Schiit Modi 2 Uber AK4490

I think my impressions were a bit premature because this thing has taken on a life of it's own tonight. I don't know what it is, the additional warm up time or my brain adjusting to the sound but after going back and forth a dozen or so more times the difference is night and day.

The clarity/refinement is head and shoulders above the 4490. It's like HD resolution vs standard definition. It almost seems muddy going back to the 4490 after listening to the Moby. This attribute alone makes it worth owning imo.

I'm not sure if the sound stage is increased but Instrument separation/positioning seems better.

Musicality wise the Moby wins. It sounded almost sterile before but now it's incredibly enjoyable. I'm getting those dopamine shivers.

I almost feel ashamed for having given my impressions before because this little thing is a musical masterpiece.

Note to self: before writing about new audio products, give them ample time to burn-in and collect your thoughts.

 

I did a stint with the M4490 a few months ago. It performs similarly to its bigger brother, albeit with a less fleshed-out midrange and weaker bass heft. I found the Bifrost to be worth the upgrade, myself. But for just $100 more, the Moby betters it fairly comprehensively as a value proposition.

Still, the M4490 is a good DAC that managed to help reignite my enthusiasm for Schiit's product line. Hard to put a price on that!

 

According to the schiit website, Modi 2 (not uber, not multibit) is now running the AKM4490 DAC chip.

 

I expect @Psalmanazar is shedding manly tears in light of this development. Seems the only non-multibit Schiit DAC that eschews the ubiquitous AK4490 is the D/S Gungnir. Which I don't know offhand if anyone on here has ever bought, actually.

 

I'm considering this or the Multibit, thoughts?

 

A story for you that may be relevant. Got a modi multibit a couple months after release, loved it, and it kept getting better for a week or so of on time. After a couple of weeks, the power switch quit working. Got an RMA from Schiit and returned it under warranty. When they returned it to me, I noticed it had the old, longer toggle for a powerswitch. Powered up and started listening, and thought wtf? Didn't sound as good. Less detail and instrument separation than I remembered, not as much "space," for lack of a better word. Thought maybe they changed the whole board for some reason and needed some warmup time. So I left it on, continuing to use it of course, but never thought it sounded as good as I had remembered. Good, but not as good. Finally decided that I must've acclimated to the sound.

About 6 months later, I came into a small amount of $, and decided to upgrade my dac. I wanted to recreate the excitement I felt when I first got the multibit, so I decided to sell the multibit and buy a Gungnir Multibit. Did so, and sure enough the Gungnir Multibit blew me away (probably mostly expectation bias, I thought). A couple days later, I get a nasty angry email from the guy I sold the multibit to; "you ripped me off, sold me a modi 2 Uber in a Multibit case, I wanna return it and want my money back." Turns out, Schiit had installed the wrong board. So yeah, I noticed the difference right away between the m2u and the multibit, but didn't believe my ears. Never woulda thought they would install the wrong board, so didn't look. Ironically, Schiit also sent me an original Magni when I ordered an original Vali (box had a sticker on it that said Vali) and sent me a Jot w/dac when I ordered a Jot amp only. I think if you can swing the $100, the multibit is worth that and probably more.

 

I have both the Gungnir Multibit (upgraded from Gungnir D/S) and Modi-Mulit bit. For the money the Modi would be my choice. Sometimes I swap out the Gungnir Multibit for the MM. Always makes me realize what a deal the Modi is. Makes a very noticeable difference in my modest TV speaker set-up too. Even Jason at Schiit usually uses the MM. That’s what he brought with him to the Pasadena meet and why I ordered one when I got home. After that, upgrading the Gungnir to MB was a no brainer.

 

Necro-post ... So I bought a used Modi 2U at a whim, without a real use for it. Had a quick shake-down listen last night (Jriver 23 -> USB -> M2U -> Perreaux SXH2 -> Hifiman HE560. Not my usual rig but I perceived a warmer, fuller, smoother but more closed in and apparently less detailed signature compared to my budget reference Nuprime uDSD.

I never followed the development of the Modi so did not know about the change from 4396 to 4490 but from the sound descriptions above I thought it had to be 4490. Opened up the box and found the earlier DAC chip in there. Somehow I don't think the differences between the two AKM chips are as large as claimed when these were FotM. I'm happy with this little box - not an ultimate reference DAC but not half bad either - and I find the "mini full-sized component" form-factor quite appealing. Think this is going to the office rig for a while!