[rlow]

Exactly. Elsewhere on the web, people are being advised to get an Eitr instead of a Gen 5 Upgrade card "because it will work for all your DACs in the future". But either way, the output is no longer USB, so the USB is actually isolated.

PS " Layman's " "lamens" sound like something that bees pollinate.

Thx for the typo pointer- corrected!

 

[Clemmaster]

Exactly. Elsewhere on the web, people are being advised to get an Eitr instead of a Gen 5 Upgrade card "because it will work for all your DACs in the future". But either way, the output is no longer USB, so the USB is actually isolated.

PS " Layman's " "lamens" sound like something that bees pollinate.

It won't work with USB dongle DACs...

There can never be too much isolation (as long as it's followed by some sort of re-clocking), especially when computers are involved.
It'd be great to see the same sort of isolation in a Wyrd 2, even if the re-clocking part is moved back next to the USB Hub (which is "dirty"ish).

Another great thing would be to have the Wyrd 2 override the device's current draw and report 0mA instead, to make phones happy.

 

[Clemmaster]

There was once a product called the Cello Audio Palette which was PFG, but it cost so much they only made a dozen or so of them. For all tweakabators out there, this would be a fantastic product to be rebuilt and finessed. If it were made with a remote, it would be the ultimate in audio porn. You could tweakabate for hours on end. Probably a good product idea for the suitably talented and twisted, now that I am reminded of it.

Is this another "hint, hint"?

 

[Baldr]

Is this another "hint, hint"?

For now, nostalgia. When I ran Theta Digital, I had a Cello Palette at a CES show. On setup night, I could not stop twiddling it until the wee hours. Cello also had an AMAZING little ss amp that was priced like three Volkswagens or so. That was what inspired the turd, a modified Sumo amp with some power supply changes that I requested from Jason. The turd just murdered the Cello. I keep nagging Jason about a new version of the turd - the problem is that there may not be enough fossil fuels left to ship a significant number of them. Further, the majority of clients probably do not have forklifts at home to move the around. I exaggerate, but they really are a bit heavy.

 

[Pandahead]

For now, nostalgia. When I ran Theta Digital, I had a Cello Palette at a CES show. On setup night, I could not stop twiddling it until the wee hours. Cello also had an AMAZING little ss amp that was priced like three Volkswagens or so. That was what inspired the turd, a modified Sumo amp with some power supply changes that I requested from Jason. The turd just murdered the Cello. I keep nagging Jason about a new version of the turd - the problem is that there may not be enough fossil fuels left to ship a significant number of them. Further, the majority of clients probably do not have forklifts at home to move the around. I exaggerate, but they really are a bit heavy.

We can manage. It will be practice for the phono preamp.

 

[Clemmaster]

For now, nostalgia. When I ran Theta Digital, I had a Cello Palette at a CES show. On setup night, I could not stop twiddling it until the wee hours. Cello also had an AMAZING little ss amp that was priced like three Volkswagens or so. That was what inspired the turd, a modified Sumo amp with some power supply changes that I requested from Jason. The turd just murdered the Cello. I keep nagging Jason about a new version of the turd - the problem is that there may not be enough fossil fuels left to ship a significant number of them. Further, the majority of clients probably do not have forklifts at home to move the around. I exaggerate, but they really are a bit heavy.

People go to the gym a lot nowadays... This could finally prove useful!

 

[rlow]

Ok...Gen 5 USB card for Gumby has been self-installed (took about 30 mins) and powered on for about 48 hours now.

Listened to a number of tracks last night and tonight.

Very, very impressed with the improvement.

Honestly I wasn't sure I would hear much of an improvement as the microRendu I use for streaming is supposed to be "galvanically isolated" (no I do not use an LPS with it currently), but I was really hoping some of the "digital glare" i thought I was hearing might be addressed by Gen 5. It was.

And on top of that, better bass solidity, clearer instrument seperation, and overall improved tonality and details.

Easily worth the asking price IMO. And the fact that it's now included in all the DACs except Modi makes Schiit's DACs an even crazier value proposition than they were before.

Nice work Mike and the Schiit team.

 

[Abarth]

A question to the resident guru Mike...
Werner Ogiers wrote here: http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/rip_it_2_e.html

But what we see is that many ADCs, operated at 192kHz output sample rate, exhibit a lot of shaped noise above 48kHz, still in the bandwidth of interest (which extends to 192/2=96kHz). At the same time their datasheets reveal that their anti-aliasing filter has a poor suppression and in-band flatness. The underlying reason is that 4 x ADC chips often are 2 x designs that were stretched to accommodate another octave. But this octave isn't captured cleanly, and thus quite useless.

