Schiit Modi+ DAC Review

[DSJR]

I feel the same way but we have to be fair.
The multiple threads reporting issues here comes mostly because a lot of people here (far more than other forums) buy and use these devices and sometimes more than one of them,low cost helps in this.

Don't get me wrong,my first concern is always reliability/safety/etc,far before performance (ok I'll admit I'm a sucker for looks too) but the fail rate amongst known manufacturers,with some exceptions of course must not be as high as it seems.

Hope I can mention this -

I look increasingly favourably at Schiit not least because Jason tells good recounts about what's going on in his business (the little I know about what goes on in the background at various UK makers shows he's pretty truthful I think and praise to him for passing these situations on) - and there's a UK based distributor as well should anything go wrong.

The 3e available to us in the UK (and mainland Europe?) was measured and listened to on SBAF, into which I entered with trepidation. Actually, the review was fair I thought, with due care (not really sarcastic apart from the AmirNAD reference/dig) and which came out in the 114dB or so range, so ok but not groundbreaking in the SINAD race and taken to be thorough before the extensive subjective comments which I personally am still happy to read with open heart and mind. Having heard recently what I regard as a transparent modern digital active system, I have to say that reproduction of the acoustic space around the musicians in a good recording is important (I can still tell these differences) and just maybe, this aspect can vary from dac to dac (no, I haven't compared a host of models in this aspect but know how diluting this aspect of 'venue reproduction' can cause listening-boredom over time).

Anyway, the Modi + seems cheaper than the 3e and may be a different tier altogether.

I'll crawl back in my box again now...

 

[Waxx]

That is a decent dac indeed. And it's good to see that the brand does not live up to their name anymore, because the first generations of their stuff was indeed shit. But the last years they make good gear for decent prices. It seems that ASR starts to get effect on the industry here...

 

[Veri]

Do we know the USB implementation?
Some don't like ASIO4All,does this one has it's own drivers?

Pretty sure they were using this https://sourceforge.net/projects/asio2wasapi/ at least a while back, not sure if they are still but it can work more reliably than ASIO4All for some devices. Maybe @amirm can consider it as a back-up instead of falling back to Roon, although iirc he dislikes all these software installs.. also nowadays there is something called FlexASIO..

 

[Tangband]

That is a decent dac indeed. And it's good to see that the brand does not live up to their name anymore, because the first generations of their stuff was indeed shit. But the last years they make good gear for decent prices. It seems that ASR starts to get effect on the industry here...

This measurement is maybe the one that has most relevance for the sound. In the Swedish soundtechnical society they have managed to hear sonic differences in the before/after blindtests if the stopband attenuation in dacs are not steep enough.

Also, Amirm wrote ”Schiit implementation of USB defaults to 16 bit” and this is not acceptable in my view.
Using ROON seems to cure this problem, but the fact is that there are units cheaper than this one that dont have this fault.

I would guess that both faults might be cured with upgraded firmware ?

However, Im not saying that this unit is broken and maybe it would pass LTS blindtesting before/after, who knows..

 

[poxymoron]

Thanks Amir. This might be the perfect DAC to go from my Flex digital to my subwoofer.

 

[AudioSceptic]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Modi+ stereo USB DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $129.
View attachment 245674
There are three inputs and are nicely stepped through using the momentary switch. The white LED that indicates the selected input is nice but alas, there is some bleed into the other indicators.

Back panel is simple enough:
View attachment 245675

A USB adapter is included to power the unit although you could accomplish the same by using a USB port on your computer which is what I did for my testing.

Here are the specs:

View attachment 245676

Schiit Modi+ Measurements
Schiit implementation of USB defaults to 16 bit which causes trouble for my ASIO4ALL wrapper so for some of the tests, I had to use my Roon player to get full 24 bit performance such as the dashboard:

View attachment 245677

This is a competent performance which faces stiff competition from many other budget DACs:
View attachment 245678

Zooming in:
View attachment 245679

As noted, my measurements match company spec. On noise performance though, we are 3 dB short:

View attachment 245680

That could be due to slight difference in test parameters. Performance as noted is excellent though.

