Needs signal through it. I used pink noise when I was not using the system, like during the day and overnight. When I came home from work I would listen. I noticed slight changes daily. I was breaking in both Modius and Asgard 3 at the same time, YMMV.
A few days ago out of curiosity I went to storage and got a Mark Levinson 360 and Proceed DAP to try on the system in place of the Modius. Neither of those home DACs will do hi res. Not surprising that the way more expensive old school R2R sounded better but was not WOW better. For a $200 DAC The Modius is impressive.
I still love my Modi multibit, version 2, but the Modius is right up there. I'm actually thinking now maybe I should just go with a Bifrost 2 and be done with it. Pay in 4 through PayPal takes the bite out of the price. I'll have to think things over.
The Bifrost 2 is considerably better. I haven’t heard the Yggy to compare, but you sure as hell get a good bang for the buck. From all Schiit products I’ve had, the Bifrost 2 is my favourite. I sold mine a week ago because I’m moving to another place where I’ll have to rely on streaming only, as my former PC speakers (Kef R3) go to the living room, and getting a decente streamer for the Bifrost would cost me a good penny, when the Hegel H120 I’m using already has a streamer/dac.
I own and have owned a fair share of Schiit equipment and you really do get a lot of bang for buck.
I tried a Nobsound USB To USB Isolator between my Dell laptop and the Modius. The laptop could not see the DAC, regardless of whether I powered the Isolator from the USB cable, or from an external power supply. Substituting the Modius for an XTremPro X1 DAC in the same system worked fine. The Isolator also worked in another setup with a Raspberry Pi and Schiit Eitr. Unfortunately I could not get the Isolator to work with the Modius.
Yes. The difference isn't really huge but it's there. The dynamics get a little punchier and the ability to resolve subtle details (ie micro detail) improves. The problem with most USB signal connections is the power isn't always a steady 5V. It will sometimes dip slightly lower. That has a negative impact on aspects of sound that require quicker power delivery, like dynamic impact and microdetail.
Thanks for sharing. Did you try computer to Schiit Eitr to Modius? If you did, was there a sonic improvement over going straight from computer USB to Modius? I am trying to find a way to improve source signal to Modius. Currently coax from computer to Modius seems to work well but the Modius is from what I have seen is not stellar at handling jitter through Spdif. I figure there has to be a way to isolate and clean up the USB signal before reaching the Modius. I know there are DDC units available but are cost prohibitive considering the gear it will be hooked up to (Modius and Asgard 3,soon Jotunheim 2).
With several other inexpensive DAC's in my secondary systems, I've consistently heard an improvement by replacing USB 5V power, fed from either my Dell laptop or RPi 3B+. I could not hear an improvement when I used the Modius with the laptop USB power vs. its supplied SMPS. YMMV, it's easy to try both ways if you own the DAC.
I have the laptop connected via USB to the Modius. The Eitr is connected to my NAS, via a 15' USB cable, coax out to the Modius. The S/PDIF source sounds better alright, however the Eitr is propped up by an iFi iDefender, an iPower feeding the Nobsound Isolator, and an iPurifier2. Each of these tweaks added some goodness. The Eitr on its own without the helpers sounds pretty dirty, not something I could live with.
The iPurifier2, (I have the USB version).
