Schiit Modius-E

I wasn't sure if this needed a new thread, but, since the Modi 3E got one, why the f**k not?

Anyway, what's new with this one? Well, it swapped the AKM chips with a ESS ES9028. Also, another cool thing I confirmed through the manual: It has usb-c ports! Thank god, because micro-usb is kinda shit. You'd be amazed how many of those a family of four can go through.

Anyway, here's the manual: https://www.schiit.com/public/upload/PDF/modius E manual 1_1.pdf


I ordered one this week, and I have a Jot 2 I'm picking up tomorrow. So I'll be able to give impressions or something this week. (Current headphone is a Aurorus Borealis.)

 

I got the Modius in today. Hooked it up to the Jot 2....still waiting on my 4mm->XLR, so I'm stuck with single ended out of the Jot 2.

That said, the first thing I thought was Jesus Christ, this thing is detailed. I had a K9 Pro ESS recently (which is a very good DAC for a AIO,) and the Modius-E is outdoing that thing.

The other big change I noticed is that the hole in the center of the original Modius' soundstage is now gone. However, it keeps a lot of the same tuning and characteristics. No ESS glare, and the edge is not hearable to me yet (give it a couple days though.) The dynamics of the DAC are certainly not slowing the Jot 2 or the Bori at all. It's more enjoyable so far than the original Modius was for me (as that felt it was trying a bit too hard at times with the Jot 2....hard to describe that quantitatively.)

Edit: Forgot to mention - It's been a few years since I've heard the RME ADI-2 or the Topping D90S, but...quite frankly, the original Modius was already slightly better than those two. And I heard that just recently. So...eh, make of that as you will.

 

I'll probably do some more listening over the week, but for now I've tried Modius-E SE->Jot 2 (and output to my headphones was through the XLR) and Modius-E Bal -> Jot 2.

The first thing I noticed is that the SE sounds slightly more congested than the Bal. This may or may not be because the upper-mids are a bit more mellowed out. Like the original Modius, it has phat bass when going through the SE outputs. Unlike the original Modius, I would not classify the SE to be even slightly V-shaped. It's more just warm. Probably the warmest D/S dac I've heard from Schiit (and I've had quite a few. Even the ESS card in a Jot 2 earlier this year.) The soundstage sounds smaller, but that may also just be from the bass being phatter. Overall, it sounds similar to the MOTU Ultralite Mk5 I had late last year, but I couldn't say if it was better or not...which I guess is a pretty good thing considering the MOTU is $600 and the Modius-E is $230. That said, I'm not going to spend much more time on the SE because, quite frankly, I prefer the BAL quite a bit.

Now the Balanced outs are a bit more complicated to go over. Here's some frame of reference: several months ago, Fiio came out with the K9 Pro ESS. It was actually pretty good. Came with two ES9038 pro chips and Fiio basically designed the THX chips specially made for this amp...in fact, one of the only THX chip amps that didn't sound dead. Well, awkwardly, this dac has more detail than the K9 Pro ESS (a dac I already thought did incredibly well with an ESS chip.) At least, in a way that makes the detail a lot more apparent. It's not overly sharpened, as @purr1n put it, but it does sound a touch emphasized in high end. Thankfully, it isn't like the Hel 2E where there were some sounds in a game [Lost Judgement] that made me want to toss the Hel 2E out the window and into a neighbor's pool because the very obvious glare and treble sharpness.

The mids were pretty fantastic and detailed. I feel like, with dacs anyway, the less you say about the mids, the better.

The soundstage was made a little smaller and less diffuse over the original Modius. In this case, it isn't a bad thing since, quite frankly, the Modius did have a hole in the middle of the soundstage. The imaging is more accurate as a result.

The dynamics are pretty fantastic. Or, at the very least, it's not getting in the way of the Borealis and Jot 2. It does hit harder in the sub bass than the original Modius did, but it's not warmer than the original Modius overall.

So far, I'd say the Modius-E is a bit livelier, a bit more coherent, a touch better extended in the air, and a touch more subbass emphasized (but less warm overall) than the original Modius. I'll return to this at the end of next week so I have a bit more time to actually understand the dac better. But, at this point, I'm pleasantly surprised. I was a bit worried because the original modius, at least when I returned to it this year, was a "well, now I just want a Bifrost 2." This is not the case with the Modius-E. I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. It seems to me, at least, that Schiit finally struck a balance correcting the ESS chip's tonal faults without overcompensating with warmth.

 

Would be interesting to match it against Bifrost 2 because now it seems as new Modius will jeopardize it I suspect they will replace BF2 with beefed up BF3 and abandon Gungnir completely.

Also, I still suspect as a happy original Modius owner it's probably not worth upgrading and rather wait for BF3.

 

I highly doubt they will drop the BF2. For one thing, it's the youngest MB DAC currently in their lineup, and not a single modular upgrade has been released for it yet, which is one of the selling points of that model.

 

It looks like the BF2 got a nice upgrade, but the Gugnir, after a current promo runs out, is getting dropped due to parts not being available.

 

Now I'm even more glad that I have it. It and the Freya S will be the heart of my system for as long as they continue to function.