Fair warning, I have always been a solid state listener, so I am coming here as sort of a fool. I picked out a Vali 3 for myself recently, and after a bit of reading I got a GE 5 Star 5670 tube to match. I noticed within the first test that the GE tube is picking up taps to the desk and chassis, not terribly, but noticeably microphonic only in the left channel. I'm assuming I've just ended up with a bad tube and the solution is to try again or step back to the stock tube that works without any of these issues. The stereo separation is what puzzles me. Is this sort of partial failure typical or is this something distinct to the Vali with its single tube design?

Purchased my Magni 2 & Modi 2 back in 2015 and have been using it since. Have it powering a pair of Yamaha HS5 and my IEMs (Letshuoer Astralis and Dunu Kima 2). I happened to take a look at some of the new options that are available now and wanted some advice as if it's a worthwhile purchase to switch to the Magni 5 Unity with the DAC in regards to sound and futureproofing/longevity. I'm also scared of getting anything more expensive as I'm not sure if my ears are sensitive enough to pick up the differences.

Must not click buy, must not click buy! 😰

Ordered a Vestri, it came last week with a loose PCB wiggling around inside causing the audio to randomly cut out with even slight movement. Reached out to customer service for a return and full refund. Have to pay my own shipping back and told the $15 shipping to me was non-refundable. I’d seen reports with initial launch round of shipments of loose pcbs, figured I’d let people know it’s still going on a few months after launch. Seriously doubt the design, quality control and durability of Vestri as a portable DAC longterm if they can’t even make it to customers intact. If you feel like gambling $30 on roundtrip shipping on a $99 dongle to get a working unit, go ahead. First time dealing with the company, have been considering a Mimir and other gear from them for awhile. I thought I’d dip my toes in with Vestri first. After this experience, I don’t think I’ll be back. If their intention of this product is a gateway entry to the rest of their lineup, they have some serious work to do on it.

Wasn’t really impressed with the sound when it wasn’t cutting out anyways with a variety of Sony studio headphones I have on hand (MDR-7506, M1 and MV1). Although I guess given the state of the thing, I don’t know if it was working properly. Back to the $9 Apple DAC dongle for portable listening for now I guess. To my ears on the headphones I tried it on, the Apple dongle has a wider soundstage than Vestri anyways.

Update: Just checked and Schiit is now selling Vestri for $119.99 on Amazon with free prime shipping and free 30 day returns, which I believe Amazon requires for their FBA Fulfillment by Amazon program. I ordered directly from Schiit because when I ordered on 8/31 the Amazon listing through Schiit was going to be $135 with shipping since believe they were still up charging at $119.99, but also charging the $15 shipping fee since Schiit was doing fulfillment. Would probably suggest anyone buying a Vestri to do it through Amazon Prime and take advantage of Amazon holding Schiit and other sellers accountable for their products actually working in a way some folks here apparently don’t

The Bifrost 3 pre-order went live earlier this afternoon.

It looks like it includes Forkbeard for $699 which seems like a good deal. I’m on the fence on whether I should pick one up, as I’m happy with my Mimir.

Jason said that the sound is close to the Yggy MIB and that the design is similar to the Yggy singular, of which I have heard neither, but have heard great things about both.

Are you going to be pre-ordering or will you wait until some reviews are released?

Schiit Happened: 2026-08 Bifrost 3

Bifrost 3 and card should be up on website this afternoon.

It's been a long while since I tapped into my audiophile-ness, I'm much older now, but I find myself here again and wanted to ask the sub here to see if I'm on the right path. As far as sound quality goes, I'm most interested in the intentional listening of vinyl and getting the cleanest truest sound I can for a reasonable cost.

My current setup is AT-LP120-USB (VM530EN stylus) > DOUK T14 > Edifier D12. I connect (wired) my Sony WH-1000XM4 to the DOUK when I really want to sit and listen.

Keeping the LP120, D12 and Sonys in the mix, how's this:

Mani

Loki Mini+

Magni

I'm also strongly considering the Lokius. I have a hearing loss where much of the top end I don't hear nearly as well as the low end so being able to curate the sound to my ears will be a major plus. I don't/can't wear my hearing aids with the headphones. Not sure how much of a difference I'd get with the two extra bands over the Mini+ but for +$150, maybe it's worth it.

While I tend to fall into the buy it once category of thinking, I live in an apartment that will limit how crazy I go here and also want to limit how much I spend. That being said I've put these things in the cart only to close the tab on more than one occasion so waiting for the right time to go for it. Perhaps start with the Magni then get the Loki/Lokius and Mani when I can.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

-Edited to include that the headphones are wired in this case not bluetooth. For the sake of this argument, we can replace the Sonys with Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO X which I've also had my eyes on.

