Bought a Gungnir Multibit... So far not impressed. Why?

When I think of syrupy bass, terms like slow, weak (no impact), humming, and bloomy come to mind. Just to throw out a few terms that describe it imo of course. Hopefully this helps you Gravity.

 

What are you feeding Gungnir Multibit with? Do we have a thread for this?
We really do need a thread for this, if not. Just like a straight up price/value comparison... how to feed Gungnir Multibit.

(I won't even comment on players, since I've always stuck with Foobar. Someone on HF commented on WAV sounding different than FLAC, was mocked severely, but then I tried it for a while and found I actually do prefer WAV, despite knowing FLAC is lossless. So I could entertain the notion of certain players sounding different.)

 

PCM1704 still sounds better(in terms of overall tonality and glare) to me than any other PCM179x or ESS9xxxx or CS4398 or AKM49xx. However even the highest tier PCM1704UK is not in the same league as the modern AD5791.

 

It was a shame that last time we met I didn't have Audirvana+ on my MacBook Pro. It was one of the best purchases I've made last year.

 

To echo cskippy - this seems like the key issue here. After Rick Shultz and some other shills tried to push xlr->rca cables in the HF Yggdrasil thread as superior to the se outs (some even claiming that this was recommended by Schiit), Jason specifically weighed in that while experimentation is "okay" there are "actual engineering reasons" why you should use the summed outputs when connecting to an se amp to take full advantage of the dac's design. http://www.head-fi.org/t/766347/schiit-yggdrasil-impressions-thread/435#post_11778417

If you switch to the se outs, how does it sound?

 

For me, I like how foobar sound, provided that it was stripped its components to only its core components - running KS out (so only left foo_input_std.dll, foo_ui_std.dll and foo_out_ks.dll). So no themes or other unnecessary process. But who know, it might be my pc was running wild unknown process and services

 

What the hell? Foobar themes will make no difference to the sound. No difference whatsoever, it's not possible, stop this madness!

 

We really need audio manufacturers with a strong computer science background. Too many DAC designers resort to off-the-shelf USB/etc interfaces and call it a day, while audiophiles "hear" differences between bitperfect software players.

 

I think a high protein diet would work best if you find Gungnir Multibit too warm or mushy sounding. Alternatively, a higher fat, "bulking" diet would be great to add a a little more heft.

 

I have to admit that I don't have much to contribute to this now but I hope to later. I purchased purrin's SFD-1 which will be interesting for me since I owned an Audio GD Master 11 which uses the PCM1704 that has been discussed. I found similar issues to the mentioned ones -- a bit too round of bass and not enough attack. It's a nice sound in that if you're looking for something to have a session where you're just kicking back. It's very relaxing and smooth but it doesn't have the grunt that real instruments have. I'm not sure if I'm phrasing this adequately but I feel as if when you go to a concert there's something harsh and almost fatiguing in the way real instruments sound. Think that sound that happens immediately after a blues guitarist's pick connects with the string especially someone who hits hard like SRV. It's nitpicking, I know, but that little bit of magic gets left out - you get a good bit of the depth and the body but not the attack.Whether or not the SFD fixes that, I'm not sure, but I'll know in a few weeks when I own an amp (sold everything to upgrade before having anything to replace it with)

In regards to the chips - I'm not sure how similar the PCM56P chips are to the ones that the Theta uses but if they are similar, one thing that might be promising as far as modern DACs go are the 3 of the MHDT Labs DACs -- the Havana, Havana 2 and Stockholm 2 all of which use that chip.

I don't have enough experience with the truly high end gear to fully comment on this issue now, but I will say that I'm in the process of rebuilding my setup and in a few weeks I'll have a Pioneer SX-1010 in to go with the SFD and I hope to write on that to address a couple issues including 1) The topic of the potential virtues of old DAC tech largely using auditory memory of the M11 as a reference (it would be nice to have it to do a true a/b but that wasn't in the cards unfortunately) 2) How valuable vintage receivers are/aren't in use with headphones. With any luck, I hope to purchase or at least hear a Yggdrasil around summer so I can really go into detail on the issue of the old guard vs. the new since I find this a very interesting issue to explore since I first heard about R2R with the Schiit DACs and just recently have been reading on the older stuff like Theta and the Sonic Frontiers stuff. So again, maybe not the most helpful now, but situation allowing, I might be able to be in the future.

 

Would you say the difference between stock Gungnir Multibit and Gungnir Multibit plus the Mutec or Transient is still smaller than the difference between Gungnir Multibit and Yggdrasil?

I'm getting interested in these converters but am wondering whether the money would be better used to just upgrade to Yggdrasil. Of course, I could still use the converter if I eventually got Yggdrasil.

 

I had a different experience with the CI Audio transient. I was initially using it to output I2S over HDMI to an Audio GD master 7 and it worked beautifully. I still had it in house when I got a Yggdrasil. I preferred (very very slightly) the Yggdrasil USB over the Transient AES output. There just wasn't that big of a difference really. But the Yggdrasil and Gungnir Multibit have different USB implementations so who knows.

 

Might want to take a look at Luckbad's MHDT thread if you want a newer dac using vintage chips.

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...abs-r-2r-nos-tube-dacs.1336/page-2#post-36946

 

Best DAC within means/desire probably shouldn't come at the expense of transducer or amplifier though.

The current situation makes you wonder what the Gungnir Multibit would/will be like if/when Schiit releases a USB Gen3 upgrade board...

 

You seem to rep hard for SPDIF. I would really like a comparison of that vs. USB w/Wyrd (which I currently have). It sounds great to me.

 

While a DAC shootout would indeed be nice, in this case it probably wouldn't be helpful for the OP since his issue is not so much that the Gungnir Multibit is a poor DAC, but that it simply does not suit his preferences. And seeing how a fair number of current production DACs seem to be leaning away from his tastes, the proposition holds even less value for this particular case.

 

Totally spot on about the matter