This is a review and detailed measurements of the Schiit Modius E balanced USB DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $229.
The "E" edition swaps the AKM DAC chip for ESS ES9028. See my review of the normal Schiit Modius here. This is a stripped down DAC with no display or remote. It doesn't even have a power button! Speaking of power, you can either self-power it through USB or using a supplied, external 5 volt adapter:
For some reason, the USB class for Schiit DACs confuses ASIO emulator I use so most of the tests you are about to see use coax S/PDIF input. This should not impact operation of the unit unless you use ASIO.
Schiit Modius E Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard with either XLR or RCA:
Kind of strange to see XLR output not bettering RCA. As is, we have slipped about 3 to 4 dB wroth of SINAD compared to last generation. This lands the Modius E in "excellent" category but way below many of its competitors:
Noise performance presents the same somewhat odd results:
While this achieves transparency, again, we are still short a few dB vs what the competitors are doing.
IMD distortion vs level unfortunately shows some sign of increased distortion at mid levels -- something the competitors have resolved for some 2+ years:
Edit: forgot multitone:
Linearity is good:
The last generation had some issues with jitter. This generation is better but still not as clean as it should be:
DAC filter is good as far as attenuation it provides:
Resulting in very good wideband THD+N vs frequency:
Conclusions
I gave the last generation Modius my highest award back in 2020. Alas, time has gone by and competitors have squeezed more performance out of similar silicon. Meanwhile Modius E takes a step back in performance. All in all, performance remains good enough to provide transparency but short of engineering excellence we like to see in a sea of strong competitors.
While I won't purchase the Schiit Modius E myself, if you like the company, its brand and look with other Schiit gear you may have, then this is a fine option.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The "E" edition swaps the AKM DAC chip for ESS ES9028. See my review of the normal Schiit Modius here. This is a stripped down DAC with no display or remote. It doesn't even have a power button! Speaking of power, you can either self-power it through USB or using a supplied, external 5 volt adapter:
For some reason, the USB class for Schiit DACs confuses ASIO emulator I use so most of the tests you are about to see use coax S/PDIF input. This should not impact operation of the unit unless you use ASIO.
Schiit Modius E Measurements
Let's start with our usual dashboard with either XLR or RCA:
Kind of strange to see XLR output not bettering RCA. As is, we have slipped about 3 to 4 dB wroth of SINAD compared to last generation. This lands the Modius E in "excellent" category but way below many of its competitors:
Noise performance presents the same somewhat odd results:
While this achieves transparency, again, we are still short a few dB vs what the competitors are doing.
IMD distortion vs level unfortunately shows some sign of increased distortion at mid levels -- something the competitors have resolved for some 2+ years:
Edit: forgot multitone:
Linearity is good:
The last generation had some issues with jitter. This generation is better but still not as clean as it should be:
DAC filter is good as far as attenuation it provides:
Resulting in very good wideband THD+N vs frequency:
Conclusions
I gave the last generation Modius my highest award back in 2020. Alas, time has gone by and competitors have squeezed more performance out of similar silicon. Meanwhile Modius E takes a step back in performance. All in all, performance remains good enough to provide transparency but short of engineering excellence we like to see in a sea of strong competitors.
While I won't purchase the Schiit Modius E myself, if you like the company, its brand and look with other Schiit gear you may have, then this is a fine option.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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