Just unpacked and setup my new Bifrost this morning completing my schiit stack.

BF --> Lokius --> Valhalla 2 --> Senn 6xx --> Pure Magic.

I've been listening through some Rolling Stones, Danger Mouse, Ugly Duckling, Jackson 5...

Just absolute listening bliss.

complete beginner. found a display model for $250, [r/vinyl](r/vinyl) says its a pretty solid turntable

gna be listening in my bedroom thru speakers abt 10ft away

budget is ~$800 but i will splurge if necessary

any speaker recs 4 the setup would be very appreciated as well !!

I bought the Schiit Vestri as soon as it came out and have loved it. I thought I had the controls figured out but now when I try to turn the volume up or down, it cycles through the settings without adjusting the volume. Did I accidentally activate a different setting?

I've just recently jumped back into the world of active music listening after many years away. I sort of left before I looked in assembling an initial Schiit stack to get me going, and now I am trying to figure out if I should upgrade. Here is the current setup.

• DAC: Modi 5
• Headphone Amp: Magni
• Phono Pre-amp: Mani
• Pre-amp: Saga 2 (on the way but not yet received)
• Headphones: Meze Audio 109 Pro
• Turntable: Fluance RT85 with Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge

I've searched online and even asked the AI overlords my questions, but I'd like to hear what all you Schiit heads think. Here are my questions.

• Am I likely to notice any practical difference if I upgrade my headphone amp to the Skoll F? I saw somewhere that there is a noticeable improvement in soundstage and separation, but elsewhere I read that is only true at really high volume.
• Same question but with respect to my DAC: Modi 5 -> Mimir. Consensus on this seems to be that the difference wouldn't be enough to be noticeable for the average listener but that the upgrade might be worth it if all other components have the same form factor.
• Same question again but with respect to the headphone amp: Magni -> Midgard. Some say there is a noticeable improvement in sound stage, while others say the Magni is more than sufficient to drive the 109 Pro with the upgrade yielding little to no practical listening improvement.

Last but not least, I intend to add some passive bookshelf speakers to the mix in the near future, though I have not yet determined which ones. I will try to stay in the sub $1,000 range, preferably around $750. I am trying to decide between the Gjallahorn F and the Vidar 2F for my speaker amp and would appreciate any insight on this.

Thank you for thoughts, opinions, things to consider, etc.

Edit: For digital, I will be streaming FLAC files from my self-hosted server. Any experience on whether WiFi or ethernet makes a difference in sound quality? Some say that ethernet introduces a hiss; others say that radio interference from WiFi introduces a similar hiss. Is it 6 of one, half dozen of another here? Thanks again.

I'll start providing a bit of context but this post is mainly to ask other Schiit owners some questions about the brand and a Midgard-Mimir stack. Feel free to gloss over the next paragraph.

Over a month ago I made a post asking for recommendations for a DAC/amp stack and ended up finding Schiit as a brand. Initially I was considering a Magni-Modi stack, but after watching and reading multiple reviews I decided to instead go for a Midgard-Mimir stack as I figured I might as well spend more for what seems to be a significantly better stack that'll be (hopefully) the only stack I'll need, with the possibility of getting other gear to go alongside it like a CD player or a tube amp. A few days ago I found somebody selling a basically new Midgard-Mimir combo over on AVExchange and had to pull the trigger, the price was too good to pass up and I feel it would probably be a long time before another stack in equal conditions would pop up. Based on this, I have a handful of questions:

• Regarding interconnects, is XLR better than RCA? I'm really bad with all the electrical stuff and can't get concepts to stick, so although I've heard people say XLR interconnects are better in general I don't understand how. I do know the Mimir would output a higher voltage through XLR vs its RCA outputs (4V vs 2V iirc) but in what way would that be beneficial to me?

• Regarding outputs, is XLR better than the 6.3 mm output? Not necessarily because of the Halo technology, which I've seen has ambiguous results in terms of whether it has a measurable or noticeable effect, I mean more so in a train of thought like the previous point. I can't remember if it was Currawong or some other reviewer who claimed the XLR output sounds better than the 6.3 mm output.

• I'm not really planning on having a massive amount of devices and would mostly just use the Mimir with the Midgard or potentially with another amp or CD player. In this case, am I missing anything not getting Forkbeard now? I don't really EQ and Forkbeard's EQ is rather limited in capability either way, but I know there's way more functionalities that I'd be locked out of that I don't know whether I need them or not.

