Schiit Modi Multibit

[TooBlue]

A lot of that sort of thing is room dependent as well as system dependent. I had my last setup in three different rooms and brightness/forwardness/agressiveness in the upper mids and lower treble changed each time. Of course it also changes with each track, which is why some guys love their knobs and dials more than others, most rooms being far from perfect. Been considering a Modibit myself, as I'm in dire need of a decent DAC but funds are limited. The more research I do, however, the more I'm leaning toward a used Bifrost, which can later be upgraded relatively cheaply to multibit or 4490. Gotta do something, have 900+ CDs ripped to a 2 TB drive served by J. River into an A/RT Legato SPDIF converter hooked to . . . zip. Burning discs and playing them on a cheap Panny bluray, and you know what? It sounds good, very pleased with this vintage budget setup. Can't wait to hear a real source.

A buddy just bought a Modibit a couple of months ago. His take is it does the job as well as the Maverick tube/SS it replaced. He's not a critical listener though, he's in his basement drinking beer, playing pool, turning knobs and dials . . . There's three or four amps down there, at least three pairs of speakers hooked up that he switches between and sometimes plays all at once, a sub or two . . . More beer, more volume. All is right with the universe.

 

[gvl]

Well, I'm not changing rooms but I'm changing DACs and ModiM definitely sounds more aggressive. It's a couple of notches below what I'd call the fatigue threshold but the difference is far from subtle, which makes me think it is a better match for a neutral or warm sounding system, which I suppose is something a DAC designer aims for anyway.

 

[soundmig]

Anyone thinks their mimby is too aggressive in the mids/highs to their liking? That's the certainly the opinion I'm leaning towards after spending some time with it, but my setup is somewhat bright to begin with.

Which input are you using and what is your source? The reason I ask is that my BiFrost sounds that way when I use the tos-link input. That could be my computer's optical output being the problem? I don't know, but it sounds much better using coax or USB input. I also found that using the iFi iUSB makes a difference (for the positive) when using the computer to BiFrost USB interface.

 

[MikE]

Anyone thinks their mimby is too aggressive in the mids/highs to their liking? That's the certainly the opinion I'm leaning towards after spending some time with it, but my setup is somewhat bright to begin with.

You've had it for less than a week? My system is anything but bright but that hasn't been my experience. You can find my system here.

 

[gvl]

Which input are you using and what is your source? The reason I ask is that my BiFrost sounds that way when I use the tos-link input. That could be my computer's optical output being the problem? I don't know, but it sounds much better using coax or USB input. I also found that using the iFi iUSB makes a difference (for the positive) when using the computer to BiFrost USB interface.

I've tried Spotify Premium so far via optical and USB, mostly USB, both produce more or less the same sound signature. I came across some opinions on headfi that the USB input is not all that great on the Mimby and optical is better, heck even Mike Moffat of Schiit thinks SPDIF is in general superior to USB.

 

[MikE]

Chromecast Audio > Sys. Concept mini-toslink - toslink cable > Schiit MB

 

[soundmig]

I've tried Spotify Premium so far via optical and USB, mostly USB, both produce more or less the same sound signature. I came across some opinions on headfi that the USB input is not all that great on the Mimby and optical is better, heck even Mike Moffat of Schiit thinks SPDIF is in general superior to USB.

I do like SPDIF, but I've tried everything from very cheap to the very best available Coax and Tos-link and I don't find tos-link to be all that great. I'm sure other's have had different experiences (as is always the case in this hobby). Coax sounds best on my set-up, but using the USB is just as good now that I have the iUSB in place between the computer and the Bifrost. As such I tend to use the USB all the time anymore as I can stream or play hi-ez files without switching anything.

 

[SoNic67]

That's what made me try the SPDIF iPurifier. Happy...

 

[stish]

With the Gungnir Multibit, I have the computer connected via USB, TV box via Tos-link, and CD player as transport via coax. While none of them is remotely harsh or forward, the tos-link is definitely inferior to the others. This could very well be that it is the source, itself. I suspect that going up the Schiit food chain provides improvemrets to the analog output as the primary difference.

 

[runnin']

I've been looking at the Modi, but want it to do something it doesn't, and is something few people want in a DAC it seems. I have a big collection of music on my iphone, and would like to be able to stream music from the iphone to the dac. I have an Apple TV, which will accept streamed audio and toslink output to a DAC. But the Apple TV doesn't go above 48Hz, not 96 or 192, so it down converts everything.

Does anyone use the Modi to accept streamed music from their iphone?

 

[gvl]

Chromecast Audio will go to up to 24/96kHz, unsure if it plays well with Apple products.

 

[runnin']

Apparently the Chromecast won't do it either. Looks like you can't get there from here because very few devices will bluetooth or stream from a phone and then output digital. Most will output analog though, maybe that's what I've got to do. The Arcam Miniblink, and the Focal universal wireless receiver. Also on the cheaper side, the Outlaw Audio bluetooth device. But they all use their own dac unfortunately.

 

[Dees06]

Plays well with my 6+

 

[gvl]

Phone > Wi-Fi > CCA > Optical > DAC, no bluetooth or analog prior to the DAC.

 

[runnin']

It turns out that belkin makes a device that will accept bluetooth from your phone and then render digital to toslink or coaxial outputs. I'm probably going to pick it up with a Modi in a couple of weeks. I'd really like to dip my toe in the Schiit pond, I'm eyeing a Mani as well.

 

[gvl]

It turns out that belkin makes a device that will accept bluetooth from your phone and then render digital to toslink or coaxial outputs. I'm probably going to pick it up with a Modi in a couple of weeks. I'd really like to dip my toe in the Schiit pond, I'm eyeing a Mani as well.

IMO BT before Modi MB defeats the purpose as it is generally lossy and limited range, Chromecast Audio is a much cleaner approach.

 

[SoNic67]

Agree, Bluetooth before a high quality DAC is very bad idea.
Bluetooth has low bandwidth, and it has to compress lossy any signal that passes trough. The default SBC codec is very weak, kind of mp3 level of quality, several devices (but not iPhones) can use AptX codec, slightly better but still lossy compressed.
CCA is able to send the audio untouched because WiFi has a much higher bandwidth.

 

[runnin']

Chromecast audio, huh? Okay, I'll look into it, thanks for the tip.

 

[runnin']

Plays well with my 6+

Does it play itune playlists fine with your iphone 6? What I've seen on the web is it doesn't, unless that got rectified. The main reason to stream or bluetooth for me is to use playlists on itunes with Chromecast audio.

 

[Dees06]

I haven't tried. I don't use iTunes for much. I run everything through Spotify.