Schiit Audio’s Modi multi-bit DAC is an exercise in contradictions. For starters, not unlike the vaunted Weiss, externally the small aluminium box is an exercise in simplicity, with only a single input switch present beyond the requisite power switch on the back. However, inside the design is so tightly packed that a vertical USB-C port was necessary to be able to fit everything on the main circuit board.
Similarly, the $299 price makes it the cheapest R2R DAC amongst those out there, with other manufacturers struggling to stay anywhere near that price. I can think of one that simply gave up. That price is more than double the cost of the equivalent Modi DAC, which uses a conventional ESS DAC chip. The price is a large degree the result of the costly Analog Devices industrial DAC chip inside. Designed for uses such as motor control, the AD5547CRUZ was most definitely not intended for audio, but the digital wizards at Schiit, including the legendary Mike Moffat (previously of Theta Digital) made it work.
Alongside a custom programmed PIC controller for the USB input, the simple case contrasts the years of effort, as well as the sophistication of the electronics.
The company name, an exercise in marketing humour originally, is called upon by critics whenever a customer has a problem, and also when those obsessed with measurements point out that the cheaper, non-R2R version has lower distortion. However, fans of “made in America” (or, due to California laws “ASSembled in the USA” as inevitably some parts must come from overseas) and those not wishing to pay dealers and distributors on top of the manufacturer have been buying Schiit products in huge quantities, leading to the company going from making products in their garage, to expanding multiple times in California, and now building their own factory in Texas.
The history of R2R DAC use goes back a couple of decades to when top-of-the-line DACs used R2R chips from Burr Brown, Analog Devices and Phillips. Incoming 1-bit designs just didn’t sound as good. And while modern DACs are quite a bit more sophisticated than in those times, people such as myself still find that modern AKM, ESS and Cirrus Logic chips have something lacking to the sound. Thus Mike Moffat continued on with creating what amounts to successors to his designs at Theta Digital.
The limitation is, simply, bits. Due to the thermal noise of the electronics, the best you can hope to make with a series of even the most precisely trimmed resistors is 20 bits, and both the Modi Multibit and Bifrost 2/64 are only 16 bits, with Schiit’s proprietary digital filter programmed onto a SHARC FPGA.
Operation
While Schiit might have simply used a switching power supply, the substantial wall-wart that the Modi Multibit comes with is a 16V AC transformer, with linear power supply inside the DAC itself. Attempts at using DC power supplies will fail, so no attempting to improve the DAC via that age-old tweak.
Setting up is simple enough. Plug in everything required and power on. After the lights cycle for a few seconds while the electronics boot up, the front button allows input selection, indicated by glyphs almost small enough to be annoying. A steady white LED indicates the selection, and if use with the lights off in the evening is desired, LED-dimming dots may be required.
Listening Impressions
The first round of multibit DACs from Schiit, Yggdrasil mostly excepted, tended to be very slightly on the warm side. While not as warm as say an old PCM1704-based DAC, like the old Assemblage I had here once which had a Burr Brown opamp stage that made it even warmer, or R2R DACs from Audio-gd or HiFiMan’s latest Himalaya architecture-based models, there was a bit of roll-off to the higher frequencies in the Bifrost 2, yet still a degree of dryness to the sound. The original Modi Multibit then was slightly vague-sounding, especially on speakers, but was easy to listen with in simple headphone-based systems when resolution wasn’t a priority.
The newer Modi Multibit 2, like it’s bigger brother the Bifrost 2/64, removes the slight softness and replaces it with overall neutrality. However, whereas typical DACs at around the price of a Modi Multibit tend to range in sound from slightly fatiguing, to irritatingly unnatural when listening to instruments, the Modi Multibit excels at being somewhat clear, but without harshness or hardness. To add to that, a long press of the selector button can put it in NOS mode if a still softer sound is desired, or, better still, albums of high-res material are being played back.
Likewise, whereas cheap ESS and AKM-based DACs from China tend, in their efforts to reduce harmonic distortion tend to deliver a very flat soundstage with no depth, some depth comes through with the Modi Multibit, if not quite as much as does with the Bifrost 2/64.
While depth of soundstage may not be such a big thing with very compressed pop, such as with Queens of the Stone Age’s album Songs for the Deaf, which was compressed to heck deliberately because they just wanted loud, loud, loud, when you listen to music on the other end of the spectrum such as orchestral pieces like Yuja Wang playing Rachmaninoff, that’s where the ability to hear the orchestra spread out in front of you is appreciated.
