Stacking Schiit Up and Finding One's Mojo

Stacking Schiit Up and Finding One’s Mojo

Based on another couple of posts I’d made, I was asked to write-up my thoughts/experiences with Schiit’s multi-bit Bifrost and multi-bit Modi DACs alongside Chord’s Mojo. I own, and use, all three, so this isn’t too much of a stretch.

So … here goes … and, with all such things, your mileage/preferences/needs may vary.

Let’s start with a simple size comparison between Modi MB and Mojo (and I threw my little Audioquest Dragonfly Red in there as well … for reasons that might not become apparent immediately):



Evaluation Configuration:

I tested primarily using the optical inputs on all three DACs fed from my Auralic Aries, Roon, and my usual audition playlist (which I suppose I should post, at some point). Optical was chosen as the interface after determining that it was the best option to use in my rig. I will say that Mojo’s USB input seems to perform a bit better than that on either the Bifrost Multibit or MOMBY from a laptop, but I could discern no difference out of my Aries.

For most of my listening I fed the outputs of these DACs into my Ragnarok. And then given the price levels and fact that the Mojo doesn’t need an amp, in most case, I fed them through my Lyr 2 and Vali 2 as well as an “all-up” comparison.

I used Abyss, LCD-4, HD800S and Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart headphones, and both ER4-S and SE846 IEMs in my listening – the IEMs feature here since the Mojo is usefully portable. And for one specific test (soundstage/imaging), I hooked them up to my speaker system.

Soon-to-be-Expected “Random” Aside:

Before we get going here, I’ll quote myself on an earlier comment about the Mojo:

“At anything close to its price point, and in several cases well beyond that, I think this is the best DAC available.”​

In the almost-two-months since I made that comment a couple of things have happened. First, I bought my own Bifrost multi-bit and was able to do a direct back-to-back comparison – rather than going on relatively fleeting memories. And second, I got a Modi multi-bit and was able to do proper comparisons there too. So, we’ll see if that initial statement still stands …

Results:

While telling Bifrost Multibit and MOMBY apart is rather hard and, in most cases, not something I can do with any degree of reliability, I cannot make the same claim between the Schiit DACs and Mojo. The difference is on the same level as Bifrost Multibit vs. 4490, and as soon as you’ve picked up on where the differences are, then you are, in my opinion, not super-likely to get them confused.

I would not describe either Bifrost Multibit or MOMBY as being, in anyway, harsh, but Mojo comes across a little smoother all the same.

Both the Schiit units render a more balanced sound, from top-to-bottom, with Mojo sounding very slightly rolled off at the top end and a little warmer down low. I’ve commented on this slight treble roll-off with Mojo before, and it’s something I hear mostly with IEMs … and more so with the SE846 than the ER4-S (which might mean the roll-off occurs beyond the extension of the ER4-S).

Resolution and detail retrieval were one area I had felt Mojo was ahead of any of the near-price-relevant competition. Running Mojo into an amp (i.e. just using it as a DAC), I do think it edges out MOMBY here, but the difference is very slight and, as with Bifrost Multibit vs. MOMBY, it took multiple passes vs. Bifrost Multibit with very specific tracks to discern any difference there at all.

At this point it’s important to remember that Mojo doesn’t NEED an amplifier, however, at least with most headphones. And, when you drive suitable headphones directly from Mojo, something you cannot do with either Schiit unit, it does pull slightly ahead of Bifrost multi-bit in terms of detail/resolution and transparency.

Caveat: I have no way to do this as a solo blind test, so expectation bias may be at work as I was very aware of which unit I was listening to.

Like both multi-bit DACs here, Mojo exhibits excellent dynamics and transient response. Attack is lightning fast. This is particularly evident when Mojo is used un-amped. Run some Infected Mushroom, say “The Rat”, directly through the Mojo and this is hard to miss.

Tonality is very close between these units, with my preference leading towards both of the Schiit units for cymbals/brushwork, hard brass and some electronic “instruments”, and perhaps a slight leaning towards Mojo for bowed strings.

