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Schiit Modi 3+ Review (Stereo DAC)

raif71

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I highly doubt that. Even if there was some ambiguity, because the 4490 supports it, the fact that Schiit specs a max sample rate of 192k kinda put it to bed.
I see it now. Only up to 192khz... hopefully schitt will support dsd in the future
 

battopi

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Does anybody actually like the look of Schit gear? I don't like the curved top, the exposed edges and what's with the silver finish? Is silver less expensive than black to make?
 

Raindog123

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They have them in black as well... :)
IMG_1183.jpg
 
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amirm

amirm

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Manufacturers almost certainly have to pay additional license fees, likely quite a bit in excess of the actual price of the ES9068 itself. (I explained why I think the MQA hardware license fee is around $50 USD in another thread.)
$50? I think 50 cents may be too much. Decoding licenses for MP3 and such (before patents expiring) was even less than 50 cents.
 

trl

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[...] Do you think then DoP or D2P can be used? I would very much like to get a Schitt DAC.

Schiit DACs have no hardware DSD decoding, but you could use software decoding in real-time without worries.
 

DuncanTodd

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Does anybody actually like the look of Schit gear? I don't like the curved top, the exposed edges and what's with the silver finish? Is silver less expensive than black to make?
I like it but prefer black as well, which they offer. The lack of remote and import costs was a deciding factor against it for me.
 

Dana reed

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Looks good, ditch those micro USB for a nice USB C and it would be the perfect low cost high performance DAC.
I think they'll move to USB-C at some point, but right now it appears that the cost increase was too high for a $99 DAC

From the HF chapter on the modi 3+ intro
1608594893899.png
 

raif71

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I think they'll move to USB-C at some point, but right now it appears that the cost increase was too high for a $99 DAC

From the HF chapter on the modi 3+ intro
View attachment 100752
As a desktop dac, imo it is better for them to use the standard usb type-b connector (printer port) or is that pricey too?
 

Dana reed

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As a desktop dac, imo it is better for them to use the standard usb type-b connector (printer port) or is that pricey too?
Yeah, I'm not sure why they went to micro for some of the DACs. I would have preferred full sized B connector like they have on the multibit modi, and all the other larger DACs, but it seems they went to the micro on all the smaller ones. Probably borrowing from what they did in the smaller DAC/Amp combos like Fulla and Hel.
 

Rottmannash

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Schiit has enough customers — they don’t need to compromise their integrity by offering MQA.
Does any company have enough customers??
 
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ClosDeLaRoche

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I got mine about a week ago. Its replacing a Modi 3 I've been using for a year. Sounds great but three oddities that I've noticed:

1) Sometimes it runs off of my phone and sometimes plugging in my phone does nothing until I plug in the power supply. I now leave it plugged into the wall. The Modi 3, while it did drain my phones battery moderately quick, had no issues being powered off of my phone. As a note, the old Modi 3 used a 5v 1a power supply and the 3+ comes with a 5v 2.1a power supply. Seems like the 3+ needs more power than the 3?

2) if using the Android app USB Audio Player Pro you must enable a USB tweak in settings that frees USB bandwidth after playback. Otherwise, playing a standard resolution track then a high-res track will kill the audio from the Modi. The old Modi 3 did not have this issue.

3) if you take a look at your sound settings in windows or foobar it shows up as "Modi 3+________________" like that with a bunch of spaces. Not a big deal but it looks weird.

We gain some performance improvements but also some quirks with the new Modi.
 

tvrgeek

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This thread is hard to take with out a big slice of cheese to go with all the whining. A company makes a good sounding piece of equipment for a very fair price and all they get is a lot of garbage because they don't support standards that don't sound any better or even have source material. If you don't like their case, buy some one elses. I kind of like them and mine sounds better than the Smsl and Toppings I bought first as they were both defective. I am sure for 50 or 100 times the price, you can find one that supports things you can't hear and is bigger and uglier.
 

PeteL

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I'm no expert on this one, but yes, the hability to convert dsd to pcm would be a feature of the transmitter device, a media player, or a software player. I do not think that the usual audio drivers do this (asio, core audio, wasapi, etc) but more research would be needed, I don't really know. a quick google tells me that some fiio players can do this over a spdif connection, maybe some other members have better knowledge. In any case, Yes It would appear to the Schiit DAC as a pcm so it would play, but then why buy a dsd file at all. It's a conversion, it can't be no better than the high res pcm file, and such conversion is likely to leave artefacts or rounding errors. In all case supporting this cannot be a "feature" Of the schiit dac. It's being done upstream, it's a pcm at that point.
 

raif71

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I'm no expert on this one, but yes, the hability to convert dsd to pcm would be a feature of the transmitter device, a media player, or a software player. I do not think that the usual audio drivers do this (asio, core audio, wasapi, etc) but more research would be needed, I don't really know. a quick google tells me that some fiio players can do this over a spdif connection, maybe some other members have better knowledge. In any case, Yes It would appear to the Schiit DAC as a pcm so it would play, but then why buy a dsd file at all. It's a conversion, it can't be no better than the high res pcm file, and such conversion is likely to leave artefacts or rounding errors. In all case supporting this cannot be a "feature" Of the schiit dac. It's being done upstream, it's a pcm at that point.
Well if a person already have dsd files and just so happen has a Schiit DAC, just try it. I agree with you perhaps not to buy a new dsd file if one wants to just use a Schiit DAC only.
 

Labjr

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Sometimes DSD is the best sounding version available. So the ability to play DSD natively would be preferred over another conversion.
 

raif71

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I'm no expert on this one, but yes, the hability to convert dsd to pcm would be a feature of the transmitter device, a media player, or a software player. I do not think that the usual audio drivers do this (asio, core audio, wasapi, etc) but more research would be needed, I don't really know. a quick google tells me that some fiio players can do this over a spdif connection, maybe some other members have better knowledge. In any case, Yes It would appear to the Schiit DAC as a pcm so it would play, but then why buy a dsd file at all. It's a conversion, it can't be no better than the high res pcm file, and such conversion is likely to leave artefacts or rounding errors. In all case supporting this cannot be a "feature" Of the schiit dac. It's being done upstream, it's a pcm at that point.

Using my Shanling m0 connected to Topping D10 (via usb) playing DSD64, I found that when DSD mode of the m0 is Native or DoP, the display on the D10 would show 2.82(Mhz) and DSD is displayed. When in D2P mode, the D10 display would show 176(kHz) and PCM is shown so I reckon if D2P is used then it would be possible for Schiit DAC to play DSD files albeit via pcm conversion and yes it is not a Schiit feature just a runaround ;)
 
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