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More parts I suppose plus the tube, people are willing to pay more for tubes. Sound quality likely not much of a difference. I’m still curious why you’re considering the Saga.

I mean why the Saga? Seems like a compromised solution that is also expensive. Unless you need a remote get the Midgard.

Any particular reason why?

So what’s the plan now?

I agree, and if it doesn’t work out return both and get that Topping D50 and save money for things you really need.

Well, it has a tube in active mode, so there will be some degradation due to the tube however it should be small as it's operating in the cathode follower mode iirc. It's hard to say what's "better", active mode will avoid potential issues with input capacitance and impedance at the cost of some...

Passive mode will typically have high output impedance in any device, that’s why it’s best to avoid it unless it’s known downstream equipment has low input capacitance. The input impedance is actually less of a concern but higher is usually better than lower.

The Topping D50 III just released seems like a little perfect device that also comes with onboard PEQ. It would compare favorably... I mean, considering the feature set and quality/performance you get with the RME the Bifrost is not really a contender, but Schiit aficionados may disagree.

Yes, technically. In practice it may not matter much depending on how much attenuation you need. In general you would be better served by a more resolving DAC with onboard volume control and balanced outputs, and these days they can be had for much less than the Bifrost.

It’s fine to send 24 bits to the DAC, it will convert internally to 16 bits. It’s best to not let the OS to resample the data and send it directly to the DAC as is, not familiar with the macOS, but on windows you need to use a player app that allows to bypass the OS mixer.

There is something to be aware of. The Bifrost 2/64 uses 16-bit DAC chips and doing software volume control upstream of the DAC on 16-bit material will lead to some resolution loss, which may be audible with enough attenuation. If you must use the Bifrost better use it with the Sys other preamp...

Also you're now forced to use that RCA to XLR adapter, so you're losing the benefits of an XLR connection, but it may be acceptable for your purposes.

The amplifier input capacitance numbers are hard to find. Figure 100-150pF per meter for cables. The sub who knows, I don't think JBL specs input capacitance. Chances are it will be fine, unless the sub has high input capacitance.

Should be. If you can find input capacitance of your speaker and capacitance of your cable per length unit you can calculate with better certainty here: http://sim.okawa-denshi.jp/en/CRtool.php Sys is 5kOhm max output impedance according to Schiit (is it really 2.5kOhm and they don't know how...

Hard to say, the shorter the better. 10 feet is not exactly short. Longer runs may cause some high frequency roll off, how much depends on the cable capacitance and the volume control position. Guess you need to experiment with it and see for yourself if the effects are audible.

There shouldn’t be, but don’t use long cables downstream from the Sys. That said, for the amount you’re spending a used RME ADI-2 DAC is a much better option if you need volume control on the DAC.

@Fosi Audio, any plans to offer these as a bare amp board/module down the road?!

Fair enough, still the issue is rather minor and there are OTG cables too.

It’s compatible with USB-C iPhones which were shipping for the last 2 years. And it’s compatible with iOS, the stupid lightning port is not a part of iOS.

The Onkyo works through the older and obsolete Apple proprietary protocol only on the usb-a port. USB-C is the way forward, you can’t blame Topping for not adding older technologies in their modern products.