My experience with Yggdrasil has shown me that it’s as close to the best you can get from a soundstage/imaging perspective. Bifrost Multibit and MOMBY are both very good here too, but are just edged out by Mojo. No, Mojo doesn’t do quite as well as Yggdrasil here, but it does slightly best both the lower-tier Schiit models. The resultant image being more palpable and somewhat deeper and making it possible to follow the left-to-right position of the notes hit on a piano modestly more vividly.

At the end of the day, I think the bigger factor in choosing between Mojo and either of the Schiit units in question here, is how, where and with what you’re going to use it combined with your signature preferences.

If you need portable/transportable use, then the Mojo is the obvious choice since neither of the Schiit DACs is going to help you much there. And performance here easily bests any DAP I’ve heard (which includes all of the Astell & Kern units, and most of the interesting competition). In fact, I’ll go further … it is, without question (based on only my experience – which certainly doesn’t encompass everything on the market) the best sounding portable solution currently available at ANY price.

For driving purely IEMs … I’d also just go with Mojo.

If you want an all-in-one unit, then Mojo is price/performance comparable with a Modi multi-bit feeding either a Vali 2 or a Lyr 2. Though, personally, I find it fiddly and annoying to use in a desktop setting. For example, I do NOT like leaving units with batteries plugged in while I’m not home – and I find connecting/disconnecting cables to be a distracting pain in the arse. On top of which, said cabling tends to dwarf the size of the unit itself, which isn’t great aesthetically.

As a pure DAC, I think Modi multi-bit offers better value and performs, without audition-level-listening, as well, or as close to as well, as Mojo as makes no useful difference.

For desktop use, the combination of MOMBY with Vali 2 will give you similar performance, at the cost of a very slight drop in transparency, but with the ability to drive even more demanding headphones. Mojo does a really good job, even with quite-hard-to-drive cans, but I find I prefer using an external amplifier for things on the level of HD800S, LCD-4 and, especially, Abyss.

It’s not that Mojo can’t drive such headphones … it actually does an amazing job there (and “volume limits” are not really at issue), but there’s a sense of ease I get when using a big amp (Ragnarok, WA5-LE … etc.) with such headphones which simply isn’t there with the Mojo.

Finally, synergy is important. So far, and it’s been a brief thing at this point, there’s really nice synergy with the Fostex TH-X00 Purpleheart and the Mojo, especially if you’re a bass-head. With the Audeze stuff, I’m really liking the Modi MB/Vali 2 combination, and that also works well with the HD800S. And with the LCD-4 and Abyss, Bifrost MB and Lyr 2 stand apart in terms of pure enjoyment.

Summary:

So, to simplify … and in a possibly-vain effort to make this an “actual” summary:

Used purely as a DAC, and going on performance and my preference only:

Bifrost Multibit >= Mojo > MOMBY​

As a pure DAC, but with value factored in:

MOMBY => Bifrost Multibit > Mojo​

As a “solution”, well, that’s a list of one, Mojo … since you need an amp otherwise.

I suspect you’d have to move up to at least Gungnir multi-bit to usefully beat the performance of these units. And they play well above that level, once we're out of the multi-bit/R2R realm, with Mojo and Bifrost MB easily competing with D/S units costing several times their price.

Mea-Culpa:

My previous statement of:

“At anything close to its price point, and in several cases well beyond that, I think this is the best DAC available.”
​

Has to be revised ...

Bifrost multi-bit and Modi multi-bit are clearly in very close contention, so perhaps this is, now, a more accurate statement:

“At anything close to their respective price points, and in several cases well beyond that, I think Schiit's Bifrost multi-bit, Chord's Mojo and Schiit's Modi multi-bit are the best DACs available.”​

Final Thoughts:

These units all provide an incredible level of performance for the price. I can’t see anyone going wrong with any one of them. All three have a place in my audio-world:

The Bifrost multi-bit/Lyr 2 stack is the biggest, best sounding, setup I can fit at my workstation in my day-job-lab. It’s paired with my LCD-2.2c and I love it. It probably gets more listening time than anything else as the moment, purely as a function of how my day works out.

