Schiit Gungnir Multibit impressions

Good to have the A1 Gungnir Multibit back in my possession. One thing I was eager to do was listen to the gen 5 USB and compare it to spdif.

It gets close, but IMO it still does not have the same visceral immediacy and "you are there" realism as the spdif from my Onkyo C7030 CD player. Really curious about schiits new USB prototype though.

 

I agree with your observations about the coaxial vs usb.
Using mine with a Yamaha CD-S1000 and find it a tad better than the Usb5.
Did you finally have the chance to A/B the A1 vs A2?

 

I had spent some time with @ColtMrFire's Gungnir Multibit (I had it for a few weeks before selling it to Colt, long story) and I found that the Gen 5 was still rather smoothed over sounding compared to SPDIF from my Dante box. I quite liked the timbre and tonality of the Gungnir Multibit A1, particularly how it does cymbal decay, but wished it had a bit more attack and less veil. I only tried it with headphones and all I can say stagewise was that it was a bit more closed in than the NAD, but layering was still good.

 

What Dac chip is the Nad C510?

 

Would you say you haven't heard a truly good non-glossed over ladder dac at all, then? Studio-grade delta sigma all the way?

 

It's a PWM output DAC https://www.qualcomm.com/products/csra6601 that can sound a little dry, but fairly resolving with good attack and staging. The Gungnir Multibit's bass and timbre really kill the NAD though, but I mostly got the NAD for the remote control.

 

Also found the stage closed in on Gungnir A1. What's funny is at the time I was told it was accurate and the Hegel dac was exaggerated.

Now Gungir A1 is ranked as quite closed in compared to Yggdrasil both A1 and A2.

Perspective hey haha.

 

Weird. From my experience Gungnir Multibit A1 stage is very wide, almost exaggerated. Yggdrasil 1 stage seemed narrower but deeper when I demoed it. I can't imagine Gungnir Multibit 2 stage being even bigger.

 

No, unfortunately.

It's hard to be even curious at this point given how f'ing good A1 is. I mean, I almost forgot. But listening to classical you can hear the little stuff that's generally inaudible like the guttural sounds of the body adjusting itself to move a bow across a string. I can even hear the air in the room interacting with the mics, or feel rather since it's more of a faint vibration than a sound. Or the faint hum of some kind of recording equipment in the room you didn't know was there...

And that's just part of it. There's an ease, flow and effortlessness to the music, but also a power that makes it a much more rich and visceral listening experience. It hits you alot more in the feels than other DACs. And on top of that it makes you feel like you are THERE.

It's little things like this that make this such a special DAC. I feel like it was made for the HD800.

 

I wonder how much of that is the Torpedo and the headphones, in combination?

I'm still looking to audition some flavor of Gungnir; looking to upgrade the Modi2U. I liked the loaner Soekris quite a bit, but wanna hear a Gungnir before making a decision.

 

T3 has a narrow stage with stock tubes. Better tubes open it up a bit and the 800 mitigates most of this problem anyway. But even on Lyr 2 with different headphones Gungnir Multibit A1 stage was massive... it really cannot be considered closed in by any stretch of the imagination.

 

I'd say the size is 100% coming from the 800; the T3 has a modestly sized stage even with Colt's GE tubes. I wouldn't call the Gungnir Multibit stage small, but I don't judge headstage very well and it felt just that tiny bit more closed in relative to the NAD.

I heard the loaner dac1421, granted in meet conditions so it wasn't that warm, but the dac1321 I heard was warmed up more and the Gungnir Multibit killed it on timbre, definitely worth hearing before making a decision.

 

Even with the 650, Gungnir Multibit stage was much bigger than say Modi Multibit, which definitely has a smallish stage (I also owned it with other amps). Let's just leave "closed in" and Gungnir Multibit out of the same sentences, as they don't belong together.

 

From my experience using Gungnir Multibit A1 with 2 channel passive rig I also find the stage to be very wide much more wider from other DACs I have compared it to.
Still I find it a little bit lacking at depth.
Rme FS , ideon ayazi , teac 503 , pioneer u05 and various cd players I have auditioned can't even touch it stage wide.
Mr @ColtMrFire impressions are on par with mine.
Organic sounding , visceral with the right instrument timbre and unsurpassed dynamics.
May be lacking in totl treble and bass extension but very engaging listening experience and a very good synergy with HD800/s and revealing speakers like my elac's.

 

Gungnir Multibit seems to respond very well to source tweaks. Disconnected the headphone jack/amp portion of my Onkyo CD player and sound quality went up a bit... blacker background, clearer/tighter imaging, less smeared sound. A slight layer of fuzz removed. Jitter must seriously affect this DAC.

 

That's why I have my cd player at the classifieds to finance a pure dedicated cd transport!
I have also tried the ifi spdif purifier.
I liked the extra clarity which helped with separation and detail retrieval but at the end I have returned it as I found the highs to be a little artificial and metallic sounding.

 

Or your CD player is just THAT jittery/noisy (esp with the HP jack in use). Gungnir Multibit is highly resolving of low level info especially, so it’s likely a combination of both.

 

And this is why I have ended up preferring components that do as few different things as possible. I've had very few devices that don't compromise in some way their base competency in the course of adding secondary functions. Unfortunately, and per usual, I am swimming against the tide of the market, which seems to be going in the opposite direction. See, e.g.the latest Naim Unitiwhatever.

 

So does the A2 gungnir need to have the B in the serial number? Or is revision b on the card the same thing? I remember reading about rev b being different but that was probably a year before the gungnir got the B in the serial number.

 

Supposedly, the a2, if there even is such a thing, started shipping approximately Sept. of 2017. That's when I bought mine, but it does have a B s/n. Whether there are a2 versions (with the above proviso because the only people who know the details aren't talking) in the wild without the B, who knows. If by card you mean the analog board, iirc it was marked v.2.0. It is somewhere in this thread, with photos. Otherwise, I don't know what card you refer to.