Gungnir Multibit or? <$1500

Did you do the assembly yourself? If so, level of difficulty?

 

No I did not, bought it from @Rolltide here on Hoffman. Think my soldering skills and patience would be a problem. If you are looking for non-digital sound it's a great option.

 

I don't follow. A DAC at a certain price point sounds like a DAC at said price point, so it's not worth keeping? Obviously if you have the means to move up a tier or two it makes sense to do so, but if not I don't see what the beef is.

 

It's my hope that over time performance at a particular price piont changes for the better. Maybe this is what Rolltide was hoping for but not finding in the new Schiit.

 

Just to add a bit of experience with Schiit. I wanted a Gumby but did not have the money at the time for a new one. I watched the adds and bought the non multibit version at what I felt was a reasonable price with the plan to upgrade. I upgraded not only the DAC board but also the USB from Gen2 to the latest version. Got the unit back and it sounded great except for the loud pop/transient produced whenever it changed bit rates. I returned the unit once again for service. They replaced the entire motherboard as there was a DC offset irregularity. Got the Gumby back and it is working perfectly. Sounds great. So for all of you that talk down on the Schiit and praise some others, I recommend that if you are looking for a DAC at the price point you consider the service and support of the company as well. The Schiit folks took my unit, and I informed them I was second owner, not only did the paid for upgrade but also did what most would call a warranty service on an older unit that had no claim to the free service. As to the kit/build your own, how do you perform a final service check? If all that is involved is assembling $1500.00 worth of parts then no issues but what if either the assembly is slightly off or a part is out of spec? An assembled unit can work with errors some can truly only be seen with the use of testing instruments. I wish the OP as much or more musical enjoyment from his DAC as I am having with mine...really the same to everyone who posted in this thread. Cheers to all

 

I didn't want to butt in with this, trying to keep this just about the musical quality of the DACs, but yes, there is something to be said about Schiit's customer service, ability to upgrade (instead of discard) units, and MADE IN THE USA mantra aspects too.

 

Interesting, my unit would also make a loud clicking noise but I thought that was just part of it's functionality never hearing one before. I sold it and the new owner has never contacted me regarding it so oh well. The things I didn't like about the unit was that it would click so much and it also didn't have any source or bitrate indicators on the front and it didn't sound as good as the LM in my system.

 

Besides using a basic meter, how do I know the modifications to my phono pre are working to spec? I don't. It's the nature of the beast. I suppose I could buy an oscilloscope or something, but in my opinion, my ears are a pretty decent testing device. If something is out of spec and inaudible, as you say, then what's the difference? I've heard excellent things about the owner at ANK also and he promptly responded to emails at like 9pm. Reviews say he will almost literally hold your hand through the whole process if necessary, haha. I have faith that all will be in spec and, if not and it's an issue, Brian will work with me to get it resolved. I've never even had a cheapo, no name capacitor be out of spec enough to cause issues, so I'm not all that worried about these high end components.

 

The Schiit DACs have relays inside that will click when the sample rate changes. The clicks are mechanical and come from inside the DAC. If you were getting any loud audible pops that you heard over the speakers then that would be a fault in the DAC and it should be sent in for service.

 

Just curious, but did you ask them if they can assemble? I'm pretty sure that when I looked up the ANK 2.1 in July that I thought the same thing until I found a proper link to the page where they have the assembled pricing, it wasn't easy at all to find that page I remember and I had to use someone's posted link to get there.
That Mhdt Pagoda dac actually gets great reviews from owners and there is one on US Audio Mart right now for 900.
Seriously, people do seem to like that one and it sounds like it's in the ANK 2.1 / BP range overall.
I think it does 24/196 and comes with a BNC.

 

Yeah, I've seen how different parts of the ANK website say different things about assembly. I had their EL34 amp and the original owner said it was built by Brian, I sort of get the impression if you ask nice they're willing to do it.

 

Yeah, one page said you could add the option for assembly on the shop page, but the option isn't available, and somewhere else it says that assembly is available only on level 4 and 5 products.

 

I guess I can see how they need to be selective, I’m guessing most customers would choose prebuilt if possible, at which point they aren’t really a kit business anymore. Even a lot of the people who buy the kit seem to go the DigitalPete route.

