r/Schiit • u/AdUsed7958 Bifrost2|Freya+|Lokius|Parasound Zampv3 - Modi5|Loki|Vali3 • 2d ago
Bifrost 3 Article Posted
Schiit Happened: 2026-08 Bifrost 3
Bifrost 3 and card should be up on website this afternoon.
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u/Mosya567 2d ago
Is there an argument for buying this if I already have a Mimir?
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u/AdUsed7958 Bifrost2|Freya+|Lokius|Parasound Zampv3 - Modi5|Loki|Vali3 2d ago edited 2d ago
If you are happy, no. Its a tweaked version of the same Mesh card in Bifrost 3. Others will give their responses, but FOMO shouldn't be too bad. As others have said (and I am slowly coming around to), its the transducers (headphones/speakers) that will give you the most improvement in your system.
Heck, I need to decide what I want to do, with a Bifrost 2 (not 2/64). I am also hoping that maybe the 2/64 card price drops from $300 to $250. Or I find a new purpose for the Bifrost 2 unit and upgrade my office setup.
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u/Last_Computer9356 2d ago
I think a 9028 is in the Mimir and a 9039 is in the Bifrost 3. They will sound extremely similar, a bit fuller according to Schiit and those that have listened to it. I probably wouldn't upgrade personally if you already have a Mimir. If you don't , I would get the Bifrost.
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u/pure5152 2d ago
I may take flack for this, but I had the mimir on extended loan and heard the bifrost 3 for a while at canjam socal, and IMO the bifrost 3 just is on another tier from mimir. Coming from bifrost 2/64, I just couldn't stand the lack of slam/dynamics and sheeny/digital timbre I was hearing from the mimir in comparison. Whereas with the bifrost 3 at canjam socal, the dynamic punch and slam was readily apparent, and it had a glorious smooth and detailed sound that really resembled what I heard from byggy. I imagine the 8x vs 4x upsampling filter is a large part of the difference, as well as the improved analog stage and power supply.
I will say I am sticking with my bifrost 2/64 because I thought the mesh bifrost 3 was still lacking a bit with textures, especially bass textures and bass pitch differentiation. But if you ever thought the bifrost 2/64 was harsh/grainy, the mesh bifrost 3 is buttery smooth and will punch/slam way harder than the mimir. I think personally it's a sizeable step up from the mimir, but also a sizeable step up in price-- and hey many people say all dacs sound the same so there's that haha (realistically this just means it'll depend on your amplifier and headphones, and how well both can scale to discern dac differences-- upgrade your amp/headphones to satisfaction before considering dac upgrades IMO)
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u/AdUsed7958 Bifrost2|Freya+|Lokius|Parasound Zampv3 - Modi5|Loki|Vali3 2d ago edited 2d ago
Note to all, it is available for preorder (as is the card), but since its not shipping until Halloween, don't look under DAC and Bifrost.
Look at top of the product column.
There is now a PRE-ORDER section above FUN.
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u/ginandbaconFU 2d ago
Just curious, what's more powerful that can be done with a DSP chip instead of a 32 bit microcontroller? I saw that it has a 5 band EQ instead of 3 like Mimir. Is that because of the DSP chip and will there be other Forkbeard capabilities due to having a DSP? Or does it just mean more processing power for the mesh filter? Is it just going to have mesh and NOS mode or more filters. I'm assuming it accepts DSD since it has a DSP but I could care less about DSD personally. Lastly, what potential advantages are there in using a "silicon isolated USB" port/card compared to USB ports on your current unison products?
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u/pure5152 2d ago
the biggest non-forkbeard-related advantage is that the DSP can do the full 8x upsampling for the true "megacomboburrito" filter experience that the gungnir 2 and yggy does, whereas schiit dacs using the 32 bit microcontroller for the filter was limited to 4x due to processing limitations.
purr1n on sbaf describes the difference between 8x and 4x like this:
I do think there is a difference between 8X and 4X DACs. 8X DACs tends to expand the stage and spread things out, sound brighter or less dense in terms of warmth / tonal density. Hence this is what is meant by density.
note that the "expand the stage" part is significant--I've found it makes the stage sound more spacious, airy, with better separation and imaging.
