I just got done auditioning one. I couldn't get the USB installer to recognize my Windows 10 laptop in my listening room, so never got the Schiit drivers installed. The Schiit customer service was anything but, they were very responsive and helpful. I even swapped the DAC out, thinking I'd gotten a bad USB board, but never got the drivers to install. I could get Foobar to send audio to the DAC using direct sound or WASAPI, but my preference is Jplay with Kernel Streaming, and never got that working. So the bake off against my Offramp 4 was a win for Empirical Audio,I was wondering if the new USB implementation could best the Offramp, but that's a tall order anyway, especially since I now have a Dynamo!
I will say the audio thru the Gungnir's BNC input was better than my PS Audio Digital Link III, which I've had since 2012. Better separation on heavily layered tracks, more detail, a little more edge and depth to the music. Not brighter tho, my DLIII upsamples and I am looking for more of a real sounding DAC, something...less smoothed over? The Gungnir is the sound I'm looking for, with great connection options, and it looks fantastic. The USB didnt get me there, but the adapticlock and the input/output stages are top notch for the money. It has this cool little light that ticks on when the DAC decides your source is bad and re-clocks the signal. I call it the Steve Nugent light. This means the DAC doesn't re-clock the signal unless it detects unreasonable amounts of jitter, exactly what you want when you've got a nice USB converter in the path already. Great piece of kit.
I will say the audio thru the Gungnir's BNC input was better than my PS Audio Digital Link III, which I've had since 2012. Better separation on heavily layered tracks, more detail, a little more edge and depth to the music. Not brighter tho, my DLIII upsamples and I am looking for more of a real sounding DAC, something...less smoothed over? The Gungnir is the sound I'm looking for, with great connection options, and it looks fantastic. The USB didnt get me there, but the adapticlock and the input/output stages are top notch for the money. It has this cool little light that ticks on when the DAC decides your source is bad and re-clocks the signal. I call it the Steve Nugent light. This means the DAC doesn't re-clock the signal unless it detects unreasonable amounts of jitter, exactly what you want when you've got a nice USB converter in the path already. Great piece of kit.