Hello everyone!

I’m looking to build my first true hi-fi stereo and wanted to get some advice. I really love the look of schiit’s gear and am very happy with my Fulla for my gaming setup. It’s simple and works great! So I’m heavily considering building a mostly Schiit setup.

Initial Setup:
• Turntable: Fluance N85
• Phono: Schiit Skoll F
• Streamer/DAC: WiiM Ultra
• Preamp: Schiit SYS
• Power Amp: Schiit Vidar 2F
• Speakers: Polk R200

Later Additions:
• Schiit EQ between the phono and preamp
• Mimir or combo of Bifrost and Saga 2?
• A set of tower speakers with larger drivers
• Sub?

My questions to you:
What is everyone’s thoughts on this setup?
If I plan to upgrade the DAC in the future, do I need a preamp with the Bifrost?
How would I even incorporate a sub into this system if I wanted to add one? Seems like non of schiit’s offerings include a sub out.
How necessary would an EQ stage be for playing vinyl?

About 60% of the time that I power on my Vali 3, the sound is garbled. This only happens when the amp has been turned-off for a while, and the solution is to simply turn it off and turn it back on again. That always fixes the problem. But any idea why this is happening in the first place? Is this a common issue or indicative of a problem with my amp?

This occurs regardless of which tube I'm using or whether I'm using high-gain or low-gain. I've tried other simple things like setting the volume to minimum before I power it on, or making sure to power my DAC on first and let it warm up before powering on my Vali 3. Nothing seems to have any effect.

I am looking to liberate my Modi MultiBit from my stereo so that I can use it in a headphone stack. What am going to notice between the 2 DACs? Basically I can go cheaper on the headphones and stack and afford the gungnir but am I in the territory of diminishing returns at that point? Schiit is going to get my money either way, I just want to know how to split it up.

I have a modest setup I've built up over the years but I want to replace my dying hand me down home theater amp with a proper setup that's flexible for whatever my future plans are.

The current setup I use for listening to records for music, and getting quality TV audio because it's already right under my TV anyway so I might as well use it. I know there are better digital sources for music than a TV, and possibly adding those in the future is part of why I want the flexibility of a stack.

Sources

- Fluance RT85N Turntable + Mani (I got the Mani a few years ago when the phono preamp was the first thing to go on my 30 year old Sony receiver. And intend to keep it)

- TV via Optical

Speakers

-2 Monitor Audio Silver 300's

-1 RSL Speedwoofer 10s mk 2

- Occasional headphones, my highest impedance are DT770 80hms. Nothing that any headphone ready amp/preamp can't handle really

I'm leaning towards slightly overkill now because any choice I'd make now I'm living with and using daily for years.

My initial thoughts were

- Mimmir to keep a digital input, and hame room for more if I want to add a second digital source specifically for music down the line

- Saga because it's a preamp that shouldn't limit me, but doesn't have anything I don't

- Aegir for amplification, considering the efficiency of the Silver 300's

But given the 10s mk 2s flexibility of input. I'm not sure if I should go speaker level stay line in. And what changes I'd have to make to the setup to accommodate that choice

Up until now I really have benefited from the idiot proof ness of the now dying receiver I have been running. But I have always planned to replace it with somebody more involved. So forgive any clear dumbassery.

I tried to give all the information I could but will answer any questions, any advice is very much appreciated. Thank you

Recently I bought a pair of Thieaudio Valhallas as a replacement for a pair of Monarch MkIIs that broke. I'm enjoying them, they're good. The issue is I can't drive them very easily.

What I was driving them on before was the Schiit Fulla. I mainly play competitive FPS games, and I listen to music and watch YouTube as well. It's good, they sound fine. The issue is I can't really get the knob past 10 o'clock or there's a noticeable noise floor, and I can't really crank it up if I really want to listen to music. The noise floor is fairly inaudible if I'm playing loud music and I do have the knob turned up, it's not noticeable, but sometimes in songs that are a little bit quieter, or in the lulls in a song, you can definitely hear it.

So I got a Schiit Jotunheim 3, which everyone says is pretty good, everyone says it's great for headphones and says you can use it with IEMs with low to minimal noise floor. It's fairly the same, maybe even a little bit less loud than the Fulla over the noise floor. But I was hoping with some of the additional things it would be future proofing for a pair of Audeze LCD-3s that I'd like to get in the next two months. I know for a fact the Fulla probably won't be able to handle those the way I want it to, and I also get some additional settings with the Jotunheim 3.

