Gungnir Multibit DAC Mini-review

[robfine]

A couple of questions for those of you already knee deep in Schiit from one who may be looking for some boots to maybe step in:

1. Where you have two devices, say the Gumby and one of the amps (Asgard, Valhalla, etc.), do you connect them with Schiit’s cables or do you use upgraded interconnects?

2. The biggest criticism I read about for Schiit equipment is that they fall short in the “shoes” department. Being from Miami and born on South Beach (58 years ago), I am attuned to the site of nice shoes... on my equipment and on women (with the women, nice ankles are likewise mandatory).[ATTACH]

Do you stick with Schiit’s “stock” footwear or do you enhance is with aftermarket feet (e.g., Stillpoints, Rollerblocks, etc.)?

Thanks

[PHC1]

Have not tried Schiit cables. I use Bluejeans for now and recently tried a Zu Audio Mission pair of ICs that PumaCat sent me to play around with. I liked the Zu Missions but they are not as well shielded as the Bluejeans and the tube Valhalla 2 had some barely audible noise that the ICs were picking up. So the Zu are used with Asgard SS and Bluejeans are on my Valhalla.

Of course I will try a variation of cables to see if I can extract more performance out of the single ended Asgard and Valhalla.

With the Bryston BHA-1 I use XLRs from Gumby and have tried a few different sets I have on hand such as Guerrilla Audio and Zebra Cable.

I wouldn't get too obsessed with the shoes. You can try the Kimber Hero, Cardas CrossLink, Nordost White Lightning, etc.. all slightly under the price of the actual headphone itself. I've tried them all in the past with other gear and they are a solid value if you just have to "dress up" your gear.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by robfine

A couple of questions for those of you already knee deep in Schiit from one who may be looking for some boots to maybe step in:

1. Where you have two devices, say the Gumby and one of the amps (Asgard, Valhalla, etc.), do you connect them with Schiit’s cables or do you use upgraded interconnects?

2. The biggest criticism I read about for Schiit equipment is that they fall short in the “shoes” department. Being from Miami and born on South Beach (58 years ago), I am attuned to the site of nice shoes... on my equipment and on women (with the women, nice ankles are likewise mandatory).[ATTACH]

Do you stick with Schiit’s “stock” footwear or do you enhance is with aftermarket feet (e.g., Stillpoints, Rollerblocks, etc.)?

Thanks

I don't think it's "accurate" to state that Schiit falls short in the "shoes" department, when virtually 99.5% of other component manufacturer install inexpensive rubber feet on their components as well, including my E.A.R., Conrad-Johnson, and Shunyata equipment. In fact, I don't know of any manufacturers that provide Stillpoints or Rollerblocks as footers for their components as an OEM footer.

That being said, try whatever you want. I've tried a couple of different footers (Synergistics MIG and some Herbie's) and find that they make virtually no difference in the sound of a Gungnir Multibit. Bear in mind that I haven't spent $500 on footers for a $1250 component.

[robfine]

Regarding the “shoes”, I was asking because that is the only negative comment I’ve seen in reviews of the Schiit [equipment] I’m looking into. Comments in isolation tend to get magnified.

[robfine]

Originally Posted by PHC1

Have not tried Schiit cables. I use Bluejeans for now and recently tried a Zu Audio Mission pair of ICs that PumaCat sent me to play around with. I liked the Zu Missions but they are not as well shielded as the Bluejeans and the tube Valhalla 2 had some barely audible noise that the ICs were picking up. So the Zu are used with Asgard SS and Bluejeans are on my Valhalla.

Of course I will try a variation of cables to see if I can extract more performance out of the single ended Asgard and Valhalla.

With the Bryston BHA-1 I use XLRs from Gumby and have tried a few different sets I have on hand such as Guerrilla Audio and Zebra Cable.

I wouldn't get too obsessed with the shoes. You can try the Kimber Hero, Cardas CrossLink, Nordost White Lightning, etc.. all slightly under the price of the actual headphone itself. I've tried them all in the past with other gear and they are a solid value if you just have to "dress up" your gear.

What do you think of the XLRs from Gumby (I assume you mean from Schiit for the Gumby, no?)?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by robfine

Regarding the “shoes”, I was asking because that is the only negative comment I’ve seen in reviews of the Schiit [equipment] I’m looking into. Comments in isolation tend to get magnified.

Actually, that is just a "running gag" in the Schiit community since day 1 because Schiit provided a sticker of stick-on plastic feet for their gear (so did ERA Design when I bought their D4 speakers); this started back when they were first shipping Asgard. Even the guys at Schiit joke about it.

What is practically important, is that the footers don't have an impact on sound quality.

[PHC1]

I like the rubber feet. Keeps the amps from sliding as I change the headphones and they do offer some vibration protection for what it’s worth. What vibration is there when you are listening to headphones???

By Gumby I mean the Gungnir, it’s a nickname. The Balanced is the way to go since the Bryston offers balanced in. For the Asgard and Valhalla it is SE only and Gumby offers 2 SE outputs. Perfect. I have all 3 headphone amps hooked up, fired up and ready to jam.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by robfine

Regarding the “shoes”, I was asking because that is the only negative comment I’ve seen in reviews of the Schiit [equipment] I’m looking into. Comments in isolation tend to get magnified.

Rob, if you think isolation may provide an improvement for Gumby, something you can try that is very inexpensive is to get a small-diameter bicycle inner tube, like those used for kids bicycles. Inflate it just enough to support Gumby off the shelf and have a listen. The best improvements I've heard for components that benefit from isolation is simply to put a partially inflated inner tube under a component.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

I like the rubber feet. Keeps the amps from sliding as I change the headphones and they do offer some vibration protection for what it’s worth. What vibration is there when you are listening to headphones???

By Gumby I mean the Gungnir, it’s a nickname. The Balanced is the way to go since the Bryston offers balanced in. For the Asgard and Valhalla it is SE only and Gumby offers 2 SE outputs. Perfect. I have all 3 headphone amps hooked up, fired up and ready to jam.

[robfine]

I know Gumby is the nickname. Right now I am considering getting the Gumby with the Mjolnir 2 because I have balanced cables for my Audeze LCD-XC and BD T5p and will probably soon do the same for my Elears. That’s why I was asking when PHC1 mentioned “Gumby XLRs”. My recollection from growing up was Gumby did not make cables. Maybe Pokey did but I wasn’t sure. [ATTACH][ATTACH]52673