There is no volume control in this DAC but should you use one upstream in software, this is the performance relative to input digital level:

View attachment 245681

IMD distortion shows slight hint of class ESS DAC IMD Hump but otherwise the results are very nice:
View attachment 245682

Jitter performance oddly is best on Coax with USB being in the middle and Toslink bringing in the rear:
View attachment 245683
View attachment 245684

Linearity is good as it should be:
View attachment 245685

Multitone performance is excellent:
View attachment 245689


Frequency response is flat and nice in audible band:
View attachment 245686

Alas, out of band attenuation is not very good:

View attachment 245687

This naturally hurts our distortion+noise wideband test which includes the unfiltered ultrasonic components:
View attachment 245688

Conclusions
No doubt you have noticed my frequent use of terms "nice" and "excellent" and that sums up the performance of Modi+. At this price point, we don't expect objective perfection but competent engineering and that is what we have. Physically, the unit is solidly built and of course supported by an English speaking US company. For people with such preference, the Modi+ provides an excellent option. That they can stay competitive with far east audio companies is definitely a feather in their cap.

I am going to recommend the Schiit Modi+ DAC. Great to see Schiit continue the (new) tradition of optimizing objective performance as they cater to their traditional audience.

-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Not bad for the money, but what a shame that the filter's so poor. If you only provide one, make it decent, and why not use the sharp one that the 9018 provides anyway? BTW I didn't realise how compact the Modi is: only 5x3.5x1.25".

 

[staticV3]

Pretty sure they were using this https://sourceforge.net/projects/asio2wasapi/

If you take a look Schiit's measurement report, it says "ASIO Device: ASIO4All v2"

also nowadays there is something called FlexASIO.

Yup! FlexASIO (Kernel Streaming) > ASIO4All (Wasapi Shared) imo, since the latter still goes through the Windows resampler.

 

[morillon]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Modi+ stereo USB DAC. It was sent to me by the company and costs US $129.
View attachment 245674
There are three inputs and are nicely stepped through using the momentary switch. The white LED that indicates the selected input is nice but alas, there is some bleed into the other indicators.

Back panel is simple enough:
View attachment 245675

A USB adapter is included to power the unit although you could accomplish the same by using a USB port on your computer which is what I did for my testing.

Here are the specs:

View attachment 245676

Schiit Modi+ Measurements
Schiit implementation of USB defaults to 16 bit which causes trouble for my ASIO4ALL wrapper so for some of the tests, I had to use my Roon player to get full 24 bit performance such as the dashboard:

View attachment 245677

This is a competent performance which faces stiff competition from many other budget DACs:
View attachment 245678

Zooming in:
View attachment 245679

As noted, my measurements match company spec. On noise performance though, we are 3 dB short:

View attachment 245680

That could be due to slight difference in test parameters. Performance as noted is excellent though.

There is no volume control in this DAC but should you use one upstream in software, this is the performance relative to input digital level:

View attachment 245681

IMD distortion shows slight hint of class ESS DAC IMD Hump but otherwise the results are very nice:
View attachment 245682

Jitter performance oddly is best on Coax with USB being in the middle and Toslink bringing in the rear:
View attachment 245683
View attachment 245684

Linearity is good as it should be:
View attachment 245685

Multitone performance is excellent:
View attachment 245689


Frequency response is flat and nice in audible band:
View attachment 245686

Alas, out of band attenuation is not very good:

View attachment 245687

This naturally hurts our distortion+noise wideband test which includes the unfiltered ultrasonic components:
View attachment 245688

Conclusions
No doubt you have noticed my frequent use of terms "nice" and "excellent" and that sums up the performance of Modi+. At this price point, we don't expect objective perfection but competent engineering and that is what we have. Physically, the unit is solidly built and of course supported by an English speaking US company. For people with such preference, the Modi+ provides an excellent option. That they can stay competitive with far east audio companies is definitely a feather in their cap.

I am going to recommend the Schiit Modi+ DAC. Great to see Schiit continue the (new) tradition of optimizing objective performance as they cater to their traditional audience.

-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

attention very small error.. the first measurement of jtest seems in usb and coax spdif ..... not toslink..

multitones etc with usb? spdif? etc
;-)

ps
if you have not made the dac "E70" will it be possible to carry out the jtest measurement in toslink if you have found your fiber?
and a loopback out-in via cable spdif or toslink with the apx? sinad enob etc

 

[sarakyel]

Schiit, how are they when it comes to reliability? Do they make stuff that lasts and doesn't break? As you may know, there has been some discussion on ASR about OTHER manufacturers and the durability, reliability of their products.

