[Puma Cat]

Part IV: Multibit arrives!

So, finally, Gungnir arrives back metamorphosed into Gumby. I put it into the system, allowed it to warm up over the weekend, and started listening 2-3 days later. I was using Gumby with my Sonore microRendu and the Gen 5 USB input. I compared it initially using the SPDIF input via Eitr, and while they are very close, I think I prefer the character of the USB input.

The first and most noticable impression that the Gungnir Multibit gives over Gungnir is one of incredible detail, spaciousness, airy-ness, resolution, instrumental and vocal body, structure and placement, but always accompanied by a pervasive and unwavering musicality, and wonderful sweetness of presentation. Listen to "Se Voce Me Ama" on Melody Gardot's The Absence, and every subtle vocal and instrumental detail, shading, texture is beautifully and naturally represented. You can hear the delicate sounds of the lyrics emanating from the throat and lips of singers, the texture of the steel guitar string, and the resonance of the guitar body itself. Yet each singer and instrument is fully fleshed out and separate from the other, as if you could look over and see each singer sitting on their own chair while singing. In her song, "If I Could Tell You I Love You", you can hear the resonance of the sound emanating from Melody's throat through her husky voice. Yet none of this detail, resolution, vocal articulation has any trace of etch or glare or sterility, instead it sounds warm, sweet, and natural.

Spend 14 minutes luxuriating to a 24/192 version of the title track of Grant Green's sublime "Idle Moments" on Blue Note. OMG. You can not only hear the brushes on the cymbals, but the texture of the steel fibers of the brush as they splay onto the cymbals. Meanwhile, Green's guitar sounds detailed, nuanced, rendered with beautiful overtones and touch...the harmonics cascade off the strings into space with beautiful decay. Joe Henderson's sax has a wonderfully husky Ike Quebec-like breathiness, backfilled by a cleanly rendered and sweet Duke Pearson piano line. I'm not a big vibes fan, but on Bobby Hutcherson's vibes, the soundbars sound physically palpable, their tones ringing off into space sweetly.

On Dave Brubeck's Joe Morello's cymbals and triangle are fully articulated and differentiated from the Paul Desmond's alto sax and Brubeck's piano in Blue Rondo à la Turk, each instrument, harmonic and tone color are fully resolved from one another, but each combine to provide the propulsive drive of the piece. Absolutely amazing.

Back in November, I upgraded the tweeters in my Dynaudio Contours S3.4 to Esotar 2s, and once broken in, while they were notable and considerable upgrade to my speakers performance in almost respects, I found them a bit too resolving and bright on some content when using D/S Gungnir.

Well no more more; after getting Gumby back, that occasional brightness/sharpness is now gone...and I now realize that what I was hearing from the Esotar's superior detail and resolution was the classic "delta-sigma glare", something D/S DACs are sometimes faulted for (often exemplified by ESS Sabre DACs) when compared against a very good R2R multibit DAC e.g. an MSB Analog R2R ladder DAC, Yggdrasil, the Holo Audio Spring DAC, etc.

These are just brief notes and impressions, but the overarching and predominant quality of the Gungnir Multibit is that it is one of the most analog, least digital-sounding playback devices I've ever heard. It sounds like the best of analog on a very good turntable, but it sounds like going from a good moving magnet cartridge to a superb low-output moving coil. it is brilliant at creating an engaging and beguiling musical experience and I find myself just getting sucked into the music hour after hour. It doesn't sound digital..it sounds like MUSIC