Review and Measurements of Schiit Modi 3 DAC

[gvl]

No Asio. My analyzer only understands ASIO. That is how Schiit tested it too.

ASIO4ALL allows to tweak some driver settings, perhaps the answer is there?

 

[MrGoodbits]

Would love to see a teardown, check for solder blobs, etc.

 

[amirm]

Would love to see a teardown, check for solder blobs, etc.

Will do.

 

[amirm]

I'm impressed that it actually beats Topping D50 in SINAD by 1 dB.

There are variations in SINAD of +-1 dB depending on when I run it due to mains leakage, noise level inside the box, etc. To wit, I just ran the test on D50 using ASIO4ALL over USB and get this:

Best to look at which cluster of devices the unit fits in than differential of 1 dB.

 

[garbulky]

Any chance of some listening tests? Perhaps against the old Modi?

 

[TimW]

Any chance of some listening tests? Perhaps against the old Modi?

Yeah Amir how many rows of sound stage do we gain?

 

[amirm]

Yeah Amir how many rows of sound stage do we gain?

 

[derp1n]

Yeah Amir how many rows of sound stage do we gain?

I'm more interested in whether this has enough multibit magic to determine which member of the orchestra has gas and what they had for dinner before the concert.

 

[Jimster480]

I'm more interested in whether this has enough multibit magic to determine which member of the orchestra has gas and what they had for dinner before the concert.

I was just thinking the same way!
Considering how well this measures against Yggdrasil.... you must be able to hear the armpit hair of an orchestra member tussle about as they play their instrument!
Now schiit fans can finally enjoy concerts inside of their head like the rest of us have been enjoying using Topping products

All in all though I am glad they actually made a competent product even if the USB performance is still pretty garbage over ASIO.
Hopefully they clean up the rest of their product line aswell and stop selling snake oil!

 

[snip3r77]

There are variations in SINAD of +-1 dB depending on when I run it due to mains leakage, noise level inside the box, etc. To wit, I just ran the test on D50 using ASIO4ALL over USB and get this:

View attachment 15993

Best to look at which cluster of devices the unit fits in than differential of 1 dB.

Amir, Can you pls update this chart for Grace SDAC? The SINAD is not tested on the original review? Thanks

BTW, is SINAD the be it all ranking ( objective wise ) ?

 

[amirm]

BTW, is SINAD the be it all ranking ( objective wise ) ?

Not from perceptual point of view since it considers all distortions and noise to be comparable.

I just thought that putting them in a chart allows people to learn the relative range of values it can be as otherwise the number is pretty abstract. Now it has gotten a life of its own.

 

[gvl]

I'm more interested in whether this has enough multibit magic to determine which member of the orchestra has gas and what they had for dinner before the concert.

I hear rumors that the Yggdrasil 3 will be able to convey the odors as well.

 

[DonH56]

I hear rumors that the Yggdrasil 3 will be able to convey the odors as well.

Schitt smells?

 

[gvl]

Schitt smells?

Mainly.

 

[Grave]

I would go for anything with a SINAD of 96 dB or higher.

 

[mindbomb]

So is the modi 3 better than the topping d30? It seems like schiit has the edge in sinad, but what about usb j test and dynamic range? Will this just be an open question since those tests require asio?

 

[amirm]

I will have to spool up the D30 with the new analyzer to know the answer.

 

[gvl]

Btw, JRiver can read from its ASIO input and forward out to WASAPI.

 

[TimW]

I would like to see a more in depth comparison of the Topping D30 and D50 to this new Schiit DAC. Based on the Modi 3 SINAD, linearity, and Intermodulation distortion performance looks quite good. It would be nice to see a post describing which tests are most important amongst the ones we can compare here.

Also doesn't Tidal use ASIO?

 

[TimW]

Mainly.

I've had many Schiit smells already