Schiit Gungnir DAC

[Wes S]

Hi, has anyone compared the new Gungnir Multibit with the Unison board to the previous gen 5? If yes, could you give impressions?

The million dollar question.

 

[Chidi]

The million dollar question.

I just realized it’s only been out a day or two. Now it makes sense why no one is talking about it lol.

 

[Arnold Schwartz]

Virtually no one will ever be able to do a proper comparison unless they have two Gumby's side by side with a Gen 5 and Unison usb already warmed up. This requires you to send your unit in for a firmware upgrade, by the time you get your unit back you will have long forgotten the nuances in the music and our memory of sounds fades almost as fast as notes decay. I bet the reviews will sound like this. "Wow, blacker background and more transparent with better air. It's like the notes appear and disappear from nowhere. blah blah blah." Basically don't get your hopes up to high, Gen 5 is already great and this is USB after-all not a new dac.

 

[438555]

Virtually no one will ever be able to do a proper comparison unless they have two Gumby's side by side with a Gen 5 and Unison usb already warmed up. This requires you to send your unit in for a firmware upgrade, by the time you get your unit back you will have long forgotten the nuances in the music and our memory of sounds fades almost as fast as notes decay. I bet the reviews will sound like this. "Wow, blacker background and more transparent with better air. It's like the notes appear and disappear from nowhere. blah blah blah." Basically don't get your hopes up to high, Gen 5 is already great and this is USB after-all not a new dac.

When I send mine in, I’ll still have an Eitr, so I can compare gen 5->spdif to unison in A/B

 

[vyushenko]

Hi, has anyone compared the new Gungnir Multibit with the Unison board to the previous gen 5? If yes, could you give impressions?

I compared Bitfrost 2 with Unison vs Gungnir without Unison. To me Gungnir had an advantage (but small). I realized that I hate the sound of delta-sigma DACs (previously compared Modi vs ADI and with a lot of difficulty picked Modi which I had for a year), build-in multi-bit DAC is ok, Bitfrost 2 is really good and Gungnir is even better.

Yesterday, I got new Gungnir with Unison.

I wanted to wait for Unison - because why not? But my assumption was that Unison does not really matter (at least when I feed USB from iPhone) since Gungnir without Unison to me sounded better than Bitfrost 2 with Unison. But that just me, highly subjective personal opinion and extrapolation since I was comparing Bitfrost 2 vs Gungnir.

 

[robrob]

The Gungnir multi-bit upgrade is pretty popular. I'm currently # 3 of 37 in the que for upgrade. I did the Gen 5 USB upgrade last year so I'm not doing the Unison USB.

 

[Brubacca]

My Gumby (A1) is back at the mothership for the upgrade. I skipped Gen 5 and waited for Unison.

Has anyone actually gotten their Gumby Unison back from the upgrade yet?

 

[Wes S]

My Gumby (A1) is back at the mothership for the upgrade. I skipped Gen 5 and waited for Unison.

Has anyone actually gotten their Gumby Unison back from the upgrade yet?

Nice! I still have an OG Gumby(A1) with an Eitr, and plan to do the Unison. I am looking forward to getting rid of my Eitr (Gen 5). I can't wait to hear your impressions, once you get yours back.

 

[Brubacca]

Nice! I still have an OG Gumby(A1) with an Eitr, and plan to do the Unison. I am looking forward to getting rid of my Eitr (Gen 5). I can't wait to hear your impressions, once you get yours back.

I've been using Eitr for awhile as well. It will be interesting to compare.

 

[Wes S]

I've been using Eitr for awhile as well. It will be interesting to compare.

Please keep me posted on your findings. Thanks!

 

[438555]

Please keep me posted on your findings. Thanks!

Also interested in this, and how long the turnaround is.
My Gen 5 input stopped working a while ago so I’ve been using Eitr. I figured rather than doing a warranty repair on the gen5, I’d just wait and upgrade

 

[Brubacca]

My Schiit is shipping back today. Should have it early next week. So next weekend (not this weekend) I'll be able to listen.

 

[cobrabucket]

I just got one of these [A2, Gen5 usb] and am really impressed! Coming from an RME ADI-2 Pro. Both are awesome, but the Gumby just feels...fuller. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's my initial impressions after letting it warm up for 2 hours and about an hour of listening. I also have an Eitr otw. Think that the Eitr would sound better than just Gen5 usb alone? Obviously thinking about unison too.

 

[theveterans]

I just got one of these [A2, Gen5 usb] and am really impressed! Coming from an RME ADI-2 Pro. Both are awesome, but the Gumby just feels...fuller. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's my initial impressions after letting it warm up for 2 hours and about an hour of listening. I also have an Eitr otw. Think that the Eitr would sound better than just Gen5 usb alone? Obviously thinking about unison too.

Skip Eitr, go with Unison. To my experience, Unison has better focus in instrument placement than coax

 

[Charente]

... I also have an Eitr otw. Think that the Eitr would sound better than just Gen5 usb alone? Obviously thinking about unison too.

I've not got around to upgrading my Gungnir MB to Unison, but have spent some effort improving what an EITR fed system can produce. The 5v v-Bus (apparently) is not totally isolated in EITR and I (and others) have found that by isolating the USB v-Bus and injecting the 5v directly from a clean LPS noticeably improves overall SQ, including imaging. Since you have an EITR en-route, I thought it worth mentioning ... otherwise, Unison is probably the way to go from what I'm hearing. It's easier.