New Schiit. With measurements.

[Aap op Sokken]

Anyway. I don't feel we're being unfair in the least. And with a name like Schiit there's bound to be jokes of the ass guard type.

Agreed, they asked for it, but we don't have to play their game.

I would like any Shiit fan to embrace the measurement-based approach of this forum. Hostility towards the brand will chase them away.

 

[Veri]

I case anyone is interested. I checked my archives, I'm not at liberty to post any details but the DAC they use is capable of -122dB highest harmonic at -1dB FS and linearity of +-0.05dB down to -120dB FS with the de-glitcher implemented. I expect it would add $200 or so to the price. It's too bad this design never made it into a commercial product.

That de-glitching sounds like it would make these chips actually good

 

[Thomas savage]

Transparent schiit , that's quite some achievement.

 

[maxxevv]

Best of luck to everyone with expensive headphones

Maybe we need to start selling "power fuses" for headphones !

Hey ... its a HUGEeeeee business opportunity there !

 

[maxxevv]

Transparent schiit , that's quite some achievement.

Its what happens when you need to go do a colonoscopy and the doc prescribes the appropriate "prep" for it ....

 

[garbulky]

https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/Schiit DAC APx555 Standard Test Suite_ Bifrost 2.pdf
The Bifrost is now multibit. If you look at the AP report, I've noticed some impmortant details.
(Unless the ASR measurements were contaminated somehow by some sort of power issue), the Bifrost exhibits better linearity and lower low frequency spurs compared to the flagship Ygdrassil!

 

[solderdude]

It is good to read they finally 'fixed' the USB input.
The first 5 generations (took them 9 years it seems) didn't seem to 'sound' as good as SPDIF acc. to themselves and many owners.

 

[Veri]

https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/Schiit DAC APx555 Standard Test Suite_ Bifrost 2.pdf
The Bifrost is now multibit. If you look at the AP report, I've noticed some impmortant details.
(Unless the ASR measurements were contaminated somehow by some sort of power issue), the Bifrost exhibits better linearity and lower low frequency spurs compared to the flagship Ygdrassil!

Still a lot of harmonics and spuriae, possibly audible unless you're feeding it -60dBFS material...

 

[solderdude]

And what about that groundloop®

 

[KimbaWLion]

What gets me I have had Schiit gear for 6+ years. I have had one issue with my Bifrost under warranty. I sent it in they paid BOTH ways for shipping. They upgraded to an Uber and I forget which USB generation for a greatly reduced rate because it was there. They damaged it while repairing it, contacted me and lowered the price yet again.

Given all that, after EVERYTHING I read here, did I really buy into the all the hype? Was I really fooled all this time? Maybe? Maybe not? I am 1/2 tempted to send in my now not used Bifrost Uber to find out if Amir would like to test it...

For better or worse I ended up buying SMSL D1, I am now running it on the USB on a rather nice but inexpensive USB cable I found on Amazon vs the S/PDIF I was using. I really like it! Was it worth the sound/Price ratio?I am using the Little bear for Volume as I had forgotten the D1 has vol. But IT IS nice have a REALLY nice POT too... I hope so is all I can say... $850 cost me a LOT of my change and I was just sick and tired of turning myself inside out especially after I saw the Bifrost 2 for $599 as a previous BiFrost 1 owner... As always opinions and thoughts appreciated.

 

[Robin L]

It's completely fair to refer to a product and a company intentionally named after a bodily function as that bodily function

Let X = X.

 

[Shepherd]

I sold my schiit jot dac&amp, and bought a RME adi-dac.
And im happy now.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/Schiit DAC APx555 Standard Test Suite_ Bifrost 2.pdf
The Bifrost is now multibit. If you look at the AP report, I've noticed some impmortant details.
(Unless the ASR measurements were contaminated somehow by some sort of power issue), the Bifrost exhibits better linearity and lower low frequency spurs compared to the flagship Ygdrassil!

It's interesting that they insist on engineering devices that can't do 24 bit music. I guess it's fine if you only listen to 16/44. That linearity plot is pretty bad, and what's with the harmonic spikes? Well done taking the power supply noise va some of the other schiit devices. So good job, price doesn't match the performance though.

