[Chops]

I was just looking through the 6Moons review as well as new posts about the stock and Uber upgrade board. Am I missing something here or was there a revision on the stock analog board that was never mentioned? If so, I wonder what the changes were and why. I did notice the two boards missing the four smaller Wima caps and ALL of the small transistors and resistors. Looks like it was all changed over to surface mount components.


I'll explain below.

This image is from the 6Moons review. As you can see, the chip is centered and the caps are symmetrical around the chip. There's a total of eight Wima caps (4 large, 4 small), and a bunch of those small black transistors.



In this image from a member on Head-Fi, it shows both the stock board (right) from his Bifrost along with the new Uber board (left), both of which have the chip off to the side, the caps a little asymmetrical and the two larger electrolytic caps laying on their side. Unfortunately, there's a glare on the bottom of the right board so I can't see what it says as far as version goes.



Any thoughts or links to said changes somewhere? Just curious more than anything else.

[Mark Korda]

Hi Chops, I don't have an answer to your question, but I just got the newest Stereophile mag. and there is a review that mentions the 2 different boards on the Schiit Audio Bifrost. The review was puzzling to me as Jon Iverson mentioned a slight (fuzziness) with the new board but still rates it over the Audioquest Firefly. John Atkinson mentions this at the end of his measurements. Iverson does say for the money it shoots  over the top of the rest. At first he was comparing a 449 dollar DAC, the Schiit, to a 43,325 MSB DAC, then to the Wadia and the M2 Tech Young at 1,299. I'm looking into getting my first DAC but this review has me all mixed up. How does yours sound?....Mark Korda

[Chops]

Hello Mark,

There's certainly no fuzzy sound coming from my Bifrost. In fact, out of all the reviews online and various forum members on different forums talking about the Bifrost, not a single one of them has mentioned anything about fuzziness. Mine is crystal clear from head to toe, and that's with the original board. I do plan on purchasing the Uber board upgrade as I have read nothing but good things about it as well, all better than the stock board.

Definitely give the Bifrost a go. I'm sure you'll like it. What are you using as a source?

-Charles

[Mark Korda]

Hi Chops, thanks for the heads up. I'm using tubes for my stereo, Dynaco ST-35. I built 2 different passive preamps, but I also have a Dyna-PAS3 modded out,the Last Pas or an Ace Zero distortion preamp if I need to go active. My E-Machine computer bit the dust a few weeks ago so now I have a Dell Core I3 that has Windows 8 and is not set up for the touch screen. I'm 56 now and saw Genesis Live on You Tube last night, Suppers Ready ,1973 or so. I'm kind of old fashioned and like a real record or cd in my hand mainly because I've had computers in the past that just died. If these DAC's do any thing for You Tube sound wise it will be hard to dig out my vinyl out of the closet when I can watch as well as listen. What I liked about the Schitt review was everything is American made!. I bought a can opener from Walmart the other day, brand new (Chinese). It was a cheap hand held and it couldn't open a can of B and M baked beans. The metal gear on it just seemed to melt. Bikes are the same way from there, white aluminum. I'm going to read up more on the Schiit .,By the way Chops, the August 2013 issue. Thanks for writing back.....Mark Korda.

[Chops]

Mark, dig out your LP's and start spinning them again! YouTube doesn't compare to anything decent, even MP3's, no matter what DAC you use. YouTube quality just downright sucks.

I too am old fashioned. I much prefer spinning CD's, vinyl and even cassettes! When I'm feeling lazy, I just turn on Pandora or VTuner via my Onkyo receiver. I don't have a computer or music server connected to my system, nor do I intend to do anytime soon. That's also why I purchased my Bifrost DAC without the USB option. I have no use for it.

Also, I love Genesis/Phil Collins. I have about 5 albums each and want to eventually get all of them. Phil Collins is an excellent drummer, overall musician and writer, although I do prefer his older stuff from the 80's.


And you're welcome! 

[geowak]

Chops
I took pictures on my Iphone of the stock (original) and the Uber (revision) analog boards of my Bifrost when I installed my new analog board from Schiit Audio. The pictures look identical to the ones in your first post. But I agree with you about the fuzziness comment from Stereophile as being strange? I think the Bifrost is very, very good. In fact as a coincidence I have a Benchmark DAC1, just as the reviewer has. And my conclusions are the same as his, with regard to these two sounding very similar. So if the Bifrost can keep up with an older Benchmark that costs three times what is does, it must be a very good value and a good DAC? Yes? BTW JI wrote that, in not so many words, in his review.

