[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Soundmig

OK, it's a funny name and one hell of a great marketing ploy. But seriously .. I'm currently using a Bifrost Multi-bit. I'm thinking of upgrading to the Gungnir MB. My perception regarding the Bifrost MB weaknesses are that it is a bit lacking in the "Bass drive" area and it also has a little bit of trouble sorting out complex soundstage such as large scale orchestral music. I've auditioned some 3x $$$ DAC's that do a bit better in both areas, but were not as "real" sounding on vocals and less complex music. Anyone heard these two (Bifrost MB and Gungnir MB) in the same system? Will the Gungnir be a step-up that I will truly notice?
I see that I posed this question in another thread .... sorry for the duplication .... still interested if anyone has heard these two DACS side by side though.

Soundmig, I've haven't heard the two Multibit versions side-by-side, but I've owned both the Bifrost and Gungnir as D/S DACs, and Gungnir is a considerable improvement over Bifrost, and certainly not lacking in bass drive. Gumby uses DAC chipset much closer in performance to Yggdrasil, and the very same closed-form filter, so I would feel safe in saying you will notice the step up from Bimby to Gumby. I would say Gumby competes fully with most of the better DACs costing $8-10K, including the Bricasti M1. Shoot, I think even the D/S Gungnir competes pretty closely with the Bricasti, actually. If you head over to Super Best Audio Friends (aka SBAF), one of the er, uh, the more discriminating, shall we say, headphone forums (I say that because SBAF members are very knowledgeable, intelligent and experienced, but have some rather idiosyncratic sensibilities), member Torq has done an extensive comparison of DACs and you may find a Gumby/Bimby comparison there. Also, a couple of the guys there are part of Schiit's trusted listener network and participate in the development of Schiit's products, even down to testing fairly early prototype units.

I've had Gumby for about a month now and I can say is I am VERY impressed with it. It not only is quieter, has more resolution, spaciousness, air, detail and imaging than Gungnir, but it is one of the most beautifully analog-sounding digital devices I have ever heard. And I am basing this on having a pretty decent analog rig (including a phono stage I bought from my good buddy Serge). I think Serge will back me up on this in that Gumby is VERY musical and natural-sounding.

Also, Schiit has a 15-day return policy; so you can always order one, give it a listen and decide if it's for your or not. Gumby only needs a 3-4 day burn-in to come "on song" (ask Serge again for more detail here), so there's not much to lose in giving it a try.