NITSCH Sound Pietus Maximus Optimus Prime Review - The Touch

G E Y

 

If you do please send ASR the measurements.

 

The hair does wonders for second harmonic distortion.

 

Yes, it's a low p-ass filter

 

@purr1n or other super best grado friends, is the Pietus a big upgrade over Piety for RS1x or RS2x?

I thought Piety was pretty good combo with the right DAC (eg Zen DAC). Sounds like Pietus is a big upgrade but maybe more for Senns and ZMFs?

 

Firstly, shoutout to @CEE TEE for responding to my emails and helping out with my order and shipment. Legend.

Aesthetically the Pietus is a good looking unit in gun metal and black. Perfect size for simple desktop set up which is what I needed for work from home days.

Can’t comment on sound at this stage but was hoping someone could advise if they have managed to run an iPhone as source into the onboard ESS dac.

I’m connecting an iPhone 14 using a generic lightning to usb c cable but it is not outputting to the dac.

I’ve run an iPad mini into a Jotunheim all in one in the past without any issue. Same iPad doesn’t work with the Pietus.

Was hoping to set up this way so desk space isn’t taken up by another laptop just for music as I cannot use my work laptop for that.

 

Thank you @Olor1n . Ah, I have tested an <older> Apple Camera Adapter dongle and it works with a USB-A to USB-C cable! (Using iPhone 14 Pro.)

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD821AM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter



EDIT: Tested this set-up with both ESS and MB DAC cards. Works with MB DAC, but not with ESS DAC (draws too much power). The ESS DAC did work with an Android phone and USB-C to USB-C cable.

 

I have that exact lightning to usb adapter and it doesn’t help.

Have just tried a 2017 MacBook Air. It’s not detecting the dac.

I blame Apple.

 

Does the type of usb a to usb c cable matter?

 

I'd try another cable / windows laptop to check it isn't faulty first.

I've had various schiit DACs over the years and they have behaved unpredictably with iPhones and other DAPs, sometimes with more recent DACs breaking compatibility with stuff that worked previously.

 

Schiit’s website lists the USB 3 camera adapter as the one that they tested for use https://www.schiit.com/guides/ios-connections

and, in the past, that’s the one I successfully used (with a different schiit DAC and older iPhone).

 

Make sure that the cable supports data transfer. Some USB cables are for charging only.

 

Oh, sorry you are having an issue- I used a cheap Amazon Basics USB-C to USB-A 2.0 cable that I picked up before show on Saturday in case someone wanted to use their iPhone.

I tested it and was stoked that it worked. Gonna set up a bedside PM rig tonight after not liking the laptop out last night. I'm at a coffee shop about to install an ESS card for someone. So I can retest the cable + iPhone shortly!

If you are not able to connect the DAC to anything, then it might be the cable or the DAC card...but I did personally test the DAC card for functionality before packing and shipping to you, so I hope it is just the cable!

EDIT: Tested older Apple lightning to USB camera adapter and USB-A to USB-C cable with both the ESS and MB DAC cards. Works with MB internal DAC card, but not with ESS DAC card (draws too much power). The ESS DAC card did work with an Android phone and USB-C to USB-C cable.

 

And even if the USB cable you have does support file transfer, not all of them allow for high-speed data transfer. Granted that won't matter as much for audio so if you know you're only using this for a DAC you can save a LOT of money going for a Type C cable that tops out at 480Mbps as opposed to 5Gbps or 10Gbps, the latter two of which often end up being MUCH more expensive.

 

I don’t have the rs’s but with the 325xs I would call it an upgrade. The highs are just smoothed enough to make Grados shine. The depth, layering, and micro details are all improvements. Width is about the same but imaging is incredibly more precise. I run them in low gain btw, finding that the higher gain stages compress the staging more than I’d like with Grados.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I’ll grab the Apple lightning to usb 3 camera adapter to test.

 

The Apple Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter is essential if using an iOS device as source for the ESS dac.

I now have the camera adapter connected to an iPhone 14, then usb A to usb C from the adapter to the dac. Crucially as well is a lightning to usb A cable from the adapter to power point.

This compromised my initial aim for a simple set up but I now have “lossless” audio from Apple Music feeding the ESS dac.

Thanks again to everyone who weighed in here and in PM.