Schiit Modius DAC Review and Measurements

Yeah, just for context, I'm using a Liquid Platinum with 2x Amperex orange globe A-frame. @Hands previously said this setup is too bassy, and... that's true.

With the Liquid Platinum, the difference in bass phatness is very significant to my ears. It's like the amp is doing +15% bass boost, so if the DAC is doing 5% bass boost, that's a compounded 20.75% of bass boost overall.

Also because of the liquidity of the LP, I'm guessing that's why I'm hearing the Modius as being overall darker than most other DACs I have. Or looking from the other side, the Modius just sounds a bit more relaxed, smoother and effortless in the upper mids. There's a hint of "strain" in most of the other DACs.

 

Based on the impulse and frequency response, I'm >90% sure they're using the Short Delay Linear Dispersion filter.

One good example of both is on pages 83-84 of this manual:
https://www.rme-audio.de/downloads/adi2profsr_e.pdf

The SD LD filter is a "best of both worlds" type filter that actually makes the AK4493 worth using over the AK4490. It's a good compromise between the standard filter approaches.

 

Some Initial Impressions from SE Out:

Chain: MacBook (Jriver) > Modius (SE) > EC BW2 > HD800 (SDR+SBAF Mods)

Sonics:
- From a high level, this is a very nice DAC for $200. No serious flaws or oddities.
- The DAC’s highlight is the presentation and the resolution. It separates instruments very well in a large and airy stage. The placement of the presentation is also ideal, being neither forward nor pushed back.
- Depth, layering and imaging precision is what you can expect for a $200 device. Which is, not TOTL, but definitely not underwhelming.
- The bass is a touch prominent in the mix. It slams decently well. Definitely not limp dick like Hugo2’s bass. But the bass attack is a bit blunted, and the bass resolution once again, is what you can expect from a $200 device.
- Midrange and treble is where I start to nitpick. While the tone is warm, the timbre leaves a bit to be desired. This is due to the midrange sounding soft and treble having a bit of glare.
- While there is not much to complain about the microdynamics in the midrange, the macrodynamics is well, not macro enough. The midrange also lacks some body/fullness. As a result, the midrange instruments and voices sound soft and not palpable.
- The treble itself isn’t bright or strident, but it has a certain glare to it. The thing about glare is, it doesn’t expose itself as sharpness or brightness. But it ends up messing the timbre, making it more digital sounding than analog.
- The soft mids sandwiched between the prominent bass and the treble glare, makes the sound come across as a slight V shaped signature.
- I am unable to test the Bal XLR out now, as I don’t have any amp to go Bal in. But I am curious to test it someday, as it seems to addresses the very issues I mentioned.
- It’s a solid DAC for $200. While I am not sure if it’s the DAC you need, it’s a DAC that makes sense for $200.

Background:

Spoiler

My current benchmark for DACs is my Cayin N8 (2x AK4497), which may be an exception to the AKM velvet sound, because there is nothing velvet about its sound. It’s punchy and visceral, yet smooth in the treble. So it’s a very engaging sound that is free of fatigue. Its macrodynamics are not just good, but one of its forte. The mids are full bodied and palpable, and the timbre is more correct/convincing and on the analog side. Bass might not hit as hard as Yggdrasil/C2 but hits harder than the Modius. Stage is larger, deeper and airier than the Modius, with a darker background and a more precise imaging. It’s smoother, yet resolves more details. It has this tendency to boost the microdynamics a tiny bit, but for some reason I seem to like it. It has a sense of realism that I haven’t experienced on any other DAC in my chain. I have had plenty of ‘one-more-song’ moments with it.

All that said, I will not recommend the N8 given its price, durability and the shameful 1-Yr warranty. So I have been searching for a proper desktop DAC that gives me the pleasure like how the N8 does. I have been trying get hold of a Bifrost 2. I can’t buy it from Schiit directly given the high import duty. I’m waiting for my local dealer to start carrying it. One more DAC that has recently caught my attention is the Forssell DAC.

 

Initial impressions (vs Bifrost 2)

Chain: homemade Desktop comp> Modius> Magni 3+ (and BH Crack, no mods)>HD6XX-unmodded.

My sonic tastes lean to the warmer side of neutral, but not Warmpoo.

This is the best sounding Cheapish dac i've heard based on the AKM 44xx velvety chips. That's actually doing it a disservice: it just sounds really good. My first foray into the Velvet Sound was hearing the Fiio X5 III (abomination) and the original A&K Kann (more than just v-shaped: outright flat in the midrange). The Modius sounds nothing like the above.

Music-Rush: Moving Pictures; Eric Johnson: Ah Via Musicom, Dream Theater: Images and Words, Rage Against the Machine: self titled.