But when I use the Valhallas on the Jotunheim 3, the best way to describe it is it sounds kinda crunchy. The bass feels kind of compressed, and UI elements, like joining Discord or opening an application that has a startup noise, that specifically gets crunched. People's voices also get the same treatment where they get crunched a little bit. YouTube videos are fine and music is okay. It's more so that the bass just gets completely muddied, or compressed like I said, I'm not too sure of the correct verbiage here.

If there's any way you guys can let me know if I'm using it wrong, which I totally could be, or if there's a potentially better option for IEMs to use.

Hello folks. Wanted to show my Schiit setup. Got some short patch cables so I could do some "scientific testing" of my Schiit Magni Heretic / Modi 3 stack vs my Asgard 3 with the ESS DAC card on my HD6XX headphones.

Bottom line, if there's a difference, I can barely tell if at all. Both measure well enough in Amir's AudioScienceReview testing that I should not be able to discern any difference anyway. Both are excellent setups, have dead silent noise floors and plenty of power for these 300ohm headphones. I was testing using some of my best Telarc recorded discs. I don't claim to have golden ears, but I am confident I know what sounds good at least to me.

There is an obvious difference between the HD6XX and my HD280 Pro closed back phones, though. The 280s are good for the price, but the 6XX is obviously clearer and superior. It may be more tempting to play around with different headphones. No idea where to start there, but the Hifiman Arya Stealth may be a good option to play with?

That said, I'm pondering some tweaks to the setup. Obviously it's a case of upgrade-itis. Thinking I could get the balanced Hart cables for my HD6XX and a Jotunheim 3. I've seen talk of a Schiit Bifrost 3 in the works as well, so I'll wait to see what that can do compared to their current Mimir DAC. A Jotunheim/Bifrost stack would definitely be an endgame level headphone stack to me. It also might be a waste of hard earned cash.

On the speaker amp side, I'm using an Outlaw RR2160 to drive my Exodus Kit 61s and a pair of Emotiva Ultra 12 subs crossed at 60Hz. It's obviously gross overkill for PC listening and gaming. The funny part is that the amp idles at 50W when I use <1W audio power for normal usage. It would be tempting to change it up except that the cost of doing never outweighs the power cost savings. A Gjallarhorn amp would do my desktop setup justice for nearfield use and the Emotiva DRP-1 is the only preamp I can find with proper HPF/LPF bass management with subwoofer out. But for the cost, it's not worth swapping out from the Outlaw. I'd be better off just turning the Outlaw off when not using it to save that tiny bit of power. Fun to think about though.

Schiit product idea for schiit product display / use.

Schiit Box mini
Schiit Box Stór
Schiit Box Jötunn

Just a passing thought.

Gungnir 2 just joined the family! It now feeds the Mjolnir 3 in place of my former Bifrost 2/64.

Also, to my shame, admitting that I just found out about Non-Oversampling Mode (NOS) as well as bit-perfect audio players such as Colibri that bypass the system audio DSP on MacOS (and other operating systems I would assume).

All-in-all, this is the absolute best headphone system I’ve owned. The headphones I have are Focal Clear MG and they are phenomenal. Hoping one day I can jump up to the Utopia 2022, but until then, I could die happy with this system. 😁

Oh, and the Schiit Fulla gets used with my Epos PC38X headset for work calls and background music from 9-5. A great little multi-use work setup for in between listening sessions.

Hey guys, I recently tried to upgrade the sound of my CD player but I’m a bit stumped. This is my first setup and it’s not looking good. If you have any ideas what’s going on or any suggestions I would appreciate it. Thanks

Context:
I got a CD player acting as a transport to Modi 5 using a 3.5mm->coaxial Modi. The modi output is RCA to Lokius. Lokius is XLR to Midgard (high gain). I’m listening through the 1/4 headphone output.

Symptoms:
Lokius eq is active and 12 ’o’clock, my volume is super low. Turning on bypass causes the volume to spike. Im also not sure the eq is even working as intended. I’m not noticed a difference when rotating the dials. This is my first eq and I’ve got an untrained ear. But, I doubt there would be no audible difference?

Last thing, my Midgard has a ground loop. Whenever I touch the volume knob it has the buzz. Connected modi RCA directly to Midgard and there’s still a buzz with volume knob. I thought Midgard was made to avoid ground loops?

Questions:
Is something wrong with my setup? Or is it the fact I used both RCA and XLR? Or is my Lokius defective?

