Might be my last post as my midlife crisis system upgrade fiasco must end now. Not sure how significant this one is but thought I'd report my findings.
For streaming Amazon HD, three years ago I first moved from a Soundblaster Xfi Titanium PC sound card to a Schiit Modi DAC and heard a general improvement. Six months later I upgraded to a Schiit Bifrost 2 and heard more improvement in detail, soundstage size & bass heft. This last summer I got a second one for my headphone amp (in a different room), but this one is the newer Bifrost 2/64 which has different chips. Finally tested them against each other in my main system, going back & forth on maybe a dozen songs.
In every case I heard what was expected from reviews: the new Bifrost 2/64 sounds clearer & more detailed and the old Bifrost 2 sounds a little "thick" with midrange and maybe a bit more "full". What I didn't expect is that I can't choose between the two. Every time I thought one was clearly superior, on the next song I felt the other was clearly superior, and back & forth it went. Each individual recording favored one DAC over the other!
I clearly believe DACs make a noticeable difference and feel the Modi to Bifrost upgrade was worthy. However, within a given level of DAC performance there may be no way to anticipate which will sound best in any given situation. Your stereo system components may favor one DAC in general, but the music genre may indicate a different one, and then the individual song recording may indicate a different one yet. My unexpected conclusion is that within a given level of DAC performance there may not be much point in worrying which one you have!
For streaming Amazon HD, three years ago I first moved from a Soundblaster Xfi Titanium PC sound card to a Schiit Modi DAC and heard a general improvement. Six months later I upgraded to a Schiit Bifrost 2 and heard more improvement in detail, soundstage size & bass heft. This last summer I got a second one for my headphone amp (in a different room), but this one is the newer Bifrost 2/64 which has different chips. Finally tested them against each other in my main system, going back & forth on maybe a dozen songs.
In every case I heard what was expected from reviews: the new Bifrost 2/64 sounds clearer & more detailed and the old Bifrost 2 sounds a little "thick" with midrange and maybe a bit more "full". What I didn't expect is that I can't choose between the two. Every time I thought one was clearly superior, on the next song I felt the other was clearly superior, and back & forth it went. Each individual recording favored one DAC over the other!
I clearly believe DACs make a noticeable difference and feel the Modi to Bifrost upgrade was worthy. However, within a given level of DAC performance there may be no way to anticipate which will sound best in any given situation. Your stereo system components may favor one DAC in general, but the music genre may indicate a different one, and then the individual song recording may indicate a different one yet. My unexpected conclusion is that within a given level of DAC performance there may not be much point in worrying which one you have!
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