Schiit Gungnir DAC

[grokit]

I've been getting dropouts on my DSG, I think it may be HDD/USB-related though. I'm hoping a Firewire drive solves the issue, I need to back-up my library anyhow. I am also going to audition a different Spdif converter, in case that's the issue. I hope it's not the DAC itself; it's happening at random during songs it's not changing bit-rates. It does seem to happen more often during demanding passages which has me worried. But only during HDD playback.

 

[sheldaze]

  I've been getting dropouts on my DSG, I think it may be HDD/USB-related though. I'm hoping a Firewire drive solves the issue, I need to back-up my library anyhow. I am also going to audition a different Spdif converter, in case that's the issue. I hope it's not the DAC itself; it's happening at random during songs it's not changing bit-rates. It does seem to happen more often during demanding passages which has me worried. But only during HDD playback.

What is a "demanding passage"?
 
I don't mean to ask silly questions, but I honestly do not know what this means in terms of computer audio playback 

Lots of instruments playing at the same time? Lots of volume?

 

[grokit]

 
Lots of instruments playing at the same time? Lots of volume?

 
Yes, that. Dynamically demanding with many frequencies happening at the same time.

 

[disastermouse]

I was getting some gawd-awful stuff out of my Bimby the other day. I was bouncing around, sampling a lot of stuff for a minute or two, and suddenly it was sounding like fingernails on a chalkboard. if I cycled through the sources a few times, the Bimby would (eventually) get its groove back, so to speak. Very puzzling, had not encountered anything like it before, in the few months I've had the Bifrost MB. 

After a while, I realized this was being triggered whenever the "new [play immediately] tune" had a different sample rate than the previous tune. JRiver was doing a "smooth blend" transition ... which I think is its default. I changed the JRMC settings to force a 0.4 sec gap between songs, and that cured the problem for me. 

This may or may not have any bearing on your particular problem, of course. Good luck!

This is a known issue for BiMBy in the BiMBy thread. Sample rate changes can cause weirdness, especially in Windows (although Macs are maybe not immune). Sometimes it's a matter of time for the switch to loosen or something. Full restart fixes.

The problem is that it's hard to replicate by Schiit.

I just got a BiMBy because I really only listen to ALAC and Tidal.

Are you running Windows or Mac?

 

[DougD]

This is a known issue for BiMBy in the BiMBy thread. Sample rate changes can cause weirdness, especially in Windows (although Macs are maybe not immune). Sometimes it's a matter of time for the switch to loosen or something. Full restart fixes.

The problem is that it's hard to replicate by Schiit.

I just got a BiMBy because I really only listen to ALAC and Tidal.

Are you running Windows or Mac?

Windows.
 
95% of the time, I listen to full albums end to end, and have never seen the issue when doing that. 
 
Since it only happens when I (1) force the music player to start a tune from a different folder before it had completely played the "now playing" song, and (2) I'm being "active DJ" to make that happen, adding a small gap between songs was a very easy cure. Easier and more satisfactory to me than doing a shutdown/restart of either the DAC or the music playing software.
 
Cycling through the source button (push push push) also works faster than a restart, that seems to cause the Gimby to check "what is the sample rate I'm seeing here" when it gets back to the USB input.
 
I've never understood the great emphasis some people put on gapless playing ... maybe because I don't listen to much classical music ... so I'm 100% happy with the solution of simply adding a small between-song gap. 
 
I don't think of it as a bug or flaw, it's more a little quirk of personality.

 

[XenHeadFi]

  I've been getting dropouts on my DSG, I think it may be HDD/USB-related though. I'm hoping a Firewire drive solves the issue, I need to back-up my library anyhow. I am also going to audition a different Spdif converter, in case that's the issue. I hope it's not the DAC itself; it's happening at random during songs it's not changing bit-rates. It does seem to happen more often during demanding passages which has me worried. But only during HDD playback.

How old is the drive? The drive can be failing, and what you are experiencing is bottleneck in Input/Output. The HDD is having trouble reading and the computer has to wait for the HDD to respond. I usually experience this after 4-5 years of active use. Only Seagate drives have failed on me between 1-3 years...
 
Just replaced my 5 year old Mac laptop drive because every little request brought up the Spinning Wheel of Annoyance and Frustration. Put in an SSD and now what took 1 minute with the failing drive, takes 3 seconds with the SSD.

 

[earnmyturns]

  I've been getting dropouts on my DSG, I think it may be HDD/USB-related though. I'm hoping a Firewire drive solves the issue, I need to back-up my library anyhow. I am also going to audition a different Spdif converter, in case that's the issue. I hope it's not the DAC itself; it's happening at random during songs it's not changing bit-rates. It does seem to happen more often during demanding passages which has me worried. But only during HDD playback.

I'd test with a different HDD. HDDs can get "sticky" (lots of read retries) on their way to final demise. In my experience, every HDD on a heavily used (Mac) laptop goes belly-up after a few years of use. Delicate mechanical devices with very fast-moving parts in hot enclosures subject to frequent mechanical shocks from movement. It's amazing they last as long as they do.

 

[grokit]

Quote:

  How old is the drive? The drive can be failing, and what you are experiencing is bottleneck in Input/Output. The HDD is having trouble reading and the computer has to wait for the HDD to respond. I usually experience this after 4-5 years of active use. Only Seagate drives have failed on me between 1-3 years...
 
Just replaced my 5 year old Mac laptop drive because every little request brought up the Spinning Wheel of Annoyance and Frustration. Put in an SSD and now what took 1 minute with the failing drive, takes 3 seconds with the SSD.

 
It's from when USB3 first became affordable (Mac is the last Mini with USB2), and it's a 3tb with 2/3 of it devoted to movie rips that take forever to come up because I never play them. I was on track to convert the whole mess to a NAS at one point, I can barely remember why that project got aborted but I do need to get back to that.
 