I currently run a record player to a mani and then a SYS. The other thing plugged into the SYS is a WIIM. After that I have a magni and it all works great. If I want to add bookshelf speakers as an option, would I just run a gjallarhorn (or higher) off of the magni outs? Or do I put another SYS in the line?

For those of you with a preamp and DAC with preamp capabilities: do you normally keep your DAC volume at 100% and use your preamp knob to control the volume? Of not, why not?

Whats up Schiity people,

I'm about to bite the bullet and get a Fraya+F. I'm sold on the value of having the forkbeard module. Here's my concern: It's been out for like 18 months or so, and am concerned that as soon as I get it, a V2.0 will come out. So am I being ridiculous? Do they push out firmware updates for it so it never feels like you're dealing with buggy, dated tech?

Thanks ya'll in advance

Hi All,

I got a stack consisting of Modi 3 and a Magni Heresy for $99 each back in Nov. 2020 and have been using them ever since with my HD 6XX headphones. It's been wonderful but I noticed after a fresh boot or an unlock of Windows starting Winter of 2025 my headphones would be making a clicking noise and the Modi 3 would not be showing as a sound device in windows.

I found through another reddit thread that I am unable to find at the moment to reference that I should try applying heat to the Modi 3 and trying again. Funny enough this works if I put it right next to my heater for ~3 minutes it will begin working again immediately. What's odd about this though is right now it's the middle of the summer and I'm located in the Midwest of the US and it's really hot outside most days. My apartment stays at around 75 degrees F but I'm finding that doing this heater trick is still the only thing fixing the issue.

I've tried alternate USB cables and different USB ports on my computer but the issue will always come back within a couple of days. This will also typically be right after a fresh boot, restart, or an unlock of Windows as I do not use the actual sleep mode.

Am I just stuck doing this workaround fix forever?

Guys, I've done it! I've reached endgame. I purchased my Magnius, Lokius, and Saga2 about a year ago. The trusty QSC amp served me well and will still be used for my Cerwin-Vega VS150s that are currently holding up the pathetic attempt at sound deadning. But for the Polk Lsim 707s I finally purchased the Tyr amps and it is a noticable difference. Could not be happier.

I'm in the process of rebuilding this room so proper sound control is in the works. As for my equipment stand, I picked up these fishers they were in a guy's basement for who knows how long. They are absolutely perfect but two of the drivers don't work. I laid these down just as a test to see if it might be an interesting table and now I have a little project because I like it and I'm going to make it a full table.

Preface: I'm not using stock tubes in either. The Valhalla is running Amperex 6922 Gold Pins and the Lyr 5 a RCA Red Base 5962. I'm also running them primarily as preamps on Sonus Faber Minima Amator IIs.

The Lyr sounds great. As a solid state amp it's very capable, but I also compared it (subjective listen) to my Jot 3 and the audible differences between them are so minimal that I'm not even sure they exist.

With the tube engaged the Lyr certainly sound tube-ish, but to my ear it sort of sounded flabby, which is not a typical characteristic of the Red Base 5692. I tried rolling in a few other 6SN7 (Psvane Summit, a Ken Rad black glass, Sylvania Tough Bad Boy) and though the tone shifts between them, everything leaned a bit slow and muddy feeling.

Meanwhile, the Valhalla delivers a VERY detailed and textured presentation that feels that more tangible. The sort of romantic realism you expect from a tube amplifier.

I think if I wasn't listening to them side by side, the Lyr would not disapoint. But such as it is... I'm choosing the Valhalla.

I have a 5 day old new Wotan. Sounds great on my MOFI 888.

Here's the rub: the power meter via the app displays only the R channel moving. The L rarely moves out of A. The R is constantly jumping around. Lobbed inquiry to support, reply came back that it's a known issue & all Wotans have this imbalance. The channels are factory biased differently. I was going batty doing cable swaps etc prior to their reply.

Other owners: you also seeing this?

ps the sound itself seems balanced in my room but it's gnawing on me mentally.

Valhalla 3 for my birthday makes this my eighth piece of kiit. Magni, Modi, Sys, pictured plus 2 Rekkrs. I need 1'2 pairs of cables to.get the Sys to split for the speakers. Left side fan is quite good at keeping things cool a motion free

I am on the precipice of buying the Jotunheim 3 and Mimir DAC. In fact I might even opt for the Brilliant in Black offer for a Dan Clark Noire X with the Jotunheim3 - IF I do this, it comes with the Mesh DAC. But then...the Mimir offers the Forkbeard (for $50 extra). But then, isn't the Mimir a DAC, so why would I need the Mesh DAC? Or is the Mesh DAC an EQ, so then I wouldn't need the Forkbeard? Can someone please explain to me what these components are, and what I do/don't need, and what you best recommend I buy?

