Schiit Modius Balanced DAC Review

[maty]

https://www.schiit.com/products/modius

Optimized

 

[Veri]

I wonder what the Ethernet-like coil is on the left side of the PCB

 

[milosz]

Can anyone seriously hear the difference between the top 10-20 DACs on ASR? Sure the M400 is measurably a bit superior and a hell lot more expensive but can anyone seriously hear the difference in a blind test?

Anyway, I think this is priced very reasonably. Any comments or pictures of the guts would be welcome.

We need a "branch" of ASR that does well-designed blind listening tests with a number of listeners to answer such questions.... I wonder if maybe some university psychology department or engineering-psych-human factors-music school interdisciplinary kind of thing would be interested in hosting such a research program? With cooperation of a local Audio Society and - why not?- a local world-class group of musicians like an important orchestra or respected string quartet...? Is there anyone present here on ASR that is on a university faculty? Anyone with ambition to try to put something together? The $peaker cable outfits would probably send in a squad of hitmen.....

 

[milosz]

I wonder what the Ethernet-like coil is on the left side of the PCB

It's an RJ45 socket, not a coil, but anyway I would guess that is a port for QC testing on the production line or maybe firmware installation.

 

[McFly]

@amirm please measure jitter on aes input

 

[magicscreen]

Yep, still planning on it. Should i match voltage and everything?

Do not waste your time and energy (and money) to blind test it.
They will sound exactly the same I assure you during blind testing.
Use the M400 if that sounds better to you.

 

[jae]

They should have either used USB-B or USB-C

 

[Piotr]

Glad yet another DAC goes usb-c path all way down. XLR + usb-c + nice display of bit-rate is actually playing is a key to success

 

[Veri]

Glad yet another DAC goes usb-c path all way down. XLR + usb-c + nice display of bit-rate is actually playing is a key to success

Don't be fooled. It is micro-USB

 

[3125b]

Interesting package for sure, if I didn't have an E30 already, I'd consider this one for sure. Balanced outputs are a definite plus for anyone using studio monitors.

Anyway, there are quite a few high performing AK4493 based budget (100-200$ segment) DACs by now with more coming seemingly every week.
Certainly a great development.

 

[Francis Vaughan]

Peak DAC.

That is all.

 

[Piotr]

Don't be fooled. It is micro-USB

Damn it!

 

[Xyrium]

Well done Schiit. Now, like Topping, you really just need to change your brand. Ugh....

 

[3125b]

change your brand

Schiit is a very distinctive name, isn't it?

 

[raindance]

Interesting package for sure, if I didn't have an E30 already, I'd consider this one for sure. Balanced outputs are a definite plus for anyone using studio monitors.

I'd think they'd be more useful if they had volume control.

 

[odyo]

For the price this seems like the best balanced dac if i'm not missing something. I like the unison usb.

 

[Veri]

For the price this seems like the best balanced dac if i'm not missing something. I like the unison usb.

You're not missing something it stands neck-to-neck with the Soncoz LA-QXD1 with similar performance, DR, intermodulation distortion and jitter. Soncoz has Coax output, Modius has AES input. And yes Schiit has Unison which.. on paper doesn't change anything but it's there

 

[bboris77]

I wonder if the Modius has correct absolute polarity. Sorry, could not resist.

On a more serious note, I really wish Amir could devise some kind of ingenious test that would measure RFI resistance of DACs and amplifiers. I live close to an airport and about 50% of audio devices pick up an annoying radar blip at a very low level depending on how the device is positioned. I have also had issues with my wireless router signal being picked up by various devices depending on the orientation of its antennae. The Modi 3 and the D50s both struggled with RFI in my situation while the D70 is dead quiet.

I would be interested in picking up the Modius if I knew that its RFI filtering capability was improved compared to the Modi 3. I just don’t feel like taking the risk of paying the crazy shipping charges to Canada and import taxes only to find out it’s exactly the same issue that I had with the Modi 3.

 

[Nango]

It was kindly sent to me by the company for testing.

They should start offering a discount to ASR members.

 

[KxDx]

Well done Schiit. Now, like Topping, you really just need to change your brand. Ugh....

Just imagine a DAC stack with those two brands. "Do you like my Schitt Topping?"