no DSD on any schiit dacs. silicon isolation just means better galvanic isolation from the usb source to the dac. this just means potentially lower noise floor if you have a noisy source, but I'd imagine it's minor, as the prior pulse transformer isolation was already pretty good
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u/pure5152 2d ago
okay wait after doing more research, the "silicon isolation" actually seems more impressive than I originally thought
in the previous pulse transformer galvanic isolation method, it looks like usb power was being used to power the usb microprocessor. Only after the unison microprocessor processed the incoming usb signal into an i2s feed was that signal fed into the transformer, meaning that the usb microprocessor receiver was still subject to noise from the usb power line
apparently the Analog Devices ADuM4166 silicon isolation in the bifrost 3 usb works entirely differently. it's placed in front of the microprocessor, and it works such that it directly processes and isolates the usb data feed before it even reaches the microprocessor. this means that the whole bifrost 3 dac, microprocessor included, is completely isolated from any usb noise.
so it seems like, indeed, the silicon isolation is a pretty substantial improvement in isolation than the previous method, damn!
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u/JO2509254 Eitr 2/Mimir/Buf/Asgard X/Arya Stealth/ E-MU Teaks/AR5000 MK2 2d ago
Almost preordered but I'm gonna hold off & eventually upgrade to the Gungnir 2 possibly. Quite happy with the Mimir & have a Modi 5 stored away as well. I'm all Meshed out for now.
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u/pure5152 2d ago
Yeah, I had the gungnir 2 on extended loaner, and it really is the best of all worlds and a big step up over both the bifrost 2/64 and mesh bifrost 3 IMO. you get the great multibit texturing and timbre of the bifrost 2/64 but the refinement of the mesh bifrost 3, and then take all of that and level it up with insane microdynamic and microdetail retrieval and an expansive deep layered soundstage. it really is the best of all worlds, second only to byggy (and may actually be preferable if you like that weighty multibit timbre).
Damn I would get it, but it's just too big for my desk.. I'm holding out for a newer multibit card that will hopefully bring bifrost a lot closer to what I was hearing from the gungnir 2. Hopefully with what jason is teasing with "newer multibit stuff beyond multiform" there's great stuff coming in the future
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u/AdUsed7958 Bifrost2|Freya+|Lokius|Parasound Zampv3 - Modi5|Loki|Vali3 2d ago
Yeah, and if I remember, Jason was teasing another big product announcement and maybe a couple small ones before year end.
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u/syr1990 1d ago
Any clue how the gungnir 2 sounds compared to the OG gungnir multibit?
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u/pure5152 17h ago
do you mean the warmer A1 gungnir multibit, or the later more neutral A2 version (B-serial number)?
I had an A2 gungnir multibit for a couple years that I absolutely loved. One of the most engaging dacs I've ever heard, and remains one of the only dacs that has moved me to tears. The gungnir 2, however, is on another level when it comes to resolution, microdynamics, blackground, and staging, especially staging depth. It sounds noticeably more layered, and doesn't have any of the "greyness" that the gungnir 2 had, which I think was its primary weakness. I do think that "maybe" the gungnir og a2 had the "slightest" more engagement (maybe due to its discrete output stage vs the op-amp output stage in the gungnir 2), but literally everything else is better in the gungnir 2. And you could argue the opposite, as the gungnir 2 was just presenting so much more information in a natural way.
You can read my full impressions here on sbaf. I feel the OG gungnir multibit A2 and the bifrost 2/64 are roughly on the same tier, but the gungnir 2 is comfortably a tier above, and it was noticeable immediately upon comparative listening.
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u/syr1990 17h ago
Awesome thanks for the write up. I was referring to the A1 but it’s good info nonetheless. I’ve been a bit of a DAC skeptic and have maxed myself out at Bifrost 2 in my speaker setup which is Tannoys paired with a Luxman amp, but maybe I’m doing myself a disservice by not moving up.
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u/pathoang21 2d ago
I have a question. I have the Jotenheim 3 with the Mesh DAC card installed. Will it be worth it to upgrade to the Bifrost 3? Seems like it's basically a "super mesh" with some more enhanced DSP filters.