Schiit Modi+ DAC Review

[sarumbear]

Built, designed, assembled, made, it's just tags.

it’s not just tags. It’s a federal definition.

“Made in USA”​

To qualify for a ‘Made in USA’ or ‘Made in America’ label, a product must be “all or virtually all” manufactured in America according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This encompasses all fifty states, US territories, and the District of Columbia. Products bearing this label should have little to no overseas content. However, some parts may be imported from other countries in order for the US manufacturer to successfully produce. This is usually based on availability of certain raw materials and/or the assembly requirements of certain components or parts of a product.

“Assembled in the USA”​

In contrast, products displaying an ‘Assembled in the USA’ label will contain a higher percentage of imported components but will be physically assembled in America. The FTC states that these products need to have undergone a significant transformation on American soil. What this means is a good portion of the parts and components, whether imported or manufactured in the US, will need to be assembled together directly in the US and must produce a distinct product that is unique to the assembling company.

The Made vs. Assembled in America Issue - ITI Manufacturing

For made in China products, ITI Manufacturing always provides quality service and guaranteed process success for US manufacturers. Call (281) 242-7030 today!

www.itimanufacturing.com

 

[dtaylo1066]

Here is what Schiit says:

"And—it bears mentioning—we believe that close-coupled, local control of all of the aspects of production delivers better products. That's why we design and produce our stuff here in the USA, with the vast majority of parts cost going to US-based companies manufacturing in the US. We need all of that clarification in there because some people have played games with what "Assembled in USA" means. When we say it, it means that our chassis guys are right over the hill in the San Fernando Valley, our transformers are made here in California, our boards come from the east coast (of the USA), and we design, assemble, and test everything here in Valencia, California."

 

[CedarX]

Being relatively inexpensive, the components—certainly not made in USA—represent a significant part of the final cost and disqualify the Modi+ from a “Made in USA” tag. Schiit would have to increase the price considerably in order to label it “Made in USA”…

 

[amirm]

Text dont match image info - both pics says "Toslink"...

sorry. Put a note in there indicating the first graph is Coax. The second one is Toslink.

 

[PeteL]

it’s not just tags. It’s a federal definition.

“Made in USA”​

To qualify for a ‘Made in USA’ or ‘Made in America’ label, a product must be “all or virtually all” manufactured in America according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This encompasses all fifty states, US territories, and the District of Columbia. Products bearing this label should have little to no overseas content. However, some parts may be imported from other countries in order for the US manufacturer to successfully produce. This is usually based on availability of certain raw materials and/or the assembly requirements of certain components or parts of a product.

“Assembled in the USA”​

In contrast, products displaying an ‘Assembled in the USA’ label will contain a higher percentage of imported components but will be physically assembled in America. The FTC states that these products need to have undergone a significant transformation on American soil. What this means is a good portion of the parts and components, whether imported or manufactured in the US, will need to be assembled together directly in the US and must produce a distinct product that is unique to the assembling company.

The Made vs. Assembled in America Issue - ITI Manufacturing

For made in China products, ITI Manufacturing always provides quality service and guaranteed process success for US manufacturers. Call (281) 242-7030 today!

www.itimanufacturing.com

There you go, they have too many imported parts.

 

[pseudoid]

"MFG in USA" and it's that 'good'!

 

[KR500]

Thanks for reviewing and testing this for us Amir

Hopefully at some time the Schmitt Modi 3e DAC will get the test here

After purchasing one and listening I am pleased with it and feel it is a noticeable improvement over the previous Schmitt model. Maybe a 20% or so sound upgrade.

I spent a really long time with the Topping D30 and found it’s detail fantastic, ….. but over time tiring.
I gifted it to our close friends grown son along with a Magni which is a big improvement over his pc sound card.

 

[kchap]

Yeah, talking rubbish. It's always safer having a volume control between the amp section and the source(DAC). To say otherwise is foolish and risky.

I take the risk; this has been discussed in other threads. I use a D10B with a RPI streamer. I do try and match the output of the DAC to the amp and speakers. If I could overdrive the amp by more than 3 or 4 dB, I would consider inline attenuators.

I've had a couple of incidents when updating or trying alternative SW. The speakers have survived so far, fingers crossed.

Edit: I tried inserting a fingers crossed emoji, It didn't work.

 

[jam]

Fine. Considering the many good DACs out there, it would be great to see balanced outputs and a HPA "on board", but probably impossible at this price level.

Thanks for the review Amir. Well there's the Topping D10 presently selling on amazon.com for $118 USD that has balanced outputs through TRS jacks but no HPA. Oh, and it only has a USB input, no S/PDIF coax or Toslink inputs. That's asking quite a lot at that price level but who knows perhaps some day...

 

[jam]

Wait, people actually care about DSD?

Well some people have DSD files or rips that they would like to play through their DAC. Not that I believe that DSD is intrinsically superior technology to PCM but many recordings have been remastered from the original analog master tapes to DSD with more care put into the process to offer a better balanced result than their CD/PCM counterparts.

 

[confucius_zero]

is schiit still relevant in today's post-chifi market?

 

[Steven Holt]

I see strange things happening on one of them:

I see this, and I believe this, but there is just no way in hell that anyone's going to hear this. I take it that difference, and not the audible, was the purpose of the post?

 

[Doodski]

is schiit still relevant in today's post-chifi market?

Schiit is still relevant and it seems some peeps are wising up to the substandard and horrible customer service that is provided for Topping after sale support.

 

[PeteL]

is schiit still relevant in today's post-chifi market?

The question should be more: -Is now Schiit the last and only North-American audio electronics manufacturer that sucessfully managed to stay relevant?

 

[SYJ]

No DSD ???

 

[Sokel]

I see this, and I believe this, but there is just no way in hell that anyone's going to hear this. I take it that difference, and not the audible, was the purpose of the post?

If it was only about the audibility we wouldn't need to measure any dac anymore,it would only need to take a look on the outside to see if it is broken or something.
But is nice to observe stuff.

For example the measurement you see is about a dac that has 109db SINAD at 1Khz but rapidly goes to 85db going up the freqs according to Amir's measurement.
And this because of that grass you see down there.Is that audible?
See the thread I posted right after to see what I'm talking about.

 

[Robbo99999]

Schiit is still relevant and it seems some peeps are wising up to the substandard and horrible customer service that is provided for Topping after sale support.

I think for electronic goods like DACS I'd take my chances with a better measuring more feature rich product at a cheaper price - I can't remember the last time any electronic goods failed on me.....well there was my mobile GPU in my laptop that failed after 3yrs of being overclocked to twice it's default clockspeed, but beyond that I've never had a failure of a product. So I just don't think customer service & after sales support is a big factor in these types of purchases. At least in my opinion, it's a low risk worth taking.

 

[Frank Sol]

is schiit still relevant in today's post-chifi market?

Made me chuckle

 

[hmt]

Dont know if it was already mentioned but this is a nice DAC to uhse for an Altitude 16 to use the additional 4 channels. It has coax and spdif in, is cheap, has a small footprint and is better than the DAC in the Altitude 16.

 

[noel_fs]

it makes me happy seeing a brand improve from actual criticism