Schiit Modius Balanced DAC Review

[Veri]

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

Schiity Topp

 

[Newk Yuler]

Schiit is improving because they're adjusting to conform to the poor performance exposure they've gotten from ASR. This kind of adjustment is a huge win for consumers. An excellent example of exactly how a free market is suppose to work. They bought an APx555 for obvious reasons, display their improved measurements on product pages and then send new products to Amir to confirm the measurements. Schiit deserves to be congratulated and appreciation should reflect in sales. We should be looking forward to ASR's influence on other brands and pay attention to those who just make excuses for poor measurements.

 

[Svperstar]

Common sense with Schiit said don't use their USB because of bad performance this one flips that. Interesting.

 

[bboris77]

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

I have one of those....the Asgard 3 and the the D70. It is an awesome sounding combo. Except it is flipped upside down - Topping goes on the bottom cause that Schiit gets very hot lol.

EDIT: By the way, this kind of makes me public enemy number one in both camps...SBAF thinks I am a traitor and ASR thinks I am deluded for thinking that the Asgard 3 makes my HD800s sound better

 

[Theriverlethe]

Looks like an EL DAC II killer.

 

[adlervft]

Can it decode DSD?

 

[bboris77]

Can it decode DSD?

Nope.

 

[dfuller]

I emailed Schiit about whether or not the XLR outs are differential or impedance balanced, and I'm happy to report that they are true differential outputs!

 

[Alexanderc]

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.....

I am, but it would be hard to justify the budget when the hypothesis is that no one will be able to tell the difference. Maybe one could run a couple tests with relatively inexpensive gear, but it wouldn’t be sustainable. Universities usually don’t have that type of equipment or dedicated spaces either (mine doesn’t), so someone could probably do a better job with a few acquaintances at home.

 

[Jinjuku]

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.

It's not RJ45 as it's 6 pin RJ12.

 

[theoblue80]

But it supports only up to 24/192 files and no DSD? This is a major drawback in comparison to Soncoz.

 

[pavuol]

https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/Schiit DAC APx555 Standard Test Suite_ Modius.pdf

Their own AP555 measurements.

Reference grade transparency!

 

[Ron Texas]

Schiit finally has come around and started paying attention to reducing noise and distortion.

My concern is using micro USB connections. They are not very robust. Several times I've had to give the connectors on compatible cables a squeeze to get them to connect. The fix isn't a big deal, but sometimes troubleshooting the problem is.

 

[Jinjuku]

But it supports only up to 24/192 files and no DSD? This is a major drawback in comparison to Soncoz.

It's a drawback for like 3% of the market.

 

[AudioTodd]

What a great time to be an audiophile! Now that they‘ve got their Schiit together, many more people can afford a system based on USA made components with performance we could only have dreamed of back when I started in this hobby! I’m thrilled to see it! Kinda like how great it is now for car guys what with the incredible ND Mazda MX-5 Miata, Subaru WRX, et al, at real human price points! The kiddies today do not know how great they have it!!!

 

[JohnYang1997]

Maybe not hole in one but I respect the performance for the price also considering it's a balanced dac.
Most impressive part is the jitter with usb. Very clean!
There are weakness points for sure, imd isn't impressive enough and toslink and coax inputs don't have pleasing enough jitter.
Pretty good, pretty good.

 

[Veri]

Most impressive part is the jitter with usb. Very clean!

I also was quite impressed by this. I thought their Unison was complete marketing nonsense, but when you see it performing so well in this device, just maybe there is some merit to it? In any case it's not hurting anything

 

[JohnYang1997]

I also was quite impressed by this. I thought their Unison was complete marketing nonsense, but when you see it performing so well in this device, just maybe there is some merit to it? In any case it's not hurting anything

For sure.

 

[Darwin]

I'm really surprised how low this thing's jitter is. They have really stepped it up. I really think this site has a lot to do with it too, but it would never be admitted.

They sent it to him for testing. I’d say that’s an admission of sorts.

 

[Matias]

imd isn't impressive enough and toslink and coax inputs don't have pleasing enough jitter

Notice that IMD was not measured with USB, so possibly the Toslink SPDIF jitter had some bad influence on the IMD.