Schiit Gungnir Multibit impressions

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Bill-P, Oct 7, 2015.

  1. BillOhio

    BillOhio Friend

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    You Da Man... It hadn't occurred to me to check in 'tray' for the icon... I saw 'tray' and was thinking task bar... so OK, I can find my software again. Thank You! Now I just gotta figure out how to configure the thing to get optical out.

    Edit: I see that option, SPDIF Optical Out, in the menu...

    Edit: Still figuring out how to get sound out of this card... I will persevere
     
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2017
  2. BillOhio

    BillOhio Friend

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    So I've got the RME 9632/Mogami Gold SPDIF WASAPI connection set up and running to the Gungnir Multibit/Mjo2 and it does sound great, even through my closed T5p2's were bought as portable all-rounders and to me they seem great for this. I don't expect those headphones though to quite compete with some of the more elite headphones.

    Still, the sound is very ... 'supple' with sound stage, separation, clarity, smoothness and overall quality and immersiveness being way beyond anything that I, a relative novice, have heard before. I'm impressed actually with the T5P2's for the money for sound quality, build quality, and comfort (after switching out the stock pads to a pair of sheepskins from Brainwavz which softens the sound slightly but let's me wear these headphones all day from a comfort standpoint).

    I was a little worried initially that I was going to be disappointed but that was in the first few hours of ownership before having allowed for the Gungnir Multibit to warm up. That and the switch from 16 bit depth to 'automatic' in JRiver seem to have gone a long way to smooth out the sound that had initially been hard edged, metallic, very fatiguing.

    I don't know that the switch from Motherboard USB to RME S/PDIF is making as noticeable a difference. Maybe the sound will evolve as the sound card gets some more hours on it in my system. Maybe the switch is making more of a difference than I realize without doing A/B comparisons. Maybe I'll make a discovery as I play around with the JRiver settings. Switching the USB to the RME with postage and duties up here in Canada was more than $400 ($500?) CAD though and I don't know that I'm quite hearing a difference that's on the level of that expense, at least not yet.

    Still, the set up sounds fantastic overall and I do look forward to adding in a high end open set of cans, currently I imagine the Ether Flows.

    Edit: Got a notice from the shop and will be picking up a pair off Ether Flows tomorrow afternoon. I'll report in after 8 1/3 days of recommended burn in time and after that I think I'm done for a while.

    Anyway, that's my report,
    Cheers,
    -Bill
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  3. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    T5p is one of the best Beyers. I've gone between a few soundcards and IMO, as long as you avoid USB, you should be good.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  4. Mystic

    Mystic Mystique's Spiritual Advisor

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    [​IMG]

    It was a happy surprise that my Sonett fit perfectly atop my new Gungnir Multibit when I got it earlier this week.

    Early impressions:
    -Already enjoyed the sound at first boot up.
    -After 72 hours the sound was more refined, highs we're more even, bass tighter.
    -Moving from the Modi Multibit, I can tell they are from the same family. Better extension on both ends, less veiled upper mids/treble, more authority in the bass.

    Current chain: Mutec 1.2 -> Gungnir Multibit via spdif -> Sonett -> 650/Eikon.

    I think I'll need to grab a BNC cable from blue jeans since I'm pretty sure my Mutec supports it.
     
  5. Mr Rick

    Mr Rick Acquaintance

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    I got my Gungnir Multibit last night. It's been on since I go it out of the box. It sounds glorious. I've been listening in B & W. This thing is Technicolor !!
     
  6. Darren G

    Darren G Friend

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    For whatever it's worth I just leave the Bifrost Multibit on all the time. Again it's really hard to A/B compare cold boot vs warmed up, but it may have helped. I'm very pleased with the Multibit upgrade. Smooth, spacious, nice quiet backdrop.

    Sadly I'm really getting the itch to upgrade my Bifrost Multibit + Lyr 2 -> Gungnir Multibit + Mojinar 2, for the balanced audio, and maybe some other benefits. Wish there was some cheaper way to compare.
     
  7. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Don't upgrade primarily to get balanced- the right amp and DAC for you makes more of a difference, as a rule.
     
  8. mrflibble

    mrflibble Friend

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    I am experiencing a strange phenomenon with my Gungnir Multibit and Technics SL1210 turntable. More often than not (but not always), when I turn the turntable on or off, the relay on the Gungnir Multibit relay will click. If there is a lot of static on the record, the relay will click when the stylus gets close to the record surface or when the record is removed from the mat. I find this very strange and am wondering if anybody has an idea of the cause?

    When I'm using my turntable the chain is:

    Technics SL1210 -> Technics SU-V6 -> Vali 2 -> HD650

    The Gungnir Multibit and Vali are on one multi-socket extension and the SL1210 and the SU-V6 are on another.
     
  9. mrflibble

    mrflibble Friend

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    Okay, did an experiment. Disconnected the BNC cable to the Gungnir Multibit from the computer and it stops the relay clicking. My computer is connected to the same socket extension as the turntable. My guess is that the turntable sends some electrical signal back down the mains and into my computer which triggers the relay on the Gungnir Multibit. I don't recall it ever happening when using TOSLink to connect the Gungnir Multibit, but that would be explained by TOSLink giving complete electrical isolation. It's not important, just strange :)
     
  10. Garns

    Garns Friend

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    Yeah, I think you are on the right track. I suspect that turning the turntable on or off causes a burst of RF emissions which momentarily interferes with the SPDIF signal (which actually runs on a 3MHz carrier signal if memory serves). My Yggdrasil does the same if I turn other gear on or off in its vicinity. The solution I found is just to ensure that the source cable into the DAC is physically separated from any nearby power cables (a couple of inches is generally enough)
     
  11. a44100Hz

    a44100Hz Friend

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    Silly question... can I run two amps at the same time from Gungnir Multibit by using balanced outs to one amp and SE outs to another?
     
