Prism Callia: Flush your Schiit

The reference is really some multichannel, made in a Western country studio shit that isn't lofi anymore that most people here would bitch about. Some old AVID hardware on an old Mac. The current standard is the DAD AX32 because that is the AVID Pro Tools HDX rebrand. Then you see the MOTU AVB, Lynx Aurora (n), the Apogee Symphonies in smaller studios. Okay only the mk II SE is close to reference for Apogee but it's closer than fuckin Burl. Otherwise you have the RME and UAD stuff that sounds like shit. I've seen more SSL Alphalinks and IZ Radar recorders than this special stuff.

 

Your classic 4 is mellow?

 

The trick is to apply a 12db/dozenword low pass filter when reading Psalm's rants.

 

I didn’t remember that the AGD M7 used MOSFET, but I’d been thinking about it a lot listening to the Forssell, which is a JFET design. I’d also been thinking about the FET-based Classe CA-200 power amp I had for a while. They all had a certain liquidity to them, except the CA200 had zero air up top and the M7 needed the DACLadder and constant tinkering with jumpers, etc., yet still sounded kind of tubby in the upper mids and couldn’t resolve detail as well as even the original Gungnir DS, IMO. (I remember as soon as I got the Yggdrasil A1, the M7 was out the door.)

But even though the M7 and the Classe left my setup, I missed their “analog” (for lack of a better world) involvingness. I get that same liquid, involving feel from the Forssell, except it’s not totally lacking in air, it resolves on par with the Yggdrasil A2 IMHO, and it’s a set-it-and-forget-it DAC. (Want it a little rounder? Use an Eitr to SPDIF. Want it a little squarer? Use a Matrix SPDIF to AES. That’s the extent of the choices.)

Sure, it doesn’t have the deepest sound stage, but it’s not like the RME, where the sound stage is shallow and every instrument feels flat, too. The Forssell does a great job of making, say, a ride cymbal feel 3D, probably better than the Solaris in that sense.

But, getting to the “reference” thing, I think that shows there are trade-offs and there’s no free lunch. Maybe there’s an ultra high-end DAC that can do it all. But I know plenty of good mastering engineers who use the Forssell or Prism or Solaris as their “reference,” and they all sound different, so [shrug] maybe it’s not a simple term.

 

I'm a long time Prism Lyra user, which presumably uses the same DAC & headphone amp internals. From the photo in the original post, it looks like HD800s are connected directly to the headphone jack. This isn't something I would ever recommend. In my experience, only IEMs do well with it. There's little power, but extremely low noise. I connect my full sized planars to the balanced "monitor" outputs on the back, which works amazingly well considering they weren't intended as a headphone amp.

Before the Lyra, I used a Lavry DA10. Despite a warmer, thicker signature than the DA10, the Lyra was more articulate. It's depiction of space and depth were clearly superior. And for anyone curious, the mic pres impressed the hell out of me too.

 

Looks like we are looking at the same DACs (wavelight and m3). Care to share about the B2 when you're ready?

 

It's coming in on Monday

 

Apologies in advance if it is out of line for me to comment on this thread.

The Anti-SBAF PSYOPS badge is quite apt. I do wonder if there was some coordination involved in this incident. The started on an off-note but turned interesting Prism Callia: Flush your Schiit thread established some legitimacy for the flush meme, then this hateful OP followed. This situation might have gotten ugly and out of hand quickly, with multiple posts along the same lines generating more heat than light, wasting time and causing frustration. So I appreciate @purr1n's decisive action, even if I found it a bit shocking at first glance.

 

I’d be very curious to hear Marv’s views on Forsell. The Solaris is the only sigma-delta DAC that I’ve ever loved and I still wish to own one. I presume it is so good because Dave Hill actually *listens* to his products, and knows how to listen. Forsell seems to have a similar reputation, hence the curiosity. Lavrey also, but maybe Lavrey is less talented in the electronics-design department.

By contrast, I find DACs whose designers tout measurements (e.g., Benchmark) to be soulless and lacking in imaging. So I was suspicious when I saw Prism—a measurements company—offering a DAC for listening.

Not that John Atkinson is any standard bearer of anything other than an overobsession with mediocre measurements—but even he dislikes Callia, preferring a cheaper Mytek over it (and preferring DirectStream over that). He says Callia is similar to Benchmark. Reading that, my immediate suspicion is Callia processing probably destroys imaging. We’ll find out if the DACoff happens. But my vote is to have something like Solaris or Forssell in the mix for useful comparisons.

(note: I found Solaris was exquisitely sensitive to source quality. Without a near-jitter-free source it sounded like garbage. So if you’re confused about my love of it, that may be why. Or maybe I’m deaf)

 

Atkinson is also old. I heard the mytek and benchmark and maybe he likes them because they allow his deaf ass to hear treble for the first time. I couldn’t stand them. Callia is different from those 2 units.

agree with your dac off ideas though!

 

I don't know why anyone would want to crap all over Schiit and Jason. I got on the Schiit bandwagon from the start with the OG Asgard. I had some problems with the shipping company, and Jason personally exchanged emails with me when he could have said, "Once it leaves my warehouse you're on your own." Then, when the Asgard 2 came out, I jumped all over that as an early adopter, but as some of you may recall, it was plagued by the loud transformer hum. Jason and I communicated directly over email about it, and he asked me to to beta test the fixed version. I can't imagine many other business owners would have that level of interaction and care with customers. Then, on the larger business side of things, Schiit has always tried to push the tech envelope, all while maintaining extremely low prices compared to others. This deserves respect, not douchebaggery.

 

Right. MQA/Bob Stuart, Ted Denney/Synergistic Research and the like (and more than a few of their "true believer" followers) I can understand, but Schiit? Even if you don't like the sound/value proposition you can't put them in the
'nothin but noise' category.

 

It’s basically people with little else going for them chasing clout, you see it all over social media and it’s the reason sm has become such a cancer.

eta: not relating to Jason or Schiit specifically, just the being a dick about someone else to try to get approval from the mob.