I think you're in the clear lol.

lol, that is exactly the reason. Brilliant news, me bad.

 

[roderickvd]

The thing I never understood about this new line of discussion around the effects of noise on DACs is, why when we see that noise making its way into the analog section of a DAC, do we conclude that that same noise is not making its way into the analog clock signal that's directly feeding the DAC chip? Why would noise discriminate against one particular analog waveform and not another?

Are you talking about jitter (from the clock or data lines) or noise (from the power supply or external environment)?

w.r.t. jitter: the data lines from the SPDIF receiver are input to the DAC. The clock is also input to the DAC, however a separate input, so they practically do not influence each other (assuming a well-designed PCB).

w.r.t. noise: yes, clocks are very sensitive to power supply noise, and it will deteriorate the DAC output. The best implementations have separate power supply and filtering dedicated to the clocks.

Also, in this video, it's claimed that toslink is the best connection. Interestingly IIRC another engineer's opinion (Mike Moffat, the designer of this thread's namesake) believes toslink is not so great.

It makes sense that engineers disagree on this stuff. As Mike Moffat has pointed out, sometimes engineers are out in front of the established science of the day.

I have nothing to add what has already been written about pluses & minuses regarding galvanic isolation, clock recovery vs. asynchronous buffering, etc.

I will add that from what I've seen, the Bifrost and Yggdrasil have clock designs that are quite different from other DACs (both delta-sigma and R2R). Most DACs have master clocks local to the DAC chip or R2R array. Not the BF and Yggy: they don't have a master clocks local to the chip, but local to the input. So the USB module has local clocks, and feeds its word clock to the DSP. And the SPDIF receiver recovers the clock, then again feeds its word clock to the DSP. Normal DAC chips / R2R arrays trigger from the master clock, the BF / Yggy trigger from the word clock.

The Yggy additionally seems to have an oscillator (crystal) local to the DSP to switch between VCXO/VCO modes. Adapticlock sounds chique but really resorting to that crystal will probably degrade sound quality significantly. You want clocking from real clocks, always, not crystals with probably a simple Pierce oscillator.

I don't own an Yggy yet - want to get a black one in Europe but it's sold out - but this is what I've gathered from my research so far.

 

[theeclone]

Are you talking about jitter (from the clock or data lines) or noise (from the power supply or external environment)?

w.r.t. jitter: the data lines from the SPDIF receiver are input to the DAC. The clock is also input to the DAC, however a separate input, so they practically do not influence each other (assuming a well-designed PCB).

I'm talking about imperfections of the clock signal that tells the DAC chip when to begin outputting and holding the analog voltages that correspond to the digital values in its shift registers.

I've definitely heard DAC designers talk about the fact that it's actually very difficult to prevent external sources of noise from affecting this clock signal. Are they selling snake oil? Maybe, but I do tend to like DACs made by said designers. In other words, I know what I'm hearing, and their explanations for why I'm hearing it (lower jitter) seem more plausible to me than the other noise-related explanation I've been hearing a lot about lately (less noise making its way into the analog section); especially considering the experiments I've done with toslink, where that explanation can't really be coming into play.

I take jitter to be a general term that describes any deviation of the clock signal from the ideal wrt timing (e.g. the shape of the rising or falling edge, when those edges begin, etc). Looking at it from another angle I could also say I'm concerned with the phase noise of this clock signal.

 

[Hyde00]

I can rest easy now, was just a bit concerned as it was purchased 3rd hand for £270.

My Bifrost 2 is also like 3rd or 4th hand, at this point I've accepted that is the audiophile life.

 

[Xerosnake90]

My Bifrost 2 is also like 3rd or 4th hand, at this point I've accepted that is the audiophile life.

I was hunting for a 2/64 for almost a month before I gave in and bought it new. Literally the next day 2 went up for sale and another handful over the next week or two. Oh well lol

At least I have the warranty. I'll be moving my Bifrost to my Speaker rig when I buy said rig

 

[Hyde00]

Got my Bifrost 2/64 card today! Installation is more straightforward than I thought.

