Modi Multibit: Multibit for the masses.

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by MrTie, Jul 25, 2016.

  1. Lenroot77

    Lenroot77 Friend

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    Just wanna say this thread has been top notch the last few days. Thanks to the heavy hitters dropping knowledge!
     
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yes, anything that touches USB has been stained by the crappiness of USB. USB to SPDIF converters can only get you so far, although USB to i2s seems promising, there are issues with lack of standards. USB wasn't designed specifically for audio. It was designed for printers, mice, keyboards, and storage.

    The SPDIF out from my ASUS motherboard sounds like ass. What SPDIF does is not provide a ceiling (and not color) on sound quality as USB does, but the actual digital transport implementation still does need to be good. SPDIF was designed specifically for audio.
     
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2017
  3. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    Focusrite can rebrand the clarets, stick a digital AES/EBU out on it, use a bigger case with some weights, and sell it for double to audiofools to listen to Hotel California on.

    Seriously at this point with this much OCD, the jittery nuts who refuse to build a desktop with PCI slots or get a soundcard might as well just open their wallets, get some pro audio shit with thunderbolt to cure their neurosis.

    If you trave,l get something better than the Modi Multibit with a switching power supply (Emotiva DC-1, Meier Daccord, etc) or even better stick to dongles like the the Grace M9XX, Apogee Groove, or LH Labs whatever (these will work better with the Utopia if you want to ball). They're headphones. Better DACs are not gonna bring exponential scaling til endgame DS or the Yggdrasil for headphones and even then they're still headphones. Not even Gungnir Multibit scales up like that. Let's keep it real with each other, headphones are headphones. Buy some bang for buck speakers and taste the rainbow.
     
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Finally, better off with a decent USB implementation (on both ends, PC and DAC) rather than with a crappy SPDIF transport. People should not be getting neurotic, especially at the entry level. I don't have a problem using Gungnir Multibit / Yggdrasil via built-in USB Gen 2 / 3 (or maybe later on Gen 4, Gen 5, Gen 9, or whatever) when I need to listen to music on my laptop in a jiffy. And with Sabre DACs with XMOS, it really doesn't matter all that much with USB fuckery.
     
  5. thegunner100

    thegunner100 Hentai Master Chief

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    I don't know about you guys, but I'm enjoying my Anime/Video Game OSTs and Touhou music from my Yggdrasil + lynx aes16 :rolleyes:
     
  6. Steakface

    Steakface Acquaintance

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    I'm coming to this conclusion as well. I used to have a computer with PCI slots, but I downsized it last year to a SFF mITX gaming rig to save space. Now I'm missing the options I had with a full ATX board. I'm gonna have to find some kind of middle ground on computer size since I'm not going to be throwing my wallet at some pro audio shit.
     
  7. MattRG

    MattRG Facebook Friend

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    I seriously need to look in to this but anytime I have to do anything more DIY than opening up my PC to install a drive or a stick of RAM I start getting a bit antsy. I am pretty much all thumbs and generally try to keep things as plug and play as possible. Still, it's wonderful to have options that don't cost multiple body parts + fluids to purchase.
     
  8. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    While a Pi with a hat isn't totally plug and play, it doesn't require a computer engineering degree to get one set up. Most of the more user friendly distros out there give installation and setup instructions. Try Volumio or Rune. It is worth looking into instead of spending more than the total cost of the DAC to improve the signal.
     
  9. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

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    I've got the computer with PCI AND PCI-e slots. It's just finding an affordable card that doesn't suck that's the issue. There are old legacy PCI cards that are reasonable on ebay...I haven't completely given up on that option. But, they're all outdated products with sketchy driver support for Windows 10.

    I'm going to stop sweating it for now and see what comes down the pipeline.
     
  10. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    Do you know an example of a good enough card supporting coax SPDIF, as you described, but not in the same price range like Lynx? I have a very basic ASUS Xonar DG, supports Toslink but not coax. I use coax from RPi 3 Digi + and see some benefits to it, would like to have it on my PC without spending a fortune.
     
  11. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Hah, damnit. I just plugged in @sorrodje's baby Stax rig- guess I am going to dig out Hotel California right now, to get it out of the way, just to appease the gods of dreary audiophilia.

    (I don't own "Jazz At The Pawnshop" and the like, they'll have to be content with this..)
     
  12. Skyline

    Skyline Double-blindly done with this hobby

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    We haven't really come up with anything.

    If you scroll up a bit there were a couple of cards mentioned by E-MU (Creative) and another company I don't know well. They're both possible options (quality and price), but they're all retired products so I don't know about proper driver support.
     
  13. wormcycle

    wormcycle Friend

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    The cheapest one I found is open box and still the price of two RPi 3 with Digi + Pro
    https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...2R&cm_re=Asus_Essence-_-29-132-072R-_-Product
     
  14. Steakface

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    I too did some quick research on driver reliability for modern Windows versions for the cards mentioned. For the E-MU cards, it seems that most people can get them to work with Windows 7, while Windows 8 and above seems more unreliable. When it comes to ESI, they seem to still be making drivers for all of their cards, so getting one of those is probably a better bet for the future.

    It's a shame all these options are out of production.
     
  15. DigMe

    DigMe Friend

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    ESI Juli@ and Maya.
     
  16. Huhnkopf

    Huhnkopf Friend

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    ESI Juli@ XTe PCI Express, E-MU 0404 PCIe
     
  17. Steakface

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    http://a.co/dBkc6fx

    It's slightly cheaper on Amazon as new, but I couldn't find anything about the SPDIF being transformer coupled, which I think is the main reason the retired E-MU/ESI cards were mentioned. If so, it may be worth it to grab even at its price. If not, then maybe SB's cheaper products (Audigy RX/Z) could work if their TOSLINK connection is better than anything you'd find straight off a motherboard. Of course, you'd be settling for optical SPDIF in that case...
     
  18. MattRG

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    Just be aware the Maya is 24 bit 96khz and does not support 192khz. Have to step up to the Juli@ for that.
     
  19. lm4der

    lm4der A very good sport - Friend

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    So, this is a stupid question, but here goes: Is the Pi3 + Digi+ SPDIF suitable as a USB -> SPDIF converter using its USB input? I see a lot of talk about streaming from NAS, is this because the Pi USB is too noisy?

    Edit: readable
     
  20. Merrick

    Merrick A lidless ear

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    I'm not fixated on Volumio or Rune, I just think they hold the hands of beginners more, and thus are good choices for those who are wary of going the Pi route.
     

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