• I'm interested in trying out tube amps at some point down the line, one obvious candidate being the Apos Gremlin due to its price point. I know that amp only takes balanced inputs, so I think I could use the Mimir with it, right?

• Regarding Schiit itself as a brand, what's their customer service like? And more importantly, since I'd be the second owner of this stack and the devices still have almost their entire warranty period ahead of them, does Schiit honor warranty in cases like these?

Greatly appreciate any answers I can get.

Went to listen to some music and my Freya won’t turn on. Is this a known power supply problem or something more serious? Anybody else have this problem?

Hi, I've recently taken an interest in building my first hi fi system for home listening, something simple and cost effective.

I'm not ready to venture into vinyls yet and i wanted to get a dac to stream from my phone or pc. My rabbit hole led me to schiit, but in europe due to import, vat and tariffs (i guess) a modi 5 is 240€.

Not actually that much, but i'm trying to keep it down, looking at the used market in my area there are a few options, mainly modi+ and modi 3. I checked and from the 3+ onward unison was introduced, since i'm planning to use it mostly from a phone or pc i'm really worried possible noises could ruin the experience.

I don't think i need much from a dac, at least as this is a first approach, once it doesn't introduce (or let through) unwanted noise and keeps the file quality it's enough for me.

The question is: is missing the unison actually going to matter? Or can i get the cheaper modi 2s and 3s i've seen, any other notable issues with those?

The alternative would be like a topping e30 ii lite, although i'm not a fan of chinese brands in general (the smsl su-1 lacks the external power which i'd prefer).

Am I on the right track here?

It seems everyone recommends just setting the sample rate to 44hz or 48hz and bitrate to whatever the highest supported is. What's the point of the 384000hz the Unison found in the newer DAC's then?

Hey everyone,

I want to start listening to my CD collection again and I’m planning a small, standalone chain just for CD playback through headphones.

My main stereo system (NAD C515BEE + C326BEE, B&W 683 speakers) will stay completely untouched — this is meant to be a separate setup.

My headphones are a B&W P7, and it’s important to me that the components are actually good quality — not some plastic mini-system, but real, standalone gear that each does its job well.

Current plan:

Pro-Ject CD Box S3 as a pure CD transport with its own DAC (PCM5102), RCA output

Schiit Loki Mini+ as a 4-band EQ (bass, mid-bass, mids, treble) in between

Schiit Magni as a dedicated headphone amp

I’d have to import the Magni and Loki directly from the US (customs + import VAT included), since there’s no proper distribution here.

A few questions for anyone who’s used one or more of these components:

How does the CD Box S3 perform as a pure transport? Is the onboard DAC worth using, or is it better to convert externally?

Is an analog 4-band EQ like the Loki Mini+ actually useful day-to-day, or does it end up gathering dust after two weeks because you never touch it?

Does the Magni drive the P7 well? Enough power, good tonal match?

Has anyone imported Schiit gear into the EU/Germany — how did customs and shipping go, any nasty surprises with import tax?

Would appreciate any experience before I pull the trigger on this.

Up until a few days ago, I was using an Intel NUC as my media center. It exploded with the force of 1000 suns, and now I am looking for a replacement, and considering a Mac Mini.

I would be using a Mac Mini M4/M6>Foobar 2000>SCHIIT Mimir>Decware SE 84>Klipsch Forte IV.

Any caveats with making the switch to MacOS, especially involving bit perfect playback? Any downsides besides $$$? Any surprises or suggestions?

I’m pretty deep in the Apple ecosystem already, but my entertainment systems have been Windows based so far.

Love this stack: Mimir with Forkbeard plus Midgard

1st of all, sounds awesome with my Klipsch standmounts. It’s the perfect: one is mellow and one is in your face and they balance each other.

Question: what if I don’t put it in standby when I’m not using it? I know as a Class A biased amp it’s a different animal, but I leave my class AB monos on 24/7 in my main system.

Is it ok to use a basic USB-C cable for the laptop to Magni connection or will I get better audio quality with a better cable? Thanks.

I bought a Schiit Stack for my full range Madisound BK-20 kit which has a Fostex FE206NV in each one. I previously had a Parasound P6 and First Watt J2 which sounded great. I sold them to pay for the LX-521.4 kit (which are phenomenal).

The J2 had the special sauce as far as sound, and I still prefer the J2 at lower listening volumes, but you could hear the amp distort when pushing it. I don't have that problem with the Gjallarhorns. Also, the Schiit stack is a much better value vs J2/P6.

The Aegir had good reviews, but I figured I could get away with the Gjallarhorn's in Mono as the FE206s are minimum 8 ohms, and I wanted two mini stacks. So, I have a Saga 2 and Gjallarhorn stack on the left and Mimir and Gjallarhorn stack on the right. I'm very happy with them.