He showed some BB1804 graphs to support his claims.

I am considering getting a Jil, and wondered whether it will apply to it too. I looked for this on the AK5385 Data Sheet and couldn't find evidence.

What would you suggest? Record happily at 192 kHz or back down to 96 ? Disk Space is not an issue btw, I was rather thinking about less steep bandwith filters at 192 should be an advantage?

Thanks anyway!

 

[JustinDT]

A question to the resident guru Mike...
What would you suggest? Record happily at 192 kHz or back down to 96 ? Disk Space is not an issue btw, I was rather thinking about less steep bandwith filters at 192 should be an advantage?

Considering that article was written in 2010, it's probably reasonable to assume it doesn't apply anymore. But you should transfer a single record with all three sample rates and listen to them and pick the best sounding one. Nothing wrong with playing around to see what sounds the best.

 

[Charente]

I've had the EITR for a couple of weeks now and it continues to impress as I go through more and more of my music. I must, however, confess to a heinous sin ... I put a microRendu (which I already had) and an Uptone USPCB connector (a reasonable $35) in front of the EITR. The sound is quite superb ... stage width and particularly depth are excellent ... detail is palpable ... it demands attention which I will happily give !

I have a question though ... I switched off the vBus power (on the connector), thinking it would make no difference, as the EITR is self-powered. But no, it disconnected from the microRendu (the light on the EITR went out and the GMB relay clicked). Surprised me somewhat ... is there a reason why the EITR still requires power from the vBus ? Just curious.

 

[AndreYew]

Eitr's USB interface is powered by the host, so it needs Vbus to be connected.

 

[Charente]

Eitr's USB interface is powered by the host, so it needs Vbus to be connected.

Thank-you ... so, is the 'quality' of that power from its source a consideration or is it immaterial since the EITR then promptly isolates itself from any 'nasties' ?

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

I'm still waiting to send Bimby in for the gen 5 upgrade, but in the meantime hooked up my delightful k1000 to my Panache for the first time, a speaker amp I got for about half the price of a new rag (less warranty, less customer service, and most importantly, less ability to pair with headphones more efficient than K1000 or He-6—HD800/600 are intolerably loud).

K1000 has been the gem of my little collection since I acquired it a year ago, but I felt last night as though I'm for the first time really hearing what it's capable of (meet auditions aside -- too loud). It sounds *great* on MJ2 and *excellent* on the mighty Rag; I'm inclined to think the Rag handled it in LA about as well as the Panache handles it now; although Panache has twice the power, these measurements are more relevant for inefficient speakers than inefficient headphones.

It so happens that there's an aggressively priced K1000 that's been languishing in the classifieds, to my astonishment and chagrin. I am myself tempted to pull the trigger as an insurance policy, but I don't quite have the disposable income to do that. Nevertheless, if you like classical music and love sweet mids, this may well be your endgame: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/akg-k1000-excellent-condition.855188/

If you want to hear mine, come to the SF meet tomorrow!

 

[VandyMan]

I have a Mjolnir 2 that I feed from the balanced output of my DAC. My DAC has a volume control. I also have an electrostatic headphone amp (BHSE). The BHSE has a balanced pass-thru, so I go: DAC -> BHSE -> Mjolnir.

I'd prefer to go: DAC -> Mjolnir -> BHSE, for ergonomic reasons. However, that would mean that I would have three volume controls involved when listening to my electrostatic headphones.

So, is there anyway I can change the output of the Mjolnir's preamp balanced output to just be a line level output?

I think I can do this by putting the volume on max and having it in low gain mode, but I fear that I might forget and end up damaging some headphones (or my ears!).

 

[rlow]

I've had the EITR for a couple of weeks now and it continues to impress as I go through more and more of my music. I must, however, confess to a heinous sin ... I put a microRendu (which I already had) and an Uptone USPCB connector (a reasonable $35) in front of the EITR.

Why would you call putting the microRendu in front of the Eitr a "heinous sin"??

- I did a compare of my laptop (Dell XPS 13) streaming Tidal HiFi direct from USB into my Gen 5 Gumby vs. streaming the same tracks from my microRendu into it (same USB cable)...

- the microRendu destroyed the laptop direct in every way (and I'm running mine with the cheap iFi SMPS wall wart.)

microRendu + Gen 5 is a deadly good combo IMO.