Schiit Modi+ DAC Review

[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?

 

[morillon]

it makes no sense to want to measure up to 90khz in 48k.. :-0
you need to be in 192k..

moreover, increase the bandwidth, you will degrade the thd enormously.. except to carry out very long measurements....very...

 

[staticV3]

What I'm I missing?

Higher measurement BW means more noise and distortion is included in the SINAD calculation, so it's worse.

 

[sq225917]

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

Patents are mostly expired, certainly those needed only for software playback of dsd files. Some compression patents for multichannel are still live.

 

[phoenixsong]

Clearly built to a price. No DSD not an issue for me. I’d rather play an originally mastered flac with good dynamic range than more modern remastered DSD stuff that’s had the dynamic range sucked out of it. YMMV of course

The back of the unit looks like a 10 year old wearing an eye patch was in charge of socket alignment. It looks atrocious. The ASSY wording is comical too.

Now that you mention it, it sure is some assy good schiit

 

[Leiker535]

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

In this case it isn't about the cost. Schiit doesn't support/agrees with the format, just like MQA.

 

[Leiker535]

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

I'd say so yes. I'm very biased towards chinese products as I live in Brazil and importing stuff from the US is a pain while Aliexpress/hifigo is a godsend. Had I lived there though, I would certainly prefer their products over most chinese offerings because of the higher reliability of internal components, safety standards and warranty. Schiit isn't known to have the greatest customer support, but they do provide it. They also often offer upgrade services for the higher end products, with warranty renewal to boot.

 

[nyxnyxnyx]

Schiit did a great job with this. Now I am more convinced that their new Magni+ (or was it named differently?) should be an attractive choice too!

 

[Joe Smith]

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

So, Amir, this confuses me a bit. Then does the JDS Atom+ have 32 bit selections? (While I'm not taking advantage of that now, I thought might be useful for purchased hi-res track playback down the road. I'm not into MQA in any way, but I thought having a DAC that went up to 32 bits would be a good thing.)

 

[Joe Smith]

Schiit did a great job with this. Now I am more convinced that their new Magni+ (or was it named differently?) should be an attractive choice too!

As I'm sure they sell just a Schiit-ton of Modi and Magni units compared to their higher-price products, I'm sure they intensely look at development tweaks they can make to offer new models every 2 or so years. I have the 3 series and they are great, apart from the volume pot on the Magni being a little scratchy if not 'worked' a bit before using. But I think it's great that they keep improving these steadily as they are, for many people, a perfectly good no-muss, no-fuss audio solution (same goes for JDS). I do like the metal cases, they are a nice plus.

 

[Labjr]

In this case it isn't about the cost. Schiit doesn't support/agrees with the format, just like MQA.

DSD isn't proprietary like MQA.

 

[GPJ]

Patents are mostly expired, certainly those needed only for software playback of dsd files. Some compression patents for multichannel are still live.

DSD isn't proprietary like MQA.

I would buy a Schiit DAC if it had DSD, especially a Modius. What I won't do is convert my large collection of DSF to another format. Not happenin'.

 

[Labjr]

I would buy a Schiit DAC if it had DSD, especially a Modius. What I won't do is convert my large collection of DSF to another format. Not happenin'.

There are cases where DSD is the best available version of a title. Especially some Classical, Jazz and acoustic music recordings. I prefer not to transcode from one format to another because I think there is some sort of loss from the conversion.

 

[MarcosCh]

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.

To be honest and with all respects, i find metal cases for devices for which they aren't necessary the most overrated feature ever.
Plastics have come a long way since they were perceived as a cheap, ugly and underperforming replacement for metal and if aluminum cases are forcing producers to make compromises in other departments it would be a shame (i don't know if this is the case, just inferred from amir statement). I have the feeling that the preference for metal cases is just a consequence of the average age of the audio hobbyists or an extension of what can be true for amplifiers or other things. My 2c.