RCBinTN
Headphoneus Supremus
You cannot void a warranty by doing such a thing. They might state that it voids the warranty, but under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act such a thing is illegal.
Feel free to charge ahead, mate.
It's your device.
You cannot void a warranty by doing such a thing. They might state that it voids the warranty, but under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act such a thing is illegal.
Which input are you using to feed Gumby? USB? Coax? Optical?Does anybody have issues with resonance with their Gumby?
I received my new Gumby (directly purchased from Schiit) about two weeks ago -- sounded great after about 48 hrs of warm up, but then I started getting this weird resonance or microphonics. It does seem pretty repeatable, and happens with both instruments (like sometimes during the guitar on Dire Straits "Brother's in Arms" or the start of RHCP "Snow (Hey Oh)", just off the top of my head) or sometimes with vocals, both male and female.
I've tried two amps with two headphones and several music sources (including tidal HIFI). Haven't had this issue before with other DACs (Theta DSPro Prime IIIa), but none of them were as resolving as the Gumby A2. It's really frustrating and makes some music almost un-listenable, but I can't tell conclusively if it's the DAC or the recordings or something else. Sadly I don't have another DAC to compare to at the moment, and I hate to pay to send it back to Schiit just for them to say it's fine. I don't want to blame the recordings because it happens on what I thought were reasonably well recorded material but it's possible the DAC just isn't forgiving. Headphones used are modded HE-6 with Schiit Saga and vintage Pass speaker amp (Threshold Stasis 150 II) and DT-150 with Project Polaris. The issue does not occur with the DT-150 out of my laptop out, but obviously that's not particularly high quality.
I've tried with both the stock power cables and aftermarket power cables (Cerious Technologies graphene extreme). Interconnects are all no-name stuff that has always been fine before. Been thinking about upgrading to Anticables or something in the $50/cable range but haven't bothered yet.
Any thoughts?
Good points. I was using USB from my 2017 Lenovo T470s (ubuntu 16.04). No bad clock light. Both the Gumby and laptop had power cycled a few times. I haven't tried bringing the Gumby up from a cold start again, which I'll probably do before sending it in.Which input are you using to feed Gumby? USB? Coax? Optical?
Have you tried turning it off for a while? And, if feeding from your PC via USB, try turning off both the Gumby and the PC.
Interestingly, my older Breeze converter (with upgraded clocks) sounds pretty terrific. I expected the galvanic isolation of the Gen5 USB to kick its butt, but I can't really tell a difference, especially after the Breeze has had 48 hrs of warmup. Schiit custy service said to try the Wyrd, but I'll prolly wait for their new USB implementation to come out before trying anything else.Well, sounds like you made progress. At least have a listenable rig now.
FWIW ... when I got into this hobby, I bought an Uber Bifrost and was using a USB connection from my work computer/iTunes. It was a Windoze 7 machine.
Had all kinds of trouble getting the BiFrost drivers installed and working, then the USB was very noisy and basically an inferior connection. I think it was USB 2 back then.
Now that I've graduated to a Macbook Pro, I have no USB issues whatsoever.
The Macbook requires drivers and gives rock-solid performance with the Gen 5. It's my best connection, beating the toslink.
One thing that did help the Macbook was disabling flash. It gets in the way of almost everything, including music playback.
@RCBinTN
Gumby and BHA-1 is the best combo out there. BHA-1 is the most transparent (I heard) to very awesome Gumby DAC!
BHA-1 makes every headphone wide sound stage. Dunno why.
Yeah, sorry. Didn't meant to use too much jargon, but I was typing fast and that's the result, haha.Man, I'll tell ya --- you speak a language with which I am not familiar! But hey, I'm a geezer who's not chasing rabbit holes any longer. (See the next post).
I've heard rumors that the new Schiit USB will be literally the best thing since sliced cheese, so agree with you there - stay tuned
I agree 100%, @SilverEars, well said!
I reached the GMB level first, and was looking for the right amp.
My goal was to drive both the HD800 (#1 goal) and LCD-series (#2 goal) planars. With one DAC/amp.
I went thru the Mjolnir1 and HDVA600. Nope.
Then, on luck, I stumbled upon the BHA-1. I liked the design and the company Bryston, so, I bought the BHA-1 unheard.
I know, it's unheard-of
Well, the result of my searches, as you wrote, the GMB + BHA-1 just works, and works great.
The BHA-1 just gets out of the way ... it lets the GMB do its magic!
I think the transparency of the amp is what creates the uber sound stage (that really comes from the DAC, if it's not constrained by the amp).
The SQ is also very neutral, meaning un-colored by the DAC nor amp, which was always my ultimate goal.
I will put my current rig up against the Yggy + WA5 (which I have heard) and at 1/4 of the price.
The BHA-1 is solid as a rock, with a 20-year warranty (!) and it sounds great.
Y'all on the fence for a SS amp - give it a try.
Cheers all,
RCB
ps. I'm not affiliated with Bryston in any way, just a satisfied customer!