  12. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    I did briefly, without problems (checked for problems with IEM) . That said, waiting on a Jensen Isomax to go bal to SE for me, as it's supposed to be better than those JFET summers.
     
  13. aufmerksam

    aufmerksam Friend

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    Yup. Remember that balanced output is higher than SE
     
  14. Delayeed

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    Anyone compared Chord Mojo as a DAC vs Gungnir Multibit?

    Thinking about upgrading to the Gungnir Multibit but a bit worried to spend so much money on a DAC.
    The Mojo has smooth maybe rolled off treble which complements the Ether C slight treble peakyness and I want the treble to be even more smooth and "forgiving".

    Looking for more thickness, warmth, smoothness and detail.
     
  15. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    The Mojo is a pretty terrible desktop DAC, especially for the money. It's considerably less resolving than the Modi Multibit (having owned both for a while). It manages to be rolled-off while somehow retaining some D/S-style treble spikiness. That's even assuming that you're hearing both at their best from clean and relatively jitter-free SPDIF. The Mojo's USB implementation takes "piss poor" to new and exciting heights.

    You can enjoy the Mojo, though; as long as you don't listen to anything better for too long, it sounds fine. Its sound signature crimes are mostly those of omission- it doesn't stab you in the ears too much.

    The Mojo is also pretty annoying from a practical POV as a desktop DAC. Micro-USB power in, 3.5mm stereo out aren't ideal. It also has a marked tendency to overheat on warm days, if it's playing while externally powered. Add to that the fact that it doesn't have an actual line out; you have to hold down multiple bollocks while powering it on to activate a fixed "line out mode". It's a lot of unnecessary compromises- paying more than the Modi Multibit for a unit which sounds worse and is more annoying to use as a desktop DAC. The Modi Multibit is a better unit, hands-down.

    The Gungnir Multibit is vastly and noticeably more resolving, detailed etc. than the Modi Multibit. It's a touch warm, and has a generously powerful bottom end, with a laid-back though not terribly rolled-off overall sound. It's maybe a little less "forward" than the Yggdrasil, with a slightly more.. I don't know, organic and forgiving sound, but the detail is there if the rest of the chain can resolve it.

    I'm not sure I'd be trying to fix funny-sounding transducers with my DAC choice, mind you...
     
    Last edited: May 7, 2017
  16. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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    You won't get more thickness or warmth at all. The Mojo is colored with a lower mid boost and off-timbre warmth often confused for musicality. The Gungnir Multibit fed with a proper source (not a chain of USB gizmos designed to dial in warmth) will appear a little lean until your ears adjust, but will also take two steps towards timbral correctness at the same time.

    You will get more smoothness as the Mojo is grainy and coarse through all of its digital inputs, and more detail is a no-brainer. Substantial upgrade, don't rely on your DAC to compensate for the weaknesses with your headphones or amp. System synergy is one thing but the most transparent source you can get is paramount. If you want your rig to be more forgiving use rolled tubes or don't use a slightly U-shaped amp with slightly V-shaped planars.
     
  17. a44100Hz

    a44100Hz Friend

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    Hmm. Using optical in, the relay on my Gungnir Multibit clicks every time a song changes, even the same sampling rate on the same album. In foobar this means I lose the first ~2 seconds on every track, which is no bueno. My Bifrost Multibit didn't do this. I would rather use optical for obvious reasons. Any way this can be remedied?

    Edit: it seems to work like I expect it to (not clicking for restarting the same track) with iTunes. Must be something to do with foobar. Time to experiment...
     
    Last edited: May 9, 2017
  18. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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    It works like that with iTunes because iTunes is using the Windows mixer and thus is sending a continuous stream of the same sample rate (whatever is set under Windows). What are you outputting optical with? Try using ASIO drivers instead of WASAPI if available and see if that stops the clicking. If not add a buffer to foobar equivalent to the amount of time you're losing on each track e.g. 2000ms
     
  19. a44100Hz

    a44100Hz Friend

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    It's a mini optical port from my laptop, not using any converters. The relay clicking has become quite bothersome because it clicks every time my computer makes a sound, such as the windows startup sound, and then clicks off again when that sound is finished. Adding a buffer in foobar doesn't seem to actually do anything regardless of which output mode I am using from foobar: DS, WASAPI, or ASIO4ALL. I'm mostly confused as to why the Gungnir Multibit does this but the Bifrost Multibit did not; nothing else about my setup has changed.
     
  20. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

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    The Bifrost Multibit doesn't have the same muting relay as the Gungnir Multibit, that's why. Unfortunately some sources, including some older CD transports, will trigger the relay every time a track changes. Your optical output is turning off between songs (or in your case even between system sounds) and triggering the relay. TOSLINK is a huge POS and sometimes even worse than USB in terms of jitter and noise rejection, I would suggest just using USB to stop the clicking. I'd also suggest disabling the Windows system sounds entirely as they mess with USB DACs.

    From the Gungnir manual:
    Also just FYI, ASIO4ALL is not an actual ASIO driver but basically Kernel Streaming in an ASIO wrapper.
     

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