[tincanear]

No the AKM and ESS devices are not multibit.

@ImagesbyMurray how is your speaker cable experiment going?

 

[AudioGal]

+1. the question is whether the ESS with software and hardware (I/V and output filter stage) optimization can be made to sound less edgy / sabre-ish and at least as good as the AK4493-based Modius or possibly equal the next-tier (and more expensive) Bifrost 2 Multibit (using ADI R2R & LME49724 differential amp chips).

That's a pretty tall order to best the Bifrost 2 Multibit. That is one damn fine sounding DAC.

 

[US Blues]

+1. the question is whether the ESS with software and hardware (I/V and output filter stage) optimization can be made to sound less edgy / sabre-ish and at least as good as the AK4493-based Modius or possibly equal the next-tier (and more expensive) Bifrost 2 Multibit (using ADI R2R & LME49724 differential amp chips).

If anyone can tame an ESS DAC chip it's @Baldr

 

[JamminVMI]

As is often the case everything has to be a trend and everyone has to jump on board. Such is the state of affairs with hazy ipa's, sour and gose beers.
Trouble is, a good sour beer is hard to make and when everybody thinks they have to have one, the good ones are few and far between.
I like sour beers but I generally avoid them and retreat to some tried and true belgians when I want a sour.
I am SOOOOO tired of hazy IPAs. My kingdom for a beautiful west cost hoppy pale ale! Ok, there are some alternatives but you have to dig for them.
Of course it is also a matter of taste. Some folks will never like a sour beer or a hoppy beer.
My favorite beer, of course, is the one in my hand.

Amen…

 

[filthy mechanical]

As is often the case everything has to be a trend and everyone has to jump on board. Such is the state of affairs with hazy ipa's, sour and gose beers.
Trouble is, a good sour beer is hard to make and when everybody thinks they have to have one, the good ones are few and far between.
I like sour beers but I generally avoid them and retreat to some tried and true belgians when I want a sour.
I am SOOOOO tired of hazy IPAs. My kingdom for a beautiful west cost hoppy pale ale! Ok, there are some alternatives but you have to dig for them.
Of course it is also a matter of taste. Some folks will never like a sour beer or a hoppy beer.
My favorite beer, of course, is the one in my hand.

IPAs are nice, bitter IPAs are nice (same with DIPAs), but the trend where EVERYTHING for a year or two was an IPA and you couldn't find a stout/porter/Hefeweizen/etc to change it up was horrible. Now the fun one (and still mentally messes with me) was the Blonde Stout that I had a couple years back. Same color as a pale ale, tasted exactly like a normal stout.

 

[JamminVMI]

IPAs are nice, bitter IPAs are nice (same with DIPAs), but the trend where EVERYTHING for a year or two was an IPA and you couldn't find a stout/porter/Hefeweizen/etc to change it up was horrible. Now the fun one (and still mentally messes with me) was the Blonde Stout that I had a couple years back. Same color as a pale ale, tasted exactly like a normal stout.

I might also ge fond of maibock- style beers. Fave is Rogue’s Dead Guy. Flavour bomb.

 

[darkarn]

For those worried about ESS chips, it's more about the implementation of the chip rather than the chip itself that determines the SQ

I have an Onkyo DP-X1A since 2017 that uses ESS chips but still can go head to head with current DAPs using AKM chips. This alone convinces me that ESS chips can go very far in the right hands

I won't be surprised if Schiit's future DACs using ESS chips can surpass those using AKM chips

 

[artur9]

I'll take my beer as Scottish Ale and my DACs without Sabre, please.

I loved Newcastle Brown Ale in Quebec many years ago. Now I hear it's made by Lagunitas and is hoppy. What a shame.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

One of a select few times I cheated on Schiit with someone else, the dac used the Sabre 9018 chip, and it sounded fantastic. That was many moons ago. I have no doubt Schiit will make ESS chip implementation sound just fine.

You guys are blowing the dac chip manufacturer change out of proportion. BELIEVE in Schiit. Implementation is everything. You can have the same chip running on a $100 dac, or a $2000 dac. Doesn't mean they'll be identical.

 

[porchwizard]

I'll take my beer as Scottish Ale and my DACs without Sabre, please.

I loved Newcastle Brown Ale in Quebec many years ago. Now I hear it's made by Lagunitas and is hoppy. What a shame.

That sounds like fake news! I truly hope what you heard is wrong, though I am preparing myself for the profound disappointment if it's confirmed

 

[Laminator]

That sounds like fake news! I truly hope what you heard is wrong, though I am preparing myself for the profound disappointment if it's confirmed

https://lagunitas.com/story/newcastle

 

[tin-ear]

Or a down payment on that which all others shall hereinafter be judged.

If I were thinking of buying this I would I would wonder why is the seller is offering $10 shipping?
I would prefer to pay $50 or $100 for double boxing and surrounded on all sides by 12 inches of 1" bubble wrap with super fast (I almost wrote Uber) delivery.

 

[tin-ear]

Here ya go, @bcowen.

https://www.reussenzehn.de/de/hifi/end-verstaerker/v8.php

See here: Waveform
I remember seeing a V8 tube amp configuration at a Stereophile show. San Francisco 1990? It was made by Scott Frankland. If I ever have a chance to go back and do it again, I would have stayed as long as possible to listen to him talk about tubes. The V8 idea allowed shorter wiring. Not sure but the version I saw had the tubes angled more like the one in the pic posted here than the one in the link. Pretty sure I saw an early if not the earliest version. Around this time Positive-Feedback magazine published a series of 3 articles by Frankland on tubes, tube technology, and tube amps. Frankland wrote about how he had gone back to read 1940's and maybe earlier tube manuals, etc. He talked about topologies, for example. I learned a heck of a lot about tube amps from those articles.
His V8 at that show sounded glorious. IIRC correctly the price was around $20,000. I remember him saying "that's what it came out to be." He was building for sound, not for a price point.

 

[tin-ear]

Never been there but I look at this (attached) image almost every day on my iMac running Big Sur OS and thought that bridge looked familiar.

In 1976 I slept on the beach not exactly underneath it; a bit to the south. Those were the days where you when all you needed was a thumb and a sleeping bag. Well, I did get stuck at a Freeway on-ramp in San Louis Obispo for a long half a day.

 

[Derrick Swart]

m

Will we ever see a Bifrost 2e, given that Bifrost 2 uses Analog Devices DACs, not AKM?

ulti bit with a delta sigma?

edit: see it was already clarified.