 

  I'd test with a different HDD. HDDs can get "sticky" (lots of read retries) on their way to final demise. In my experience, every HDD on a heavily used (Mac) laptop goes belly-up after a few years of use. Delicate mechanical devices with very fast-moving parts in hot enclosures subject to frequent mechanical shocks from movement. It's amazing they last as long as they do.

 
I'm getting a Firewire 800 drive online ASAP as mentioned, I will use that as a backup and stopgap for now until the NAS ultimately takes over. And then I will have a choice between 10/100 vs. wifi vs. f/w 800 vs. USB etc. to be able to compare for myself what kind of data to convert, if there's any difference in sound or errors.

 

[ufospls2]

Depending on a few factors it might be time for a new DAC soon. Coming from a Resonessence Labs Concero HD, do you think I would notice an improvement in SQ by using the GMB? I have a chance to buy a Sim Audio Moon 300d for a decent price, has anyone heard this DAC? Impressions vs the GMB? The amp I would be using is an Auralic Taurus mk2. 

 

[earnmyturns]

   
I'm getting a Firewire 800 drive online ASAP as mentioned, I will use that as a backup and stopgap for now until the NAS ultimately takes over. And then I will have a choice between 10/100 vs. wifi vs. f/w 800 vs. USB etc. to be able to compare for myself what kind of data to convert, if there's any difference in sound or errors.

Forget about wifi unless you live in the woods with no nearby competing networks. Sounding like an old-time deeply scratched record: get yourself a dedicated streamer with a wired connection to your NAS and a good USB out. Add a decent reclocking USB > S/PDIF converter between your dedicated streamer and your DAC in case you feel it helps with jitter. If you are willing to mess around with open-source software, you can get a good streamer for $100: CuBox-i2eX (got mine from NewEgg) with Volumio. 

 

[Ttenu]

Got the Gumby last week. I didn't like the sound at first and preferred the Bimby (burned-in). After burn-in, the Gumby is clearly superior especially over balanced cable (solid copper Anticables).
 
Only one issue I had was an ear shattering blast due to a missed sample switch. I was using Jriver to stream my collection from a media server and upsample to 176.4 in integer mode. When Jriver is in exclusive mode, it changes your mac OS sound output from Schiit to something else like internal speaker. Jriver crashed and closed but continued holding onto the exclusive access to the Schiit. I wasn't able to change the system sound output back to the Schiit even though Jriver wasn't open. I opened Amarra for Tidal which gives direct access to the Schiit without going through CoreAudio system. This was a big mistake.
 
Seems like Amarra for Tidal tried sending through a 44.1 sample into the Schiit which was stuck on 176.4 from Jriver gaining exclusive access and crashing. What came from the output of my amp was the most unholy, horrid, digital noise I have ever heard. I don't think I've ever moved that fast to turn it off.
 
Beware... if your Gumby seems stuck in place, don't play around... 

 

[grokit]

  I'd test with a different HDD.

I'm getting a Firewire 800 drive online ASAP

 
I just "won" this "barely-used" drive on the bay, hopefully it will be a good stop-gap until the NAS is online.
 

Not only will I be using a different drive, but the data will bypass the USB bus as well

 

 

[RCBinTN]

  Got the Gumby last week. I didn't like the sound at first and preferred the Bimby (burned-in). After burn-in, the Gumby is clearly superior especially over balanced cable (solid copper Anticables).
 
Only one issue I had was an ear shattering blast due to a missed sample switch. I was using Jriver to stream my collection from a media server and upsample to 176.4 in integer mode. When Jriver is in exclusive mode, it changes your mac OS sound output from Schiit to something else like internal speaker. Jriver crashed and closed but continued holding onto the exclusive access to the Schiit. I wasn't able to change the system sound output back to the Schiit even though Jriver wasn't open. I opened Amarra for Tidal which gives direct access to the Schiit without going through CoreAudio system. This was a big mistake.
 
Seems like Amarra for Tidal tried sending through a 44.1 sample into the Schiit which was stuck on 176.4 from Jriver gaining exclusive access and crashing. What came from the output of my amp was the most unholy, horrid, digital noise I have ever heard. I don't think I've ever moved that fast to turn it off.
 
Beware... if your Gumby seems stuck in place, don't play around... 

 
Total Ouch!  Hope your ears, and the gear, are OK.
FYI, many folks leave their GMB (and other Schiit MB DACs) powered on all the time.  Keep 'em warm - makes the sound more consistent.  A reco from Mike himself, and it works for me...

 

[Ttenu]

Total Ouch!  Hope your ears, and the gear, are OK.
FYI, many folks leave their GMB (and other Schiit MB DACs) powered on all the time.  Keep 'em warm - makes the sound more consistent.  A reco from Mike himself, and it works for me...

Yes, I do leave it on all the time. My best description for the Gumby compared to my old steadfasts, ESS Sabre 9018 of which I have many, is that it sounds real. Like I am in a studio. The Sabre always sounded digital to me.

I do stack my Gumby with the MJ2 which raises its temperature. Hopefully that doesn't alter its temperature enough to have a negative effect. I doubt it does.

 

[RCBinTN]

Yes, I do leave it on all the time. My best description for the Gumby compared to my old steadfasts, ESS Sabre 9018 of which I have many, is that it sounds real. Like I am in a studio. The Sabre always sounded digital to me.

I do stack my Gumby with the MJ2 which raises its temperature. Hopefully that doesn't alter its temperature enough to have a negative effect. I doubt it does.

 
Me neither.  I think that helps the GMB stay warm, stacked up.  Personally, I leave my Macbook on top of the GMB.  Gives me a warm feeling whenever I pick up the Mac.