Schiit Modi+ DAC Review

[amirm]

I believe Schiit is the only American company able to produce these DACs with metal case at competitive prices relative to far east companies. The fact that they can do this is quite remarkable.

 

[Joe Smith]

It's weird about the filter in this model. I looked back at the Modi 3+ review, and that filter curve looked much better. I have the older Modi 3, hopefully it is same as the 3+ or close.

I think it's odd they did not increase spec to be able to reach sample rate of 36/192 like the JDS Atom+ DAC...

 

[amirm]

I think it's odd they did not increase spec to be able to reach sample rate of 36/192 like the JDS Atom+ DAC...

Bit depth beyond 24 bits is not usable so there is no reason to ask for 32 bits.

 

[amirm]

Where this device excels is hooked to a PC or other device with a display to obtain feedback about what the DAC is doing. I am assuming the driver provides that info?

There is no driver. It uses the class drivers in Windows/Mac so that information is not available. Your player is however in control and you can look there for sample rate, etc. Volume control can be before it in software or after it in a pre-amp.

 

[dtaylo1066]

I believe Schiit is the only American company able to produce these DACs with metal case at competitive prices relative to far east companies. The fact that they can do this is quite remarkable.

Indeed it is! And I commend them on their production model. And their products seem to be measuring better today than in some past incidents. Overall, that's some good Schiit.

 

[Doodski]

Indeed it is! And I commend them on their production model. And their products seem to be measuring better today than in some past incidents. Overall, that's some good Schiit.

Schiit has been testing well at ASR for a fairly long period of time. Perhaps ~3 years maybe. Maybe a little more. Upon the horrible after sales customer service that Topping has provided I realized that Topping is not for me and I bought a Schiit Heresy headphone amp. It just works and hides behind the monitor in the dusty zone where I don't have to see it.

 

[hucifer]

Agreed, I'd much rather get this than any Topping unit.

The audible differences will be slight-to-non-existent, plus you are assured much better customer service if anything should go wrong.

 

[Doodski]

Agreed, I'd much rather get this than any Topping unit.

The audible differences will be slight-to-non-existent, plus you are assured much better customer service if anything should go wrong.

I ordered a Schiit Heresy and a JDS Labs Atom DAC+ and they both arrived in Canada at my door within 4 days.

 

[confucius_zero]

sucessfully managed to stay relevant

jds managed to out-perform this?

 

[PeteL]

jds managed to out-perform this?

Ok, maybe, It's just a totally different scale in their offer. Schiit have like 50 different audio products of all kind, JDS like 3, when talking about relevance as a company I am more referring to this not if one has a better filter than the other, their importance, their place in the ecosystem, as a brand. That said I may have been a bit exaggerating. Nad/Bluesound for example is probably an other North American relevant brand.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

The specs are different probably because Amir doesn't weigh his machine measurements for the human ear ... distortion at lower treble is more important that disotrtion at bass frequencies and Schiit corrects for this ... Amir does not.

It is not how humans hear sound.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

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

A made in the USA audibly transparent dac, that is the cheapest dac on the market.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

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”…

The standard is "all or virtually all" components must be Made in USA. The power brick is made overseas and that is enough to disqualify Schiit from the Made in USA designation.

Is a power brick a "significant part of the final cost"?

No. Schiit is in fact made in USA. It just doesn't qualify for the designation. But it is made here.

A bunch of the limits this thing hits have already been discussed though, just comparing with something like the E70 should highlight notable changes like better SNR/SINAD as well as DR, slightly better jitter and multitone, filter choices with much better attenuation, intermodulation distortion.. The THD+N measurement here especially shows things being rather leaky.

For the $100-$150 dollar range though? It's definitely good performing.

I just don't see how the differences at -112 sinad are audible. Why is it better if human's can't hear it? Will you claim -180 is worse than -190 too?

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

Nice review. Wondering what it cost to add DSD support to a product when the DAC chip supports it?

Don't you have to pay a licensing fee to turn it on?

 

[mdsimon2]

The specs are different probably because Amir doesn't weigh his machine measurements for the human ear ... distortion at lower treble is more important that disotrtion at bass frequencies and Schiit corrects for this ... Amir does not.

It is not how humans hear sound.

Schitt's SNR spec is actually unweighted. They do not specify a frequency range but their own AP measurement shows 20 Hz to 20 kHz (ASR uses 20 Hz to 22 kHz) but at 117.8 dB they still do not quite meet their 119 dB spec. There is always going to be some variation and the performance in absolute terms is still quite excellent so I am not personally fussed about it.

Michael

 

[kchap]

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”…

Taking it further, where are the resistors, capacitors, diodes, DAC chips, op-amps, usb interface chips, clock chips, transistors, connectors etc made. The bars for Made in USA or the EU is set high.

 

[audiotron]

Very respectable product for the price. The sound is very nice.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

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.

The Fulla has amplification for $109, the Modius has balanced for $199.

 

[don'ttrustauthority]

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...

Their stuff was shit ten years ago? What was better for the price?

And how do they not sound like Schiit now? Vali 2++ just released measures no better than earlier Vali.

Folkvangr just released measures worse than any product they've ever sold, and it's the most expensive amplifier they've ever sold.

So, how do they not live up to their name anymore?

 

[Sokel]

SINAD at 1Khz 44100Hz sample rate,10-22K measurement is 112db but in the SINAD vs freq measurement (48000Hz sample rate 10-90K ) is close to 92db (doing a lot worst right after)
What I'm I missing?