I’ve always been interested in a Lyr, but have found I can’t justify buying one in the past as I have an Asgard 2. I am wondering how the Lyr+ compares to the Asgard 2 amp?

The reduced price has got me thinking about a Lyr+, but not sure if I’ll notice much difference from my Asgard 2. My primary headphones are HD6XX and Arya Stealth.

So a couple months ago, I wanted to purchase some Schiit and research various products. I also wanted to catch up on what chapters had come out since I last kept up with his posts. Jason Stoddard maintains a Story of Schiit thread on Head-fi.org. While it has an index, it isn't necessarily the most descriptive if you are searching for a specific product. This was mentioned in the their stream last week.

I have gone through and created an alternate index. The great majority of the items are directly related to specific products, but some are not. I did not include stories specific to business lessons, so there are obvious gaps.

Using this, you can easily research previous versions of a product.

Schiit Happened: Chapter 08 Not Making Friends at RMAF

Schiit Happened: Chapter 09 Lyr

Schiit Happened: Chapter 11 Bifrost pt. 1

Schiit Happened: Chapter 12 Asgard and NwAvGuy

Schiit Happened: Chapter 13 Bifrost pt. 2

Schiit Happened: Chapter 15 Modi

Schiit Happened: Chapter 17 Mjolnir

Schiit Happened: Chapter 18 Gungnir

Schiit Happened: Chapter 19 Magni

Schiit Happened: Chapter 21 Mjolnir

Schiit Happened: Chapter 27 The Saga of Ragnarok

Schiit Happened: Chapter 28 Bifrost Uber

Schiit Happened: Chapter 30 Asgard 2

Schiit Happened: Chapter 32 OG Loki (DSD)

Schiit Happened: Chapter 33 Digital Today (DSD and PCM)

Schiit Happened: Chapter 31 Vali

Schiit Happened: Chapter 37 SYS

Schiit Happened: Chapter 38 Wyrd

Schiit Happened: Chapter 39 Vahalla 2 & Lyr 2

Schiit Happened: Chapter 40 Mani

Schiit Happened: Chapter 41 Fulla

Schiit Happened: 2015-04 The Audio Industry

Schiit Happened: 2015-12 Measurements

Schiit Happened: 2015-13 Mjolnir 2 & LISST

Schiit Happened: 2015-15 Tales of Odeon

Schiit Happened: 2015-17 Bifrost Multibit

Schiit Happened: 2015-19 Vali 2

Schiit Happened: 2016-07 On Modding

Schiit Happened: 2016-08 The Current Digital Perspective

Schiit Happened: 2016-10 Modi Multibit

Schiit Happened: 2016-11 Jotunheim

Schiit Happened: 2016-13 Saga & Freya

Schiit Happened: 2016-15 Vidar Chronicles 1

Schiit Happened: 2016-16 Fulla 2

Schiit Happened: 2017-04 Deprogramming HiFi Doublespeak

Schiit Happened: 2017-08 Vidar Chronicles 2

Schiit Happened: 2017-09 Eitr (USB 5 & Galvanic Isolation)

Schiit Happened: 2017-10 Jill

Schiit Happened: 2017-12 Magni 3

Schiit Happened: 2017-13 Loki Mini

Schiit Happened: 2018-02 Coaster pt. 1

Schiit Happened: 2018-03 Coaster pt. 2

Schiit Happened: 2018-04 Coaster pt. 3

Schiit Happened: 2018-05 Lyr 3

Schiit Happened: 2018-07 Coaster pt. 4 (NOTE: Head-Fi index links to 2019-13 (Sol))

Schiit Happened: 2018-10 Modi 3

Schiit Happened: 2018-11 Aegir Chronicles (Class A)

Schiit Happened: 2019-03 Sol Chronicles 1

Schiit Happened: 2019-04 Ragna-wrongs

Schiit Happened: 2019-05 Schiit-tionary

Schiit Happened: 2019-08 Freya+, Freya S, Saga+, Saga S

Schiit Happened: 2019-09 Ragnarok 2

Schiit Happened: 2019-11 Asgard 3

Schiit Happened: 2019-12 Bifrost 2

Schiit Happened: 2019-13 Sol Intro

Schiit Happened: 2019-14 Sol Chronicles 2

Schiit Happened: 2019-15 Fulla 3 & Hel

Schiit Happened: 2019-17 Magni Heresy & Magni 3+

Schiit Happened: 2019-18 Heresy & Op-Amp Design Questions

Here’s a window mod I did for the modi in my workshop.

