[Wedge]

Quote:

That would be bad marketing, so I bet it won't play out that way.  They will undoubtedly take advantage of all the extra cost and trouble they went to to allow for DAC upgradability or they wouldn't have gone to all that trouble and expense in the first place. 
 

True enough, but true significant DAC improvements don't come as often as many DAC manufacturers would want us to believe, that is my take at least.
 

 

[Maxvla]

I'm curious about this upgradability feature as well. Just what part is upgradable? The signal processing components only? If so does that mean it's similar to changing op-amps in that it will be for flavor or will this allow for significant quality increases? I'm a little confused as to why this feature is in the low end model (at extra expense) when if upgraded would later possibly sound better than the upper models? (of course there could be upgrade modules for the higher end models also). All models will do 24/196 so that isn't a separating factor.. It just seems odd to me.

I also wonder What we're going to do with all the original modules once a new module comes out, heh. Can't exactly sell part of a DAC, especially since it's the part that comes standard and should never wear out.

 

[maverickronin]

Quote:

I'm curious about this upgradability feature as well. Just what part is upgradable? 

If I'm understanding him right its basically everything but the power supply and the chassis.  All the "important" stuff is probably on a daughterboard that snaps into a backplane to connect to the PS and the ins and outs.

 

[Hadrien]

Yeah "DAC rollable" was probably a bad term to use.  What will be nice is that they could offer different DACs and then if you do not prefer the new sound, you can always put your old DAC board back in.  This seems like a nice feature to me if it becomes available since you would not have to rebuy a DAC with each new leap in technology.

 

[Nom de Plume]

Agreed.
 
Quote:

True enough, but true significant DAC improvements don't come as often as many DAC manufacturers would want us to believe, that is my take at least.
 

 

 

[kr0gg]

i wonder if their top of the line DAC will have USB as an option and if it will be removable.
i'm pretty intrigued by their teasers, so i wonder if i will have to sell my DAC only, or my USB/spdif converter too
also, does anyone know if it will have RCA or BNC spdif?

 

[ornitorrinco]

I'm particularly interested in the upcoming statement DAC. If it sounds on par or better than a W4S DAC2 for around $1,000, AND is upgradable I will definitely order one.
Are there any clues regarding the "statement headphone/2 channel product"?

 

[Hero Kid]

I've fully updated the first post with all the information to date.
 
Now to start collating clues about the two upcoming DACs!

 

[Maxvla]

Time to hire some spies and hackers

 

[Elanzer]

Some of audio-gd's stuff is DAC upgradable and it had good results for the upgrade cost. Before with an an audio-gd unit like the FUN or Sparrow, you only had the choice of the WM8740 or AD1852 DA chips which had a pretty distinct sound difference (IMO - bigger difference than rolling tubes), but later on they released another option for the WM8741. It was only a very small module, about 2x1inch big, but a big impact on sound quality. Contained nothing but the DA chip and a few capacitors, basically you would just screw off the old module, remove the tiny PCB and drop the other one in it's place. I'm betting the Bifrost will be similar to this, and if Audio-gd is anything to go off, the upgrade modules will probably be $50 or less - this really depends on the options of the DA chip though.
 
AKM4399 on paper appears to best the WM8741, if the implementation is good then it should be an extremely nice DAC for the asking price. Bifrost + Lyr looks like alot of high-end awesomeness for the low price relative to the competition.

 

[kr0gg]

i guess they're making something like this:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/totaldac2/1.html
 
but then, i guess, being similar to something is opposite to redefining...

 

[Jason Stoddard]

 
Quote:

i guess they're making something like this:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/totaldac2/1.html
 
but then, i guess, being similar to something is opposite to redefining...

Nope, not like that.
 

 

[livewire]

All the fresh, new DAC implementations hitting the market lately are impressive but not without their design limitations.
I am really looking forward to "redefining".  

 

[Audio_newb]

Looking forward to the new DACs and while I think it's great that usb is a drop in upgradable option, I was a little surprised/ disappointed to see that the Schiit guys were doing some usb trash talking.  I certainly understand the argument that spdif was designed for audio while the usb spec was not, but having read some counterarguments from pretty well respected designers (Charles Hansen and Daniel Weiss amongst others although Weiss uses firewire) I was a little curious as to the pushback from the Schiit team.  I think many of us have made a pretty substantial shift over to computer audio (especially those of us who are in the market for outboard DACs) and spdif just feels like a legacy connection.  Certainly between usb, firewire, and network/ wireless interfaces, there is a lot to be done with buffered error corrected data streams that at least to my mind would meet or exceed spdif implementations.  Obviously Jason and Mike have a ton of experience in the field so I really am curious to see their take on statement DAC and also curious to hear their take on the future of computer audio.

 

[MrScary]

Looking forward to the new DACs and while I think it's great that usb is a drop in upgradable option, I was a little surprised/ disappointed to see that the Schiit guys were doing some usb trash talking.  I certainly understand the argument that spdif was designed for audio while the usb spec was not, but having read some counterarguments from pretty well respected designers (Charles Hansen and Daniel Weiss amongst others although Weiss uses firewire) I was a little curious as to the pushback from the Schiit team.  I think many of us have made a pretty substantial shift over to computer audio (especially those of us who are in the market for outboard DACs) and spdif just feels like a legacy connection.  Certainly between usb, firewire, and network/ wireless interfaces, there is a lot to be done with buffered error corrected data streams that at least to my mind would meet or exceed spdif implementations.  Obviously Jason and Mike have a ton of experience in the field so I really am curious to see their take on statement DAC and also curious to hear their take on the future of computer audio.

Coax and Toslink are hardly legacy connections. I believe that Schiit has the right to make a statement in their feelings about USB many of us feel the same. I would never use USB. Ive used it in the past and learned. It may be convenient but Coax and then Toslink is the preferred method of connection