Digital Drive: REVIEW: Schiit Audio Bifrost w/SPDIF DAC Processors by Tubeham

Model:	Bifrost w/SPDIF
Category:	DAC Processors
Suggested Retail Price:	$350
Description:	Bifrost DAC with only SPDIF and Toslink input
Manufacturer URL:	Schiit Audio

Review by Tubeham on February 16, 2012 at 10:23:17
IP Address: 71.81.137.176 Add Your Review
for the Bifrost w/SPDIF

First, let me make clear that I am not a DAC guy. I've been unhappy with digital music and CD sound since it's inception in the early 1980s. I own 1200 vinyl LPs and around 500 CDs. I listen to digital music because I have to. New music comes largely in digital format and thus I still buy CDs.

Over the years, I've often gone through periods where I abandon my CD player for months at a time. At the same time, I find vinyl inconvenient and don't enjoy the maintenance it requires. Some people get into the process of properly aligning a cartridge but I find it to be a real chore. As for the sound of digital music, it's generally awful. I won't bore you with adjectives describing the inadequacies of digital sound because so many others have done a fine job with that. Digital usually doesn't sound like live music played by real people. Period.

DACs never made sense to me until recently. The advent of easy and affordable computer audio is the breakthrough. Many reviewers started writing around 2005 that CD players were obsolete. Well, they weren't, as proven by continued sales of high end CD players. To me, it never sense to add a DAC to a good CD player. Why not just buy and use a great CD player? Why bother with an extra box?

My change came when I bought a Musical Fidelity A1 amplifier that included a built in USB dac. I experimented with FLAC files and found that some aspects of the sound were superior to my Rega Apollo CD player. Overall, the Rega was more coherent and listenable but the Musical Fidelity had superior bass and detail. The bass was so good I wanted more. I also learned Media Monkey to the point where the sheer convenience of computer audio became apparent.

I then borrowed two popular mainstream DACs: the Benchmark and the Cambridge DACMagic. Both were disappointments but, like the Musical Fidelity, they showed some attributes worth pursuing. Scanning the digital world, I began to read about NOS Dacs and eventually purchased a Chinese Muse NOS DAC that uses 4 TDA1543 chips, all for $65. That little box was a revelation. While deeply flawed at the frequency extremes, the midrange of the MUSE TDA1563 was the best I've ever heard from digital. The Muse midrange resembles that obtainable from a mid-priced (say $1000) turntable/cartridge combination. At last, it appeared as if it was actually was possible for digital to match vinyl at a reasonable price (I once heard a $60,000 system at a dealer, with DCS DAC and Wilson speakers, that did sound like vinyl).

I initially assumed I'd have to move up the NOS DAC food chain, purchasing, say, an Audio Note or Teradak Chameleon. This would make me part of the weird, quirky, NOS DAC world and potentially have me shunned on audio forums. I then noticed, on mutliple forum threads, references to AKM Dac chips. These references were by NOS Dac fans who were pleased by the sound of AKM dac chips. I had never heard of the AKM company, but apparently that are as big a player as Crystal, Wolfson, etc. Their chips have some differences, and appear to be a different animal than either current delta-sigma chips or the older NOS R2R chips. From what I can discern, AKM chips don't oversample in the normal way (they use "analog summing" instead) and, at least some them have no digital filter. To me, it was never clear exactly why NOS DAC chips sound so good, but I always suspected that it wasn't the lack of oversampling per se but rather the lack of a digital filter.

Enter the Schiit Bifrost. Brand new 32 bit AKM dac chip that apparently does oversample but in a different way, with no digital filter. A lot of pre-release hype. I got on their website and found out they were shipping the SPDIF version with only a two week wait. On mutliple online forums, Schiit had intimated that they thought the USB interface wasn't as good as the SPDIF/Toslink. I ordered the SPDIF version for $350 and received it in 6 days. It arrived well packaged, with a reasonable shipping charge. Very nice build quality. A simple, easy to use, classy looking device.

I burned the Bifrost in for 100 hours with pink noise and proceeded to listen. In a word: wow. This DAC sounds like music. It does nothing wrong and has a superb, balanced midrange. The music flows and it's highly detailed without forcing the detail upon you. Vocals are simply delightful. The treble is clear and extended. The bass is excellent, accurate and tight.

The Bifrost is a stunning little device, self-contained and confident. The music flows properly, has excellent PRAT, and gently hangs and decays the way it should.

The Bifrost passes the most important test to me: I want to listen to it. My experience with digital devices has been I often have to force myself to listen to them. The Bifrost makes music fun again. You can listen casually and enjoy it or you can sit down and focus and be satisfied.

