"Ears deep" in Schiit

[PHC1]

Wanted to share my initial impressions on the Schiit Gungnir.

Talking it over with Stephen (PumaCat) and discussing the various DACs that Schiit Audio offers, I dug around doing my own research to read up on what this new to me brand is all about. I have not owned or auditioned any Schiit products previously.

Hitting the "rational purchase" mark in my mind for what it promises to deliver to dollars spent, I decided to order the Schiit Gungnir with the Multibit upgrade, aka "Gumby".


In Norse mythology, Gungnir (Old Norse "swaying one") is the spear of the god Odin. According to the Poetic Edda, the spear was fashioned by the Dwarves.





I can't say for sure if Schiit Audio employs Dwarves or Elves or any other mythological creatures but the Schiit guys have their schiit together and no sooner than I placed an order through their website, order was confirmed and Gumby was shipped the same day. Two days later I had a knock on the door to sign for a package. West to East coast faster than any mythological Pegasus could fly it over.

Opening up the package, I was greeted by a neatly packed, well protected Gumby looking fresh and new from Schiit factory.

I had a chuckle when reading the instruction manual, the Schiit guys have a sense of humor that is disarming.

You won't find white gloves in the box and you won't see stiff upper lip comments mentioning hundreds to thousands of hours of capacitor, inductor, digital circuitry, wires and god knows what else to break in before their product "opens up" and starts to sound good. Nope. Just a short booklet which is logical and to the point, explaining the layout, features and functions of Gungnir with a sprinkle of humor thrown in on every page of the instruction manual.

Installing the Gumby on the rack, yes, I have an actual rack for my gear this time around! (that's humor for the old timer members on this forum who have known me for a long time ) I admired it's good looks. It is elegantly simple and pleasing to the eye at the same time. The matte silver chassis is nicely contrasted by the grayish side plates. Looks good sitting on my walnut color Salamander rack.




The chassis is well made, the unit is actually pretty heavy for an outboard DAC weighing in at 11 lbs.

Sporting four precision Analog Devices AD5781BRUZ digital to analog converters for true hardware balancing and 19 effective bits of resolution, Gumby shares the same proprietary closed-form DSP-based digital filter as much more expensive Yggdrasil DAC.

Of course my curious mind had to look it up and the AD5781BRUZ DAC chips are not inexpensive at $45 each and there are four of them inside . Of course there is a whole bunch of other stuff that goes into building one of these units and you can't help to start getting that warm and fuzzy feeling you actually got a lot for your money. This is not a $20k DAC, this is a $1,249 DAC. The bigger brother Yggdrasil sports the Analog Devices AD5791 which cost over $100 each...


Gungnir uses a proprietary Adapticlock system, which provides for both exceptional jitter performance and rock-solid, glitch-free connectivity.

Adapticlock analyzes the incoming signal quality and automatically routes it to the best clock regeneration system—either VCXO or VCO-based. And, it does all of this without altering the bit depth or sample rate of your original music. (Yes, I simply copied this from Schiit Audio website, I am not that smart. )




Moving on the more important part. The sound...

Gumby was preconditioned with a 3 day around the clock burn in just to warm things up and stretch it's DAC legs a bit. My PC is near the rack so I simply used youtube playlists that kept running while the PC was feeding Gumby through the USB input. Not a note was heard from Gumby until my Bryston BHA-1 fully balanced, with six fully discrete Class A Bryston operational amplifiers headphone amplifier was delivered. I purchased it pre-owned in contrast to the Gumby to save some $$$. The Bryston BHA-1 is a topic of it's own for a later date.

This is where I deviate from the norm. Disclosure, this system is headphones only and may stay that way for some time (also a topic for another thread).

Before you click away from this thread in disappointment and start clicking the "new posts" button above, let me just say this. My window to the sonic signature and an opportunity to give the Gumby a thorough listen is perhaps clearer than ever before. Why? Because I also have in my possession the most incredible pair of Focal Utopia headphones. (also another topic for another day).

With no speaker to room interaction, no crossover distortion, no variable as to all the things that can and do color the sound in each and every system, I have a single pure Beryllium driver for each ear that is able to reproduce sound from 5Hz to 50,000Hz cleanly and accurately. Yes, the Focal Utopia is an incredible headphone set. There is no hiding from my ears, GUNGNIR has his work cut out for him.

I had to contain myself from trying out the Gumby as I needed to gain an understanding what the Bryston BHA-1 is bringing to the table first. Going back and forth with the Sennheiser and Focal headphones between the PC, MacBook, iPhone, iPad to gain an understanding what strengths the Bryston BHA-1 brings to the table. It is rather obvious that what it brings with the Bryston build quality is an almost unlimited grip and control over virtually any pair of headphones with it's balanced circuitry and Class A discreet op-amps.

The Bryston BHA-1 is a truly well designed headphone amplifier. It does not lean or color the sound in any way that I could deduce from this experiment. What it does is brings out the full contrast of dynamics, the drive, the impact of the music and get's the hell out the way otherwise. There is no solid state grain, hash or leanness introduced that I could hear.

Having cleared the path to enlightenment by eliminating variables so that I can get closer to the essence of the GUNGNIR and what it sounds like, it was time to LISTEN!!!


I plugged in the MacBook Pro with a USB, Oppo BDP-83 with a TOSSLINK cable and gathered some of the CDs that I could match with same albums on Tidal.

Going back and forth between Tidal set to HIFI and Masters, I was able to detect virtually no difference to a slight difference between the streaming Tidal signal and that coming out of OPPO spinning the shiny silver disks. For all practical purposes, either source will be good enough to meet Gumby's personality.


The listening session lasted for better part of the day as I had the time to dedicate to listening. I covered some of the most familiar albums that I must have listened to over 1000 times over the years of being in this hobby. Words and thoughts like OH WOW, NO SCHIIT, LIQUID, VISCERAL, LUSH, ROMANTIC, DYNAMIC, SMOOOOTH, EASY ON THE EARS, RESOLVING, EMOTIONAL, TRANSPARENT, MUSICAL, SO ACCURATE kept going through my mind. Notice how those words typically do not go together??? Have I lost my audiophile mind? Have I gone deaf? NOPE.

GUMBY is a paradox of sorts for me so far. I would have expected that it was farther into one camp or the other. It squarely sits in the middle but encompasses many of traits of the best digital has to offer.



To summarize my initial impressions.
Analog like smoothness with superb resolution. Instruments come across with intense clarity and detail but it does not sound overly analytical, there is proper weight to sound, it is not lean, it is not overly warm nor is it even remotely cold or sterile in presentation. Very engaging, very musical, fantastic resolution, incredible harmonic palette that opens up in your ears and every instrument and voice becomes a new story for me although I heard most of the music I used for initial listening 1000's of times over the years. Of course the Focal Utopia is responsible for the incredible sound I am hearing but the headphones are only playing what is upstream from them. They certainly did not sound so beautiful, so dynamic, harmonically rich and engaging without the GUNGNIR in the system. Nor did the Bryston BHA-1 without the GUNGNIR in the system.

I will keep listening and try to dig deeper to see what I can discover about this amazing DAC. So far, I am impressed beyond words for the value it brings and the beautiful sound it makes. I am very impressed that a product in this price range can bring so much to the table and that's NO BULLSCHIIT.

Odin, errrr... Schiit team has launched the GUNGNIR and hit the sonic bullseye.