The Modi multi-bit/Vali 2 setup replaced a MHDT Stockholm v2/Woo WA6 setup at my bedside in order to save space and be a bit more practical. I don’t think I’m missing much there, though the MHDT unit is VERY seductive (even if I find the MOMBY to be more true-to-life).

Mojo I use for all portable listening (I really do not like it for desktop use) unless I need to travel light enough that even it is too much to take along, or I’m travelling in company and can’t indulge myself in proper listening as much as I would like.

 

Nice job friendo! Your impressions mirror my experiences pretty well. I had a mojo as an office all-in-one, and even thought about using it as a DAC plugged into an amp for desktop use, but like you I found that was not its intended purpose. I also don't like leaving it plugged in all the time, and then you need 2 usb cables, one for charging and one for listening. For portability I didn't have much use for it since i'm a plebe and content with my iPhone into IEMs. So the mojo was sold. I also agree that the Mojo dac is what makes the unit quite desirable, not so much the amp section (though it's totally fine for IEMs and some phones!).

Another thing I noticed, not sure if you tested this, but the Mojo seemed more sensitive to USB source quality than any of the Schiit dacs. What I mean is that, from my laptop, I heard a bit of digital nasty noise with the Mojo, but not so with the Schiit dacs. This problem improved/ was averted somewhat on my desktop. But this was interesting since Mojo in theory isolates USB power from audio information, but in practice I found this not to be entirely the case, as I heard some noise on Mojo from my laptop USB.

 

Thanks!

On the Mojo and USB ...

While I find Mojo almost completely insensitive to jitter, it seems very sensitive to any kind of noise on the USB interface. And, despite the claims of power isolation, it seems to be affected by both it's power and signal inputs which are, as you say, separate (so running it on the desktop means at least three wires). It is at its best, in my opinion, when running off the internal battery and a source like an AK120 via optical, but USB is not where it is at for this unit.

 

Agree somewhat and disagree. The Mojo does seem quite sensitive to usb, but when you do the right things to mitigate noise on the usb cable as best as you can, it performs very well. I also believe some dacs do really well with a particular source and poorly with others. That was certainly the case with a 4490 modi I had.

I am finding you have to try possibilities with the Mojo to get it to sound its best. One big tip is you will never get great sound using a cheap or Audiophile sourced 3.5 mm to dual rca female adapter to use your $400-$500 rca cables when feeding a preamp in a speaker setup. You handicap the Mojo quite a bit.

I do wish I had optical around to try but alas the Mac Mini has been upstaged by another computer.

 

For me, over about nine months of on/off testing, I've yet to hear any USB implementation beat out properly implemented optical or electrical S/PDIF, with AES/EBU XLR almost always beating everything. As such, my tolerance for spending hundreds-to-thousands on USB "fixers", along with associated cabling, is very limited - when I can easily best that, in my system, with a <$100 Lifatec optical cable.

Beyond that, I am just not the type to spend more than a DAC costs in associated cabling and assorted periphery to get it to sound its best. The money would simply go elsewhere. My experiences have not lead me to believe that the bigger bang-for-the-buck isn't achieved somewhere other than wiring.

 

Were you planning to share your thoughts on the Dragonfly Red against the above? I for one am curious

 

There's an interesting, if not-as-well-trafficked-as-I'd-like thread on "Going Mobile" ... and I thought I might at least write up a more substantial post along those lines, since I have a varied mobile-audio setup - depending on how I'm traveling, where I'm going, who I'm traveling with and how long I'm gone for. And, yes, the Dragonfly Red would be a factor in such a thing.

 

I do wish I had sources with clean spdif, either coax or aes, but no computers that have come through this house have had it and I do not plan to add any costly cards at this point.

re: My Mojo usb solution with cabling is about $30. I, like you, believe it is not all about an expensive cable. And even though I can definitely appreciate the impact a good USB fixer upper can provide, the ones that do no harm are rather pricey and have not made it to my purchase list. Let's just say the Mojo with USB beat several other dacs with any of the bridges I tried for overall musical enjoyment.

 

wait so, since i'm thick/ slow/ whatever, what is your mojo solution?

 

I found Mojo to sound at its best over SPDIF. I used a bus-powered F1 and it sounded a lot cleaner than straight USB out of my MBA...

