Schiit Eitr Preview Thread

I have to commend Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat for standing by their promise of offering upgrades to their products. I am glad to see Schiit does not build planned obsolescence into their products in our throwaway iPhone 6, 6s, and 7, 8 society. The possibility of upgrading the Yggdrasil was a deciding factor in my decision to purchase it and I am enthusiastically waiting for my Gen 5 upgrade notification.

 

Keeping in mind my bias (i.e., I don't expect chaining to make a difference), so far I hear no difference. Not better, or worse. Eitr provides the same isolation benefit at a lower price point. Double isolating? Not worth it unless you want to think of the Intona as another zap protector, like a surge protector. /shrug

 

Managed to get USB Audio Player Pro to work with the Eitr.

I didn't have time to do a step by step analysis, so I enabled a bunch of options at once - amoung which the "force 16bit output - and it started working.
Sound is, indeed, excellent right out the box.

 

While I will let others agonise about the CCK and iOS (spoiler, it's f'ing crap- and will either just work perfectly or be hell on wheels with little between), what I want to know is how well the USB receiver in the Eitr works with current and recent (4.xx and later) Linux kernels and their associate UAC drivers?

I know that the pre-gen5 receiver in the Gungnir Multibit is very hit and miss with this. I'd love to hear from some folks who have actually tried it, maybe @Torq or @zerodeefex?

(There are a bunches of use cases for this, for me..)

 

Eitr works on DietPi v153 (4.9.35-v7+).

 

The thing I wish is that the Eitr wouldn't advertise itself as able to handle 32-bit. Probably a rather complicated thing to change, but I was stumped for how to fix Audirvana for a while there until I realized I had to force it to 24-bit.

That said, I'm incredibly happy to put an end to all the stupid USB devices.

 

I've had a great time listening via the Eitr over the weekend and what has impressed me most is just how pleasant it is to listen to music through it. There are a few others here who have described it's sweetness, and I would also describe it in the same way although it should not be thought of as a coloration

In my case it's not just a sweetness but a soothing "correctness". It's almost like those old days when I would come home from school and put on a vinyl record and that would be emotionally satisfying. There is often for me, if not always at the consumer electronic level, a feeling with digital playback that something is not quite right. I suppose that's one of the reasons that vinyl still exists in the marketplace.

I will be very curious to see measurements of this thing and whether or not any of this can be seen objectively.

 

That's a shame. The soundcard on this new mobo (with optical out) advertises itself as able to do lots of wordlengths and packing that it just can't manage, too. I like to be able to leave stuff on "auto" without it making me nearly lose bowel control.

 

Where did they advertise 32-bit? I couldn't remember seeing 32 bit anywhere, and can't find it now.

 

I think he means when the device is enumerated, it advertises to the system which word lengths and packing configs it will accept ("I wish [...] that the Eitr wouldn't advertise itself as able to handle 32-bit"), but like my mobo audio, it makes a hash of some of the ones it claims. It's a reasonably common problem with some players and sound devices.

 

From the Schiit product page: a superb, low-jitter coaxial SPDIF interface for bit depths and sample rates up to 24/192.
Nevermind. I get what he meant now.

 

For reference, here's the output from Audio Midi Setup on my Mac for available bitrates. Not sure if that's a Mac problem only, but I bet that's also the same problem in iOS, because both exhibit the same behavior: unable to start playing. I uh, happen to have an iPhone that can tell me more info, let me see if I can check out the bit depths.

 

What are folks' thoughts on the Eitr in relation to the Hifiberry Digi+ Pro? I know that the Pi/Digi+ Pro combo has greater flexibility and a different feature set, but the biggest draw of that solution for me is moving away from USB and toward an interface designed for audio. Just from that perspective, the Eitr feels like a natural competitor. (Even the price ends up being very similar with a switched-mode supply for the Pi.) Yes, there is still the USB link to the Eitr, but it's fully isolated and the connection to the DAC is SPDIF over coax.

@Torq's earlier post points to the Eitr being perhaps better than the Digi+ Pro in this role. Has anyone else had the opportunity to listen to both? If so, what are your thoughts?

It seems that the Pi/Digi+ Pro combo is still a great bargain as a dedicated streamer, but perhaps no longer the leading candidate for a budget Lynx alternative.

 

If you want the best of both worlds, you can always do RPi + Eitr. That'll give you the streaming end-point coupled with the output of the Eitr, with the benefit that you don't need to mess around with special PSUs for the RPi etc.

I do think the Eitr has an edge over the Digi+ Pro board (even when using fancy PSUs with the RPi, and with additional shielding/casework in place).

 

I'm not sure if that'd be the best of both worlds. I think the main appeal to the RPi based setups is that you can use direct i2s out from them rather than relying on USB at all. (if anybody wants to borrow my RPi + linear PSU [for the hat, not the pi itself] + Pi2Design 502DAC hat to compare to the Eitr PM me - I would myself but there's no way I can justify an Eitr atm)

 

Put it another way - what should matter is the end result - which is better, at least as far as I'm concerned from my direct comparisons, coming off the RPi into the Eitr.

Not tried it with the Pi2Design board, but RPi -> Eitr beats RPI + Digi+ Pro in my tests.

The USB-fluff is there, if not in the chain, either way.

 

The best thing about Eitr (and Gen5) is it lets us get back to obsessing over music and audio gear instead of over how the music gets to the audio gear.

The comparisons I've seen preferred the 502DAC as well but IIRC you didn't have the Pi setup very close to the top of your rankings. Even if they were the same though I think most people would probably be more comfortable with an Eitr and their current setup because the Pi is different, it's diy and going to require more work to get built let alone running. Some of what makes it different though is what makes it rewarding.

 

As you obviously do have an Eitr now, will you be able to answer your own question at some stage? I'd be quite curious to know about it too!

 

Not in the foreseeable future.

 

Why remove USB from the chain if Eitr fixes the sound problems associated with it? I don't think less items in the signal path is a valid argument here.