Marvey's DAC Chart of Awesomeness

For me, the best tube-implemented DAC I've heard was the Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 MKII SE+. Its dual UltraAnalog modules may fall a hair or two behind the megaburrito multibit offerings from Schiit in terms of absolute technicalities and resolution, but that slightly warm, rich sound (partially attributed to vintage Telefunken E188CC tubes) combined with a massive soundstage completely changed my point of view on tube DAC's which had been negative until then. I had sold it in order to fund my Yggdrasil purchase since everyone was so raving about the Yggdrasil back then, and while Yggdrasil too had blown me away, had I had the opportunity to compare both side-by-side, I may not have gone through the hassle of selling my SFD-2 since I would've been perfectly happy with either.

Wonder if there will ever be a tube stage update for Gungnir Multibit/Yggdrasil, since Schiit is always full of surprises. (cough-Modi 2U-cough)

 

The Bryston BDA-3 might be a worthwhile demo. Dual-mono design based on AKM 4490, and supports SACD and stereo audio over HDMI along with HDMI video pass-through. For those of us using a standalone DAC in a living room with video 2.0 and headphone systems, it looks like a good option.

The chain in my profile is the only other way I could get full resolution Blu-ray and SACD (via 24/176.4 PCM) from an Oppo to an Yggdrasil, which does not mate well with HDMI de-embedders.

 

Does Modi 2 Uber 4490 get new placement in the chart?

 

I use the GOv2 half the time when I'm away from home with the 650's, which haven't left my head in a long time... here are some impressions if you're interested:
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...-review-and-measurements.79/page-5#post-49211

 

Awesome, I actually have the GO450 instead of the v2, have you had a chance to compare the two?

 

Nope sorry, the GOv2 is the first LH product I've heard!

 

I'll place for you. I owned the Bifrost Multibit and the Modi 2 uber 4396 as well as the 4490. For me, it slots right where the gray blocks are on the Luxman DA-06. I will say though that my impression of the Bifrost Multibit would be one rung lower.

 

In all that time, there really hasn't been a comparative DAC comparison/shootout like with your chart.

There is Darko's questionable list at DigitalAudioReview
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/the-darko-dac-index/

There is also Hificritic, which only has scores from their reviews (not the actual reviews themselves)
http://www.hificritic.com/digital-audio.html

The scores range from 30 to 400, which I can't make heads or tails of them.

 

interesting. never heard or seen a tube dac before. i learn something new everyday.

 

If anyone could help me with this I would greatly appreciate it.

So as far as i'm aware there is no way to use wasapi as the main audio driver outside of foobar and other music players. If there is, PLEASE let me know. So, all audio outside of foobar (tidal, youtube, etc)doesn't get directly sent to the dac, it gets passed through windows DS which isn't fully utilizing the dac like it does with wasapi. (If any of this is incorrect, do correct me)

My question is if I would even get any benefit buying a Gungnir Multibit if most of my music listening is outside of foobar which isn't using wasapi?

 

There are two schools of thought on how bad the Windows mixer is compared to WASAPI. There are those who believe it's an abomination and therefore WASAPI would be viewed as literally mandatory, and those like me who don't think it's so bad if you just follow 1 simple guideline:

Set the properties for the audio device in the Windows Audio settings to output the same sample rate as that of your source, and generally you always want to set the bit depth 24 bits. So if it's CD audio, make sure the Windows Audio device settings for output are set to 24/44.1. The reason for this is that if it is different than the source rate, Windows will upsample the source to whatever that is set to, and then you incur a filter that approximates the original signal.

With that set correctly, the only thing the Windows mixer will do is increase the bit depth to 32 bit float, and then convert it to your output setting's bit depth (again, usually 24). This means that dithering gets applied when the bit depth is converted to 24 bit, but in theory the worst this would do is ever-so-slightly increase the noise floor, which is considered relatively minor.

In any case, I think this might get more complicated when you are talking about various internet sources of audio - I think that most video like youtube is 48khz audio. If you didn't mind trying to keep track of that sort of thing, you would survive with Windows Mixer.

I do not know how to enable a system wide WASAPI, but I have heard that a device driver exists for this, can't rem if it was a commercial product. This could have drawbacks though, like I think the Gungnir Multibit introduces some audio delay (latency), which might not be ideal for movies (lipsync issues) or gaming? Someone fact check me on this, not sure if the Gungnir Multibit has much latency.

Edit: Also, I should add that I do prefer to use WASAPI for peace of mind. Windows is nefarious about sneaking in audio processing or eqing.

 

Thank you for your input! I already have it set to 24/44.1 so we're on the same page haha. Delay huh, that's interesting. I wasn't aware that was an issue with Gungnir Multibit. Definitely something i'll keep in mind because I know that would annoy the hell out of me.

 

If you get JRiver Media Center, it has a WDM driver that can be installed in place of the Windows default sound driver. You can then choose the appropriate playback support such as WASAPI or ASIO for your device inside of the JRiver player. Bit perfect for everything. I still use the Windows mixer when gaming though as I am highly sensitive to latency, even with buffer settings all set as low as possible. This is with USB->Wyrd->Gungnir Multibit.

 

Just remember that some Internet sources are 48khz, so you might have to switch it up.

Jriver is nice, so maybe @cskippy has the right idea with using their driver.

 

Edit: silly question, figured it out.

Will try JRiver again but I found it had one too many features I didn't make use of.

 

Does this mean it only works for audio being played in the media player or does it replace the windows audio driver in the OS which would make all audio play through that new driver?

 

Hate to link another site, this one in particular, but have a read here ... for what it's worth (just my opinion after all).

Often wishing I'd started that thread here ... but what's done is done.

I'm of the opinion that the Bryston can be outperformed for about $2800-$3000 less then they're charging. No, you won't get HDMI input for your $400-$600, but given the relative performance at work its hard to be too upset about that. The BDA-3 pretty much killed Bryston as a brand for me. No doubt their alluded upcoming attempt to put $75 worth of Raspberry Pi electronics into a bigger enclosure, no doubt with completely inadequate clocks, BUT with a REALLY BEEFY IEC connector, for >$800 will be the final nail in that particular coffin.

I was, initially a fairly enthusiastic, AKM 4490 fan, but that's waning a bit now. I might prefer the 4396 for an entire evening's listen, even if it doesn't measure as well.

 

@Torq, recommend for you to try out the mutec mc3+ USB(latest firmware 1.03)with the Yggdrasil dac. The mutec's latest firmware brings the Yggdrasil dac up a notch higher in realism. A much fuller sound.