I turned my unit off since last night knowing I'll install it today and I don't want to burn myself, gonna let it cook for another 3 days before any serious listening.

But first impression is that it's more smooth and neutral than I thought. I keep reading it's bright, I wouldn't call it bright, I'd say it's just neutral.

THOUGH I kind of see why people would prefer the Bifrost 2 OG, the OG feels like it has a bit more personality. Again will let it burn in for 3 days then come back later.

 

[mjstealey]

Got my Bifrost 2/64 card today! Installation is more straightforward than I thought.
I turned my unit off since last night knowing I'll install it today and I don't want to burn myself, gonna let it cook for another 3 days before any serious listening.
But first impression is that it's more smooth and neutral than I thought. I keep reading it's bright, I wouldn't call it bright, I'd say it's just neutral.
THOUGH I kind of see why people would prefer the Bifrost 2 OG, the OG feels like it has a bit more personality. Again will let it burn in for 3 days then come back later.

Congrats!
It's always hard to discern what others are saying/hearing until you get the gear into your system with your gear and your ears.
Personally I wound up preferring the rounder/fuller sound of the OG 2 to the leaner/neutral 2/64 card, but I would have never known that unless I had both on-hand to compare.
Also one amp may color the sound differently than another, so the full-chain comes into play when evaluating these kinds of things.
Looking forward to your impressions, and enjoy!!

 

[PinkyPowers]

Hey everyone.

Just received my first Schiit product, the Bifrost 2/64, which I bought from another Head-Fi'er. It's an "upgrade" to my Topping DX7Pro.

I know it's a more limited DAC than the Topping, as in it doesn't do native DSD and so forth. So I've been playing through my music in Foobar2K to see what sort of compatibility issues I may find with different formats.

My DSD files seem to convert just fine to PCM and play through the Bifrost. But I have this HDTracks Gary Clark Jr. album in 24bit, 96khz FLAC, and the Bifrost is absolutely freaking out over this and it sounds unlistenable. These parameters ought to be within the Bifrost's capacity, so I don't understand what's happening here.

Any tips for sorting this out?

Thanks for your time.

 

[kumar402]

Hey everyone.

Just received my first Schiit product, the Bifrost 2/64, which I bought from another Head-Fi'er. It's an "upgrade" to my Topping DX7Pro.

I know it's a more limited DAC than the Topping, as in it doesn't do native DSD and so forth. So I've been playing through my music in Foobar2K to see what sort of compatibility issues I may find with different formats.

My DSD files seem to convert just fine to PCM and play through the Bifrost. But I have this HDTracks Gary Clark Jr. album in 24bit, 96khz FLAC, and the Bifrost is absolutely freaking out over this and it sounds unlistenable. These parameters ought to be within the Bifrost's capacity, so I don't understand what's happening here.

Any tips for sorting this out?

Thanks for your time.

24/96 shouldn’t be an issue for Bifrost. Try to disconnect and reconnect the USB and see if it helps.
Also I haven’t followed the BF2 thread for long time but I recall there was some firmware update rolled out and I hope this used one is on latest firmware.

 

[PinkyPowers]

24/96 shouldn’t be an issue for Bifrost. Try to disconnect and reconnect the USB and see if it helps.
Also I haven’t followed the BF2 thread for long time but I recall there was some firmware update rolled out and I hope this used one is on latest firmware.

It's so strange. My Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here is 24/88 and it plays back perfectly. But when I switch to Pink Floyd Division Bell in 24/96, it's broken.

 

[kumar402]

It's so strange. My Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here is 24/88 and it plays back perfectly. But when I switch to Pink Floyd Division Bell in 24/96, it's broken.

Looks like issue with 48Khz family and something I guess firmware update resolved.