Schiit (MultiBit) Bifrost

Oops, sorry, I didn't catch this.

And yeah, I don't think it should be called "warmth", but terminologies fail me here.

Perhaps I should have said that Bifrost Multibit sounded "fuller" relative to Gungnir Multibit? Either way, to me, Bifrost Multibit is still a better option in some cases. Gungnir Multibit/Yggdrasil can be just a bit too analytical on some systems. I know I couldn't stand HD800 w/ Anax mod 3.0 + Studio + Yggdrasil for too long. Too much of something is not good. LCD-2 (either a veiled one or Craig's godly one) was good, though. It sorely needed that resolution.

So synergy is a big thing here, but honestly, I stand by my previous statement that I would take Bifrost Multibit for stock HD800 any day, even knowing Gungnir Multibit/Yggdrasil are more resolving.

 

I can't compare the BM (haven't heard one yet) but I can compare it to the Gungnir Multibit. The irDAC is a great unit, but the Gungnir Multibit sounds a bit like a veil has been lifted. The irDAC is not bright (and that makes me happy), and it has plenty of detail. The Gungnir Multibit just has a bit more. From what I've heard described wrt the BM, I think as far as sound, it would be a toss up for me between BM and irDAC, but the irDAC has a couple of extra features that the BM lacks.

 

Hi all,

For the last four days I have had the Bifrost Multibit loaner that @purrin made available to the community in my system at home and, this afternoon, I took it to my brother's house to compare it to his Berkeley Audio Designs Series 1 DAC. I am a bit of an outlier for this site, as I couldn't test it with headphones. The only headphones I have are AKG 553s which I use with a Dragonfly 1.2 DAC at work, so I don't even have a head phone amp that I can pair it with. So, I had to make due with a couple of conventional room systems. The systems I was able to test it on were:

Mine:
Cubox-i4Pro music server running Arch Linux/LMS/Squeezebox -> S/PDIF -> (Bifrost Multibit vs. Modi 2 Uber) -> Musical Fidelity X-T100 amp -> Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers (an old Adcom GFA-5200 runs a pair of Bose 200s as our kitchen speakers)

My brother's:
Simaudio Moon 360D CD Player -> S/PDIF -> (Bifrost Multibit vs. Berkeley Audio Designs Series 1 DAC) -> Adcom GFA-555 -> Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor M speakers

In my brother's home system, he uses the BAD Series 1 DAC as his preamp so we had to substitute a Parasound P/LD 2000 preamp when using the Bifrost Multibit in his system (just to provide volume control):

Simaudio Moon 360D CD Player -> S/PDIF -> Bifrost Multibit-> Parasound P/LD 2000 -> Adcom GFA-555 -> Sonus Faber Cremona Auditor M speakers

What follows are my impressions. I claim to be wholly subjective and only able to speak to what sounds good (and what doesn't) to my ears with the gear I have on hand to test with. Your own mileage may vary. Also, I am not one experienced in writing reviews so either bear with me, or simply skip over the turgid mess that shall follow. I've two small kids, a wife that also works full time and a rather busy job so it's the best i can do given the time available. But however flawed, I figure it is what I can give back to the community after having had this wonderful four day opportunity.

First, in my home system--there was no question that between the Modi 2 Uber and the Bifrost Multibit, the Bifrost Multibit was clearly head and shoulders above the Modi. Our home system was notably better with the Bifrost Multibit than with the Modi in all respects. Instruments had much more depth and timbre and the way that the Bifrost Multibit renders voices is wonderful (I am back at home now listening to Diana Krall's Love Scenes as I write this--delightful!). The sound stage is much larger and deeper, with better separation of the instruments. I can hear much more detail both in the music itself as well as background noises in live recordings. I wouldn't describe the Modi's sound as being more veiled than the Bifrost Multibit. Rather, I'd describe it as thinner, flatter where the sound of the Bifrost Multibit was richer, more full, perhaps more three dimensional than the Modi2 Uber.

It has been very hard to tear myself away from the Bifrost Multibit while it has been in my hands.

I have to say, too, that the Bifrost Multibit has shown me what sleepers the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1s speakers I have are--though modest, they have never sounded better. While the Bifrost Multibit doesn't defy physics, it greatly improved the bass extension of the speakers simply by producing a much more defined bass in the lower registers that the Wharfedales can reach. And the midrange and treble are much improved as well. Simply put, the Bifrost Multibit is the best speaker upgrade I've heard in my system to date. I especially like the way that the Bifrost Multibit renders voices, stringed instruments and horns, as well as giving a strong sense of space and ambiance to the music, particularly in live recordings which are by far my preference. Orchestral pieces and dense passages of music are well rendered, benefiting greatly from the larger sound stage and I can pick out the individual instruments much more easily in space. Quite a contrast to the mush that music by large orchestras and bands can be smeared to by lesser DACs. And finally I have found a relatively inexpensive DAC that can do justice to organ music (I had to wait until the house cleared out before I could try that...)

