Schiit Gungnir Multibit impressions

Interesting - what do you recommend in Gungnir Multibit’s general price range?

 

Depends on features you want and sound sig you like
Search

 

Dude you said:

So throw a few examples out, and I’ll research whether or not I think they match my sound sig preferences or not. Don’t just fire your opinions out there with no examples to back it up.

Edit: Also I don’t care much about “features” just your points around the sound signature and “veiled” sound of Gungnir Multibit.

 

I take his inability to recommend as a recommendation. And his failure to back up his opinion as the norm.

 

I said “Search” as this is not the thread for this. You could’ve read my recent posts to find out what bang for buck boxes I like. I was right to not waste time repeating myself to people who will read about audio gear with their eyes (hopefully without moving their lips) rather than listen to it with their own ears.

 

You commented on Gungnir Multibit’s sound in a thread about Gungnir Multibit impressions and said there were better options - but “nah, I’m not going to provide them, you go read and figure it out”.

Seriously?

I was/am genuinely curious here. And providing impressions and giving alternatives to overcome shortcomings I think is pretty much exactly what we should be doing, and what we do regularly - as long as we can be specific about where improvements can be had, and back it up with actual listening impressions. If you can’t do that specifically wrt Gungnir Multibit, then you shouldn’t have said what you did to begin with.

 

So I took his challenge and looked through his last few weeks of posting. It's a bit of a mixed bag. In one post he calls RME-ADI wimpy, but says fairly nice things about it in another. His most consistent recommendation appears to be for various Dangerous Music products (Source, Convert-2, D-Box) although I didn't find any post where he actually discusses sound or capabilities. Pretty hard to follow his posts as he uses lots of shorthand and many of his posts are replies to posts he didn't quote. In all, a fairly unproductive 1/2 hour given the lack of information discovered.

At one point he says:

but doesn't mention what that is.

Amusing that there is apparently only good quality DAC.

 

Not my fault you’re inexperienced with big boy two channel and pro style gear redditors and Massdroppers haven’t heard of. Start listening to music, stop reading reddit, and stop flexing mediocre cans. Hear what you can when you can. These are headphones and electronics. Stop buying them like women buy shoes.

The RME is light beer. Perfectly chuggable replacement for water but not exceptional, not ideal, and not worth 8 bucks for a 6 pack. I wouldn’t buy it but I wouldn’t object if it was free.

 

Dang, where's that Ignore button? Oh, it's right there on the profile pa

 

It's gettin' awfully noisy in here. Anybody have anything useful to day about the Gungnir MB?

I'm thinking of upgrading my D/S & I'm on the fence.

 

People still care what @Psalmanazar thinks?

Why?

The whole elitist-snob Psalm act followed by the outraged masses schtick is beyond old.

I have the Gungnir A2 and love it. Psalm's criticisms be damned.

 

I’m genuinely curious about Schiit alternatives in their relative price range. I like my Gungnir Multibit A2 as well, but would love to hear something else that can compete. Guess I was barking up the wrong tree. Although the Dangerous stuff looks interesting, chances of hearing one, or finding one used up here in my part of the Great White North is unlikely.

@Jinxy245 I've not heard the D/S Gungnir, so can’t offer anything direct, but have heard a half dozen other D/S DACs before and during my time with Gungnir Multibit and definitely preferred Gungnir Multibit by a significant margin. A major drop in digititus with Gungnir Multibit, and way better spatial stuff, plankton and separation of instruments, soundstage and dense tonality, with a detailed and realistic top end (that’s a bit sweet). Gungnir Multibit was the first Dac I’d heard that actually approached what sounded like real cymbals and hi hats. The other D/S Dacs I owned were Sabre, Wolfson and Burr brown chips however (the Burr Brown being the only one I could handle before Gungnir Multibit).

 

Agreed. My first revelation on what a dac could really bring to the table was when I plugged Gungnir A1 into the Hegel H360 and said 'woah'. The layering/separation that I think Schiit dacs do is very, very good.

 

I think @sheldaze considered many of these alternatives in his excellent Soerkis 1421 writeup here
I highly recommend reading through it.

FWIW I ended up getting a Cyan (mainly as an AIO) after I changed from OG Gungnir Multibit to OG Yggdrasil. I agree with sheldaze’s assessments of Cyan (as DAC) vs OG Gungnir Multibit vs OG Yggdrasil.

 

I was reading this thread last night, but did not have time to comment.

The only thing I wanted to add was @Psalmanazar came to the meet event long after the discussion of differences between the Gungnir Multibit at the meet event and the Gungnir Multibit A2, which I used in the review. It was obvious when @gandhisfist was comparing Soekris dac1541/dac1421 relative what he heard (I had not listened to the Gungnir at the meet). He has good ears, and was coming up with relative terms on the opposite side of what I heard, using my own Gungnir. Then I listened to the Gungnir, at the meet.

In short, there is a difference between A1 and A2. It has been discussed at length. Please know what you are getting into. I think the adjustment is worth the effort (i.e. I changed from HD650K, less precise, more shallow bass, to JAR650, controlled treble, stronger, deeper bass).

 

A forum search turned up the interesting RME ADI-2 DAC thread. At $1100 from Sweetwater it seems to be in direct competition to the Gungnir Multibit. If my budget limited me to under $1300 for a DAC and I had the credit I would order both a Gungnir Multibit and RME ADI-2 DAC then listen to both for 10 days and send back the one I did not like.

 

I'm a fairly simple, old fashioned guy in that generally when I find something I really like I stick with it. The only reason I owned so many schiit amps is because I always felt like I was missing something. On the amp side it was the Torpedo 3 that cured my upgraditis. This is of course relative to my financial status at the moment. If I had money to blow I'd get one of the totl Eddie Current amps. But for someone on a budget , it likely doesn't get better than the T3.

The Gungnir Multibit was the first DAC I owned that felt like the last puzzle piece sliding into place, and it all just made sense. Music was music and not "mostly music with some compromises". And it didn't have any sense of being a budget piece of gear, didn't make me feel poor and not able to afford true TOTL.

So once famish is done demoing Gungnir Multibit and sells it to me.... at this budget level, I'm content. I feel like used T3/Gungnir Multibit/HD800/modded650 is THE setup to own if you're on a relatively tight budget and want TOTL without worrying about what you're missing. The answer is... not much.

I'm just not curious about others DACs having owned Gungnir Multibit because of the crazy magic voodoo juice in the burrito filter .

 

Interesting sharing, ColtMrFire. The reason I've owned many Schiit products myself is a combination of wanting to try something new and/or eventually being tired of a characteristic. This isn't to say Schiit products are poor but every one has had a characteristic to it for better or worse. I enjoyed the Gungnir Multibit and DS however some music sounded right, some a little off. The DS hit like a tank down low, the Multibit had incredible bass but on my K702 didn't reach as deep. * With my current SU-8V2 everything sounds great on every headphone I own from the HD6XX to HE-560. The presentation is good, it is easy to listen to yet is highly detailed with a focused stage. It is right up there at a mere $200 from some outlets with more features than you could shake a stick at. Right now is a good time to be in the audio market for low/mid-fi folks wanting a competitive piece of gear.

*Just my opinion, I'm a SS guy who wants as little color as possible.