Schiit (MultiBit) Bifrost

There is my answer, I only have SE. Looks like the Bifrost 2 is my huckleberry.

 

Bumping this old thread as I recently grabbed a used Bifrost from @rtaylor76 and it sounds utterly different from the old Bifrost I owned back in 2016. IIRC, the first one I had was purchased was purchased as a Multibit, whereas this one was originally a D/S Bifrost that had several upgrades, including a Multibit upgrade right around the time the newer sounding BF's got noticed. Talking to rtaylor, as far as we know Schiit didn't upgrade the main board at any point, just the Multibit board. When I had compared that first Bifrost to a then brand new Modi Multibit, I felt the Modi sounded tighter and less muddy than the Bifrost, and the difference in detail retrieval was minimal. This newer Bifrost has none of that (relatively) sluggish/muddy sound, and the textural details are significantly improved over the Modi. In 2016 I felt like I lost very little in terms of total performance going from Bifrost to Modi, but this newer version feels more like Gungnir's little brother rather than the old one which felt more like Modi's big brother. Not to say it's up to the level of a Gungnir, I would own two Gungnirs if I could.

So either Schiit did do a main board upgrade on this Bifrost or the magic sauce was in the latest rev of the Multibit board. Either way I'm impressed and just wanted to show the original Bifrost some love now that the 2 has overshadowed it.

 

I bought @Merrick's Bifrost MB as my first foray into multibit/r2r DAC's. I wanted to figure out if I liked this type of sound before I invested a significant amount of money in a Bifrost 2. Up until this purchase, my experience with DAC's has been limited exclusively to the lower price tier. I went from a JDS Labs OL DAC to a Topping E30 and thought I was done spending money on that part of my chain. Until recently, my best headphones were my Mod House Argons, a popular Fostex T-50RP mod, and I drove them with either my Emotiva A-100 or JDS Labs EL Amp II.

I got bit by the ZMF bug pretty hard last year and bought a used Aeolus after a tremendous amount of research. I really liked them with my modest setup, but my home situation made a closed-back practically a necessity. When my kids are still awake, I need to block out their shockingly loud little voices. When they are asleep, the last thing I want is to accidentally wake them up when I'm blasting my music late at night. Needless to say, I sold my Aeolus in preparation for ZMF November and set my sights on the Verite Closed. Long story short, I got very lucky and landed a super-rare red-stained Manchurian Ash set and have been enjoying them ever since.

My headphone upgrade made me re-think my entry-level DAC and amps. I started researching again and discovered SBAF after many, many years (like 16!) on Head-Fi. I immediately liked the vibe here. Within a few days I had somehow sent a nice Russian man $200 as a deposit for my very first tube amp, the SW51+.

Last thing on my to-do list was upgrading my DAC. I had read enough here and elsewhere to suspect a Schiit Multibit DAC might be the best fit for my preferences. The Bifrost 2 was calling my name, but for me it was a lot to spend. I had just bought $2000+ headphones for the first time, so I was hesitant to drop another $700 so quickly. @Merrick posted his ad for a Bifrost MB with the Unison upgrade, and I couldn't resist.

After all my ramblings, here is some relevant info for this thread. I compared the Bifrost to my Topping E30, and used the Unison USB input. I used the EL Amp II and Verite Closed for all my comparisons. I listened to very familiar tracks and tried my best to volume match, but it was hardly a scientific testing environment.

The thing that struck me the most after a couple of days acclimation was the textural information I was getting with the Bifrost. Vocals specifically seemed richer, more detailed and more realistic. I had never noticed any issues with the sound quality of my Topping E30, but it was pretty noticeably inferior after using the Bifrost for a while then switching back to the E30. I also noticed what I would describe as a fuller low end on the Bifrost. There was more weight to the bass, and it seemed a little more pronounced in the mix. It didn't take me much more than a week before I decided to sell the Topping. I think I can safely say I clearly prefer the multibit sound of the Bifrost. Now the decision I'm facing is whether or not to take the plunge and upgrade to the Bifrost 2. I'm sure I'll eventually follow @Merrick's example and snag a B-Stock BF2 when one pops up.

 

Sit on it for a while. Especially take your time to acclimate to your set up once the SW51 arrives.
Just because isn't the right justification for upgrades. Especially when you enjoy what you already have.

 

BF tone was nice, the staging creeped up on me later on. Still miss it.
One of my biggest mistakes was downgrading from it.

 

Mods at headfi must be slipping right now

Still find it somewhat hilarious that the mere mention of SBAF is blocked but mention and linking to many others such as reddit headphones, Audiogon, ASR, headcase, gearslutz, etc. is fine. Cat avatars too scary???

 

They're hardcore about it too. I got reprimanded 2 minutes after posting a link to SBAF lol.