The All Purpose Advice Thread

Re-prioritising my life and schiit and have resolved not to spend any additional money on audio for a while. My original plan was Gungnir Multibit and BW to drive my HD600 & Slants but now my current budget will allow for one or the other. I am leaning towards BW...

As ridiculous as it sounds, does anyone have an opinion of BW with Modibit? Too much warm-sauce?? Putting together people's impressions it seems as though Modibit is less resolving, but with a similar tonality to Gungnir Multibit.

I will revisit the digital side of things when I'm older/fatter/richer (and my kids are no longer in daycare, OMG the $$$)

 

that seems pretty reasonable my friend. tonality of the modibit seems really effing close to the Gungnir Multibit to my ears (also to @aufmerksam, @AustinValentine i think @jexby and possibly others). the bigger difference between them seems to be resolution and soundstage/ instrument separation... here are 2 related thoughts on your conundrum:

1. you could go BW and modibit as you suggest. i definitely *do not* think it'll be too warm sauce. i can check on the BW + modibit combo at work on wednesday, and a couple other folks will get ears on it on Thursday if you can wait that long

2. you could also run Jotunheim as an amp (~400ish) with Gungnir Multibit balanced (or Mjo2 which is ~650 used?)... if you wanted to keep the Gungnir Multibit side of the equation. but more impressions on the Joti might be helpful. i think I'll get to hear Joti + Gungnir Multibit on Thursday.

 

As always, thanks for the advice @brencho. I tend to think that an endgame solid state like BW will still be relevant in a few years when I can rationalise spending more money upgrading my DAC, whereas a DAC now will could be relatively outdated when the time comes that I can spend more money upgrading my amp (in spite of the awesome ability to upgrade schiit DACs). Looking forward to your impressions of BW with Modibit!

 

Hey all! I'm looking to pickup an amp for desktop use with my Bifrost 4490. I only listen to IEMs and speakers and was between a Lyr 2 + LISST or Magni 2 Uber. Any other recommendations? I have Lime Ears Aether and like the preamp outs of the Schiit for my speakers but could deal w/o those

 

The Schiit Jotun was just released and seems to fit your bill

 

Well damn that looks like a winner!

Now to pick to get the combo unit and sell my bifrost or to stack haha

 

FWIW the fairly analogous Mjolnir 2 + LISST (or tubes) has pretty noticeable noisefloor with BA IEMs, so I'd be cautious with a Lyr 2+LISST unless you can get confirmation it's ok with your/most IEMs

 

So now that I am getting a fancy new Multibit DAC and I got some questions. It has this fancy new input called SPDIF. Is this better/higher quality then USB? I have learned my lesson that USB is apparently the less desired because of the "noise". Another thing, since I will be using this device with my PC should I change my audio settings from the 16 bit 48000 Hz to the 24 bit 192000 Hz?

 

Can anybody recommend me a good place with fairly quick turnaround to get an HE400s cable re-terminated to 4-pin XLR?

There are a handful of good "one man shop" type of cable services out there that I've found, but either demand seems to be up or the shop owners are on vacation, etc, because it seems like the ones I've checked are all not taking orders or have multiple week wait times for what seems like a pretty quick job for somebody who knows what they're doing. (Which, granted, is not me, so maybe the labor is harder than I think it is.)

All I know is it's gonna be an extremely traumatic first-world problem if I have to stare at the XLR connector on my shiny new Jotunheim for multiple weeks!

 

The demand must be up because of the reason you stated already. Everyone wants XLR for their new shiny Jotunheim!

 

Anyone familiar with the isolation of the 1964 universal lineup vs Shure? I have the SE215 and I find it doesn't isolate well enough for me on public transit and airplanes. 1964 claims -18 dB vs Shure's "up to -37dB" but I'm assuming it's not an apples to apples comparison. Also, I can't find any clear images of the side profile; my ears need stems about as long as Shure's, hence why I'm not considering Campfire Audio.

 

I don't think anything really isolates beyond 26 dB, right? I mean unless it's silicone customs, or triple-flange Etys

 

For now, just isolation on a budget, the noise on my commute is bad enough that I can't be bothered to nitpick about FR preferences. I probably would just go with the U2 on Massdrop for $250. Customs aren't on my radar for now due to cost and the fact that I'm not doing any critical listening with my IEMs. Once I get into the office I switch to something more open in case someone needs to get my attention.

 

Agreed, I just wish Shure would publish a realistic measurement of their isolation. I should also mention that I can't stand triple-flange tips, I have Ety plugs for concerts and I needed to cut off the first bit because they feel like knives in my ears. Maybe that's a viable workaround for the ER-4?

 

I recall reading that some people did that, creating double-flange.
Just to return briefly to the isolation of customs, I think it's not quite the stem length that isolates, but the shell that fills the outer ear. It simply is creating a seal, and that's what isolates.

 

Right, I mentioned the stem length in my first post because it's been a problem with other universals where it prevented the tip from sealing, so it's something I have to look out for. Reading all the impressions of the Andromeda makes me sad but my wallet happy.

 

Posting this again since it seems I was looked over. I just recently got my sweet sweet Bifrost Multibit (Bifrost Multibit) and I was wondering the difference between the optical SPDIF connection versus the USB connection. I have seen over on that other thread that USB produces a lot of noise and seems to be inferior but I don't really know anything about SPDIF and a lot of information I am seeing all talks about COAX instead of optical. If anyone could clear this up for me that would be magnificent.

 

Optical has been tested to have really high jitter, at least from mac books. If you have a coaxial source, try it out for yourself.