MattTCG
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2012
- Posts
- 15,685
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- 3,874
Stream of consciousness impressions:
*received the modius this morning...went to work with music playing and came back late afternoon to listen.
*really digging the form factor and stackability with Jot 2/Asgard 3.
*color and finish is different than Jot2. It's not dramatic. I actually like it better than the amp finish. Has a "pearl" luster to it. Maybe call it aluminum pearl. That might make a great name for automotive paint. Hmm...
*now starts the listening. There is definitely a sharper leading edge, particularly up top with lower and mid treble frequencies than something like bf2 or any multibit DAC for that matter. Overall signature sounds a little bit harsh and not quite as natural as I'm used to. Cymbals taps and snare brush strokes are edgy and slightly strident and not as natural. Not getting that emotional connection to singers voices which are typically captivating to me on test tracks. Bass is pretty tight and punchy if not a little elevated. So far this is with Jot 2 and Ether 2.
*the functionality is great. It's wonderful to have balanced at this price point. Speaking of balanced, it sounds noticeably better than SE IMO. Maybe not truly gimped SE (ala OG bifrost) but certainly an improvement.
*switching to modius and asgard 3, this setup is struggling to drive this headphone. I'm a fairly low level listener and I almost never get past 12 on the dial. But with this combo I'm pushing the amp to nearly 3:00 and there is a little clipping. With Jot 2 this is no problem and the amp drives ether 2 perfectly with good grip on those planar drivers.
*possibly this is a case of accepting something lesser once you're used to a higher level DAC. (this is a second rig for my bedroom) Maybe if you are new to the hobby and haven't owned higher tiered dacs, then the modius would sound just great. I'm going to reserve final judgement for now. I will give the system time to burn in properly and test more combinations of gear and different headphones with it (hd650 is next). But so far I'm finding that the modius is simply priced appropriately for what you get. It's no giant killer and why would schiit make it so? I'm hearing that it's maybe about 5% better than a modi 3 if memory serves correctly. Even with balanced connections, I'm not hearing 25-30% better than modi...nope. Now I could say that about the bifrost 2, easily. But so far, what I hear is that you're getting what you pay for at the $200 mark based schiits other products, which is certainly not bad at all.
more to come...
*received the modius this morning...went to work with music playing and came back late afternoon to listen.
*really digging the form factor and stackability with Jot 2/Asgard 3.
*color and finish is different than Jot2. It's not dramatic. I actually like it better than the amp finish. Has a "pearl" luster to it. Maybe call it aluminum pearl. That might make a great name for automotive paint. Hmm...
*now starts the listening. There is definitely a sharper leading edge, particularly up top with lower and mid treble frequencies than something like bf2 or any multibit DAC for that matter. Overall signature sounds a little bit harsh and not quite as natural as I'm used to. Cymbals taps and snare brush strokes are edgy and slightly strident and not as natural. Not getting that emotional connection to singers voices which are typically captivating to me on test tracks. Bass is pretty tight and punchy if not a little elevated. So far this is with Jot 2 and Ether 2.
*the functionality is great. It's wonderful to have balanced at this price point. Speaking of balanced, it sounds noticeably better than SE IMO. Maybe not truly gimped SE (ala OG bifrost) but certainly an improvement.
*switching to modius and asgard 3, this setup is struggling to drive this headphone. I'm a fairly low level listener and I almost never get past 12 on the dial. But with this combo I'm pushing the amp to nearly 3:00 and there is a little clipping. With Jot 2 this is no problem and the amp drives ether 2 perfectly with good grip on those planar drivers.
*possibly this is a case of accepting something lesser once you're used to a higher level DAC. (this is a second rig for my bedroom) Maybe if you are new to the hobby and haven't owned higher tiered dacs, then the modius would sound just great. I'm going to reserve final judgement for now. I will give the system time to burn in properly and test more combinations of gear and different headphones with it (hd650 is next). But so far I'm finding that the modius is simply priced appropriately for what you get. It's no giant killer and why would schiit make it so? I'm hearing that it's maybe about 5% better than a modi 3 if memory serves correctly. Even with balanced connections, I'm not hearing 25-30% better than modi...nope. Now I could say that about the bifrost 2, easily. But so far, what I hear is that you're getting what you pay for at the $200 mark based schiits other products, which is certainly not bad at all.
more to come...
Jot 2 and Modius have me excited. I suppose I just have more time to finish making balanced cables....