While the diminutive Modi Multibit was not a master of depth and width of sound, there were no times that I felt annoyed or fatigued by either modern music, nor acoustic recordings. The neutral tuning made it a good pairing with some of my favourite amplifiers, albeit most slightly coloured in one way or another. Schiit Audio’s own Vali 2 (I haven’t organised a review of the Vali 3 as yet), as well as the Nitsch Magni Piety and it’s “tube-like” amplification, were both wonderful pairings, especially with slightly bright headphones like the Meze 109 Pro. This combination was great for listening to NPR Tiny Desk concerts on Youtube, and really only succeeded by the Woo Audio Tube Mini for this purpose due to the convenience of not having so many wires involved.
One of my other favourites is an old, and regrettably discontinued Apex Sangaku Korg NuTube amp, which has deliberately added even-order harmonic distortion, but is otherwise a very linear and detailed amp. At one point I was evaluating the Modi Multibit and another DAC at the same time, I thought I was listening with the other DAC and really enjoying myself, and I found I was actually listening with the Modi multi-bit through the Sangaku, showing just how well that combination works together.
Versus the Bifrost 2/64
For the purpose of evaluation, I used an older version of Audio-gd’s Master 9 headphone amplifier to compare both DACs, as it has instantly switchable inputs and is otherwise uncoloured.
On the other end, I hooked both the Modi Multibit and Bifrost 2/64 via USB as well as to a Singxer SU-1 DDC, as that outputs a very clean S-PDIF signal, so as to compare also how the Unison USB affects the quality of the sound output.
Listening to some of my old favourite tracks from The Doors, such as Indian Summer (Morrison Hotel) and Riders on the Storm, the nuances with the guitar plucks were more noticeable with the Bifrost 2/64, there was better note decay, as well as a better separation of the individual instruments.
The better separation was especially noticeable with Yuja Wang (Yuja Wang, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Rachmaninoff: The Piano Concertos & Paganini Rhapsody) where, the violins were slightly vague-sounding from the Modi Multibit, whereas the Bifrost 2/64 delineated them and the notes that they played more clearly.
The difference switching to the Bifrost wasn’t a dramatic jump up, which was pretty surprising, but for where you’re listening to the subtleties of, say, the note plucks of things like guitars, or the playing of violins, or the note decay in piano, it was noticeable how there was a better delineation and better clarity of that from the Bifrost 2/64.
Likewise, plugging them in both to the DDC, very overkill for something like the Modi Multibit, I do find a bit of an improvement, especially with the Bifrost 2/64. There was a slightly better sense of realism to the sound, although it wasn’t so noticeable of a jump up with the Modi Multibit, it shows how good the Unison USB system is that it takes considerably more expensive hardware to improve upon it.
Non-oversampling (NOS) mode.
Just as with the new Bifrost 2/64, it’s possible to disable the digital filter by pressing and holding the input selector for four seconds. The result of doing this is that the music becomes slightly softer and has less clarity. In some cases this may be more pleasant, such as with more aggressive, modern recordings, but where I found it best was with high-res versions of classical pop such as the Doors and Pink Floyd, which effect the equivalent of oversampling in a more natural manner, especially where you want enough resolution, but you don’t need to be overwhelmed by every little tiny detail in the music.
It doesn’t result in quite the kind of euphonic sound you get from DACs such as the Hi-Fi Man Golden Wave Serenade, or the Audio-gd R2R DACs in non-oversampling mode. Fans of NOS mode might be better suited to a DAC designed around NOS mode to begin with.
Conclusion & Rating
The Modi Multibit is a very easy DAC to slip into a system and enjoy listening with, especially if you combine it with amplification which is a little bit more euphonic sounding, such as a tube amp. I’ve noticed a number of people use them in work systems, where too much resolution would be distracting. As well, you can buy basically the same DAC in card form to go into Schiit Audio’s amplifiers such as the Asgard 3, Jotunheim 2, and Ragnarok 2 to make for a single-box combination. Kudos to Schiit Audio for keeping the multibit audio experience alive.
For the rating, the Modi Multibit is an attractive, functional and unique design that meets the goals set for it, but loses half a star in value as at US$299 it is over double the price of a regular Modi. A person who feels the need for balanced output, excellent measurement numbers, and/or features such as a sample rate display would rate it lower, but I don’t think those things have any benefit at this price point.
