Schiit Gungnir Multibit impressions

Yep, you get that too, which is a hell of a good deal, plus a quality product and 5 year warranty from the start.

All in all, they are doing a lot right.

 

Finally got my hands on a Gungnir Multibit!

First off, I don’t have much experience with hi-fi DAC’s as my background is in music production, so I’ve generally stuck with whatever high-quality desktop interface I could get my hands on. Given that most modern, well implemented DAC chips can reproduce things pretty well, I’ve always been a bit of a skeptic of what real benefits a dedicated, higher-end DAC such as the Gungnir Multibit could offer. Well, color me pleasantly surprised.

A few years back I bought a Bifrost Multibit to compare to the DAC in my desktop interface (Apollo Twin, CS4398). I found the Bifrost Multibit to be just a hair smoother in the treble with a bit deeper soundstage, but the difference was small enough that I’m confident I wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint either in a blind test, so I sold the Bifrost Multibit and moved on with my life.

Fast forward to now – I upgraded my Apollo Twin to the Mk2 (better conversion, lower noise floor) and couldn’t resist giving the Gungnir Multibit a shot and seeing what all the fuss was about, given how often they’ve been popping up for sale at a bit lower prices. So I pulled the trigger and now have a fully-warmed up Gen5 Gungnir Multibit to put through its paces.

Chain: iMac Pro > Gungnir Multibit (via Gen 5 USB) > MCTH+LPS/Magni3 > Focal Clear/HD6XX

Given that I got the Gungnir Multibit on Friday and it did most of its warming up over the weekend, I can’t comment on the gradual affects of warmup on the sound; but I was able to hear it after a few hours vs a few days, and it does seem to have really hit it’s stride compared to my initial listen.

To my ears there are 3 main areas where the Gungnir Multibit improves upon my Apollo Twin Mk2:

1. TONALITY

I never expected a DAC to have a notable affect on tonality, but I guess that can happen when you dismiss something you haven’t tried.

The Gungnir Multibit has a less pronounced and smoother treble than the Apollo. The Apollo treble comes across with more flakiness, hash and tizzy digital crystals. The Gungnir Multibit manages this without obscuring any of the finer details though, which come through more clearly. Moar treble ≠ moar detail.

The second and most notable tonal change is with the lower midrange in particular, where the Gungnir Multibit has this extra “meatiness” there that is totally missing in the Apollo. The cool thing is though, that the normal muddiness that we associate with lower mids is just not there… at all. It gives instruments (particularly acoustic) and vocals more oomph but without sacrificing any definition. Really fun to listen to.

2. SOUNDSTAGE

Soundstage width is comparable between the two DACs, but I was a bit shocked at how much deeper (others have used the word holographic) the soundstage of the Gungnir Multibit is. It’s like the difference I experienced with the Modi Multibit but turned up to 11 – switching to the Gungnir Multibit arranges every instrument/vocalist back into their individual places on the stage, and switching back to the Apollo collapses everything forward into a wall of sound.

So far my critical listening has all been done on headphones, but I’m excited to see how the Gungnir Multibit’s soundstage abilities translate to speakers as well.

3. IMAGING

This correlates closely with point #2, but three points always sounds better than two.

I thought I was getting rock-solid imaging with my Apollo Twin. Nope. Switching to Gungnir Multibit brings everything into tighter, more precise focus. Conversely, switching back to the Apollo the location of every element becomes less pinpoint and more diffuse - like it’s being spread over 5+ degrees of space instead of 1 or 2 degrees. The effect of this is that everything in a well-recorded and mixed track sounds more like it’s inhabiting a real point in space, instead of the sound coming from a general direction.

The collective result of these improvements over my existing DAC is that the Gungnir Multibit makes a good recording sounds less like a good recording and more like the actual instruments and voices that are represented. The first time this struck me was after it had warmed up just a few hours and I was listening to one of Handel’s Grand Fugues for organ (No. 2 in G, Anthony Newman). I started out listening to the Apollo I was pretty captivated by how beautiful the organ sounded in the space; then I switched to the Gungnir Multibit and the sensation immediately switched to feeling like I was there, in the center aisle between the pews. Instead of just hearing the instrument being drawn out into reverb, the whole sound came together as a complete picture and I could sense the depth of the space, and where the chambers of the organ were located.

