[tuna47]

Always found schiit great at getting back to you real fast

 

[IorekByrnison]

Way back when, when I first became interested in this but couldn't afford anything, I thought that a nice DAC was the domain of the moneyed. In this hobby as in any hobby, the more you spend, the more you experience diminishing returns. I always thought a good DAC was that expensive last 5% of min-maxing perfectionism, and cans came first.
 
Now that the Uberfrost has proven my newer understanding true, I had a crazy notion. In cleaning my room, I found an adapter that has a male 1/8th on one end, and RCA on the other...
 
I unplugged my old Logitech 5.1's front-2 cable from the onboard Realtek, and instead used my adapter to plug the Modi into the Logitech, and set it to 2.1 mode (routes front input to the other 3), effectively using the Modi as a stereo sound card for my computer speakers.
 
I thought the mediocre Logitechs were as much a bottleneck of muddiness as the Realtek, if anything... I mean, I liked the way it sounded well enough but it definitely had a lot of room for improvement, and since my entire 5.1 was $99 four years ago I figured that was the weakest link...
 
whoa
 
literally 10x better. the range extension, the clarity, the slam, i can't believe these speakers can do what they're doing. They're no hi-fi system but WOW. I knew onboard Realteks weren't the greatest but I never realized just how utterly it had been murdering everything that came out of my audio ports.
 
This is less praise of the Modi, and more of a "what the **** Realtek?".

 

[ab initio]

Quote:

 
This is less praise of the Modi, and more of a "what the **** Realtek?".

 
Why? Modi is an awesome USB DAC. I don't know of anything that gets better sound out of a computer for less than 3.5x the cost of Modi.
 
Cheers!

 

[IorekByrnison]

Quote:

 
Why? Modi is an awesome USB DAC. I don't know of anything that gets better sound out of a computer for less than 3.5x the cost of Modi.
 
Cheers!

well, there is that but i already knew that
 
what i didn't know is just how horrifyingly the realtek mangles the output

 

[Llloyd]

Quote:

Now, I'm perfectly happy. I can't see how I could find improvements unless I moved to Summit-fi and opted for an LCD-2 or HE-500 and aim for a complimentary "bass" headphone. My DT880s aren't lacking in weight either now that they've been recabled, talk about a "punch" like a closed subwoofer on my head.
 

 
Maybe you mean super bass heavy, but both of those phones have really great bass.

 

[RMiller]

Quote:

I have someone that is offering to sell me a Bifrost revision one (no usb, just optical) and a Gen 1 Asgard Amp for $475.
 
Is that a good deal or not?

 
Since both of those new and revision 2 would cost around 600$, it's not much of a deal I think.

 

[jexby]

Quote:

 
Since both of those new and revision 2 would cost around 600$, it's not much of a deal I think.

 
Have to say I agree.  a 5 year warranty can be pretty "valuable" just in case bad electronic luck strikes the Schiit.
It's one reason I haven't jumped on any Lyr for sale in the forums at the $400 price point, for a mere additional $49 + shipping I can have 5yr product protection?
yes please.

 

[Hedonism]

All this DAC talk has me intrigued. What would I notice upgrading from an ODAC to a Gungnir? Using Mjolnir feeding HE-500s at the moment.

 

[joebobbilly]

Quote:

All this DAC talk has me intrigued. What would I notice upgrading from an ODAC to a Gungnir? Using Mjolnir feeding HE-500s at the moment.

My 2 cents: YES and YES.
 
Edit: Actual reasons... ODAC isn't fully balanced... Gungnir has an awesome clock system, output stage, etc. etc.

 

[jmsaxon69]

Quote:

All this DAC talk has me intrigued. What would I notice upgrading from an ODAC to a Gungnir? Using Mjolnir feeding HE-500s at the moment.

You'd see god.....

 

[IorekByrnison]

I can read jargon about the effects all day, but, functionally from the perspective of a person who is listening to music... what does balanced do for the sound that unbalanced doesn't? I've never been entirely clear beyond "it's better/clearer" which can be said for basically every upgrade... and balanced seems complex, expensive, requires different cabling etc. so I gather there's a bit more to it than that. 

 

[joebobbilly]

Quote:

I can read jargon about the effects all day, but, functionally from the perspective of a person who is listening to music... what does balanced do for the sound that unbalanced doesn't? I've never been entirely clear beyond "it's better/clearer" which can be said for basically every upgrade... and balanced seems complex, expensive, requires different cabling etc. so I gather there's a bit more to it than that. 

Mmmm TBH, it'll be different results for different rigs, ears, preferences, cans, etc. You really just have to try it out yourself.
 
For my HD 650, it not only gave better resolution... but the biggest change was the soundstage. Made a big difference and now I feel a much better sense of being in the concert hall with the symphony playing in front of me.

 

[TheChosen0ne]

Just curious when you guys listen to music with your Schiit products do you put the volume high or not too loud and not too low?

 

[noobandroid]

Quote:

Just curious when you guys listen to music with your Schiit products do you put the volume high or not too loud and not too low?

in clock hands, i put it at 9 o clock + -

 

[Tuco1965]

Quote:

Just curious when you guys listen to music with your Schiit products do you put the volume high or not too loud and not too low?

Depends on the output voltage from source.  I'm anywhere from 10:30 to 1:30