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Thread: Tom's Schiit Modi Multibit DAC (£250) Versus Justin's Lampizator Big 7 (£6K)

  1. #21
    Join Date: Jan 2008

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    There are quite a few low budget, good sounding DACs around these days.
    In the absence of a direct comparison with the best of the much higher priced gear they can be remarkably convincing.

    There's the French DAC3 that Brian and I like. The Chinese XiangSheng DAC-01A that I very happily cohabited with for a year or so. The Beresford SEG as well.
    I am sure the Schiit Modi is also up there although I haven't heard one.
    Mind you, there is a lot of bland shite out there as well.

    Any of these, ime, can see off the traditional mid price choices like Rega and Audiolab and even give the higher end stuff a surprisingly good run for its money and see off quite a few of them as well - been there, done that!
    .

  2. #22
    Join Date: Feb 2013

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    Quote Originally Posted by jandl100 View Post
    There are quite a few low budget, good sounding DACs around these days.
    In the absence of a direct comparison with the best of the much higher priced gear they can be remarkably convincing.

    There's the French DAC3 that Brian and I like. The Chinese XiangSheng DAC-01A that I very happily cohabited with for a year or so. The Beresford SEG as well.
    I am sure the Schiit Modi is also up there although I haven't heard one.
    Mind you, there is a lot of bland shite out there as well.

    Any of these, ime, can see off the traditional mid price choices like Rega and Audiolab and even give the higher end stuff a surprisingly good run for its money and see off quite a few of them as well - been there, done that!
    would agree with much of that Jerry. not heard the dac3 yet but the XiangSheng is very good and has the advantage of superb connectivity. So good I cant find a good reason to spend more
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by struth View Post
    would agree with much of that Jerry. not heard the dac3 yet but the XiangSheng is very good and has the advantage of superb connectivity. So good I cant find a good reason to spend more
    Bargain alert!

    Be quick.

    http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...Sheng-DAC-01-A
    .

  4. #24
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by struth View Post
    would agree with much of that Jerry. not heard the dac3 yet but the XiangSheng is very good and has the advantage of superb connectivity. So good I cant find a good reason to spend more
    Knowing a litte bit of Chinese, the name puts me off. Xiang Sheng could have several meanings depending on what tones are used but the most common one is 'Mr' which depending on how its used can mean something slightly formal like 'Respected Sir' when you go into a shop, or in some contexts simply 'husband'.

    OTOH some names in Chinese and Japanese are very cool. For example Koetsu, which Sugano named after a hero of his, a famous craftsman in medieval Japan. But there's another layer, in that the characters in the name Koetsu carry an associated meaning in both Japanese and Chinese of 'bright' and 'pleasing', very appropriate.

  5. #25
    Join Date: Feb 2013

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    Quote Originally Posted by montesquieu View Post
    Knowing a litte bit of Chinese, the name puts me off. Xiang Sheng could have several meanings depending on what tones are used but the most common one is 'Mr' which depending on how its used can mean something slightly formal like 'Respected Sir' when you go into a shop, or in some contexts simply 'husband'.

    OTOH some names in Chinese and Japanese are very cool. For example Koetsu, which Sugano named after a hero of his, a famous craftsman in medieval Japan. But there's another layer, in that the characters in the name Koetsu carry an associated meaning in both Japanese and Chinese of 'bright' and 'pleasing', very appropriate.
    schiit has a few too
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

  6. #26
    montesquieu Guest

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    Quote Originally Posted by struth View Post
    schiit has a few too
    lol yes indeed very brave of them ....

  7. #27
    Join Date: Jan 2013

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    I'm Justin.

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    Talking of names, and nerd factor, have you seen the 30 minute ShitFerBrains Yggdasil construction video?

    https://youtu.be/R3YZmaIRb6Q

    I think this DAC looks promising. Why? Because it uses decent caps (I really like ELNAs for the money from previous experience of them - I'd stuffed 16 of them in the Bill Beard BB100 I had driving Tom's Tannoys). You could also stuff a couple of seriously good Tesla E88CC cross swords in it. Do that and I reckon it would be fab.

    https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F272222244135

    The description leaves a worrying brain imprint, though. Get over that and you might be on a winner. Then again it could suck. £300 to find out. More after import charges.

  8. #28
    Join Date: Jan 2009

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    According to Norse mythology Yggdrasil will come into its own after the battle of Ragnarock (or Doomsday). Hopefully one won't have so long to wait for the Yggdrasil DAC to work its magic.
    Barry

  9. #29
    Join Date: Jan 2013

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    I'm Justin.

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    So I spent virtually all of last night watching TV, catching up with the news and other stuff on various stations on Sky. As I did so, I swapped between the Modi, and the Lampi with three triodes - Sylvania VT-52, Tung Sol 6A3 and KR PX-4.

    Ranked in the following order, essentially for vocal reproduction more than anything else.

    1) VT-52.
    2) Tung Sol 6A3
    3) Schiit Modi
    4) KR PX-4

    I have to slam the PX-4 on TV voices. It full stop exaggerates sibilants. It is just plain annoying. Interestingly with music it doesn't seem to be much of a problem, but with the rubbish mics used by the BBC and Sky on outside of the studio news reporting, it flat down really is an issue.

    The Modi comes 3rd, as it essentially doesn't capture the ambience and deliver voices with a sense of real ease that the Tung Sol or VT-52 options do. Nor does it deliver the sense of front to back space that VT-52 or 6A3 capture (or even add?). The gap in detail retrieval is quite marked compared with any of the valve options.

    6A3 hits 2nd place purely because there is rather to much front to back space for voices to be considered realistically portrayed. Tone is fine, but there is just too much z-plane portrayal, though it is fun to hear.

    VT-52 wins, being the most neutral and natural of the lot. VT-52 never seems to hype. I think it is the most neutral sounding of the seven or so triode options I own. It is never out to impress or hype. That doesn't make it the most fun, but if you hype any particular aspect in reproduction, you can guarantee it'll be fab on some types of reproduction, but fail on others. The bigger the hype the bigger the fail.

    That said, I still rank the Schiit Modi as being good. OK it doesn't portray the sense of space and ease of delivery the top two do, but it is still damn listenable if a little shut in. The best thing is it doesn't do anything noticeably wrong or annoying. It is perfectly acceptable sitting within the scope of an expensive system. I have no issues listening to it.

    One more thing. As the Lampi warmed, along with the Schiit, the gap widened in favour of the Lampi, which just got more natural (or just easier sounding) as time went on.

    More as I get the time...

  10. #30
    Join Date: May 2009

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    Posts: 122
    I'm Matthew.

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    " Laptop->HDMI->Samsung TV optical out->Lampi or Schiit optical in. "

    Justin; have you ruled out the possibility that the TV may be re-sampling the digital signal.

    My TV (not a Samsung btw) does. Just a thought
    "The hi-fi fraternity is bizarre, full of dangerous amateurs" Tim de Paravicini Audio Magazine 1995
    "Objective measurements in audio are primary, but they are useless unless they have been subjectively validated as predictors of musical accuracy Edgar Villchur Stereophile 2005
    " What we cannot measure, we do not know" Lord Rayleigh

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