Schiit Gungnir: my experience, my dilemma

[srisaikat]

I wanted to tell, details are similar but they are not similar sounding. Whether that improvement is significant or not, it depends on your wish and pocket of course. What my understanding is, after certain achievement in sound quality at standard market price, if you want to push the SQ little more and more in order, after some time and point you have to spend astronomically. I mean the SQ and expenditure ratio here works like parabolic curve. There is no end to that, at some point most of us have to make compromise. For instance, if one can imagine a scale of SQ (100 is highest), then suppose one get SQ 80 out of 100 spending just 80k, then to get SQ 90 one may have to spend more than 160k (that is more than double), where as SQ 70 may easily achievable spending just at 50k. Now whether that much expenditure is logical or justifiable it is up to that person. I hope I have made my point clear.

 

[eagertrader]

Yes, the Gungnir has no preamp/ volume control. So directly hooking it up with a power amp is out of question.

Santy, you are absolutely right, the Gungnir has no volume control. What I meant to say was that I would be able to use it like a pre-amplifier for the ability to switch sources, from the one connected to the Tos-link input, to the RCA input, to the USB, and if I had a SPDIF source, that too.

I did get the Gungnir on time and installed all my digital sources as stated on my previous post, and established the USB connection and downloaded their USB 2 software as well. I ended painting it with a brush with black satin latex, so I can easily peel the paint off if I want to in the future.

Looks aside, I have had it running 24/7 playing mostly the Rega Planet 2000 CD player on "repeat" mode, with different music CDs to be sure. I can say that by now it is fully burned-in with over 250+ hours of playing. It is still playing as I write this, as I am also trying to burn-in a set of Bybee internal bullets that I installed on my speakers.

I was able to critically audition the Gungnir before installing the Bybees, and all I can say to sum it up is the huge difference that it made to my CD collection, which I had almost given up in favor of Vinyl, because of the difference in dynamics, resolution, etc., etc. The biggest surprise was that all the sources hooked to the Gungnir sound great, and it is impossible for me to tell them apart, because of the up-sampling the DAC does to the incoming digital stream. Likewise with the music stored in my computer which I played using the USB link.

Additionally, I wanted to taste for myself all the hoopla around 24/192, and was able to download samplers of such recorded music from a German site (highresaudiodotcom). I was completely blown away by the transparency, sharpness and depth of the sounds I was hearing, on par with the best analog out there.

In addition, the good thing about the Gungnir is that when 24/384 music becomes widely available, Schiit will probably come out with and upgrade to swap with the current board on the DAC. I'm happy. No Schiit, kudos! :clapping:

 

[srisaikat]

"What I meant to say was that I would be able to use it like a pre-amplifier for the ability to switch sources, from the one connected to the Tos-link input, to the RCA input, to the USB, and if I had a SPDIF source, that too."

Again you are having a wrong perception about Gungnir, it has no RCA input (except if u meant to indicate the SPDIF). There are 2 pairs of RCA behind Gungnir and both are output.

 

[dheerajin]

Dear Saikat,

I am trying to buy gungnir from their website, but it is not accepting my credit card. What could be the reason?

Cheers
Dheeraj

 

[Maxprocrj]

So now you are part of Shiit's development team! For real

Thanks for your write up, for your interesting investigation and diagnosis, and subsequent contribution to the product. Wishing you may get your Gungnir (how on earth to pronounce that?) very soon. Whilst their response to customer has been great, they might have let you keep the old one until receiving the new!

The fact that you are sticking with this product, despite problems, is the best "good review"

""Guniar"".....thats the way they pronounce it

 

[srisaikat]

Hi fellows,
Again an upgrade bug is biting me very hard, wishing to have Audio-gd NFB-7.32 by selling The Schiit Gungnir (for partial funding). Decision not final yet, What do you think?

Regards

 

[lucksin]

well what i think ?? humm

message me the amount you are looking at for Gungnir

 

[asliarun]

Hi fellows,
Again an upgrade bug is biting me very hard, wishing to have Audio-gd NFB-7.32 by selling The Schiit Gungnir (for partial funding). Decision not final yet, What do you think?

Regards

Please lead the way on your Audio GD upgrade. I am sold on their sound (although I have a very entry level model). Would love to hear your thoughts/impressions as well.

Just out of curiosity, have you considered their NFB-27 model? It only costs $100 more than what you are considering, but also functions as a preamp with analog inputs, volume control, and headphone amp. Seems to be similar in other aspects to your model.

 

[vijwilso]

Hi fellows,
Again an upgrade bug is biting me very hard, wishing to have Audio-gd NFB-7.32 by selling The Schiit Gungnir (for partial funding). Decision not final yet, What do you think?

Regards

How about the Audio GD with the 4 pieces of PCM1704 chipset , don't remember the exact model number . I have listened dual mono configuration of a CD player ( diff brand ) using PCM1704 , it was really good . Hope Audio GD implementation is also good

 

[srisaikat]

Finally I decided to go for the upgrade towards Audio-gd 7.32. So my Gungnir is now officially available for sale. My experience tells me it is equally worthy to invest in DAC & Cables as well as amp, speaker and source.

 

[theironhorse]

Finally I decided to go for the upgrade towards Audio-gd 7.32. So my Gungnir is now officially available for sale. My experience tells me it is equally worthy to invest in DAC & Cables as well as amp, speaker and source.

awaiting review of the 7.32

 

[srisaikat]

awaiting review of the 7.32

Not so fast. I am just in funding stage. Also from various reviews I found that this particular model of Audio-gd takes 200-300 hrs of burning period because of great number of capacitors on board. But thanks for showing interest. I hope to open a new thread about it.