Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up

[hottyson]

Hearing differently is placebo and perception.

While I may suffer from auditory fidelity dysphoria, I was born into this reality a subjectivist. Having survived the nineteen nineties and experienced warm soothing digital to analog conversion within my beloved high end Denon CD player and clarity of my precious Pioneer Laserdisc player, I completed the decade moving to an expensive ChiFi NOS DAC that died within a month. What a sour taste that left.

- Fast forward two decades -

Two thousand twenties arrive and the pandemic entices me to purchase a handful of $100 DACs. I end up with three Schiit Modi 3, two Monoprice Liquid Spark, and a Khadas Tone Board. After listening to these DACs for an entire year, I was able to distinguish between them all and subjectively found the Khadas to be the best, but only by a small margin. The Schiit Modi was very good, so I also picked up the Schiit Modi 3 plus. The Liquid spark had a flawed design as the optical input is complete crap.

- Why is the story of these $100 DACs pertinent to the conversation? -

I have become very familiar with $100 DAC performance. Enough so that I could distinguish between the three DACs and subjectively form a preference. The performance difference between the three $100 DACs is negligible enough to not worry so much about which one I am using. One does not have to over think $100 DACs other than perhaps stay away from flawed products.

- The $600 Schiit DAC -

So, I had formed my opinion of DACs based on my $100 modern DAC journey. I was content. There was no desire to ever purchase any more DACs. I was set for life with about ten $100 DACs to move around throughout my headphone setups. Until… Schiit Bifrost 2 entered my reality.

Understand that I was extremely versed in low $100 performing DACs. A Schiit Bifrost 2 sounded a little bit better from the start. After listening and using the Bifrost 2 for a lengthy period I began to develop an ear for what it could recreate. I was learning to hear nuances to audio reproduction that previously I had not understood to listen for because they did not exist in my $100 DACs. From that point, going back to a $100 DAC was boring and I missed all of the new performance that I had learned to hear.

Today, I have two Bifrost 2 DACS that I rotate through my headphone system setups. I have grown so accustomed to the sound that I actually preferred the Bifrost 2 DAC over a more expensive DAC for many months until I learned to hear the new nuances of my newly acquired expensive DAC.

Ultimately, I hope that through my lengthy narrative that you are able to understand that one should not simply purchase a new DAC to immediately A/B compare to conclude that there are no differences or perhaps even improvement in perceived performance. Otherwise some may suspect your words are based on careless impudent ignorance. Time mixed with exposure develops in-depth impressions to assist one to state meaningful informed inferences and deductions.

 

[eyoon]

I've never had a garbled sound problem. I would have returned it years ago.

It doesn't happen often, but it is a known issue that the OG modi multibit does play garbled sound every now and then (though, I never associated it with sampling rate changes or anything else. It would just randomly do it every once in a while). Granted, a quick power cycle fixes the issue, but I assumed this is the same issue that was written about in the most recent chapter. So, not a big deal, but a minor annoyance.

 

[Zer0.p0int.Zer0]

Might there be a firmware update for the OG Modi Multibit's garbled sound problem then?

My Modi MB had that problem too (years ago). I assumed the issue was with my streaming source changing sampling rates. It was persistent and annoying so I got rid of the Modi MB.
Never had the issue with any other Schiit DACs

 

[Sinister Whisperz]

My ears are broken then.

Better your ears than your wallet.

 

[Runrunsmithfly]

It doesn't happen often, but it is a known issue that the OG modi multibit does play garbled sound every now and then (though, I never associated it with sampling rate changes or anything else. It would just randomly do it every once in a while). Granted, a quick power cycle fixes the issue, but I assumed this is the same issue that was written about in the most recent chapter. So, not a big deal, but a minor annoyance.

Ok, I used to leave it on 24/7 but I use other DACs so it gets turned on and off regularly. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[O8h7w]

It also matters what kind of music you listen too, how you listen, and what your brain focuses on. Do you pay attention to width, depth, height? Image, voice placement? Layering? Tone, texture, richness, detail, detail?

Depends on what you like about music, and what draws you in.

I think this accounts for all the differences between how different people hear differently. And that it depends highly on what we've heard and listened for in the past, especially in our childhoods when our brains learned to listen.

It is very clear that musicians in general are more sensitive to pitch and tone than other people. And it makes perfect sense, at least for those who play strings without frets, it is key to being able to play such an instrument to spend a whole lot of time listening for pitch.

Another very clear example is when an average western person tries to learn some (maybe any, I'm not quite sure) eastern language where intonation changes the literal meaning of some words, I believe Thai has a great example of that.