The bass is definitely more phat on the Modius than it is on the B2. A little more roundness, it might sound more articulated at first, but it's really not: just slightly more prominent. It's plenty fast on songs like YYZ or Take the Power Back where it really counts to hear those bass transients. that being said, the B2 is faster and more solid sounding, if less overtly pronounced.

The midrange has nice body to it compared to other (D70, modi) 44xx dacs i've heard. Very little "velvet" smoothing that I can hear. distorted guitars have nice texture to them, and Acoustics have nice snap and presence. If you prefer the mids more "in your face", than the B2 will do this a little better; they are more fleshed out and prominent. If you would like the stage pushed a little further out, than the Modius might be preferred. I find the 650s to be a little less shouty on the Modius because of this staging.

In the treble, like @purr1n has said before, it doesn't have the exaggerated-sounding sense of artificial air that most, if not every AKM velvet dac hass. A nice smooth texture is present on cymbals without any undue hash or grain. it doesn't sound smoothed over to me like i've heard on the early 4490 based dacs. On the "glare" thing, I don't hear it, or I just wouldn't describe it that way; there's nothing really objectionable to me there. Especially since the modius has tamed the exaggeration and sounds more natural. Again the B2 takes the win heare with better texture in the cymbals, reverb and air. It just sounds (slightly)more realistic than the Modius.

Using the Crack, take the above impressions and fill out the midrange a bit and turn up the bass a few db and you get the picture: mids filled out, but bass is a bit bloated on the 650.

In short, from the SE outputs it sounds like a souped up version of the Modi 3. When I get a balanced amp in I'll be able to see how the character changes. I know on my AK daps in the past (ak100ii, SR15) they sounding distinctly better and more realistic from the bal output. not to mention my old Gungnir MB (analog1&2).

 

Based on your review, should I take it that you think upgrading from Modius to B2 won't really be a sonic upgrade but more of a sidegrade with different strokes?

 

It's not that simple. I love the Bifrost 2. It sounds denser and more refined overall. But I also haven't had a chance to hear it balanced, which real is its purpose.
I prefer the B2, but I could live with the Modius without complaint.

 

Just got a Modius a couple of days ago, and so far, so good sonically. I have a Topping ESS-based dac, and then a collection of vintage R2R DACs (using either PCM1704's or PCM63's), and an Emotiva DS DAC from a few years ago. The sound signature is a nice halfway point between the older R2R's and the ESS dac, without the slight glare that I hear from the Emotiva.

The one issue I have with the with the Modius is that if I try resampling my 44.1 Redbook sources using the Foobar2000 resampler, the Modius just produces a garbled signal. This is with resampling to 88.2, 176.4, or 192. My Topping and Emotiva DACs (as well as my ancient PCM1704 DAC) all accept these upsampled signals without error, but the Modius does not. Has anybody tried using an upsampler with the Modius? (I do not necessarily subscribe to the idea that upsampling is beneficial ... but as my moniker says ... I'll try anything once ... !)

p.s. - Using WASAPI event mode from Win10, and the USB interface on the Modius

 

use "push" or decrease the buffer length <=20 ms

 

I don't think Unison likes to be upsampled. Try push mode. You are correct, Event mode is terrible. Everyone should be using push mode anyway.

Personally I don't like or trust upsampling. The chip is going to do a whole bunch of oversampling anyway with D/S. Just keep it simple

 

Thanks all ... this did the trick. Now, as to whether it's better or not ... hmmmm ... pushes the image back by a serious degree, and loses a bit of immediacy. (But at least now I know. Thanks guys !!)

 

The lowest I can set my buffer length is 50ms.

But yes, event mode is terrible. I remember this in the beta stages of Unison.

 

Thanks again for the great advice regarding the Wasapi settings.

As for the buffer, I wonder why the shortest buffer length is the best. I would have thought that with a longer buffer, the computer is reading more of a steady data stream from the RAM (rather than doing active look-ups from the hard drive). But I will defer to your expertise here !

BTW - I also have an Asgard 3, and I was contemplating trying the multibit card in that expansion slot as a way to compare the Schiit implementation of multibit to their most recent DS implementation (i.e., the Modius). However, it does not look like the Schiit add-in cards have Unison as the USB processor (I think they are just "Gen 5" on the USB ?). Therefore likely this would not be a fair fight since the Modius DS would be using Unison, but the MB expansion card would not.