 

It's a rather simple setup.

#1 Find the right usb cable. I tried a number of them from super short to Audiophile approved Wireworld. They all sound different, no surprise really as ther have been a few studies showing how a high percentage of badly assembled usb cables are out there and that definelty affects perfromance.

The best turned out to be a Monoprice (I hate saying it because lots of their stuff is rather poor in the analog space) .5 meter with the larger gauge power and ground with one embedded ferrite. I also use a Highwire power wrap that seems to help the sound by mitigating rfi.

#2 Nothing else on any usb hub or ports in the computer. So that means starting the playlist for me, pulling the usb mouse and sitting down and enjoying.

#3 Treat the source and everything else in your system to mitigate rfi pickup and do what you can to get the cleanest power.

EDIT: And try not to use a laptop, with its built in screen, the powered panel is a noise source.

In my systems, this works very well, wmmv!

 

These are non-issues. Chord says there is no issue leaving it plugged it. As for two cables, unless you are using a bus powered DAC (and few here probably do), you need two cables anyways.

 

Non-issues for Chord or the life of the Mojo and it's battery perhaps ...

However, Chord's opinion of leaving a lithium-based battery plugged in all the time, and my experiences with lithium batteries don't line up very well. But suffice it to say that my concerns have nothing to do with the well-being or performance of the Mojo. Having seen lithium-chemistry cells go "poof" (rather energetically), even when not being charged or drained, it will be a very cold day in hell before I walk out of my home with any such unit, from any manufacturer, left on charge.

The issue with multiple cables is less that there are, in fact, multiple cables ... but more the fact that they wind up being bigger than the unit, and to route them properly either requires fixing them in place with something like this ... or them putting more stress on the small connectors (that have no relief - they're just board-mounted). That's just ugly. A "Mojo TT" would fix it (proper connectors and a bigger chassis) ... and unfortunately the 2Qute, while fixing those issues, has it's own - notably that I like the sound of the Mojo better.

As someone that's aesthetically sensitive ... Mojo (indeed the entire Chord line-up) is a long way from ideal for permanent desktop use.

 

Bravo for another great comparison thread! I'm loving these comparisons, they're all for products I've considered, and you touch on a number of subjects that I was curious about. I'd gladly read any more comparisons you're considering writing up.

 

my laptops have all been plugged in and used as desktops for years and years.

Aren't those batteries lithium based ?

 

yeah for sure, but the worry is that doing so would degrade the ability of the lithium battery to power the device on its own (without being plugged in) right? laptops sometimes require that the lithium battery be replaced if they drain to quickly after using it for a long while. but with the built in obsolescence of computers it's hardly an issue anymore

i don't really have a horse in this race. i tried the mojo and liked it, but as a permanent desktop solution i think my preference is for schiit dacs. were i to also want a portable solution, i think the mojo is hard to beat, plus it's versatile!

 

Probably.

Look, I don't care what other people do with their devices ... it's not a point of persuasion for me, just something I offered as an explanation for why I personally don't like Mojo in a desktop scenario. I'm not worried about the effect on the longevity of the cell(s) and it's irrelevant from a sound-quality perspective, and is mostly an aesthetic/engineering thing for me.

But, the bottom line is that there are no circumstances where I'm leaving batteries, particularly lithium ones, on charge in my home unattended. If anyone else wants to, that's just fine by me. I'm not going to, however. I've enough experience, from an engineering and chemistry perspective, to know what I am and am not comfortable with. It's nothing against Chord, or any other manufacturer, but even with all the safeguards in the world, shit goes wrong sometimes.

I'll refrain from further comment on the matter, since it makes no difference to me - no units left on charge unattended in my home (and, lest you wonder, when I've been out of my house for more than 15 minutes, all non-critical power and network circuits shutdown).

 

If I were inclined to have a portable stack, I'd go for a Mojo. But for me that's too clunky and inconvenient.

 

There's increasing reports of dead hugos on the web now, 2 years on. Wonder if it will be the same for mojo two years after launch.

 

Dead as in not working at all or dead in that they need to have the battery replaced? And how many reports 3-4 or dozens?