[misterpumpy]

There are tons of different ones out there. Potentiometer shafts are largely standardized. So, armed with a pair of calipers, you might be able to find one that's more to your liking.

If you know someone with a lathe, you could have them turn one for you to your preferred specs from a solid block of aluminum. There are companies who can then anodize it black for you.
(I'm serious.)

You could also come up with a nice design, whip it up in your CAD software of choice, and see if a few more people would want one like that. If yes, you should contact AvE. He's got that "town pump CNC" side project going where he machines all kinds of stuff on his 5-axis Haas for free if he likes the project.

Thanks for the multiple suggestions, I appreciate your insights. I’m lazy so I’d prefer Schiit offer it, or maybe I can get the size of the knob and see if there are any metal ones in the market already and get it anodized black. I know of a few good anodizer folks from my custom keyboard hobby.

The search begins, I suppose!

 

[earnmyturns]

Given the amount of power-and-audio-cable-spaghetti behind the stack I'm thinking optical might be the way to go to avoid any interference issues, though there have been none thus far. Is there any advantage of using Coax over optical or vice-versa?

A few comments:

• A DDC converting USB to S/PDIF may improve over USB directly into Schiit's USB-2 receiver, but DDCs vary a lot in quality. I'm skeptical that a very low-end DDC like that one would improve over Schiit's USB-2, which was not bad at all, in my experience only beatable with pricier DDCs with better quality clocks and power filtering.
• My guess from having played with different sources to Bifrost and Yggdrasil USB-2 back in the day is that the main benefit of a capable DDC or streamer with those DACs was in improving isolation from electrical noise coming down the USB cable from the source.
• I looked at the info I could find on the DDC you are considering, I'm not confident that it does anything of value for your use case. They talk about jitter, but jitter isn't really an issue for current USB audio. They talk about DSD and MQA, irrelevant for the Gungnir. The only think they don't talk about is isolation...
• Coax S/PDIF has been measured to have lower jitter than optical, at least for the cheap optical parts that are used in lower-end digital audio components.

 

[theveterans]

Thanks for the detailed answer, @mjstealey, much appreciated. The upgrade will happen sometime in mid-late Spring 2024, so this little box looks like it's the way to go. I have a couple of quality 75ohm cables in the cable box so I'm good-to-go there. Given the amount of power-and-audio-cable-spaghetti behind the stack I'm thinking optical might be the way to go to avoid any interference issues, though there have been none thus far. Is there any advantage of using Coax over optical or vice-versa?

The 2 year warranty extension is worth the cost of admission, with the bonus of an upgraded USB connection! It's too bad Schiit discontinued the Eitr and Wyrd. They'd fit in to the stack aesthetically.

And again, thanks! I'm excited to take my listening enjoyment to a new level. 3-4 weeks will feel like an eternity...

I find that if you must absolutely use optical, the biggest contributor is the VXCO clocks or whatever reference clocks inside your streamer must be extremely high quality then the second biggest factor is the toslink cable itself. I find high quality glass fiber bundles or high quality narrow aperture plastic fiber bundles will transparently send those ultra low jitter data delivery to the DAC which will put it on par or better than BNC/COAX and even AES. If you can't fulfill those two requirements for Toslink on a great level, I still suggest to stick to coax or AES DDCs since they're less sensitive to jitter. Toslink is actually the pickiest IME when it comes to bringing the best out of it. I haven't encountered a USB Unison with decrapifier along the chain setup beating an excellent SPDIF source/DDC setup IME

Just for context, a crappy toslink setup would produce a narrow depth and murky soundstage with flat dynamics and rolled off bass and treble definition. An excellent toslink setup would be the opposite of the crappy setup in everything, and it's going to be similar if not indistinguishable from AES or Coax from an excellent DDC/Streamer

 

[JamminVMI]

Hey.
Pssst.
Yeah, you.
Listen…
There's no reason why your half-sized breadboard shouldn't include two entirely independent test circuits, a 3.3V and a 5V rail, a set of bi-directional logic level shifters, two pull-up resistors*, a connection to a host device, two sets of connections for your logic probe / host emulator / bus sniffer, two sets of hookups (yeah, that's right, literal hookups!) for your scope probes (the probes are ground-referenced just outside of that frame, no worries), AND look on point at the same time.



Don't judge me too harshly on that crappy-AF solder job on those logic level shifter module header pins, though. Although some judgement is definitely appropriate. Tried a new (to me) solder wire. Suffice it to say that I'm not exactly in love…

(Please note the Hel 2e in the top-right corner of the shot. Can you see it? So, yes. This post is indeed relevant to this thread. )

* now four pull-up resistors (the two additional ones not pictured) because I forgot to add them to the second set of logic probe connectors…

You, sir, are having far too much fun!

