Being in the hunt for a new DAC/Head amp for my office, I was wondering how does the Magni-Modi combo from Schiit compare with the Asus Essence One (regular edition, not the Muses) ?
In my neck of the woods, after all is said and done, I am only looking at about $150 dollars difference.
What if I decide to fork the cash and move up to a Bitfrost/Asgard ?
I am listening on Technics RP-DH1200 and/or Sony Z-1000 ,mostly classical, opera and some Kraftwerk tossed in from time to time. Folk and reggae too and who knows what else may come about. Previously I was using a Fiio E10.
This setup will possibly be completed in the near future by a pair of active speakers as soon as the financial reality moves away from the imaginary realm. For those late hours at work when everyone left and it is ok the listen without headphones.
Forgot to mention this is all connected to a office provided Dell laptop.
To whom it may concern, I know there have been questions on here about using the Lyr in particular as a preamp, my questions included. Well I decided to give it a shot with some speakers I had laying around (My old Klipsch RF 83's). I was using a nice-ish Denon reciever (avr2807). I picked up a Pro-ject amp box online for 150 ish (20 wpc) not a great amp but pretty good distortion numbers and 20 WPC to 100 db sensitive speakers is usually enough. For sources I'm using my Pro-ject 9.2 turntable and I-Tunes to my Gungnir. Anyways, I've never heard my Klipsch's sound so good, there are some things I don't like about them and I'll be upgrading amps and speakers soon but switching from the reciever to the Lyr and Pro-ject amp was a huge improvement. I'm no profesional reviewer by any means but the soundstaging is pretty good, they get plenty loud and frequency response is pretty good. I have not tried any tube rolling yet as I don't have any other tubes than the ones I got with the Lyr and I don't remember wich ones they are.
I will say this though, when Schiit says to turn the amp on after the Lyr and off before the Lyr they aren't kidding, insert awful noise here.
Also to be fair I never used sources as good as my turntable or my Gungnir into my reciever so may not be a fair comparison but the fact remains that to my ears the Lyr makes a pretty good preamp.
That's the combination I'm looking at. I've got hte 225i and I'm waiting for my Asgard-2. I'm debating Bifrost with a number of other DACS. I'd love to read any feedback after you have a little time with them. Sounds like a great combo.
New in these forum! Owner of A Lyr and tomorrow getting the gungnir! I'll let you now how it goes with my Caying A88t, Focal profile 908 and my audioblock p-100
Where is the Gugnir going to go in your chain there?
Your Cayin 88t is a hell of a great amp. I was really bummed that it didn't have a headphone out or option or I probably would have gone with that over the Cary. I have always loved the Cayin sound and their prices can't be beat, it's a lot like finding a rare vintage McIntosh at a garage sale for $100.
I am waiting to see what the statement looks like before I upgrade. I feel like I owe Schiit a chance to compete for my business on a true high end DAC before I jump ship to another brand. I know that Jason and friends can pull off some miraculous ... schiit ... but I'm a little bummed out that he seems to outright dismiss the value of tubes having any place in a DAC, when some of the best ones I've heard have tubes as buffer.
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