[Mediahound]

Amperex Orange Globe tubes sounded nice to me on the Lyr. Nice forward mids/vocals. Will be interesting to hear them in the Mjolinir2. 

 

[Thousand1000]

How would the multibit gungnir compare with the yggy?

 

[mithrandir38]

Very favorably. I'd say 90 % performance for about half price. Jason said there was serious talk about whether they should produce it, as it will take a bite out of the Yggy sales...

 

[Xcalibur255]

Reading is hard.

 
I didn't realize the information was already up.  Thanks for being a jerk.  This is exactly why I'm fed up with this forum.

 

[Stillhart]

   
I didn't realize the information was already up.  Thanks for being a jerk.  This is exactly why I'm fed up with this forum.

 
Don't let one troll get to you.  Just flag the post, block him/her and keep in mind all the thousands of us who try to be helpful and friendly.  
 

 

[colorsquid]

Wow, Amy from Schiit just emailed me to let me know that both multibit gungnir and Mjolnir have shipped this morning. There is nothing like immediate gratification. Mr. Speakers...I'm looking at you.

 

[Barry S]

  Wow, Amy from Schiit just emailed me to let me know that both multibit gungnir and Mjolnir have shipped this morning. There is nothing like immediate gratification. Mr. Speakers...I'm looking at you.

Looking forward to a Mjolnir 2 vs Lyr 2 comparison from you. You can use a single ended output from the Gungnir into the Lyr 2 and feed the Mjolnir 2 with the balanced output at the same time.

 

[MattTCG]

I'm jonesin' for the the mojo 2. The trigger finger is itching...bad. Already ordered the GMB. The next purchase may break my CC. 

 

[lukeap69]

  I'm jonesin' for the the mojo 2. The trigger finger is itching...bad. Already ordered the GMB. The next purchase may break my CC. 

How about enabling the enabler? 

 
Do it Matt. The itch doesn't go away... unless of course.

 

[gwitzel]

 
Gungnir/Mjolnir 2: Gungnir multibit offers the exotic digital filter from Yggdrasil coupled with slightly less super-exotic DAC chips and it sounds great! Involving, relaxed and musical. There was no delta-sigma Gungnir present, so I couldn’t do a direct A/B test to see what the sonic differences are between delta-sigma and multibit. One of the stations had both balanced and unbalanced connections and I tried to A/B between the two. I’m not sure that I heard a huge difference in sound, but my experience with balanced components is very limited. The Mjolnir 2 now (finally!) offers a single-ended output, which is great for headphones that don’t have user-replaceable cables. Again, I found myself preferring the LISST to the real tubes, but it’s great to have the choice.
 
So, did I place my order? Not yet. I am very intrigued by the multibit Gungnir and by the Lyr 2/Mjolnir 2 tube/solid state flexibility, but my Bifrost Uber/Valhalla/Asgard 2/Vali setup sounds pretty good already and I’m going to hold off on new acquisitions for a while. Besides, hopefully there’s a multibit upgrade coming for Bifrost – soon!
 
Finally, allow me a different observation: I’m very impressed by the level of detail retrieval, openness and transparency offered by today’s electronics and headphones, but when I compare the reproduced sound to what I hear at live events it doesn’t sound the same. Audiophiles often seem to prefer an incisive, somewhat bright, ultra-detailed sound that I just don’t hear when listening to live instruments. This thought was triggered by listening to LA Phil at Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night, but I’ve listened to Kevin Kern play a Steinway Concert Grand piano at the Steinway store in Pasadena – and a different piano at a South Pasadena church. At the latter venue the piano sounded really flat – I really missed the velvety, creamy, meaty sound of the Steinway. But at neither event the instruments sounded bright or harsh, which is my main issue with many headphones in today’s market. Perhaps it’s just me, but I feel that the industry has sacrificed musicality in the search for transparency and detail retrieval.

 
I couldn't agree more that piano, and often also strings and violins, are an excellent test and tell me a lot about the system and if I will ultimately like it. I am playing piano myself, and harshness and distorted sound is exactly what a pianist actively tries to avoid most of the time. I am very sensitive to that.
 
But I think there is another part beside the highly resolving sound of the modern equipment: the way the recording was made. I have the impression that sound engineers make sometimes odd choices here. Often you hear the heights from the right, and the bass from the left, a perspective as you were the pianist. This does not reflect at all the way the audience listens to a piano, and it becomes very obvious with well separating headphones. I also have the impression that they often bias the recordings towards a brighter sound, assuming that this sounds more brilliant on the average (not so high end) system.
 
I have several modern CDs where you can clearly hear hard or distorted piano sound from time to time, no matter what electronics and loudspeakers or headphones you use. Only with modern headphones it becomes sometimes very obvious and distracting. But once aware, you can pick it up with loudspeakers as well. It might be simply a downside of the way more intimate, direct sound coming from headphones. Of course, old piano recordings (which I wouldn't miss for the world) are a whole different can of worms.
 
For me it is very important that a system is not only spectacular in its imaging and resolution, but also forgiving with sub-optimal material.
 
To not get sidetracked too far from the topic of this thread: I think this is the main impression I got from the Gungnir Multibit + Mjolnir 2 + standard tube + Ether combination: detailed and powerful, relaxed and pleasing, bathing you in satisfying, multidimensional sound without slapping shortcomings into your face. But I don't think this is the final word, after all I only could listen to it for about 10 minutes.
 
By the way, swapping the stock tubes with a pair of 1963 Amperex Bugle Boys pushed the sound of my Lyr 2 significantly in direction of such a forgiving, yet detailed sound.

 

[jimmypowder]

Very favorably. I'd say 90 % performance for about half price. Jason said there was serious talk about whether they should produce it, as it will take a bite out of the Yggy sales...

 
Schiit is doing us a favor by adding a multibit Gungnir. Doing this creates brand loyalty and I have sent my Gungnir in for the multibit upgrade
and will probably purchase a Yggy next year.

 

[Mediahound]

I think they're quite smart. There was no way I was going to spend that much for the Yggdrasil, but I ordered the Gungnir Multi, even though that too was even higher than I wanted to spent on a DAC. See, they still got me to spend more than I was planning on.  

 

 

[AManAnd88Keys]

   
I didn't realize the information was already up.  Thanks for being a jerk.  This is exactly why I'm fed up with this forum.

Ever been to a german forum? I have, and that's why I really like the general Head-Fi vibe. There are other places online far, far worse than this one.

 

[mrspeakers]

  Wow, Amy from Schiit just emailed me to let me know that both multibit gungnir and Mjolnir have shipped this morning. There is nothing like immediate gratification. Mr. Speakers...I'm looking at you.

I'm looking at us too.  When we're Schiit's size I hope we can do the same.  We're not quite large enough to make that happen easily.
 
I can say is we have always started shipping when we promised we would, though sometimes we haven't ramped as fast as I'd hoped...
 

 

 

[AndreYew]

So now the only difference between the Yggy and GMB is the use of more expensive DAC chips for $1k more? #BuyersRemorse #WTFSchiit.

Hahaha, juuuuust kidding I'm sure there's more to it than that. I hope.

In addition to what other people have written, the other big difference between Y&G is that many more parts of Y are separately upgradeable than G. From their specs:
 
Gungnir: Upgradability: Separate, modular USB Input Card and DAC/Analog Cards are snap-in replaceable.
Yggy: Upgradability: Fully modular architecture. Separate digital input board, USB input board, DSP engine board, and DAC/analog output boards.