 

[sam6550a]

Urd sounds fantastic with Yggy OG.

Ditto for Urd with Gumby with Unison.

 

[JamminVMI]

I like wired because I don't have to remember to charge them and I like open back because I want to hear the reckless lurching cyclist coming up on my six when I'm walking the dog.

Sennheiser HD-650/Drop HD-6XX work great for me in that context. Ymmv.
.

I was thinking the Drop HD-58X Jubilee, as they’re a lot easier to drive (and I strongly prefer them for some reason to the 6XX). But yeah.

 

[cschock]

I like wired because I don't have to remember to charge them and I like open back because I want to hear the reckless lurching cyclist coming up on my six when I'm walking the dog.

Sennheiser HD-650/Drop HD-6XX work great for me in that context. Ymmv.
.

These are pretty much exactly the reasons my kid wants open back for what it is worth! Not the cyclist per se, but being aware of their surroundings. Plus they are forgetful and keeping things charged is a pain for them.

While the Senn 600/650 are great, not that great from a dongle, ime. Suggest the Senn 560S in the <$200 cost realm - efficient, easy to drive. Or the (mass)Dropped 58X. Neumann NDH30 in the higher cost realm - just don't take them outside, unless you want to look like a studio nerd.

I use my eta Mini-Cs to listen to everything: classical, jazz, 80s rock, swing.
They've worked great using both a Magni Piety and a Mjolnir 3.

My two cents' worth of recommendations would be.
Meze Noir 99, often called classic's. They are budget friendly and will run on very little power. I did replace the earpads
with Brainwaves; they are softer and slightly larger. Your kid, however, might have to dodge the sci-fi jokes when wearing them.

On the other high end of the budget scale, there is the Beyerdynamic T5. They look very typical and work well with various types of music and portable equipment. They also scale well when connected to real hifi.

Focal Elex

I think the Grado SR325x might fit the bill - low power needs, lively, great all-rounder

Check out the ETA Mini C.

https://etaheadphones.com/products/mini-closed

Thank you to all of you for your suggestions, lots of good things to investigate there!

For student life, a wireless headphone is way more versatile. Are they an audiophile who would appreciate a $500-$750 headphone for serious sit-down listening only while tethered to their computer (and can't get up and move around the room or take a phone call on it)? As for closed back and ANC, they'll thank you whenever they go on a plane trip.

Not too many plane trips to worry about really, the main use case is dorm room. Phone calls are a non issue. Do kids even use their phones as phones anymore? Mine sure doesn't. It's all discord and texts, discord and texts.

Both Bathys and AirPod Max are over-ear designs, not IEMS. And you can turn the ANC off with a touch of a button. It's simply an option if you want it. You might want to hear what's going on around you until you get the only seat left in the library and someone is clearing their throat next to you, and then the ANC is your best friend. I have the AirPod Max and it's superb for a wide variety of music. I've read that the Bathys is even better, but have no experience.

My mistake, showing my ignorance of headphones, I assumed all airpods were in ear. Worth looking into.

For a long time I was using (fancy) IEMs for long flights, but they do get uncomfortable eventually, so I got Bathys just before a long trip I did in October, and I'm pretty happy with them, especially since they are pretty versatile, from Bluetooth from my phone or laptop (handy for video calls too) to analog from my SP1000M DAP that carries a good travel selection of lossless tracks. Long battery life too. No, not at the same level as my ZMFs from the same DAP -- less bass definition, somewhat etched treble -- or even as the Eta Mini C, but plenty capable for on-the-go use.

Thanks again everyone, I think I have enough suggestions to at least point me in some sort of direction (or six) to investigate and come up with a plan before graduation.

 

[AstronomerXI]

A few comments:

• A DDC converting USB to S/PDIF may improve over USB directly into Schiit's USB-2 receiver, but DDCs vary a lot in quality. I'm skeptical that a very low-end DDC like that one would improve over Schiit's USB-2, which was not bad at all, in my experience only beatable with pricier DDCs with better quality clocks and power filtering.
• My guess from having played with different sources to Bifrost and Yggdrasil USB-2 back in the day is that the main benefit of a capable DDC or streamer with those DACs was in improving isolation from electrical noise coming down the USB cable from the source.
• I looked at the info I could find on the DDC you are considering, I'm not confident that it does anything of value for your use case. They talk about jitter, but jitter isn't really an issue for current USB audio. They talk about DSD and MQA, irrelevant for the Gungnir. The only think they don't talk about is isolation...
• Coax S/PDIF has been measured to have lower jitter than optical, at least for the cheap optical parts that are used in lower-end digital audio components.