For any Modi 2 Uber DAC owners wondering whether or not they should upgrade, I strongly recommend at least trying to find some way of auditioning the Bifrost Multibit. It is so clearly a step up from the Modi (not to trash the Modi--it is a very nice DAC at its price point).

Second, in my brother's system, I have to say that the Berkeley Audio Design Series 1 DAC to me and my brother was clearly better--more resolving and refined. But we both agreed that the Bifrost Multibit didn't embarrass itself either and, at its price point, is a truly remarkable achievement. We spent a good part of the afternoon listening to just the Bifrost Multibit and, over time, it improved as it warmed up. We also thought that the old Parasound preamp (and the inexpensive Audioquest Forest S/PDIF cable we were using to connect the Moon 360D to the Bifrost Multibit) might well be veiling the output of the Bifrost Multibit somewhat. It would have been great if we could have performed a more accurate apples to apples comparison but we had to make due with what equipment we had available. Even with the differences in pathways from source to DAC to amp to speakers, the Bifrost Multibit still sounded very musical and detailed in his system.

We did find that the sound stage was smaller and a little more recessed behind the speakers relative to the BAD DAC, and on one SACD (The San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tillson Thomas playing Mahler's 4th Symphony, Laura Claycomb, Soprano, SACD 821936-00402), the Bifrost Multibit exhibited some treble sibilance during the 4th movement in a few passages with loud percussion and horns that the BAD DAC handled much more smoothly. But given reports of how treble sibilance can smooth out over a period of days with the Bifrost Multibit, I wonder how it might have fared if we had been able listen to it after it had been on for several days in a row.

I tried to play a wide range of musical styles through the Bifrost Multibit while I had it. At home we only have FLAC ripped from CDs. At my brother's we played a mixture of Redbook and SACDs. For those interested, I can post some of what we played in testing, though I've already mentioned in this thread how much I enjoyed Norman Blake/Tut Taylor/Sam Bush/Butch Robins/Vassar Clements/David Holland/Jethro Burns (Flying Fish) through the Bifrost Multibit. It could not mask inferior recordings, though even they were often improved by it. But on well recorded and mastered material, it shone.

I've had a wonderful time with the Bifrost Multibit over the last four days and am very loathe to give it up. Everyone who I've had listen to it in my home system has remarked on how much richer it sounds than the Modi, including my wife who I've been hoping would hear and like the difference (hint, hint). Even our six and nine year old boys noticed and commented the difference. It will be a while before we can afford to get one ourselves, but it is certainly firmly at the top of my list for the next upgrade to our modest home system. (Though now, of course, I long to hear the Gungnir and Yggdrasil...)

Kudos to Mike Moffat ( @baldr ) and the team at @schiit for a wonderful achievement and my sincere and deep thanks to @purrin for making this loaner available to the community. It was very generous of him to let it loose in the wild and one of the very best ways to really experience what an innovation these new multibit DACs from Schiit represent. I certainly would have waited much, much longer to have had this experience if it weren't for @purrin's generosity. I think that, in the future, Schiit Audio should strongly consider making 5-10 of each of their multibits available to various fora communities as roaming loaners. It is a wonderful form of advertising! I have certainly been passing the news along to any and all friends and coworkers who are interested in such matters and tried to get those within reach on short notice to come and hear it while I had it at home.

And finally a big thanks, too, to @velvetx, for all the work he's been doing to ensure that the loaner moves smoothly from one person to the next in a safe and orderly fashion.

Tomorrow, sadly, the Bifrost Multibit moves on to @paranoidroid. I hope he and the rest of you it visits on its journey enjoy it and can keep it moving for a long time to come.

Closing while listening to Pictures by Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and Kenneth Knudsen (SteepleChase) through the Bifrost Multibit... I hope you are all having a nice evening, too...

 

Nice write-up, thanks. The loaner program is great for getting lots of information out to us. I thought it was cool that you were able to pit the Bifrost Multibit up against that Berkeley Alpha. That's pretty serious competition, but at the same time it is important to hear about dacs that can outperform Bifrost Multibit.

 

well done!

