affordable USB DAC

Hi all:
I just received this USB DAC from Schiit Audio and I have to say it is impressive for the price $99 plus shipping. I bought it because I have 3 ST120's and only one DAC between them a "Gamma II" I built about three years ago.
Since all my music is on a PC based system I was constantly disconnecting my DAC to switch amps. This DAC is quite small in size and not feature rich (no SPDIF) but delivers amazingly good sound for the low price.
They also have other reasonably priced stuff and are made in the USA which makes it easy and fast to ship in country. I have been playing it for a about a week and I am very satisfied. It proves to me at least that it is not necessary to pay a lot for a good quality USB DAC.

http://schiit.com/

Hi..
Interesting and made in the USA!

How would you pronounce "Schiit" ....I would have considered a different name if
this was my company. Just my two cents.

Kevin

I have the Schitt Bifrost and it's pretty good. Connected it to an old Mac where all my digital audio files reside. Don't need a preamp because the levels are controllable in iTunes (to different amps and speakers around the house). I've gotten pretty good service and support from Schitt. For $99 the Modi DAC looks like a great deal. Funny, all of my hi fi equipment is Made in the U.S.A. except for the tubes.

So this Schitt DAC definitly isn't the Schittz, hey?

The Schiit DAC has a 24-bit AKM4396 processor this is a top quality IC. This DAC requires no drivers to deliver up to 24/96 sampling rates. It features asynchronous transfer with individual crystal oscillators for the 44.1 and 48k sampling rates and uses the USB Audio 1.0 standard over USB 2.0, so it will run in any computer made in the last several years and is powered by the USB port.

As far as the rest of their products go they sell a pure class A amp for $249 and some other amps and DACS that appear to have very good specs and reasonable prices.

So continuing the discussion; as Bob observes it is probably a good idea to get some kind of a stand alone DAC if you are using a computer based system because the onboard DAC's on many sound cards are often of poor quality and do not have true clocks geared to audio standards.They are integrated to work with games and other mdedia.
There are however several good computer sound cards around with good quality DAC chips and true clocks on board. I use an Asus Xonar but the "Julia" is another one with a true clock processor on it at under $200. Either of these could also eliminate the need for a stand alone DAC as well.

I found a very educational site a few years ago and visit it regularly to keep up to date on DAC technology and computer based sound systems development.
Might be worth checking out before taking the plunge on a DAC. This site has a lot of other good information on our passion as well.
cheers
Baddog
http://www.lampizator.eu/

Thanks Baddog. Good insights from the Lampizator site. For some over-the-top audio market-speak, the description of these Schitt "Pyst" 6" RCA interconnect cables can't be beat (http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=12):

PYST was the god of drinking in Norse mythology. He’d be much better-known if he wasn’t getting schiit-faced all the time. Or, well, not really. PYST stands for Put Your Schiit Together, a set of short cables that make stacking your DAC and amp easy.

Beyond Just Technology: SuperUltraHyperTechnology
PYST cables are made from only the finest 6-nines Unobtanium™ alloy, molecularly assembled in our Alternate Universe™ reality-distortion tesseract field , using a secret geometry reverse-engineered from crashed UFOs, painstakingly smuggled out of Area 51 by deep-cover operatives. Performance is further enhanced by the use of a QuantConnect™ quantum-entangled pair of transmission interfaces, held at absolute zero by our exclusive Stasis Field™ technology. The cables are then wrapped in NanoAeroCap™, a nanotechnology-enabled aerogel anti-capacitance insulation system, featuring Fractal Interleaved Geometry™ to create negative inductance for maximum audio transmission quality.

Or, er, well . . . again, no. These are nice, high-quality cables, with solid, reliable connectors. And they’re short. And not too expensive. That’s it. Hope you like them!

Important info: The RCA Pysts are about 6" long, excluding connectors. That's 6 inches. Not feet. And not none of that fancy metric stuff, we're dumb Americans here. The balanced XLR Pysts are about 9" long, excluding connectors. Same disambiguation applies.

Hello all,

I've been lurking this site for quite some time now. I want to thank Bob Latino and everyone else for an excellent resource here. Years ago I inherited a PAS-2 and ST-70. I can remember putting them into action and that all was not well. Recently I tripped over the set in the basement where I had left them in 1996. I mentioned the set to an amateur radio friend of mine and he used to build scores of PAS-2's and ST-70's for a local HiFi store during the sixties. He offered to renovate my set which I graciously took him up on.

I'm slowly learning and I suspect that when I get the set back it will become a hobby project with respect to upgrades and refinishing so that the pair will look reasonably nice and function like they did when new. More to follow when I start tinkering with them.

When I originally read this post I decided to order the Schiit Modi. I received the Modi about a week ago and I have been listening to it quite extensively. I am not a high end guru but I enjoy decent fidelity and I must say that this box delivers what it advertises. I have used the headphone output on my computers as well as a Behringer USB DAC and the fidelity upgrade that the Modi provides is quite remarkable to my ears. When I used the headphone output or the Behringer DAC there seemed to be random computer generated noise which made the audio sound harsh. The Schiit box softened the audio and it is definitely pleasant to listen to. I am sure there are better products out there but for the money the Modi is worth trying.

I can't wait to get the PAS-2/ST-70 back and start re-exploring the wonderful world of tube audio. Now if I could only pry my Dad's 12" Tannoy Monitor Gold's from my brother's fingers in Europe; that would be a good start to resurrecting a vintage setup.

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend and good luck with the winter storm out east.

Sincerely,

BJ
k0cwo
Woodbury, MN