I did not expect it to sound that good, since it was stated that a MSB ($43K) was just reviewed and sent back and it costs almost 100 times what the Bifrost does. I think I would hear some fuzziness and lack of precison too with the Bifrost, otherwise MSB would not be able to justify the cost of their DAC!

But then again, at what age does all one's hearing go fuzzy and lack some kind of precision, with regard to what one can hear and cannot hear well? When is the last time we all had a hearing test done? The results?

[DaveC113]

Another    for the Bifrost.

I have the uber board and gen2 USB, it is an excellent DAC.

There's a lot of lossless and Hi Rez digital available on the net, having a USB board that handles 24/192 is great. I also have a bunch of hi rez vinyl rips from old/rare/high quality LPs on my computer, they sound amazing with the Bifrost.

[Mark Korda]

Geowok,Chops,and Dave,  I wrote Stereophile, attention John Atkinson about the fuzziness question  that Jon Iverson heard and would want an explanation. Maybe their too busy to send me a note, but my questions of that review got great answers from you three! In my letter I asked John Atkinson what the inputs idiosyncratic behavior when tested for jitter meant. In fairness to the Schiit Audio Bifrost, Stereophile should re explain. Thanks for writing me back,it made my night.....Mark Korda

[Letitroll98]

No one notices the SDM's vs the discrete resistors?

[tomytoons]

That v# looks to be v2.20 in that pict.
A la Photoshop.

[geowak]

I am going from memory, but I think JI of Stereophile stated the Bifrost was in the top group of Ext DACs under $1k. For myself, having listened to this DAC for over one year, and the Uber Bifrost for over 2 months I say it's got the most analog sound, not digital sounding at all. Also it's very musical and organic sounding. The instruments sound very natural , not artificial. I keep in mind, it's not a white collar man's DAC, more along the budget of a blue collar man. In my opinion, this also makes it very appealing. It brings me good music on the affordable side. I tend to make fun of the audio mags when they review $43k components that only the CEO of BP can buy, but I was surprised and happy Stereophile reviewed a down to earth, affordable and great sounding DAC from the likes of Schiit Audio.

[moremoremore]

Sorry for putting this topic in Lazarus mode, but I'm curious if any of you are using the Bifrost with an Apollo-R.  I'm keen to upgrade my Apollo's sound, and I don't think the outboard Rega DAC is the most cost effective solution.

[WireNut]

Hmm, Maybe it's time for me to consider dumping my Musical fidelity X-Dac v3 for a Bi-frost?    I think I paid $350 for the X-Dac used.







 

[michaelhigh]

I am going from memory, but I think JI of Stereophile stated the Bifrost was in the top group of Ext DACs under $1k. For myself, having listened to this DAC for over one year, and the Uber Bifrost for over 2 months I say it's got the most analog sound, not digital sounding at all. Also it's very musical and organic sounding. The instruments sound very natural , not artificial. I keep in mind, it's not a white collar man's DAC, more along the budget of a blue collar man. In my opinion, this also makes it very appealing. It brings me good music on the affordable side. I tend to make fun of the audio mags when they review $43k components that only the CEO of BP can buy, but I was surprised and happy Stereophile reviewed a down to earth, affordable and great sounding DAC from the likes of Schiit Audio.

This is what attracted my attention originally, when the Bifrost was first offered.

I bought the base version (no USB capabilities), as my PC has optical out.

This has been among my most successful new gear purchases, and I cover it on my blog.

http://mindseyemusic.blogspot.com/2012/05/no-schiit.html

[wushuliu]

Hmm, Maybe it's time for me to consider dumping my Musical fidelity X-Dac v3 for a Bi-frost?    I think I paid $350 for the X-Dac used.

I highly recommend auditioning different dacs. The schiit uses the AKM dac that is really great in some respects not necessarily so great in others. There are always trade-offs. The <$1k is very crowded and Stereophile has given thumbs up to several others with the Halide still being their reference I believe. AKM, ESS, Burr-Brown, AD, etc all these chips have a distinct sound. Yes implementation is crucial but ultimately there is a common tonality to dacs that use a particualr chip. Make sure to audition different chips to find the one you like...

[wushuliu]

No one notices the SDM's vs the discrete resistors?

Not necessarily a bad thing in a digital circuit though. Not surprised they would switch to SMDs, they are incredibly inexpensive.