 

FYI, it's not this setting: Preferences→Playback→Output→Buffer length
(which does have a minimum of 50ms, as you noted)
It's this setting: Preferences→Advanced→Playback→WASAPI→Hardware buffer in MS - event mode

 

Pics or it never happened....well, I can't upload pics yet, so I hope my pics I pasted can be seen my all. If not, we can figure something else later if people feel it's important. I tried posting links, but they didn't work, either, when I previewed the message.

Look what the cat dragged in today.



I also have the Gungnir multibit A1, and while I like it, it was a few drawbacks for my personal use. First, I live in an area with frequent thunderstorms, so I have to turn off and unplug my gear often. The 2-day warm up to optimal sound sometimes gets in the way of a quick music session. Also, my amp tends to lean warm and I use the Senn HD 650 unmodded, which are also warmish, so all that warmth in addition to the Gungnir multibit A1 can be too much of a good thing.

So, enter the Modius. My hopes were to make this my "summer dac" and also perhaps it could breathe some life into my Senns.

I'm the first to admit that I don't have the golden ears of Marv and other SBAFs, but I can hear some differences between dacs.

My chain = iPod classic ALAC -> Pure i20 dock -> optical* -> Modius -> bal -> Teac HA-501 -> Senn HD 650 unmodded.

*I decided to use this because the Pure owner's manual recommends it over coaxial and Amir's measurements of the Modius show lower noise from optical than coaxial, so what the hell.



Here are my stream of consciousness findings:

Compared to the Gungnir multibit A1 balanced, the Modius balanced has/is/does (we're talking small differences, but we seem to write these more so from the side of absolute values):

-More air around the notes
-Slightly taller sound stage for sure, maybe just as wide, need more time with different recordings to say for sure
-A little splashier treble
-More "tin" to the timbre
-Less slam in the bass
-Less precision in imaging
-Leaner overall sound
-Less overall warmth
-Not as much in your face; imagine the Gungnir is a Harley and the Modius is a Honda Goldwing
-Less plankton
-Overall, sound is slightly more smeared, but not offensive at all
-Less of a v-curve sound (I always felt the Gungnir had slightly recessed mids)
-Lacks the Schiit multibit bass slam and treble found in cymbals, but not by much
-A little more bite overall (not to be confused with slam), possibly due to the DS platform, but this actually sort of works with the Senn HD 650--a fully warm Gungnir can be too smooth at times with the Senns
-A little more polite despite the differences in treble and bite, if that makes any sense

Despite these differences, it seems to work very well in my system. It removed some of the congestion from the Senn HD 650, which is welcomed. Also, the small amount of "tin" seems to work well, too, because while the bass doesn't have the same slam and diversity of notes as the Gungnir, I can hear more texture from the strings of a bass guitar. That is also very welcomed. The leaner sound and increased air work well with the Senns, too.

From a technical standpoint, it's an inferior dac compared to the Gungnir. But for some reason, it cures some of the evils I've experienced with the Senns and it just seems to synergize better. It removes too much of the good thing. My system could be too smooth and warm at times to the point of fatigue, if that makes any sense. It also sounds great from initial power on, which was the main point of this investment.

I seem to remember many moons ago reading that Mike and Jason use the Senn HD 650 to help voice their gear. If that was true, this makes sense with the latest iteration of their sound in the Modius. It's a good combination.

Edits:
After spending a few more hours with, I have a little more clarity in my thoughts. Compared to the Gungnir, it's definitely a brighter overall dac. That's a good thing in my system, but YMMV. Also, it tamed some of the mid-bass hump of the Senn HD 650, which is also welcomed. It's not from tone equalization, but maybe just from less energy and slam there. It sounds less congested in that register. The treble isn't offensive in any stretch of the imagination, but it's definitely not the Schiit multibit sound. It's very much DS, but a very good implementation of it.

More edits:
I've been digging deeper into my song collection and it's more obvious now that the Gungnir has a fatter, rounder bass than the Modius. This is probably one of the top reasons the Modius works so well with an unmodded Senn HD 650.

 

Thank you! (how many years on this forum and I am still learning stuff)

Anyway, I did confirm that lowering WASAPI (event) buffer from the default 25ms down to 15ms and it plays well with the re-sampler. Although I did not find any advantages to this setup. It gives more etchy treble and flattened the soundstage a bit. Less veiled though, but I think it was just the slightly more peaky highs masking things. YMMV

PS - moving Push buffer to <= 20ms (down from 200ms) now sounds better than Event at the same buffer amount

 

How this will pair with my Aegir? Don't see much talking about Aegir around like it's not popular. I love it though.

 

To help me comment, what's your current source? How do your current speakers sound? What kind of sound signature do you prefer?

 

There was much talk about it around here a year and 9 months ago when it was new. I think there are entire threads about it if you actually looked.


Edit:typo