Schiit Audio (or other) DAC Recommendations


My current sources are a Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC (with upgrades) and a Pioneer Elite PD-D6-J SACD Player.  I know that they are not the ultimate sources and am starting to think about upgrading the DAC to broaden my audio horizons.  The DAC is good for 24bit/96Khz.  I'd be interest in something that was 24bit/192Khz and possibly even DSD for the right price.

Is something like the Schiit Audio Modi worth consideration?  What are some of the higher value DSD capable DACs?
mceljo

Showing 2 responses by docknow

@mceljo I am a big fan of Schiit DACs and own three of them right now.  I would only buy a Modi if I bought the MultiBit version.  MultiBit was game changer over their previous versions.
@mceljo You can read the technical aspects on their website and Jason’s Headroom thread (warning, it’s very long). My take on it is that they have worked out a mathematical way to re-construct the original waveforms from the 44.kHz sampling (e.g.) that seems to be better than the delta-sigma DACs do and is like R2R, but all done on chip. They then implement it with some computationally powerful chips, that only they use for music.

Functionally, I had a BiFrost with two different DACs, prior to the MultiBit upgrade, and while it was nice, I didn’t really listen to it much. About 2 seconds after the MB upgrade, I recognized this was very different and sounded like the analog side of my system and like music. I listen to all digital now, as on balance, analog (at my price range) and digital are essentially equal with different pros and cons.

Take a look at some of my old posts, where I have talked about MultiBit more.