If I recall, his eventual preferred system added a Pass Labs HPA-1 and Meze Empyrean.
1 Like
I see, very cool! Is he not a part of this community anymore?
1 Like
I believe his profile indicates he’s been suspended.
1 Like
I can’t speak for lost33, but the final 10% for your own journey will be your choice.
You might be happy enough with the audio equivalent of lush farming land and nearby fishing to settle down where you are, in which case you’ve reached 100%.
More likely (because we’re never content to settle down in our hobby), you’ll be curious about the legendary greener grass over the horizon. You might try a class A solid state amp (or two or three) and/or buy a tube amp (or five or six or ten or… let’s face it, tubes are addictive, this is a journey that never ends). You might try other headphones, which may cause you to second guess whether you have the right amp, with the number of watts that everyone tells you is an absolute minimum, and you’ll buy another amp, without truly understanding why.
And then you’ll realize you have a house full of audio gear and you’re broke, and you’ll start selling stuff, until you’re left with the equipment that you use the most, that gives you the most enjoyment. At this point, you’ve reached 100% again… until you get the urge to try something else.
A vicious, but wonderfully rewarding cycle.
13 Likes
Once you get to this chain and the Focal Clear tier, there’s not a lot of “practical” value in going beyond. The Clear is not the technical best by any means (e.g., the Utopia is more nuanced but also has challenging treble), but the Clear exceeds the performance of a lot of production equipment today and totally blows away older stuff. It’s certainly technically better than what is possible in live venues too.
Audiophile discussion of “euphonics” or stage or depth or improvements over the source reflect personal taste. Some sincerely prefer clean, dry, and analytical while others prefer strategic and controlled distortions. Price has little relation to enjoyment, and people routinely fail blind tests. Audiophiles often enjoy the experience of buying luxury products, artistic products, unique products, or “technically advanced” products. Sound quality can be an afterthought.
Which ice cream would you pick out of 31 flavors?
Or you prowl the used equipment sites and flip gear for little or no net cost. Heavy amps and speakers often sell for less locally, as some refuse to ship them. You’ll win some and lose some money along the way. [However, if you operate in hobby circles rather than retail, don’t be a jerk and try to squeeze generous people for profit.]
14 Likes
I have to say those first two paragraphs are the most concise way I’ve ever seen these fairly complex concepts explained without taking a hard side or making a controversial statement. 
This and some other recent technically off-topic posts have made me think I really should follow every topic here, but that is a LOT of reading.
And now I’ve gone COMPLETELY off topic! 
4 Likes
One way to defeat the lo$$ factor is to just keep everything. I am such a hoarder.
3 Likes
I have a very basic question. I typically listen thru a dap, currently A&K se180. I do have a jot and a lyr 3, when i use them I plug into the dap. I am interested in getting a bifrost DAC to listen thru an iphone (lightning) or an IPAD Pro (usb–C), how do I connect the Phone/ipad>dac>amp? What adaptors/connectors will I need. Thanks for your help
This will work for your iPhone: Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter - Apple
This should work for your iPad Pro: USB-C to USB Adapter - Apple
6 Likes
I have the lighting connector to usb adaptor. I connect to the iphone, and connect the bifrost to the lyr 3, but get no sound through the headphones. I do get a very faint sound but cannot turn it up to get any real volume. I have the dac set for usb. Is there an iPhone setting I need to change, or any ideas why the setup is not working? Thank you in advance.
The DAC should bypass the phone’s volume control, I believe, but just to troubleshoot, does turning up the volume on your phone make any difference?
Thanks. When i connect the iphone, the volume function on the iphone was disabled
1 Like
All I can think is to cycle through the inputs on the Bifrost using the front button. Maybe you are inadvertently on the wrong input. I use my BF2 connected to my iPhone all the time using the CCK adapter and never have any issues that aren’t resolved by unplugging the adapter from the phone and then plugging it back in.
Figured it out. Just didnt have the connections configured correctly. Yet another reminder that a little inebriation is not the best mental state to connect components. Thanks for your help
2 Likes
With the BF2 I didnt need to do anything to the volume to get it to work as a source. However, with another DAC I needed to crank it to max to get essentially line out levels. Different USB implementations I guess.
I actually thought the other DAC had something wrong with it until I realized the issue.
2 Likes
Thank you for directing me here to your impression. Thorough and detailed at that, much appreciated!
1 Like
ICYMI a Bifrost 2 upgrade/revision is out: the Bifrost 2/64
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sch…most-improbable-start-up.701900/post-17061189
- Bifrost 2/64 is now a hardware-balanced DAC. The original Bifrost 2 used two Analog Devices AD5781 D/A converters in a single-ended configuration, with the balanced outputs derived from the single-ended ones. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but Mike sayeth “hardware balanced is the True and Proper way to do a Multibit DAC,” so Bifrost 2/64 now uses four Texas Instruments DAC8812s for true balanced output, as well as single-ended.
- It measures better. In fact, Bifrost 2/64 is the first of our True Multibit DACs to achieve THD+N levels lower than -100dB (-102dB typical). I know this doesn’t sound like much in the world of delta-sigma steady-state measurement champions (heck, like Modi 3E), but it’s like 15dB better than the original Bifrost 2. And yeah, I know, lots of you aren’t interested in measurements but in sound, so yeah, read on…
- You get more flexibility. Bifrost 2/64 now includes NOS, or non-oversampling, mode. Now, in addition to our “megacomboburrito” filter, you can run your high-rate audio with no digital filter, if that’s the way you wanna roll. And yeah, we know, this is controversial—some people love it, others don’t. But choices are cool, right?
- Everyone who’s heard it says it sounds better. I know that the subjective side is gonna be discounted by a whole buncha folk, no matter how big and double-blind our comparisons are. But this is wayyyyyyy different than the Yggdrasil flavors, where we couldn’t even get a consensus between me, Dave, and Mike. This one is far clearer. If you believe in subjective stuff. If you believe we aren’t fooling ourselves.
Product page ($799): Schiit Audio: Audio Products Designed and Built in Texas and California
Upgrade ($300): Schiit Audio: Audio Products Designed and Built in Texas and California
14 Likes
Thank you. I put in my order because I figure there’s a lot of BF2s out there and my guess is that the back order time will grow.
(Upgrade)
4 Likes
@pennstac and @Mintshows are bad influences! I just ordered the upgrade card myself. I’ve always heard a bit of treble roughness with the original. We’ll see.
If you don’t like it or can’t hear the difference, you can probably sell it in about 30 seconds.
4 Likes
While I am a huge Schiit fanboy, I feel like what’s happening here is they are having difficulty getting the Analog Devices chips they use for multibit and so they are switching over to these new TI chips and to avoid drama/confusion they have added a few new features and they’re calling it a new revision. I’m fully in favor of moving forward with technology and features, but I’m not sure this one has anything real to offer beyond being true balanced (for whatever that’s worth). I feel like the rest is marketing fluff, and frankly, possibly a side/downgrade. As a Bifrost 2 owner/user I’m holding still until reports of how the new device sounds before I consider doing anything.
7 Likes