Review and Measurements of Schiit Modi 3 DAC

[Thomas savage]

Anxiety and audiofoolery are definitely linked.

 

[amirm]

I'm not sure what he means by assy.

It means human's behind. As in not good. Very childish and unprofessional language he is using as a member of industry.

 

[Thomas savage]

It means human's behind. As in not good. Very childish and unprofessional language he is using as a member of industry.

There’s only one way to settle this..,

 

[andreasmaaan]

All the more impressive given the choice of restrictive, sweat-compounding clothing.

 

[restorer-john]

Very childish and unprofessional language he is using as a member of industry.

The 'brilliant' company name they came up with was, after all, Schiit... I would think they have a big white suggestions board covered in every puerile, scatalogical name they could think of.

I surprised they haven't used Asswhole, Sphingta, Pyle or Stayn yet, maybe they can be next year's names. If so, I want a cut for naming them here, first.

 

[andreasmaaan]

The 'brilliant' company name they came up with was, after all, Schiit... I would think they have a big white suggestions board covered in every puerile, scatalogical name they could think of. I surprised they haven't used Asswhole, Sphingta, Pyle or Stayn yet, maybe they can be next year's names. If so I want a cut for naming them here, first.

Lol, unfortunately for them Pyle is already taken, although I'm not sure the reference was deliberate in this case...

 

[restorer-john]

They could always spell it Piel.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Wow check some of this stuff out:

 

[restorer-john]

Pyle used to make some rather serious car amplifiers and subwoofers, IIRC back in the day.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Pyle used to make some rather serious car amplifiers and subwoofers, IIRC back in the day.

They quite recently made some ok PA drivers and horns, have never used their stuff but from what I understand they did some good value for money parts. Their previous line of horns were good, although mostly copied out of production designs from other manufacturers iirc. Had a brief look at their new product lines and didn’t get the impression they were going in a good direction however - the horns don’t seem to make acoustic sense and they’re not even publishing TS parameters on their current woofers it seems.

 

[mikehoopes]

They quite recently made some ok PA drivers and horns, have never used their stuff but from what I understand they did some good value for money parts. Their previous line of horns were good, although mostly copied out of production designs from other manufacturers iirc. Had a brief look at their new product lines and didn’t get the impression they were going in a good direction however - the horns don’t seem to make acoustic sense and they’re not even publishing TS parameters on their current woofers it seems.

I recall Pyle was quite popular for car audio in the late 80s/early 90s, for the first reason stated above. I don't have any experience with their current offerings, but I did notice that they publish T-S small signal parameters in their PDF manuals on the page following the template.

 

[andreasmaaan]

I recall Pyle was quite popular for car audio in the late 80s/early 90s, for the first reason stated above. I don't have any experience with their current offerings, but I did notice that they publish T-S small signal parameters in their PDF manuals on the page following the template.

You’re right with some of them actually. I’d just opened the first few, which don’t have published specs, but the other one I looked at just now does have them.

 

[Don Hills]

Putting aside the unprofessional language and focusing on technical detail, I don't know what he is saying about the power supply. Here is the Modi 3 with USB power and no external power supply:
...
As you see, the output remains the same at essentially 2 volts. No external power supply is needed which makes sense given the fact that USB provides 5 volts.

I see what he's saying. To get low distortion 2V RMS output DC coupled you need a bipolar supply, at least +- 5V rails. You won't get that from 5V DC in without a switcher.

 

[amirm]

I see what he's saying. To get low distortion 2V RMS output DC coupled you need a bipolar supply, at least +- 5V rails. You won't get that from 5V DC in without a switcher.

Ok but then he was answering the wrong question. People were asking why he had gone from external linear power supply to a switching one. I thought that is what he was answering. Clearly he was not.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The 'brilliant' company name they came up with was, after all, Schiit... I would think they have a big white suggestions board covered in every puerile, scatalogical name they could think of.

I surprised they haven't used Asswhole, Sphingta, Pyle or Stayn yet, maybe they can be next year's names. If so, I want a cut for naming them here, first.

No, no ,no. All Schiitt naming is related to Norse lore. I posted here somewhere a list of "appropriate" names using Norse words for some upcoming models. I basically combined your sentiment with an old Norse translation. I also couldn't help thinking of Schiit when watching Thor: Ragnarok and they are talking about the Bifrost.

 

[JJB70]

I always think it is unwise for any technical person to back themselves too far into a corner on the merits (or otherwise) of a given technology. Quite often the particular solution used is less important than how it is implemented, and technology changes. It's not uncommon for early applications of any new technique to be a bit lacklustre but if there is a compelling advantage (and in todays world significantly lower energy consumption is a compelling advantage) then technology can be developed and the issues addressed.

 

[shoden]

you should ALWAYS take the worst channel measured as the true measurement of the dac!!

also nothing worst than bad channel matching..

it's funny how people post measurements and after they take the best channel measured when the other one is 7-10db higher in thd

and crosstalk, square wav rendering should always be included in truthful measurements

 

[Veri]

you should ALWAYS take the worst channel measured as the true measurement of the dac!!

also nothing worst than bad channel matching..

it's funny how people post measurements and after they take the best channel measured when the other one is 7-10db higher in thd

and crosstalk, square wav rendering should always be included in truthful measurements

amir takes the average, 104dB and 110dB would make 107dB... you listen to both channels after all

 

[Panelhead]

I get a lot from seeing the test of a 1kHz impulse at -90.3 dB. First at 16 bit and overplayed with the test with 24 bit. Shows the change in noise floor.
The Modi 3 looks to deliver around 19 bits. Each 6 dB drop is one bit. This is great for a 100.00 dac.
The standard IMD test is always interesting. But should never occur listening to music.
To me the 16 bit analog output of the 1kHz tone at -90.3 dB is where the line is drawn between the men and boys. Should be three clean steps.
Some expensive dacs output garbage in this simple test. No low level linearity.

 

[mikehoopes]

I get a lot from seeing the test of a 1kHz impulse at -90.3 dB. First at 16 bit and overplayed with the test with 24 bit. Shows the change in noise floor.
The Modi 3 looks to deliver around 19 bits. Each 6 dB drop is one bit. This is great for a 100.00 dac.
The standard IMD test is always interesting. But should never occur listening to music.
To me the 16 bit analog output of the 1kHz tone at -90.3 dB is where the line is drawn between the men and boys. Should be three clean steps.
Some expensive dacs output garbage in this simple test. No low level linearity.

I ran into an article recently where one of the central findings was the idea that a high-end DAC had poor low-level linearity as compared to a cheaper, more linear one, but that dynamic compression could be perceived as a sonic benefit by many listeners.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/blogs/jj-s-now-and-then-blog-dac-linearity-and-perceived-audio-detail/

My issue with claims of superior low-level detail ("microdetails", etc.) is the recalcitrance of its connoisseurs to recognize that they are hearing non-bit-perfect conversion artifacts, and that there is a possibility that those artifacts can be quantified. I posit that if we do that, we can also simulate it, while still using less expensive delta-sigma DAC technology, though I'm not sure where in the digital chain this should occur.

I also suspect that performing the linearity test only at 1 KHz may not adequately represent this effect; I think what people recognize as "microdetail" are sounds whose content lies further up the spectrum (metal percussion: triangles and ride cymbals, for instance) - sounds that differentiate more clearly from the rest of the content.