Schiit Bifrost 2

Cycled through the test tone sweeps at different sample rates overnight. Everything still sounded fine this morning.

Confirmed, it works!

Thanks so much for putting the forethought into an easy user FW upgrade procedure.* Now all we need is a sonic performance upgrade


*and the pretty flashing lights to keep us entertained while it's doing it's thing

 

I need to find an empty card somewhere, I'm sure I had one, but :effort: .__.

 

I have experienced clicking noises on my unit which isn't as noticeable on busy, noisy tracks but is clearly audible on ambient music. The clicks sound like a small scratch when listening to vinyl but appear randomly, i.e., not in the same place on the same tune when you listen multiple times.

On the same song, I swapped the Bifrost 2 for an Eitr -> Modi Multibit and no clicks; swapped back to Bifrost 2 and the clicks came back (I cycled this twice to be sure.) Oddly, I haven't rebooted it but no issues today. I am going to hold out for the firmware upgrade to see if this rectifies anything.

My chain is MBP-> Tidal-> Bifrost 2 USB -> Gilmore Lite MK 2 -> ZMF Verite (and Auteur - both checked.)

 

Just a quick question, If I were to connect this to the Jotunheim, would using the internal opamps to convert to balanced then feeding that to Jot be better or letting Jot's topology convert it?

 

This is purely subjective with a very quick test. But after listening to the bifrost for about a week and then switching to balanced, I would give a slight nod to SE.

 

I meant the differential ouput from LME49724 cheap-ass-balanced vs feeding the SE output (also passes through LME49724) into Pivot Point and letting that do the job. Logically, going balanced into the Jotunheim would isolate the signal from any power supply noise that could otherwise get in through the Jot SE input, but I guess the final result depends on how good of a job the op-amp differential topology does against Pivot Point. @schiit seems to like this opamp quite a bit so it'd be nice if he could chime in.

 

I can't tell and don't want to force it, does the MicroSD go in contacts down or contacts up?

 

Contacts down.

 

As shown in our measurements, performance from balanced or SE is virtually identical, so if you have balanced inputs, use those, and if you have SE inputs, use those. No nervosa necessary. I use Bifrost 2 with Asgard 3 via RCA and I don't worry about it. I also use Bifrost 2 with the Jotunheim R prototype via XLR and I don't worry about it.

 

I'm sad to report that my replacement bifrost is down. This unit was replaced by schiit about a week ago and I updated the firmware just a couple days ago. The issue is the same. The music stops and I get the three flashing lights. I love schiit products, truly. And I especially love their dacs. But honestly, this is quite frustrating.

So here's the thing with troubleshooting and diagnosing this problem with the three flashing lights. Either I was not successful updating the firmware OR the update does not fix the issue. I fix computers for a living so I'm pretty good with firmware updates and things of that nature.

I don't know anything to do at this point except to return the DAC and shop for something else. I still have faith that schiit will resolve the problem and the bifrost 2 will deliver what we all hoped it would. But this leaves the early adopters in a very awkward position, particularly for those of who don't have a backup source. I have no problem admitting that I can be a cranky bitch when I go without my music, just ask my wife. Music is therapy for me...it recharges my batteries.

Is there any way to confirm the firmware version so that I can confirm a successful update?

 

I'm in the same boat, second replacement failed. I just posted it off for return today, and figure I'll wait a several months before buying again to skip further teething issues. Fortunately I'd kept a Modi sitting around as a backup in case of early adoption snafus.

 

Let me ask, because this was happening to me as well. Is this happening on a machine running Windows?

This would happen to me when the machine would fall asleep and for some reason the USB driver/software would crap out. I found that if I went to the properties of the device, clicked on the Advanced tab, then switched the bit rate from the current one to another it would then pick up the USB connection. Mind giving that a try and see if that works for you? It could be a Windows driver issue.

Oh, and make sure it’s at a reasonable bit rate. For some reason mine was set to the highest instead of CD/DVD quality.

 

I don't think the issue with the three flashing lights was ever intended to be solved with a firmware update. That's a sign that you've got one of the boards with a bad surface mount capacitor. The flashing lights apparently means one of the internal cards can't be detected. Quoting Jason's [post] on head-fi:

"And...Dave just found it. We have a bad batch of surface mount capacitors (ironically, the same 1206-sized part that we have used for years in other products). When they fail (shorted), they can cause one of the internal cards not to be detected. If you have the 'three flashes' problem, contact us so we can swap out your Bifrost. Apologies for the trouble."

 

Wanted to give Bifrost 2 a try, havent been as excited about a Schiit product since Modi Multibit... but unfortunately need to skip due to the circumstances.

Guys, I want to give HUGE thanks to you for the courage and willingness to be early adopters and to share the experience/pain with others here. Dont worry, it will get better eventually... maybe even w/ Bifrost 2 in your possession, sometime in the future.

 

my pc's never sleep, my usb ports never turn off, it's a trivial amount or power in play but it does create problems when power savings modes are activated since, sheesh, WIN95? I turn off the monitor, that's it, +1 for remote control...

 

If the firmware is updated correctly, the Bifrost 2 CANNOT do the "triple flash." If it's still doing that, the firmware hasn't been updated. If you don't have a properly formatted, blank MicroSD (the FAT32 formatting and 32kB cluster size is actually critical, and not a trivial thing if the SDcard is over 32GB in size.)

The light show on startup is totally different when the firmware updates, with a stepwise flashing sequence with one traveling light. I'll see if I can grab a video today.

We've sent new firmware on MicroSD cards to everyone. Try that first. If that doesn't resolve it, contact us and we'll take care of you. Sorry for the trouble.

It was actually more complicated than that. Bad caps are out of the system, and not an issue anymore. If you have bad caps, the whole unit dies, does not output sound, doesn't do anything. They're pretty obvious. It took a while to sort out what was really happening with two different issues--again, one that wouldn't be caught in the beta, and one that wasn't caught in a very extensive beta.

I totally get this, but I still need to stress these are fairly isolated incidents. Mine has been fine. AtomicBobs has been fine. Lots of other peoples have been fine (about 93%, actually). It took us some time to solve the conflated bad cap/firmware issues (8-10 days.) During which time we haven't been shipping anything.

See how the new shipments do (shipped as of this Monday) and then check back. I suspect everything's been put to bed on this one.

 

Thanks Jason. I'll try to do another firmware update to be sure.

 

Contact [email protected] and ask them where the heck your MicroSD card is, if you have any trouble.

But seriously, the update flashing is wayyy different when it's updating. I'll get a video when I'm in the office.