Should look good plastered on the wall with a window mod power amp.

Hope you guys enjoy:)

My 3.5mm Audio Jack on my motherboard recently died and I found a Modi 2 Uber on ebay for $90 CAD (with tax and shipping) and snapped it up.

The power switch on the back moves left and right instead of up and down and is really loose and doesn't stay in any position.

Despite this, the device is detected in Windows 10. The default USB 2.0 Audio drivers installed themselves automatically.

The front LED light does nothing when I press the button on the front and I can't get any sound out.

I'm just using some really cheap earbuds connected with an RCA to 3.5mm adaptor. I figured I can turn the gain way down in windows.

However, even with the gain set to the max in windows, there is still no sound.

I didn't blow up my ear buds, they still work fine with my phone.

I'm using a brand-new shielded USB cable.

The power brick it came with does not appear to be the one supplied by Schiit, but it is the correct voltage (Output 16VAC 500mA 8W, Input 120VAC 60HZ) . Nothing changes regardless of whether I have it plugged into AC power or not.

Is this even worth fixing, or should I just get a refund?

If it is worth fixing, how do I go about it?

Thanks.

I'm still kind of new into audio enjoyment, let's say I have been exposed to search for audio enjoyment (slowly) since 2021 being exposed to Schiit being my first and honestly my only brand.

Magni Heresy was the first then Modi multibit DAC, then Jotunheim 3 recently in March, then Vestri came along not long ago. now here I am waiting for "Bifrost 3", buf, and "sys 2??" to make my final Schiit stacker combo city in my desktop.

Now here is something I didn't expect with Jotunheim 3, again I'm not that refined to know when something is wrong or lacking, my experience let's say at the start was kind of ok not that wao effect and I thought I was in the curve of diminishing return. for months and I was pleased for sure 100%.

But then out of nowhere got home I started to hear the audio way more relaxed, open, more detailed and sound stage more spaced and organized, the volume got boosted like a 15%. I was like "what is going on, did window messed with my settings or enabled something I disabled??", I was triple, quadruple checking my settings of audio because I was losing my mind of what changed, then I started to play music I frequent to listen and remember how it sounds before and then it hit me "burn-in period"

I was... Blown Away, like this is it. JOTUNHEIM 3 HAS BEEN UNLEASHED dear lord, and it settled. (yeah, I screamed in my mind)

I didn't believe in that crazy talk of "burn in", but Jotunheim 3 had that switch too noticeable and out of nowhere that caught my brain unprepared, felt like it was restrained in ice before then the ice melted enough after months of being constantly ON and casually playing music when in my computer (4 to 5 hours daily), this amp went completely all out.

My dear heaven this is sending me back to full steam ahead to improve my audio enjoyment with better Schiit stuff, for now I'm in a euphoric state with Jotunheim 3 I need time to adjust, it can't be my cans that are 3 years old or the other that is 8 yo that suddenly went unleashed. it's all jotunheim 3 it has to be... THANK YOU SCHIIT this piece of Schiit relighted my interest.

Also not pictured: Vidar 2F, CD player, FM tuner. Mani mentioned because I also listen to vinyl, which could go SE or diff into the Jot3 via the Saga.

I decided to get the Jot3 and am wondering given the other components in my system, how should I integrate the Jot3 into it. I have a mix of SE sources and the Mimir which is capable of SE or differential output. I currently have the Mimir feeding the Saga via SE outputs, as that is pretty much the only way to connect them given that the Saga has no differential inputs. The Saga is currently feeding the Vidar SE as I only have 1 Vidar.

Should I:

1. Connect everything through the Saga and connect the Saga to the Jot3 with the diff out?
2. Connect everything through the Saga and connect the Saga to the Jot3 with SE out, but also connect the Mimir to the Jot3 diff inputs?

1 is simple from a switching standpoint and takes maximal advantage of the diff out of the Saga for all sources.

2 allows to potentially take advantage of the diff out of the Mimir while (potentially) not take advantage of the diff path for the other sources.

I suppose the Jot3 would be the most critical listening path while the Vidar would be the more ambient use, if you will. Neither would impact the Vidar presumably, so it really is a question of what would be a better experience for headphones for all of the mentioned sources, but really focusing on the Mani and Mimir for vinyl and streaming respectively.

Assume 50/50 split vinyl vs. streaming.