[EHill]

Hello,

I purchased a Schiit modi 3 DAC recently.
I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong but I can't tell the difference in sound from the internal DAC in my old Pioneer VX 1015TX when comparing it to the Schiit DAC.

I'm using a fiber optic cable. Would it be better if I purchased a high quality digital coax cable instead of the fiber optic cable?

[wushuliu]

May help to provide more information on the setup. How is a fiber optic cable connected/related to the Modi?

[Letitroll98]

And what formats are you feeding it?  CDs, streaming, mp3 or hirez or dsd? 

[EHill]

Ok thanks...

I have a Onkyo CD player that has both digital fiber and digital coax output. I'm running a monster cable fiber optic cable from the CD player to the digital fiber port on the modi.

I come out of the modi analog port with RCA cables to my Pioneer VX 1015TX.

I have taken the fiber optic cable from  the Schiit Modi 3 and moved to my Pioneer fiber input multiple times and can't hear a difference.

I've heard that fiber optic cables can only go up to a certain range on high res recordings and the coax digital cables are better. I'm not sure if that true.


Thank you for your reply.

[EHill]

Mostly CD's and some Streaming.

Thanks

[srb]

Optical connections add an electrical > optical > electrical conversion on top of S/PDIF and many optical interfaces suffer from high digital jitter.

I find that the tone and timbre don't change between the inputs, but the cohesiveness and timing of the coaxial connection present a "tighter" and more solid sound.

A decent quality but not necessarily expensive 75Ω coaxial cable (or as close to 75Ω as RCA connectors allow) may be all you need to discern a difference.

[JLM]

What speakers are you using?  Your gear may not be up to the challenge.  To be honest we each have different aspects of sound that we're sensitive to.  Speakers/rooms make the biggest differences, amps and converters less so, at least for me.  In fact a couple of years ago I home auditioned Schiit Freya preamp and Gungnir MB DAC and could hear no difference versus a less expensive DAC/preamp, so sent them back.  Thank you for your honesty.

Optical is the worst wired digital medium, no industry standards exist, it's limited to S/PDIF 24/192 format, and requires optical/electrical conversions on each end.  On the plus side it is immune to electrical interferences and thus can still be found in studios.  Coax is another old medium but more native to the gear on each end, so is generally slightly better than optical, but is also limited compared to USB, I2S, or ethernet. 

[EHill]

What speakers are you using?  Your gear may not be up to the challenge.  To be honest we each have different aspects of sound that we're sensitive to.  Speakers/rooms make the biggest differences, amps and converters less so, at least for me.  In fact a couple of years ago I home auditioned Schiit Freya preamp and Gungnir MB DAC and could hear no difference versus a less expensive DAC/preamp, so sent them back.  Thank you for your honesty.

Optical is the worst wired digital medium, no industry standards exist, it's limited to S/PDIF 24/192 format, and requires optical/electrical conversions on each end.  On the plus side it is immune to electrical interferences and thus can still be found in studios.  Coax is another old medium but more native to the gear on each end, so is generally slightly better than optical, but is also limited compared to USB, I2S, or ethernet.

I have the JBL 230 bookshelfs, JBL 235 center channel and a Rogers Speedwoofer for a sub.

My old Pioneer VSX 1015tx was an old flagship Pioneer receiver back in the day. It was the first receiver that had THX. It has pretty good sound and has gotten a lot of good reviews.

Thanks again.

[EHill]

Has anyone noticed a difference in sound by upgrading the Schiit modi 3 DAC original power supply to the IFI 5 volt power supply?

[JLM]

Has anyone noticed a difference in sound by upgrading the Schiit modi 3 DAC original power supply to the IFI 5 volt power supply?

Now you're fishing near the pond of tweaks.  In nearly 50 years at this I've never found improvements via tweaks of any kind.  Recommend just buying the "right" gear the first time (any decent manufacturer provides the appropriate power supply with their gear - see Schiit's FAQ for the modi).  By the way, digital has come a long way since the days of CD players (you can barely find an audiophile one anymore) and your 2005 era receiver.  The JBL 230 speakers are lower end stuff (am a fan of the JBL 305 - M2 active designs).  Much better speakers are out there.

I like the Schiit approach (practical design/marketing, upgradability, not buying into DSD or MQA, American made, home trial program, off the wall humor).  But like I said their nicer gear did nothing for me and after all the modi 3 is only a $99 DAC, so what do you really expect?  And why throw more money after it with a power supply upgrade?  (Suggest contacting Schiit first for their advice.)

If you really want to compare old CDP technology versus modern top-end sound I'd ditch the modi and try a $470 Sabaj D5, a thoroughly State of the Art/affordable DAC/preamp that you can also connect to your computer or if you want to taste the big world of CD quality music streaming without using a computer, try a $550 BlueSound Node 2i with a monthly subscription to Tidal, Qobuz, or Amazon HD.  Either the Sabaj or the Node 2i can also input from your CDP so you don't lose your CD collection, although subscription services can save favorites and probably have most of your collection in their huge libraries.

[EHill]

Ok thank you...!
It sounds like I need to get a little wiser on how I spend the limited money I have towards audio.

This is the 1st audio forum I've checked out and also signed up for.

Thanks again for the information.

[newworld]

I've recently bought the Modi 3 as well, and it's been a nice surprise to me.

I've resisted even looking in Schiit's direction for a long time, precisely due to their brand name and their marketing around it. The only reason I got it was because it's one of the cheapest DAC's out there. And I got it to use the optical connection. I became very tired of my Bluesound Node 2 sounding different through wireless, ethernet, and different kinds of ethernet cables. There is something electrical going on that I can't explain, and optical is the only way to isolate it electrically.

The Modi 3 does sound quite good. I suspect that any external DAC would sound better than the Node 2 in my system, and am happy not to have spent too much money for the improvement. It's a DAC. It's nearly worthless the moment you buy it.

Funny thing is, I'm not surprised if it doesn't sound better than the DAC in your multi-channel receiver. I think that my old CD player still sounds better than any digital streaming setup I've heard through the years.

Don't even bother with changing out the power supply. In fact, don't fudge with any accessories unless you are losing a channel or something.

[Jmitchell3]

the guy from Audio Science Review likes it and it tests very well for its price point. (I do own a schiit modi 3 and use spdif).

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-schiit-modi-3-dac.4742/

IMHO a dac is a dac, so i don't think theres going to be any actual mathematical conversion difference in the signal from one dac to another but I do think different circuits end up having different noise levels introduced into the signal (we are outputting analogue here). Then, it seems, if a dac tests well for low distortion / noise figures, it likely sounds better than one with more noise. My marantz SR6012 has a pure direct mode where it turns off everything besides the amps and the dac in order to reduce any interference that could produce noise.

just my 2cents. Happy new year all!