Thank you for taking the time to share some really good info that's very helpful for this noob. I appreciate it. I suppose I should just use the Schiit USB-2 connection and see how it sounds first. I can also put the money saved into another pair of headphones...

 

[adias]

Ditto for Urd with Gumby with Unison.

Urd sounds quite good on AES too.

 

[AstronomerXI]

I find that if you must absolutely use optical, the biggest contributor is the VXCO clocks or whatever reference clocks inside your streamer must be extremely high quality then the second biggest factor is the toslink cable itself. I find high quality glass fiber bundles or high quality narrow aperture plastic fiber bundles will transparently send those ultra low jitter data delivery to the DAC which will put it on par or better than BNC/COAX and even AES. If you can't fulfill those two requirements for Toslink on a great level, I still suggest to stick to coax or AES DDCs since they're less sensitive to jitter. Toslink is actually the pickiest IME when it comes to bringing the best out of it. I haven't encountered a USB Unison with decrapifier along the chain setup beating an excellent SPDIF source/DDC setup IME

Just for context, a crappy toslink setup would produce a narrow depth and murky soundstage with flat dynamics and rolled off bass and treble definition. An excellent toslink setup would be the opposite of the crappy setup in everything, and it's going to be similar if not indistinguishable from AES or Coax from an excellent DDC/Streamer

I may hold off on the DDC until I actually hear the sound via schiit's USB-2 connection. Even then, I'll be upgrading USB within 4-5 months to Unison. Thank you for the good info!

 

[Daniel Johnston]

My mistake, showing my ignorance of headphones, I assumed all airpods were in ear. Worth looking into.

I agree about the AirPod Max.

They are decent headphones. If you are heavily apple centric, they work well. Transparency mode works well and they are spatial audio compatible. You can often find them discounted from the $499 msrp.

 

[dstrimbu]

yes quirky is a good description !! My fave 1980's Cd player was the Metal bodied - ( like a tank !! ) Philips CD104B - a 14 bit 4 x oversampler - a really engaging sound for its era and lacked the harshness of the early Japanese machines -

Oh, I had one of those, too - it had the 4-way rocker switch that took up the whole right edge of the front panel for play / search / pause. I bought it because the Sony (CDP-101?) was quite spicy, pricewise. I never felt like I was missing anything with the Philips; it worked perfectly a decade. I ended up giving it to mom and dad and they got another 10 or so years out of it. Can't remember the sonic profile... maybe it sounded like MiB in NOS mode? j/k

 

[dstrimbu]

That’s what she said…

FTFY…[Reg. TM; © bcowen: 2021.]

 

[theeclone]

Thank you for taking the time to share some really good info that's very helpful for this noob. I appreciate it. I suppose I should just use the Schiit USB-2 connection and see how it sounds first. I can also put the money saved into another pair of headphones...

I also agree w @earnmyturns that a cheap ddc might not be worth it. If memory serves, I did hear some changes with my modi multibit 1 when using a jitterbug, so if you're unhappy with Gen 2 USB you could try it. Pretty affordable little device, but memory fades and some people seem to think they're snake oil.

Otherwise I think I may have an Eitr stashed away somewhere if you're interested. I used it when I had a gen5 USB gumby and actually preferred it. Won't price gouge you.

 

[dstrimbu]

Another observation...

In my 2 channel speaker room, I just pulled my listening chair away from the back wall about 6" and the difference is pretty noticeable. It really locked in what I thought was an already solid center stage. Also eliminated a peak in upper mids that while narrow was annoying at times.

TLDR - Never underestimate the value of small changes to one's listening position. It's a game of inches.

Dynaudio Master Class in Speaker Placement - the narrator is a bit of a geek, deal with it and it'll be worth your time.

Yeah, it's absolutely nuts, Ripper. I have been watching multiple presentations on setting up B&W 800 series speakers, and I decided that just maybe I had my 804s toed-in just a bit too much... toed them out about 1/8-3/16" (pivoting the speaker around the inside back footer) and a) the upper low bass came up in level about 3-4db and b) the soundstage got noticeably wider... I mean, that should NOT be possible.

Also, when I get this room 're-imagined', I need to move the speakers out - 16-18" wider - to get the right arrangement w/r/t speaker placement vs. the main listening position. In extended listening sessions, I find myself leaning forward toward the speakers... not good for my aging back. <g>

That's actually something to try - just lean forward from your normal sitting position, and if your speaker placement is close to optimum, you'll hear a whole range of changes in sound presentation by moving your head less that a foot. YMMV, of course.