SBAF DAC Talk II

I can't comment on the other Schiit DACs, but I found the Soekris 1421 (loaner) and 1321 (currently resident) to nicely tighten up the bass from my speakers (Dynaudio 52SE) vs the OG MMB. The 1421, in particular, gave better separation and imaging in my system than the MMB; not sure about stage depth. Comparison here.

Being in Europe, you might be able to find used Soekris at decent prices. Maybe the 1541 or even 2541 could be within your budget.

 

Indeed, I've got that on my list as well. The form factor of their DACs is definitely an advantage, but I really need to hear one before I commit so I've been looking on the used market for about a year or two now and havent found much. I've been waiting also for their new 1221 (update to the 1321) to release, not sure when that's coming out..

 

I’m kind of in the same boat with an old Theta hybrid chip DAC and missing the details I was getting out of the BF2/64. The BF2/64 had too much delay out of TV land (sync issues), and still a bit too top heavy.

I am thinking of going Lavry DA10, Sokeris/Dentafrips or just going to something with HDMI inputs like the NAD M51.

Gungnir can certainly and some depth and a bit more effortless detail as over the Modi MB. Although not the best unbalanced outputs.

 

Between gungnir A2 (never heard a1) and original bifrost 2, almost always prefer gungnir on speakers. I recently had them both hooked up and I did find more modern recordings a bit more forgiving on the bifrost 2. With gungnir A2 the best sounding recordings sound better on the other hand.

Also bifrost 2 has a tiny bit more mid bass which gives the illusion of more bass. More complicated passages are better on gungnir and the bass is a bit cleaner and more defined between low notes on gungnir. Mids seem similar but highs and soundstage a step up with gungnir.

On headphone setups I can go either way but I usually prefer bifrost 2 on headphones oddly enough. The differences are less apparent but something about the slightly heftier sound and the less smooth highs works better for me on headphones, between a crack, sw51+ and piety/jot 2.
Headphones include HD650/600 and blackwood Aeolus.

These thoughts are only based off pi2aes and BNC/coax sources however.

 

This one got a lil' quality of life upgrade: AD847's --> OPA1655's w/Adcom bias. Also a normal power cable w/3Dprinted gasket (was a janky 2 prong). It's not bad sounding at all, fun once in a while... slightly melted icecream detail.

 

I agree, but it's maybe a matter of liking many/most of the things that the HE1000SE do and trying to get a bit more heft/slam out of them with component matching.

That said, I'm going to audition some ZMF (Verite Open, Closed, Atrium) and see where that gets me. It could be the very linear nature of the SPL amp, too.

 

The biggest drawback of this DAC, as well as the Denon DA-500 DAC I have is the jittery Yamaha input chip. The YM3623B.

There are upgrade boards with CS8414 boards on ebay.