Schiit (MultiBit) Bifrost

It is truly a wonderful thing that we manufacturers are so incompetent that the proper burn-in, magic fuse, quantum dots, damping goo, bag of stones, or $2000 power cable can completely transform the sound. Especially on a $599 product.

(Tongue-in-cheek fully engaged, for those with a broken ironyometer. What's scary is that Hands' burn-in instructions might be taken for gospel in some quarters.)

 

Sorry, that's probably something of a redditism - means "Fixed That For You". At which point the reader looks to see in what way the post was fixed (edited) from their original post.

 

Original quote by Schiit:

"It is truly a wonderful thing that we manufacturers are so incompetent that the proper burn-in, magic fuse, quantum dots, damping goo, bag of stones, or $2000 power cable can completely transform the sound. Especially on a $599 product.

(Tongue-in-cheek fully engaged, for those with a broken ironyometer. What's scary is that Hands' burn-in instructions might be taken for gospel in some quarters.)"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Well said Jason - like I said in a previous post, I would be ecstatic to own a Bifrost Multibit - I don't care about measurements and try looking for any little imperfections I think there "Might" be - I just enjoy the music. I have a Schiit Uberfrost (not multi-bit) and I love it. In fact I love all of my Schiit products. I wish I could afford the higher-end Schiit gear, but I think even the mid-range gear far surpasses performance-to-price ratio.

And P.S. I am not sucking up to Schiit or Jason, I am just being honest. I have nothing to gain by sucking up to Schiit.

 

Fixed that for you.


Also @schiit, agreed you should actually put @Hands's instructions in the actual Bifrost Multibit instruction manual. Or just link to this thread with some hip QR code.

 

I swear I'm going to add that to the FAQ. The problem is, Nick will actually get people asking, "I can only tap it for part of the day, I can't trust my friend to do it while I'm asleep, I'm really really scared this will affect the sound quality." Seriously.

 

A slightly longer and more serious response regarding tweaks/mods/etc (which also covers some other mod posts on this site, I hope.)

Here's the deal: I have to keep an open mind. Dismissing anything out of hand means I'm setting up my own bias to be confirmed. So some of the silliest things may actually have an audible effect on the sound. For example, did you know that some ceramic bypass capacitors are microphonic? Yes. And it is measurable, at least right on the capacitor itself. Does this mean anything in the context of a well-designed power supply? Probably not. Does this mean that damping the capacitors could help the overall measurements of the product? Again, probably not. Does this mean it might sound different? Once again, probably not...but you never know.

So, for now, I stick to what I've heard a difference from, and that is, in decreasing order:

Transducer>Amp>DAC>Source>>Wyrd*>Cables**>Power Conditioning***

And that's it. No magic fuses ever did anything for me (Mike and I joked about making this product in the early 1990s, and decided "nobody would be silly enough to buy it." Joke's on us, I suppose.) No garden-hose power cord ever really mattered sonically, to me anyway. Maybe it's invisible confirmation bias, wondering about those miles of crap aluminum wire leading to your house, and the Romex in your walls. No quantum dots, no magic pillars, no cable conveyers, no bags of stones ever made any difference (again, for me, YMMV.)

*Yes, I do hear a difference with Wyrd. Usually it's positive. Sometimes it's too small to worry about.

**And I'm not really crazy about cables, as the differences I've heard are relatively minor. The biggest differences can be heard on very resolving transducers such as HD800 headphones.

***And as far as power conditioning goes, that means, specifically "Dave's crazy patented shunt LC filter network," which does reduce line noise significantly, and in a high-line-noise-environment. No, this is not a product we make. Maybe we'll convince Dave to commercialize it someday.

 

So, where do you think 'Manhattan Project' will fit into this relationship?

 

After transducer. Seriously. That's one of the reasons we're referring to it as the Manhattan Project. It's a BIG difference.

(Er, I guess I should add...at least to me.)

 

Convince him already! My Valhalla 2 still gets that buzzing/humming even with a Furman surge protector with EMI/RFI blocking (well the ISOBAR does good at blocking noise for my V2 -but it was only a loaner that I have to send back - was testing out different EMI/RFI blockers to try to eliminate that horrible buzzing and humming from my V2)

 

Damn! Curiosity is killing me.

 

I would have imagined bags of stones definitely affect the sound .... interesting

 

Has anyone gone from the Bifrost Uber to the Multi-bit? How much better is the multi-bit bifrost? (Bifrost Multibit)

Also, if anyone has had the chance to compare the Gungnir Multibit and Bifrost Multibit, is there much of a difference between the two? Is the Gungnir Multibit much better or just slightly better? What are the differences between the two?

 

I went from Uber to Bifrost Multibit and found a much more enjoyable listening experience. The Burrito filter in the Bifrost Multibit does something to me that makes it hard to stop listening to the music. I'm happy with it. I agree with the Bifrost Multibit's placement on Marv"s chart in relation to the Uber.

 

Thank you for your input @Tuco1965 - I really appreciate your thoughts and impressions of the Bifrost Multibit from the Uber - thank you. I have the Bifrost Uber but haven't been able to upgrade t the multi-bit. Hopefully I can early in 2016.

 

I remember the presentation of the Uber as not as exciting or dynamic and having a somewhat boxy soundstage with headphones on. I don't have one on me anymore since I upgraded but I don't miss it at all either. The MB is much better sounding.

 

My Bifrost Multibit stopped the messing about when switching between files with different sample rates after 3 days warming up ……
Self-curing Bifrost Multibit!

 

If you go through Baldr's (Mike from Schiit) posts on headfi he mentions this issue and currently they don't know of any multibit frosts that don't 'fix themselves' after 100 or so hours. I could be confusing things.

 

So its,

Manhattan Project<Transducer>Amp>DAC>Source>>Wyrd*>Cables**>Power Conditioning***

Wut wat?

If its between the amp and transducer, im guessing its an impedence matcher.