Schiit (MultiBit) Bifrost

Though this is old hat given that Schiit has been allowing end users to perform some kinds of upgrades to their equipment for quite a while now, but how many other Audio Industry company heads have you seen in fora instructing users how to properly disassemble their gear? Just askin'....

 

And a rather public aside:

Listening to the old Flying Fish classic Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns through a loaner Bifrost Multibit right now.

Mike Moffat, if you happen to stumble across this post, I've never enjoyed this album more than right now. Pure bliss. Thank you.

 

Thanks. I guess this was more of a 'system synergy' question. I love HD650 but it lacks some low end definition. Does the (relatively) bloated bass of Bifrost Multibit exacerbate this to a significant degree?

 

I personally do not currently own the HD650 so I cannot tell you. Perhaps some other member has HD650 and Bifrost Multibit ?

 

My uberfrost does that too. Spends 3 seconds stuck in optical before switching to coaxial. Never really bugged me though.

 

I run the Bifrost Multibit through the Valhalla 2 to the hd650s. From what I have read, the combination of Bifrost Multibit and hd650 is probably a touch on the warm/euphonic side. But that said, for $600 I am fairly certain you can't do better than the Bifrost Multibit, with the hd650 or otherwise. As far as the bass is concerned, the Bifrost Multibit improves on the bass resolution over my previous Modi 2. Everything about the Bifrost Multibit is an improvement over Modi2. I'm sure that Gungnir Multibit is even better, but it costs twice as much.

tl;dr, i can vouch that Bifrost Multibit sounds wonderful with hd650s. is it the best synergy, ie perfect pairing? I have to defer to more experienced listeners. @atomicbob could probably really speak to this.

 

Have you compared BM to Arcam IRDac? Those are my two finalists.

Thanks, Alex

 

I thought you'd enjoy it! Hopefully you're not the only one in the house enjoying such bliss!

 

I convinced my roommate to go with this. I doubt one can find a better listening experience for under $1500. Such great synergy and sound.

And once again, I think the bass difference between the Bifrost Multibit and Yggdrasil/Gungnir Multibit is minor at best. I don't think it'll cure any bass light amp/transducer, but any of the Schiit multi-bit DACs don't disappoint in the bass department.

 

Thanks for the replies. I doubt I am in a position to acquire 'the perfect pairing' for HD650, but I am looking for a desktop solution that will provide a solid platform to drive HD650 (and maybe HD800) with some nice synergy.

Once that is sorted I guess I can just stare into the abyss that is tube rolling

 

I have not heard the Arcam IRDac so I'm afraid I can't be helpful there.

 

Yeah, I really think this is true. HD650 was about, $400, Valhalla 2 was $350, and Bifrost Multibit was $600. So that's $1350 and it gets you to the place where the headphone experience is quite remarkable. I also bought the Wyrd, $100, mostly because I think it just adds some stability, plus $50 in various cables. So that's just about $1500, and all I can say is dang! Use your Will Smith voice.

 

Is that what you meant to say?

 

hahaha. I meant the opposite. Schiit DACs have all head fantastic bass. Fixed and thanks for catching this.

 

Still working on that one, though she definitely said she noticed a marked improvement in sound. But I have a few days left to impress her and then she'll have to watch me go through the five stages of withdrawal after paranoidroid peels it out of my reluctant hands...

Listening to And the Bassists... from Montreux '77 right now. I love how the Bifrost Multibit renders the timbre of the two basses. It really helps tease out the differences between the instruments and the playing styles (and sounds beautiful).

 

Blanket response for comments about HD650 and Bifrost MB can be found here:
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/system-synergy-special-sound.54/

see page 3 my thoughts on HD650 / Bifrost MB with several amps here:
http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/system-synergy-special-sound.54/

 

I thought you meant fantastic (instead of disappointing), or my cognitive function might be in serious need of a good glass of red or something. thanks for the clarification.

 

Nice, thanks for redirecting to your posts there. I think it is interesting that the Schiit MB dacs are a big part of what makes these setups work. That is, traditional advice is to spend more on the amp than the dac, but with the advent of these Schiit MB dacs, I think that goes out the window. The Bifrost Multibit is more expensive than the amps listed there, but also critical to the amazing result, imho.

 

I think that it is the conventional wisdom that "traditional advice is to spend more on the amp than the dac", rather than there being any actual consensus. ( For example, the conventional wisdom that "primitive people believed the earth is flat" originated in a 19th Century novel, rather than any actual belief of primitive people.)
To the extent that anyone actually made that recommendation in the early days of Head-Fi, it was probably due to a complete lack of good cheap DACs, while headphone amps are not new technology, and plenty of amp choices sprang up when headphones started becoming popular - including lots of kits and DIY designs.
In my case, I use the same DAC for headpnone listening as well as living room speakers listening, so it is a no-brainer to spend more on a DAC.

 

Listening to the 650 through a Multibit Bifrost and Lyr 2, the bass sounded if anything tighter and more defined than I remember from with the Headroom Micro DAC/Amp. I'm basing this on unreliable memory, and in either case the difference is going to be comparatively subtle (either DAC/amp stack makes it sound like a 650, fundamentally), but.