I can only report about my own experience, so take it with a grain of salt: I bought Schiit products twice (brand new Hel 2 and refurbished Modius), but I had to return both during the first year of moderate use. Good that they were under warranty, and that their customer support was quite reactive...

The worrying part was the number of people complaining online about similar issues as I encountered myself (especially with the Hel), some even reporting that RMA didn't fix their problems. I have to say, it scared me enough so that I didn't want to run the risk of a post-warranty failure, so I sold both boxes.

Once again, just my 2 cents, maybe I was very unlucky...

 

[juliangst]

* No display
* No volume control
* No DSD support
* No balanced out + RCA out simultaneously

For $70 more, an E50 wipes the floor especially with the ability to run it directly to a power amp with XLR and active subs.

IMO E50 is THE budget DAC today. Don't get me wrong, I have owned almost a dozen Schiit pieces and still have a Freya+ and Sys.

Wait, people actually care about DSD?

 

[Duke650]

I read in the back ASSY IN USA that should be meaning ASSEMBLY. I don't know how are the legal terms for MADE and ASSEMBLY in USA, but that could mean that assembled PCBs come from abroad and only the final assembly is made in USA; but perhaps I'm wrong.
However, the USA price is very interesting as are the performances.

Schiit Audio: Audio Products Designed and Built in Texas and California

www.schiit.com

 

[Doodski]

* No display
* No volume control
* No DSD support
* No balanced out + RCA out simultaneously

For $70 more, an E50 wipes the floor especially with the ability to run it directly to a power amp with XLR and active subs.

IMO E50 is THE budget DAC today. Don't get me wrong, I have owned almost a dozen Schiit pieces and still have a Freya+ and Sys.

The horrible after sales service from Topping more than makes up for the additional features

 

[firedog]

* No display
* No volume control
* No DSD support
* No balanced out + RCA out simultaneously

For $70 more, an E50 wipes the floor especially with the ability to run it directly to a power amp with XLR and active subs.

IMO E50 is THE budget DAC today. Don't get me wrong, I have owned almost a dozen Schiit pieces and still have a Freya+ and Sys.

Yeah, and guess what, it's not for people who want those things (at over 50% more, btw). It's a great simple little DAC for desktop or as a component in system use. I have one in a secondary system connected to powered speakers and it is perfect - plug and forget. Absolutely no need for more features or anything else. If you want those, get a different DAC.

DSD? I have plenty, but it's a fraction of a percent of the market. Schiit doesn't see any reason to deal with it, so none of their products cater to it. I understand why. If you want unconverted DSD, don't go the Schiit website.

 

[DSJR]

The horrible after sales service from Topping more than makes up for the additional features

I was going to ask you lot to be reasonable - that list of 'features' seems that you want it all, but for only a hundred dollars or less

At least Jason looks to be communicative and his staff who've come here in the past do seem to care more than a bit and for US buyers at least, that MUST be a good thing indeed! I quite like the Schiit cosmetic vibe too, but accept that's a personal thing.

 

[firedog]

I read in the back ASSY IN USA that should be meaning ASSEMBLY. I don't know how are the legal terms for MADE and ASSEMBLY in USA, but that could mean that assembled PCBs come from abroad and only the final assembly is made in USA; but perhaps I'm wrong.
However, the USA price is very interesting as are the performances.

They provide details elsewhere. Casework and main board are made in US. Some parts aren't.
The majority is made in the USA.
That's pretty much true for all their units.

 

[Sokel]

Wait, people actually care about DSD?

Depends on the dac but I see strange things happening on one of them:

PCM

DSD256

 

[Ken Tajalli]

Made in USA for 129$ I don't know how they managed to do this.

Far eastern migrant workers in a sweat shop! perhaps . . .

 

[juliangst]

Depends on the dac but I see strange things happening on one of them:

View attachment 245707

PCM

View attachment 245708

DSD256

Interesting.
Was it native DSD or DoP?

 

[Sokel]

Interesting.
Was it native DSD or DoP?

DoP (no native in the Multitone analyzer)
More here:

Review and Measurements of WesionTEK Khadas Tone Board DAC

I think there is a msinderstanding here regarding Tone1 drivers and firmware. For firmware v2 you must use only v4.86 drivers ! That’s because on fw v2 Khadas changed the VID & PID of Tone1 ! After fw update to v2, xmos generic drivers v2.24 does not work anymore.

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[delta76]

I could be missing something, but at this price what other DAC does thing better to deserve the Golfing panther?