I ran the Bifrost through my standard dozen test CDs, which include a combination of superbly recorded classical (Reference Recordings mostly), movie soundtracks (Gladiator, Titanic) and female vocalist jazz/rock (great music, poor recordings). The good classical recordings were an emotional experience, akin to vinyl. The Bifrost can do both extreme dynamics and subtle hall ambience. With movie soundstracks, the Bifrost demonstrated the one attribute of digital that vinyl can rarely match: superb, powerful bass control during complex passages. In my opinion, it takes a really good turntable and superb cartridge to handle, complex, dynamic, deep bass. The first track of the movie sound Gladiator is a good torture test. It's fun music, and can embarrass many audio devices. I've had mutliple CD players, DACs, and amplifiers simply fail to reproduce this passage. The Bifrost played it beautifully, never losing track and never suppressing detail or clipping the sound.

One of the most pleasant surprises with the Bifrost was with poorly recorded CDs from the 1980s and early 1990s. It was forgiving without masking any issues. When detail is missing it doesn't try to create it. It does, however, reduce the upper midrange glare that many female vocalist recordings from that era seem to suffer from (Anita Baker, Tracy Chapman, Sinead OConnor) without eliminating the essential beauty of their voices. With poorly recorded CDs, the Bifrost gently brings the music out, reduces the digital nasties, and still let's you know that the guy who produced the album isn't about to win a Grammy.

I've had the Bifrost for ten weeks and continue to listen to it daily. I've only played 16/44 material on it and have not tested it's high rez capabilities. It's my understanding that the Bifrost only plays material in it's native format and resolution, which I find refreshing.

I have tested it with multiple transports and found no signficiant differences in the sound (Rega Apollo, Sony Vaio with Musical Fidelity V-Link/Media Monkey, Sony Blu Ray player, Pioneer DVD player, $29 Magnavox DVD player). I'm not sure what conclusion to draw from the fact that all the transports sound the same.

I also directly compared the coaxial and Toslink digital inputs on the Bifrost. Strangely, I developed a slight preference for Toslink input. This could easily be my imagination at work. The Toslink seemed a little gentler and realistic. The cables used were a Wireworld coaxial and a Siltech glass Toslink.

The Bifrost also showed surprising consistency between different types of amplifiers. I initially played it on my Class A digital Musical Fidelity integrated. I then switched to my goofy little Dayton Audio DTA digital amplifier. The Dayton is a little spitfire, with exceptional, Naim quality PRAT, tube like tonality, and no soundstage depth. The Dayton and the Bifrost got along famously, especially with rock music. The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead were delightful.

I was initially concerned that connecting the Bifrost to my restored vintage Harmon Kardon A50 tube amp would be too much of a good thing. This didn't prove to be the case. The midrange retained it's accuracy without excessive bloom. The bass improved marvelously on several pieces of music, with the Bifrost tightening up the slightly loose bass performance of the Harmon Kardon. The treble was especially nice, revealing the real truth about tube amplification: it ain't just the midrange that's great with tubes, it's the treble too.

Two weeks ago I took the Bifrost on a visit to Chicago to play it in a Naim/Proac system owned by a family member. We did 3 hours of great classical recordings, doing comparsions between the Bifrost and a Naim CD5x CD player. The rest of the system was a Supernait amplifier, Naim cables, and Proac Future 2 speakers.
Comparing RCA output equipment on Naim equipment is risky business because Naim uses proprietary DIN connections and they do make a difference. The Bifrost generally matched the Naim 5CDx performance in most areas and clearly bettered it in the area of tonality. At the end of the evening, the owner of the Naim system asked me to leave the Bifrost with him for a couple of months, reminding me that he contributed financially to my college education.

I feel it's important to note that the Bifrost isn't hifi. It's doesn't startle or impress you immediately. Rather, it's a device that impresses you over time, gently, with it's accuracy, tonality, and pace. It's an easy piece of equipment to live with and enjoy.

Four weeks ago I sold my Rega Apollo, on Audiogon, to a nice guy from Vermont. He has an all Rega system and the Apollo should complement it nicely.

This DAC is crazy good for $350. It just sounds like music. You want to listen to it. It sounds like the $10,000 British DAC I heard last year. It has none of the digital nasties other DACs are known for. It reminds me of the NAD 3020 or LS3/5a: a reasonably priced piece of audio equipment that doesn't leave you craving more. The Bifrost consistently performs with different types of amplifiers and different digital transports. For the first time in years, I'm playing more digital tracks than vinyl.

Product Weakness:	None
Product Strengths:	Musicality, accuracy, balance, tonality, wide compatability

Associated Equipment for this Review:

Amplifier: Musical Fidelity A1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): None
Sources (CDP/Turntable): Rega Apollo, Naim CD5x
Speakers: Audio Note AX2, Shahinian Compass
Cables/Interconnects: Rega Couple, Triangle TC2250
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Classical/Rock/Female Vocals
Room Size (LxWxH): 15 x 13 x 10
Time Period/Length of Audition: 10 weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Quietline
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner

Amplifier:	Musical Fidelity A1
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	None
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Rega Apollo, Naim CD5x
Speakers:	Audio Note AX2, Shahinian Compass
Cables/Interconnects:	Rega Couple, Triangle TC2250
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Classical/Rock/Female Vocals
Room Size (LxWxH):	15 x 13 x 10
Time Period/Length of Audition:	10 weeks
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	Quietline
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner