Schiit Bifrost 2

The update is I did this, and I like it. Cleaner, better delineation and blackground, detail pops out better. It’s not a huge delta, but when you’re crazy and listen to a rig all the time, it’s noticeable. At the moment I’m using a 500VA trafo, so I first went with just plugging the whole rig in, including the Studio B. Am not noticing any huge dip in dynamics or slam. Tonal color gets a smidge more washed out, but that’s par for the course for power stuff IME, and it’s not nearly as bad as when I tried a Richard Gray “conditioner” (those are basically just giant chokes though, not transformers) years ago, pretty subtle in comparison. I also don’t care much about tonal weight vs. some folks, and the LIM plus 300B’s tend to add enough for my tastes.

I’m using a 91095-31 Topaz from eBay. I got mine for 200 free shipping, but since audiophools caught wind of them five years ago or so there are people wanting 700+ for them, don’t do that. The .005pf models are usually cheaper than the .0005pf because of the same audiophool rush, but they should work just as well. Don’t get the -32/similar models that are already wired with an outlet and a power cord unless you’re ok with cutting off the possibility of wiring it for balanced power, or are too intimidated to wire it at all.

Also keep in mind I’m in an absolutely ancient (for CA) coastal building with super old ass wiring that the landlord never had to update because it’s a “historic district” and there’s 25 apartments in the complex, so my mains is pretty bad. YMMV.

 

I know this is OT, but just wanted to say that I'm so glad I tried this... I was worried that I was entering the realm of crazy nervosa, but I was very surprised how audible I found the difference and wholeheartedly agree with your description. I'll be adding this to all my systems. THANK YOU

 

Maybe I am slow, but I don't understand how this works. What is being plugged into what and with what cable(s)?

 

CAT cable from your router/switch --> Box 1 -> optical fibre -> Box 2 -> CAT cable to your transport like Pi2AES.
The optical cable basically sets the isolation (if we dumb the explanation down)

Now the good minimum is getting a better PSU for the box that feeds your transport so you can go beyond "mere" isolation. Or you can do it for both ends for maximum nervosa.

I didn't believe a lot in PSUs for transports but the custom PSU a friend of mine built for my PI2AES turned out so good back then, it was superior to the Sboosters and Ashantis.
Recently a revision of it (a few months back) kinda shook me again and I refused to believe it first. It was easier to differentiate than DAC comparisons or amp comparisons where only the volume control is different.

Had him build a PSU for @ext1 PI2AES (which he is yet to use) too.

Now for even more nervosa I sent him a stack like above (but TP-Link) to build a custom PSU for it and see what he can get out of it. Other than that I am not interested in any other transports.

 

Ah, okay, I just didn't realize that there was a Pi2AES or similar involved. Thank you.

 

Is anyone using hqplayer with the Bifrost? Trying to find out what are some filters that people are using.

 

Most recent person I saw comment about this is @Eric Rosenfield whose post about this was below. hqplayer seems like something worth looking into for sure.

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...tures-in-downgrading.13610/page-3#post-420247

 

For PCM I use:

• Filter 1x: sinc-M
• Filter Nx: sinc-M
• Dither: NS9
• Sample rate (/ Limit): 192k
• Backend: WASAPI
• DAC bits: 18

This is from HQPlayer 4 -- can't justify the upgrade cost for HQP5 so not sure these settings would be the same there.

I don't use the BF2 for music listening without HQPlayer (currently streaming from Tidal routed through Roon).

 

The first settings I tried which blew me away were more or less these:


Though those seemed a bit unresolving and I ended up with these I'm using now:


Still very much playing around though, I'll try some of the settings in this thread now that I know it exists. I also haven't really played with the converting PCM to SDM business

 

I use these exact settings for my Yggdrasil+ A2/OG excpet I use poly-sinc-gauss-hires-lp for Filter 1x, too.

 

Thanks for the settings! I do like NS9 so far as a dither over LNS15, which a lot of people recommend.

So there's actually a way to use SDM settings with the bifrost?

 

No, it just accepts PCM

 

Good to know! I had no idea, I just saw settings.

 

Bonus I just discovered if anybody encounters the same issue: I was getting a distracting crackling sound sometimes over USB with HQPlayer and couldn't figure out what was causing it. Turns out it's what happens if you send too high a sample rate to the Bifrost. Once I reduced the sample rate to 96k it went away. Not sure why 96k is what works--Bifrost page says it supports 24/192 which would make me think it would support up to 192k, but when I tried that sample rate as my output in HQPlayer I got all the crackles.

 

HQPlayer can take some horsepower to work properly at the extremes of its options from my understanding, so my guess is it’s not the BF2 but your PC/laptop/Mac. If you’re using Windows you can also check things like DPC Latency. Buffer settings might help if HQPlayer has something to that effect.

 

I'm running a MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip. I thought it might be straining the computer when I first started hearing the crackling, but Activity Monitor only showed like 20% CPU usage so I don't think that's it. For some reason, over USB the "Buffer Time" option is disabled; I actually emailed Jussi about this but haven't received a response and don't see anything in the documentation. ("Buffer Time" is not disabled when I select the DietPi instance I installed on my Pi, but I can't seem to get DietPi to output sound to the Digi Pro coax output for the life of me. But that's a completely different story.)

In any case, I'm not convinced I can hear the difference between 96k and 192k, so it doesn't bother me that much to reduce the sample rate, it's just odd.

 

I had noise issues out of my M1 Pro Macbook Pro. Plugging the dac directly into the computer fixed the crackling for me. I was using a USB hub when I was having issues. I did have to use a USB A to C converter plug, but it hasn't caused any issues. I also am using the Bifrost 2.

 

I believe the crackling that Eric is reporting has to do with the HQP outputting a bit stream that the Bifrost2 is not able to decode correctly. This is not a sample rate issue because he is still using a sample rate that the DAC supports. But with the plethora of settings on HQP, something can accidentally get flipped. My Abbas DAC used to be able to play 88.2kHz output from HQP. But one day, the DAC stopped being able to decode 88.2kHz bit stream from HQP. It works fine with 44.1kHz output from HQP. And it also works fine when I feed it 88.2kHz from a different application. But I have never gotten around to making 88.2kHz from HQP work again on the Abbas. To be fair I didn’t to any extensive trouble shooting.

 

Check the USB cable and host. BF2 works fine with 192kHz file. Crackling is data packet lost