THE ORRONOCO AUDIO DIY

In this post, I will going to disassembly the original Schiit Bifrost to see what components inside. The unit that I got here is a broken unit. I was told from the seller that the unit is broken during courier delivery which the power transformer is pulled out from the main board. So I bought it for cheap then I repair it while checking the components inside. Previously I was disassembly the Schiit Bifrost 2 which are promoted as a multibit DAC. It use dual 18 bit AD5781 DAC from Analog Device which is so much different with the first original Bifrost here using 32 bit AKM AK4399EQ Delta Sigma DAC. The similarity between the original Bifrost and the Bifrost 2 DAC is both utilized the modular design, separate between the main board and the daughter boards on top of it. Let's get started.

Although I am a DAC builder, I strongly not recommend anyone who are love to hear the music with their equipment trying to heat up their soldering iron and start to build one. Because making a working DAC is simple but making a good sound quality DAC is far difficult than you might think. Thankfully, without any trouble to built a vintage multibit DAC for your own, Schiit audio already make a DAC named Bifrost 2. It is considerably an affordable modern multibit DAC that having the sound signature of the vintage multibit DAC. It sound pretty good indeed. I have review it and compare to my DAC built  here  and I wish you visit it again. So in this post, let's see what components that Schiit audio use on their Bifrost 2 DAC.

In the past 2 years, I was focus on the vintage multibit DAC (Digital to Analog Converter). I think all popular vintage multibit DAC IC has been use in my DAC project built. Those built are various in many different approach for each DAC section, solely to find what is the best variation among them. I really like the sound characteristic coming from the vintage multibit DAC. For the example a complete audio system can be optimized in the sound quality by using a better source (media player). This what I found when I was a kid playing around making my own amplifier and speakers but when the same setups are using, and then I only changed the source from cassette tape to CD player, the sound quality was improving so much. The reason was because of the CD player specification are far superior than cassette tape. That finding was shocking me and then I keep continue to do the audition from many kind CD player that they are actually sound different one to another. Lately I was aware that the...

Few month ago, I post my DAC project called "the secret" DAC and the first project is post in  here . The term of "secret" is actually the components are hidden inside the copper shield, so it cannot be seen from the outside. It is not only for aesthetic layout but the copper shield helps the DAC inside to immune to any noise interfere. The second project is post in  here . This is a fully remake DAC, using the same chassis but the components inside are all changed. This is because most of my friends that become the reviewer of this DAC doesn't really like the sound from the first one. The second version of this DAC is become a better sounding DAC than the first one and I think I better reveal what inside those secret DAC.

From my previous DAC project, I was working on my non-oversampling PCM1704 DAC using the Zen IV. It is a pair of 2SK170 and 2SJ74 JFET transistor per channel as a DAC IV converter. It is a good sounding DAC but still, in my opinion, DAC using vacuum tube at the output give more life to the music. In contrast, if compare to the super accuracy of the op-amps or the neutral sound of the Zen IV, I prefer this PCM1704 DAC using vacuum tube at the output. It make the sound beautiful. This PCM1704 DAC built  here  is using resistors as the IV converter. Then the vacuum tube multiple the gain output up to 10 times, so the voltage output are around 2 volt. It is sound great and lots of potential to upgrade the components inside especially for the IV resistor and the capacitors output.

I take a break from my home audio for awhile and look what I got here. The Audio Art 100MS car amplifier. This is a sound quality car amplifier that very famous in early 90's along with others brand such as Monolithic amplifier, Linear Audio, Soundstream, A/D/S and many more. Perhaps you never heard this name yet, but we are that growth in the era of 80's and 90's are praised with this amplifier above all the major brand like Sony, Alpine or Pioneer. So let's take a look in detail.

This op-amps comparison topic is actually boring, but at the same time, many of us still curious about what others think about it. The reason is simply because of the op-amps variation are hundreds and they are depends by the implementation. The op-amps are considerably cheap and an interchangeable electronic components but they are not built for the same function. So in this discussion, I will focus on the modern Vs. vintage high performance op-amps in the simple non-inverting pre-amplifier gain stage.