 

The surprise for me was how well the Bifrost Multibit held its own, especially when we felt that the signal path from the source to the amp for the Bifrost was not as clean as for the BAD DAC. It was clearly outclassed, but then the price differential between the two is huge. It certainly made me wish that we could have been comparing the BAD DAC to the Yggdrasil (with a really clean signal path for both).

I don't know enough other DACs to make a meaningful placement for the Bifrost Multibit in the constellation of what's out there (I leave that to experts like @atomicbob ), but to me it is clearly an exceptional value.

 

Just to be sure, have you seen Marv's DAC chart du Awe:

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/marveys-dac-chart-of-awesomeness.63/

 

Yes, I am (though the last time I'd looked, it didn't yet have the Bifrost Multibit placed yet though hints as to its eventual placement had been made).

I'm glad I've been able experience at least a few data points on that chart, though I'd love to experience more!

 

I've had the loaner Bifrost Multibit since yesterday and have been comparing it against my ODAC with the HD800 and HE1000. I verified both were volume matched and got the switching time to a few seconds between the two. So far, the Bifrost Multibit seems to have a bit more lush bass, a bit cleaner and more incisive attack in the sound as well as more depth. The most noticeable difference is the hint of extra bass / warmth. I should be getting an A/V switch box in tomorrow and be able to get the switching time to near instantaneous and it'll allow me to see if I can blind identify them to confirm my impressions.

 

That is much what I experienced. As I said during the hand off, it seemed like with the Bifrost Multibit, the most significant contribution I could attribute to the Bifrost Multibit compared to the Modi2Uber was that there was more meat on the bone. I look forward to hearing the results of your blind testing!

If you can, I recommend trying to keep the Bifrost Multibit on throughout. I definitely noted improvement as it stayed on for a few days. As time when on, the improvements became more subtle but, in my mind, tangible. (of course, just my own subjective opinion and YMMV...)

Have fun!

 

This redditor doesn't hear a difference between Multifrost and Modi 2U: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/3rbmmg/bifrost_multibit_review/
Possible explanations?

 

Flipping between two sources a/b-ing while playing one song is actually a rather difficult way to hear differences between things. I've found the best way is to listen with one for a track and then flip and listen to it again with the other source. The other thing is to not listen for specific things, but to just let yourself listen to whatever you hear. I've found that if you don't do both, you listening to your brain more than the sound.

 

In my opinion, there are too many to list. This hobby/obsession/interest is hugely subjective. There are a huge number of variables (what kind of source material in what format and conditions, what interconnects, what upstream gear, what kind of power conditioning phases of the moon, sunspots, etc...), not to mention how all of our ears hear differently and have different preferences and predelictions.

That's why I prefaced my report on my experiences with the Bifrost Multibit that my observations are inherently subjective. But I will also state unequivocally that I did hear a difference in my system and with my ears--and that those observations were borne out by others who didn't always know which they were listening to (Modi 2 Uber vs. Bifrost).

Does this discount the redditor's experience? Not at all. That is simply his/her experience with the Bifrost Multibit.

Whose experience is more valid, mine or his/hers? Neither. We both heard what we heard. We came to different conclusions. Life is like that.

Luckily there are LOTS of clever audio designers out there who produce a large and growing range of gear that can cater to a wide range of tastes and perceptions. Which, in the end, benefits all of us.

That's my 2 cents, anyway...

 

^^ this. Actually it takes me more than one track. I need at least an hour, or even a day. Then when I switch I get a rather immediate gestalt sense of the change.

 

Thanks for the input, guys. I knew this'd be the right place for a reasoned discussion of such things.

 

I don't think he kept it on long enough continuously. But whatever. He didn't think it was worth it.

 

I have to say that I agree with Mike Moffat in this post:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/sch...s-most-improbable-start-up/7725#post_11921090

My best A/B testing comes out of more extended listening to one source and then another, then back again--rinse, repeat...(for my ears, anyway--yours might be different). If I give my ears time to settle into a groove with a particular product or audio chain, I am better able to develop a deeper impression of how it sounds. Details (good and bad) emerge over more extended listening whereas flipping back and forth in short listening tests just aren't as useful for me. But that's just me.

 

Personally, I've found a 10 second loop works the best. It keeps the part in your audio memory. I agree sometimes not listening to specific things help, but to sit back and gauge how you feel about the entirety of it instead. Tyll had a really great article on blind testing on this as well. I also find it takes a while to notice an upgrade and having it be most noticeable only when you switch back down. I have some parts picked out that illuminate some of the difference I hear between the Bifrost Multibit & ODAC so hopefully I can pick it out blind.