 

[garbulky]

It's interesting that they insist on engineering devices that can't do 24 bit music. I guess it's fine if you only listen to 16/44. That linearity plot is pretty bad, and what's with the harmonic spikes? Well done taking the power supply noise va some of the other schiit devices. So good job, price doesn't match the performance though.

Well.... we can't do 24 bit music and neither can the people recording But on a serious note, I have tried a Gungnir multibit and it played 24 bit music without issue (though I believe that was an 18 bit DAC). It would be interesting to get a bifrost in house for Amir to do some measurements.

 

[ElNino]

Over at SBAF, the AtomicBob guy has posted his measurements of the Bifrost 2. You have to click through to download the PDF, because he's only posted a handful of measurement images in the main thread that look somewhat reasonable. Some of the full set of measurements in the PDF he's posted are pretty awful.

Judging from what's been posted, I think the Bifrost 2 is the type of product where a 32-tone IMD measurement would highlight major issues. (Also, just a hunch, but a 44.1kHz rather than 192kHz 32-tone IMD might look particularly bad.)

 

[anmpr1]

What gets me I have had Schiit gear for 6+ years. I have had one issue with my Bifrost under warranty. I sent it in they paid BOTH ways for shipping.

Given all that, after EVERYTHING I read here, did I really buy into the all the hype? Was I really fooled all this time?

As always opinions and thoughts appreciated.

That the company repaired your item sans shipping cost is what they should have done. Their warranty information page indicates they pay return shipping only. So you are ahead in that department. IMO, any outfit selling mail order (no local dealer) should pay two-way freight on defective products during the warranty period. But most are probably just one-way.

Whether you received value for your gear (compared to other brands) is something only you can judge. As we know, measurement-wise some of the company's products Amir reviewed held up well, some demonstrated questionable design/engineering, and others we read about (like their record player) had no business being sold. So I guess you can say it's a mixed bag.

Disclaimer: I own a Schiitt headphones box (used in a secondary system), and it works OK for when I need it. It was inexpensive, so for that (and for what it does) I consider it to be decent value. That said, if headphones were important to me--as a primary source for listening, I'd probably have spent more dollars and bought something else. But they aren't, so I didn't.

Disclaimer 2: My main system Benchmark DAC3 has a headphone jack. I can happily report that it works, but I haven't listened other than to check to see if it worked.

Disclaimer 3: My PC is connected to a Cambridge DacMagic Plus for digits and headphones. The volume control knob action is weird, and one of the LED lights has already burned out. I'm not happy about either, but those things don't really affect the sound.

 

[Veri]

Looks like the new Bifrost 2 has an aliasing problem which is fixed by rebooting. https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/schiit-bifrost-2.8226/page-19#post-273845 this is the second problem after a digital input cycling bug, for which they quickly made new firmware.

What seems to me to be the new problem, the digital filter not working after a certain amount of uptime. How is that even possible.

Schiit.

It is schiit. Why would anyone buy schiit?

right on the mark, Blumlein.

 

[scott wurcer]

What seems to me to be the new problem, the digital filter not working after a certain amount of uptime. How is that even possible.

Schiit.

Are these the same guys that called conventional DSP design "pablum"?

 

[ElNino]

Looks like the new Bifrost 2 has an aliasing problem which is fixed by rebooting. https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/schiit-bifrost-2.8226/page-19#post-273845 this is the second problem after a digital input cycling bug, for which they quickly made new firmware.

What seems to me to be the new problem, the digital filter not working after a certain amount of uptime. How is that even possible.

It sounds like it wasn't updating the DSP coefficients properly on sample rate switches in some cases. Or possibly it's a clock drift issue between the recovered clock and the DSP clock. Schiit says they have a firmware update to address it, which is good, but the rest of the non-apology doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Jason is saying that he's been listening to it for weeks with no issues and that other beta testers have had it for about a year with no issues, but how does that square with them deciding sometime in the last week to prepare a new firmware (before this blew up on the forum) and at three forum posters who confirmed it could be replicated fairly readily? Seems odd.

It probably is a cautionary tale that DACs with a lot of distortion can sound "good" at least on first blush, and that "goodness" can easily hide overt issues.

 

[solderdude]

pablum

had to google that.. as a non native English speaking individual.