In my 8 years living in Memphis I attended (and served as A/V director for a few years) a Presbyterian church with the largest pipe organ in the Mid-South. To be taken back to that sound with such convincing realism made me so happy!

DISCLAIMER: The Gungnir Multibit is not a magic box. It won’t make your ears’, headphones’, amps’, or speakers’ flaws go away. Contrary to how the above may read, it does not wipe the floor with or disgrace the DAC in my Apollo Twin. This hobby is a game of chasing those last few percentage points of improvement, and while they are small differences they are often notable enough to justify the extra expense. What really excited me is that the differences are real and they are there – as someone who always viewed a $1000 DAC with a healthy dose of skepticism it is great to realize that I was wrong (and maybe also that my ears aren’t garbage).

 

Glad you're enjoying it. May be hard to believe, but Gungnir Multibit doesn't fully expose itself until being left on for about a week or so. I noticed a distinct change after 48 hours and again after about 7 days.

 

Yes. Same with AMPs. Those small differences in tonality, haze, digital repetition (or less so), and other subtle traits, while it is just a few percent, I know my brain tends to lock on those traits once the honeymoon is over, so after a while that small percent difference is magnified. Enjoy your new DAC. I was a dis-believer too until I heard otherwise.

 

Just got my Gungnir Multibit Gen5 today.
It's been up and running for about 2 hours. So far, vs. my old DAC, Gungnir Multibit is smoother in the mid/high, no more grain or glaring in vocal, better slam, separation + more texture in the low. Soundstage and depth are obviously better within 10 secs of listening. One definitely positive impression is that Gungnir Multibit sounds way more organic than the outgoing DAC.
Gungnir Multibit sounds quite different than D/S DACs I've listened to in the past. I am still getting used to the new presentation.
I hope it will get much better than this in a few days.

 

What was your old dac?

 

TEAC UD-501. Not really a fair comparison. Gungnir Multibit, even after only 6 hrs, is quite an upgrade.

 

Question on the recommended 2 day burn in. Is that for the initial first time you power the Gungnir Multibit on? Or is it every time you cycle the power.
For example if I move my entire rig to another room, do I have to wait 2 days for the burn in?

 

No just the initial turn on, or if you let it cool down unplugged for more than an hour or two.

 

So it is a temperature thing, after the initial burn in?

 

From my experience, it's usually about 24 hours per power down to get it back to where it was before, after shutdown.

 

It's not a one time burn-in. The internal components sound their best when there is an equilibrium in temperatures across components which initially takes about 2 days to get to from a cold start.

 

I don't know for sure, but something in there needs to reach equilibrium for the sound to stabilize and to sound it's best.

Look... It's not like you can't use it while it's warming up, it will just sound a bit different until that equilibrium is reached.

So, don't do measurements or listen hyper-critically for a while while it warms back up. The longer it's off, the longer it takes to get back to equilibrium.

It's not a big deal.

 

Couple shots of fine tequila could speed up the equilibrium convergence...I tried. The method works great.

 

Good call, but I find the sonic qualities of vodka and Scotch are more palatable for critical listening. Hehe

 

J/k aside, I fired up my 2.1 setup with Gungnir Multibit just now and holy shit, the improvement over the old TEAC DAC is shocking. Much much more obvious in all aspects, especially soundstage.
Also, at > 24 hrs playing random tracks, I think Gungnir Multibit is getting close to whatchamacallit, equilibrium?
Gungnir Multibit has some nice chops in the low end. It sounds way cleaner and at first, gave me an impression of a faster decay overall but when listening more closely, the decay is quite spot on and natural.
I just listened to the entire Michael Buble's Come Fly With Me album. The whole time, I kept saying to myself "this is quite impressive".
Gungnir Multibit = keeper for sure.

 

Till this day, I can't figure out why I can't take vodka. I will literally want to throw up after 5 shots. I do love Tito though.
I could do Scotch all day.

 

I can throw up from less than five shots. Nothing to figure out really.

 

I was going to say, five shots and I'm on the floor.

 

You do not take vodka. It takes you.