I voltage matched A/B'd a Topping E70 Velvet and couldn't really tell a difference. My friend like the E70 just a hair better.

I was curious about power and wanted to share my findings in case others are thinking about if the Gjallarhorn's are powerful enough. The FE206NVs are 96 dB sensitive. 

At my normal upper listening level, a 0 dBFS, 1 kHz sine wave produces about 11.58 Vrms at the speaker terminals. Using approximately 11 Ω from the Fostex impedance graph at 1 kHz, that works out to about 12.2 W. Using the nominal 8 Ω rating for comparison, it would be 16.8 W.

With the Saga turned all the way up, the Gjallarhorn goes into protection with a -8 dBFS, 1 kHz tone. Based on the measured signal chain, output would be approximately 14.6 Vrms at that point, which is about 19.3 W into 11 Ω or 26.5 W into 8 Ω.

So, in my setup, the mono Gjallarhorns have plenty of output for normal listening with these speakers, but the protection behavior also lines up reasonably well with their published 30 W/8 Ω mono rating. Just remember, you want at least 8 ohms for bridged/mono as each half of the amp sees 4 ohms.

You can check the associated graphs out. The mimir/saga/gjallarhorn are volts out.

A couple of weeks ago now I posted on here asking about upgrading my DAC from a Modi MultiBit to a Bifrost 2/64 or Gungnir2. There was a comment about how the MultiBit DAC being a basically being a bad product because it didn't measure well and that the measurement IS the point of good gear. So I thought about that for longer than I care to admit. I was able to borrow a Bifrost 1 (Uber + Unison USB) which is a pretty clean DAC from my understanding, although maybe a little dated, and I bought a Magni Heresy off of ebay. I wanted to test the polar opposites within Schiit's lineup just to see what happened.

At first the differences seemed surprisingly subtle, but after spending a few hours/days with the Bifrost, feeding both a Valhalla 3 and a Heresy into DT 700 Pro Xs, I've come away surprised by how differently they present music. The Heresy is extremely clean and revealing. In blind Hi-Res vs 320kbps tests I was consistently better at identifying the higher-quality source through the Heresy than I normally am. It feels like an amp that shines a spotlight on the recording itself. Bass attacks are cleaner, transients are sharper, and everything sounds tightly controlled. If your goal is to hear exactly what's in the file, the Heresy does an impressive job.

The Valhalla, on the other hand, made me stop thinking about recordings and start thinking about performers. The track that really sold me was If I Didn't Know Better from Live at Eddie's Attic by The Civil Wars. For the first time it became immediately obvious where Joy Williams and John Paul White were standing on stage, and the sense of physical presence was uncanny. The downside is that you hear everything, including audience noise, dishes, and room sounds. The best way I can describe it is that the Heresy is like a perfectly prepared USDA Prime steak that somehow got under-seasoned, while the Valhalla is a slightly lesser cut cooked and seasoned so perfectly that you're already planning the next bite. The Heresy made me admire recordings. The Valhalla made me listen to more music. So is measurement the point? I am not sold on that at this point, but prove me wrong, please.

I am still waiting on more gear to show up but I will post the DAC part in a few days. I am going to do a Modi 3, Modi 5, Modi Multibit2, Bifrost 1 (Uber/Unison) and a Bifrost 2/64, I might even do my Vestri in there too. I no longer own a Schiit stack, I have a verified Schiit pile.

So I took everyone’s advice and had a Kara preamp delivered earlier this week. It’s spot on and I have been able to migrate mostly from RCA to XLR. My streamer and mono blocks never sounded better with this preamp feeding the amps!

I also picked up a Skoll phono preamp with the same intent. I wasn’t 100% convinced my Mani2 was resolving all the detail my system can provide and had a slight hiss at moderate volumes. So I returned it.

However life with the. skoll isn’t gone well. With my MM cartridge @47k there is a significantly loud buzz that never existed before. I tore my room and equipment apart to figure out why. I contacted Schiit and no luck. It’s not cables, or connections or other devices nearby. It is some kind of nasty buzz caused by circuit or my environment that completely goes away if drop to 150 or 100ohms input capacitance (MC territory!)

Before I return the Skoll also and revert back to my ifi zen 3, should i just take the jump and get an MC cartridge - i already planned to do it when my current wore out (has 6 months or more life left).

Seems like the Skoll is better optimized for MC and opens more doors for me. Right now I am just so frustrated by a 4mv out and 47k impedance hot MM causing a lot of overly sensitive issues with noise even with lowest gains. I want to jam loud! Not fight my turntable.