Schiit Stack

[Jack]

Recently I became the proud owner of a Schiit Modi Dac and a Schiit Vali headphone amp via a contest, Thank You !!

As such, I have been experimenting since I have received them I can say without a doubt that this combination is the best I own or have heard. Using several sets of headphones that I own at this time as follows:

Beyerdynamic DT880, 250 ohm version,
Pioneer SE A1000, 45 Ohm
Sony MDR-EX90LP 16 ohm version.
While I did once again try to revive my Denon AHD2000's that the doggie ate by trying to redo the cable but it only lasted a short while, I guess I am not a micro solderer.
All music was retrieved via Jriver at cd quality or high rez 24/96 through my media server or my office computer. 24/192 high rez files were not used as the Schiit Modi could not decode them.

As far as Dac/Amplifiers I tried the following:

Schiit Stack Modi and Vali, This Vali is a tube amp while the dac is solid state
Headroom Desktop Amp/Dac
Topping TP31 Amp/Dac
Dared I30 integated tube amp fed via internal dac
M-Audio M-Track Plus

More to follow as I work through my edits. Oh and as you can see in the image, I did order the Pyst interconnects for these two as they are kind of light and actually they seem to work better than many other choices.

 

[Todd Anderson]

That's a nice little combo! Congrats on the win! Are you running direct from your laptop?

 

[Jack]

I am Todd bur I think I have found a falicy in my testing. I should not have used the Mydac into anything as it changes the parameters of the test. I was trying to get the the test wherein I could feed directly from the computer into a dac/amp unit that were kind of made to work together. So the two home units have been removed and I added something sort of on a lark, the M-Audio M-Track Plus. This last piece I did not intend to take serious but heck it made sound.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Jack, you have a lot of gear on hand, my friend. I like that!

 

[Jack]

Thank You Todd, I try to be thorough and try a few different things that allow me to hone in on sound preferences.

I dont think I will go into much detail as I think you are the only one that cares but I will pare things down properly.
Never the less I can now rate them:

1) Schiit Stack - The amp is a tube unit and provides detailed yet sweet sound, not rounded off like one would think.
2) Topping TP31 - Great sound, a bit of a rise in the top end and with the Beyerdynamic, it was really running out of steam volume wise. Luckily I dont listen that loud.
3) Headroom Desktop amp, I thought this would be one or two seeing as how it is class A and recently rebuilt. This is the Swiss Army Knife of my collection. This has a bit of an overall lazy sound, kind of warm like a cloudy summer afternoon. Not unpleasant and I could live with it and the Topping. This one has plenty of power to drive most any headphone.
4) Dared I30, This is a tube integrated but apparenly the internal Dac is not up to snuff. It does very well as a integrated being fed by the Mydac on speakers.
5) M Audio, this was just so tinny and poor I could not even consider it.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Sounds like # is the winner!

Does it run around $100?

 

[Jack]

Yes Todd, each piece so it is just over $200.00

 

[Todd Anderson]

Very cool... thanks for sharing all of the info. Great stuff!

 

[Jack]

Thank You Todd

 

[ShpongleDMT]

I use a Schiit Modi and Schiit Sys for my computer audio setup. I love the company and their approach to audio.

 

[Todd Anderson]

You've obviously read what Jack had to say... what do you think of his assessment of the sound qualities?

 

[ShpongleDMT]

I agree with his assessment on the Modi. I have yet to use any really high end DACs, but I can't imagine it getting better at this price point. I'm playing FLAC files from Jriver which goes into the Modi via USB. From there is goes in the Sys Preamp and out to a pair of Emotiva Airmotiv 6s powered monitors. I feel the sound i get is pure, and is as the artist intended.

 

[Leonard Caillouet]

Ditto that. More of your experience with it?

 

[Todd Anderson]

I agree with his assessment on the Modi. I have yet to use any really high end DACs, but I can't imagine it getting better at this price point. I'm playing FLAC files from Jriver which goes into the Modi via USB. From there is goes in the Sys Preamp and out to a pair of Emotiva Airmotiv 6s powered monitors. I feel the sound i get is pure, and is as the artist intended.

Is this an office set up?

 

[ShpongleDMT]

Is this an office set up?

Do you mean home office or work? Either way it's just a home setup that I use for gaming and audio. I would never be able to enjoy something like that at work. Each powered monitor has 210 watts on tap, so my coworkers would hate me if I had them there.

At work I use a Definitive Technology Cube bluetooth speaker and stream to it from a Sony NZW-A17

 

[Todd Anderson]

Yes, that what I meant: home office.

Sounds like a sweet little rig!