Well, all the differences except hearing loss at extreme frequencies or low levels. But this probably accounts for very little of how we perceive audio gear differently, after all, frequency response of these things are generally very flat. Except for the apparently rare case that some of us sometimes listen at very low levels, such that some of us does not have a chance to ever hear what the gear sounds like at those levels. (You're not missing out! I've never heard any gear that sounded better when listening really quietly than when listening moderately quietly. Plenty of gear that falls to pieces when turning it down though.)

 

[corndog71]

Because nobody makes any other USB A-C cables?

Or should we just do C-C, because As are falling like flies now?

Or should we do A-C, C-C, B-C, A-B, 1M, 2M, 3M, etc?

Nah, most likely we'll be getting out of the cable biz, except uniques (shorties) and stuff we have to provide (Fulla, Hel come with USB A-C cables). Too much pain to try to cover all the variations.

If only there was a universal cable solution.

 

[O8h7w]

If only there was a universal cable solution.

Like this? https://www.voltacharger.com/collections/best-seller-2022/products/volta-spark-3-tips

 

[O8h7w]

It doesn't happen often, but it is a known issue that the OG modi multibit does play garbled sound every now and then (though, I never associated it with sampling rate changes or anything else. It would just randomly do it every once in a while). Granted, a quick power cycle fixes the issue, but I assumed this is the same issue that was written about in the most recent chapter. So, not a big deal, but a minor annoyance.

I assumed it was a separate issue, because I have assumed the Modi MB 2 is running on a slightly newer version of the DSP. I have assumed so because it upsamples further than the previous Modi MB. I may be wrong.

 

[supersonic395]

Okay so what's better on the Yggdrasil LIM input - the unison USB or the AES/EBU input?

Planning on using the Volumio Rivo streamer.

 

[JanMc]

Like this? https://www.voltacharger.com/collections/best-seller-2022/products/volta-spark-3-tips

Oh my god, you want to add an extra electrical connection in the signal path?! What is wrong with you?

 

[mjstealey]

You can tell Jason is an author...lol...BTW, bit off topic but the Lokius is rocking my world, love it!

Ahh, Lokius, Lokius ... Lokius, that little bugger has really surprised me

I didn't want to mess with digital EQ, but did want something more than 2-knob tone controls, so I picked up the Lokius during that Schiit thing that Schiit never does a few weeks back and have been thoroughly impressed.
Very non-intrusive to the signal chain when left flat or bypassed but damn! a little bump in the rump (20 and 120 Hz) and some reduction in the sizzle (6k Hz) has given me a new appreciation for some of my older cans again

 

[liamo]

Ahh, Lokius, Lokius ... Lokius, that little bugger has really surprised me

I didn't want to mess with digital EQ, but did want something more than 2-knob tone controls, so I picked up the Lokius during that Schiit thing that Schiit never does a few weeks back and have been thoroughly impressed.
Very non-intrusive to the signal chain when left flat or bypassed but damn! a little bump in the rump (20 and 120 Hz) and some reduction in the sizzle (6k Hz) has given me a new appreciation for some of my older cans again

Did the same and really enjoying it albeit with a little too much tinkering with a new toy.
I have Modi 2 Uber, Modi Multibit OG, Modius and Gungnir MB and they all sound different to me. Heck, the Gungnir has sounded different three times going to Gen 5 and then Unison and that’s just input changes.

 

[dstrimbu]

on the right side underneath the desk, is that a REL T9 "borrowed" from the main system?

No... not yet. That's my Lenovo ThinkStation, it hangs from the underside of the desktop using this VIVO under-desk / wall mount system. It makes the desk nearly 100% self-contained (other than the power cord and the Jot's umbilicals) so that I can move it easily.

 

[Pondoro]

Oh my god, you want to add an extra electrical connection in the signal path?! What is wrong with you?

This is an interesting point. I'm a skeptic about most tweaks, and a mechanical engineer, but I have rubbed shoulders with electrical engineers because I often have to test engines with electrical stuff. Some electrical types own the cables that carry critical signals, often at very low levels. Others "own" providing paths for lightning strikes to "get the hell out of our equipment." You cannot stop the lightning, but if it kicks it's way in the front door you want the back door to be open and inviting so it leaves promptly, without looking into the other rooms of your house. This is my mechanical interpretation of what they do. At any rate both groups obsess more over connections than over anything else. But I do not see huge nervosa around connectors as much as I see it around cables themselves. Sure, no audiophile wants cheap connectors, but cables get more discussion and the connectors are usually mentioned as "really great" but not subjected to so much discussion. My electrical friends in the non-audio industry really get into the connectors.