 

I keep hearing about this DigitalPete. Some guy who assembles the kits for people?

 

I think doing that kit will be an enormous amount of fun, and will give you a really good sounding device. I gather it is also upgradeable, both in terms of the parts, as well as model level.
I haven't done a kit in decades. I remember the first Dyna-kit I assembled in around 1973- a Stereo 70-- I really didn't have any technical skills whatsoever, and the damn thing worked when i was done.
A good soldering iron, and good soldering technique, along with some patience are probably all that's needed. (Don't know what tubes ANK supplies- you may want to roll those eventually).
good luck, there's something nice about rolling your own....

 

Great to hear! I'm feeling pretty confident now. I've recapped lots of computer monitors, so I have plenty of experience soldering, as well as quality tools at my disposal. I was feeling a bit intimidated when I first hit the buy button, but now I'm just excited.

If this goes well, maybe I'll finally build myself the Fender Twin clone I've always wanted

 

The only formal review I found was Nick Whetstone's piece on TNT. The most comprehensive was s1rrah's on Head-fi. It's a bit unfortunate there isn't a whole lot out there considering the current R-2R multibit resurgence. The Pagoda is a very nice NOS DAC at a fair price and yes, it does 24/192, has bnc, usb, rca, and toslink connections, and a tube buffered output stage. Love mine.

 

DyersEve726 .. I wish I had your DIY skills and confidence! The only DIY projects I've done were speaker cables. I have no doubt it will be fun and rewarding.

 

As a way to pace yourself, and create an interesting thread, document your build with photos at logical intervals. I think there's a tendency to forge ahead so you can get it done-- resisting that will probably be the hardest part.

 

Yeah, I think he cut his teeth making Bottlehead kits for folks, but does the ANK stuff too.

One thing that's going for you is the DAC seems fairly simple compared to the amps and preamps. I believe they rate them as the easiest and least time consuming build. IIRC the digital board comes fully built, and it's the most complex looking. So per the picture of mine (err, rbmitch's), you see what remains is fairly straight forward, big caps and transformers.

I don't think they offer the Audio Note caps anymore, a shame.

 

I believe they do offer the AN caps, but at an additional cost. At the end of every product page, I see this "*Enquire if you prefer Audio Note Copper caps"

 

I just wanted to chime in that Schiit Multibit DACs are excellent, and not simply for those that don’t have experience with other DACs. I’ve owned more than a dozen $2,500 and under DACs — including Audio GD and MHDT NOS DACs, a variety of Sabre DACs, one of the Topping DACs that objectivists claim is near perfect, etc. — and am very happily settled with a Yggy.

If you have sufficiently resolving speakers/cans and amplifier, DAC differences are very audible. Some of it is about the chip, but a lot is about the implementation and filter (I prefer symmetrical filters).

@Ham Sandwich described the NOS versus Sabre sound really well. I ultimately settled on the Yggy because it has a lot of the multibit/NOS heft without sacrificing the detail and imaging (which was a big issue with MHDT, for example).

Ultimately, though, you need to listen to DACs against each other with the same gear, level matched, and get a feel for what you like.

 

Anybody on this thread dealt with import duties/taxes from Canada to the US? My credit card charged me a $50 foreign transaction fee that I was unaware of and now I'm a little worried about more surprising charges to come. This is the most expensive international purchase I've ever made and I never owed anything before, but I know declared value has a lot to do with that. Sorry, I realize this is a big time tangent. It's so difficult to find answers to this online.

 

Hey Rusty .. curious to know which MHDT DACs you're speaking of. I don't doubt your experience but it's in such contrast to my experience with the Pagoda I just had to ask. FWIW, I have several DACs on hand for comparison (Schiit Bifrost Multibit, dB Audio Labs Tranquility, and Chord Qute EX) and the Pagoda remains in my main system. Detail and imaging .. no issues here.

 

As to your question about costs on purchases from Canada. I bought a Bryston 4BSST² from a Canadian dealer. Here is what I found. First the credit card company has a fixed transaction fee to convert currencies. That is the $50.
Then there may be and additional tax added that the shipper will require you to pay before they deliver it to you. It is a customs duty based on value. I was notified by the shipper of the amount and had to pay it prior to the unit getting out of customs. Then the amp. was delivered.