Also keep in mind that the new card gives your BF a 2 year warranty. 
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Oh, that’s an even more awesome fun fact!
There are reports on Head Fi of some issues with the upgrade card. Mine seems to be fine, but it occurs when changing sample/bit rate.
As of Aug 11, 2022 the BF2/64 upgrade card ship time is “10 to 12 weeks”!
@pennstac can see the future and the future involves a lot of backlogs.
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Further to the reports of the issues, Schiit have released a firmware fix for the 2/64.
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So I’m a big fan of Schiit products, but I’ve got myself in a situation where that is what my main stack is. Situation I say because now I’m looking to go from my Modius to the BF2. The problem is I know there are plenty of other DAC (and dac/amp) out there in this range or higher. One of them being the RME ADI2DAC. Yes, it is almost double the price of the Bf2 but what is getting my interest is all the built in features and use case for not using softwares on windows.
This will be exclusively a desktop solution with my pc. Hell I’ve thrown around the idea of doing the BF2 and adding in a Lokius, but again, I don’t have to just go all out schiit!
So I’m really curious what you guys think. I am trying to make myself a wish list to weigh out all the pros and cons before making a purchase. I’m not expecting some big night/day difference in sound, so I get that part. It’s more of a feature set and marginal upgrade I am doing. I’ll be hanging on to my Jotunheim2 for now as it suits me just fine as an amp.
Mumble mumble this topic will have use bias by us BF2/BF2/64 users.
I did consider that RME because of the built in EQ also but find if I need light EQ I tend to use ROON EQ.
On my Mac
Good point
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Seems to me that these are different units intended to provide different things.
The RME is an ESS/AKM dac with lots of non-dac features plus a headphone amp.
The Bifrost 2 is a dedicated ladder dac.
If your priority is moving eq, etc. to a dac then the RME makes sense. If your priority is the ladder dac sound then the Bifrost 2 makes sense.
Seems to me you have to decide what is most important and the choice falls directly from that.
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Well said. I ended up with the Bifrost 2/64 and Lyr3 with choice of tube or LSSST for my serious stack and a FiiO K9 Pro ESS for the comfy chair. The FiiO also has EQ if you use a droid control app I haven’t tried that. But @ThtGamerDad and I both are satisfied with it, and it’s half the price of a RME.
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Also, the Jot 2/BF2 makes a really excellent pairing, I know from personal experience. It’s a good enough combo to enjoyably drive most high(er) end headphones and sound quite good. Neither is the “last word”, whatever that means. Some audio snobs will sniff at it and say “mid fi”, but F 'em.
Having said that, my Jot 2 is now mostly used as a preamp for my desktop speakers. I’ve been bitten by the audio bug, and got the Yggy to go with a Burson Soloist GT, but Yggy also outputs to Jot 2 and a Valhalla 2. Lots of fun 
I seem to recall you have an Atrium? Jot 2/BF 2 is very good with that 
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Personally I prefer to do all of my DSP on the PC. There’s way more flexibility and a better UI.
As for the DAC functions, like @NickZ said, it’s a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. One option is to get the BF2 and see if you can hear any difference from the Modius. If not then there’s no sense in going any further. You can easily sell a BF2 here.
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I’ve definitely considered that as well. My issue with the PC is I did use EQ (apo) and when I had unchecked it, it had still changed some settings in audio. I’ve had a long standing frustration with the way windows handles audio devices and loves to just decide suddenly to change your default settings with no notice. It is what it is, but that is why I prefer to take that out of the equation entirely.
The Modius is great, fantastic even. This would be my (hopeful) final step to an endgame solution for the DAC. If I’m being real with myself though, there is no endgame. Just like there is no spoon…
You did mention the Lokius. I am certainly happy with mine, and it’s way less fuss than tweaking parametric EQ. @generic agrees, but those with super hi-def ears tend to prefer playing with numbers.
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I tend to reach plateaus…happy for a year or three and then upgrade again. My current plateau is Bifrost 2/64 → Loki Mini → (RebelAmp, Bottlehead Crack, or Lyr 3) → HD 800 S. This is a really decent setup and I honestly can’t justify spending more on the headphone hobby (you should see my relative spending elsewhere). I demo stuff in local stores and can hear the higher end nuances, but not enough to be worth the change.
As @pennstac notes, both of us have similar setups. The nice thing about going 100% hardware based is that you know when something is on or off and can twiddle the knobs to hear what happens. No app ambiguity.
Jumping back to your RME questions – that is a nice product with embedded extra features. Also see the SPL Phonitors for a similar pro audio / technical focus. In my demos (I don’t own either), they come across as solid and competent. I’d honestly need to use one for a week or more to reach a firm conclusion…but that in itself reveals they aren’t worth it to me at at this moment.
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This. I only wish the good ole state of Indiana had shops around that allowed to do this. I have reached out to multiple audio stores in the area and nobody carries the coveted things we enjoy. It’s a sign of the times for sure but also just the area I live in. The interest just isn’t here as much.
However, I don’t want to derail this topic at all so I will say when I get a chance to visit California or Texas I’ll be sure to visit Schiit! The BF2 is not off of my list yet. Still doing more digging in since, as I said, I can’t really demo. That is why I appreciate h-p-dot-com so much!
How to solve that problem, is to get both the RME and Schiit if you can! Haha.
I own both and would be in the same boat - they are both excellent pieces, it really depends on what featureset you want more and which sound signature you like better.
Sorry if you said already, but what amp are you using?
@skeeb23 I feel your pain. I am in a similar boat here in Maine. Oh well, trade offs of country living.
My main setup is the BF2/Jot2 and I truly enjoy my listening time on them. With that said I don’t bother with EQ. If you want gauranteed good synergy, I think bumping up your Schiit stack is worthwhile. If you want to branch out and try other things for the sake of your YT channel then RME would make sense as well.
I don’t think there is a wrong answer here. Good luck!
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@AudioMaine thank you for that. I ordered the RME today for the reason you stated…versatility to try other things.
@Nuance I have the Jot2 for my amp.
I may down the road either listen to or still get the BF2. I love Schiit products and what they stand for. I’m not expecting some kind of euphoric experience by upgrading my DAC, it was more of the feature set and further versatility I will gain from this all.
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