Loki arrives...

[Jerome W]

Congrats Stephen.

I have been a bit cold lately on my Schiit Bifrost since I discovered that it was causing a hum in my MA5100 integrated, who became dead silent after pluging the Metrum Octave dac. The power supply of the Bifrost may not be the best out there but at this level of price, I guess there is nothing to say.....

[Puma Cat]

Well, I'm back home from teaching DOE in SoCal for the week, and have continuing to listen to Loki quite a bit over the weekend, and it continues to impress me quite a bit...I think Loki sounds every bit as good as my Wadia 121, if not better.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Jerome W

Congrats Stephen.

I have been a bit cold lately on my Schiit Bifrost since I discovered that it was causing a hum in my MA5100 integrated, who became dead silent after pluging the Metrum Octave dac. The power supply of the Bifrost may not be the best out there but at this level of price, I guess there is nothing to say.....

Hmmm....strange, never had that problem. In my experience, however, ground loop hums are caused by the interaction of particular components with one another. Usually installing a 69¢ cheater plug to lift the ground does the trick. Did you try that? Believe it or not, I have one on the $750 Shunyata Black Mamba HC CX power cord that connects my LP70S power amp to the Triton, otherwise I have a nice ground loop buzz. I've had that to do since I got a C-J preamp that also uses an IEC-style power cord.

[Jerome W]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Hmmm....strange, never had that problem. In my experience, however, ground loop hums are caused by the interaction of particular components with one another. Usually installing a 69¢ cheater plug to lift the ground does the trick. Did you try that? Believe it or not, I have one on the $750 Shunyata Black Mamba HC CX power cord that connects my LP70S power amp to the Triton, otherwise I have a nice ground loop buzz. I've had that to do since I got a C-J preamp that also uses an IEC-style power cord.

Yes I did. I even have a special filter removing the ground. Did not do anything.
BTW, the MA5100 is not earthed : 2 prongs only.
The power supply of the Schiit may not be the best for very sensitive components.
The Octave has a dead quiet separate power supply but costs around 900 euros.

[chops-tube]

Would you guys say it's necessary to download DSD files over just converting my FLAC files on the fly via JRMC19 to DSD?

Theoretically, it should get me to the same results, yes? Also, that would mean that you could do away with whatever other DAC you have and just use the Loki for all of your music, converted on the fly to DSD.

And if that's the case, the only thing stopping me from purchasing the Loki is the lack of upgrade-ability. That was the main reason I purchased the Bifrost, and have already taken advantage of that particular feature with excellent, noticeable results.

[doggiehowser]

Originally Posted by chops-tube

Would you guys say it's necessary to download DSD files over just converting my FLAC files on the fly via JRMC19 to DSD?

Theoretically, it should get me to the same results, yes? Also, that would mean that you could do away with whatever other DAC you have and just use the Loki for all of your music, converted on the fly to DSD.

And if that's the case, the only thing stopping me from purchasing the Loki is the lack of upgrade-ability. That was the main reason I purchased the Bifrost, and have already taken advantage of that particular feature with excellent, noticeable results.

If you already have the Bifrost, why convert your FLAC files?

The Loki is designed to be used alongside yr PCM DAC (even using a passthrough).

Use the Loki with DSD files, and the Bifrost for PCM. Don't convert.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by doggiehowser

If you already have the Bifrost, why convert your FLAC files?

The Loki is designed to be used alongside yr PCM DAC (even using a passthrough).

Use the Loki with DSD files, and the Bifrost for PCM. Don't convert.

Exactly right.

[junker]

Some people argue that PCM converted to DSD sounds better than PCM. Not sure I understand why but that's what I've heard... JRiver could pull that off with the Loki if true.

[doggiehowser]

Originally Posted by junker

Some people argue that PCM converted to DSD sounds better than PCM. Not sure I understand why but that's what I've heard... JRiver could pull that off it true.

It is true that some DACs like EMM and Playback do convert PCM to DSD. But these are designed to do it at a hardware level.

[junker]

If anything a modern computer has more computational resources to do an even better job.