Mimby (or Bimby) with 176.4 and 192 kHz

Audio Gear Talk
1

I decided to order a Modi Multibit (Mimby) for my desktop setup and have a question if anyone with the Modi or Bifrost Multibit are down-sampling higher than 96 khz rates for the Mimby or Bimby to employ the Schiit proprietary “comboburrito” filter?

I will of course try and listen if I can detect a difference, but it would be interesting to see if others with any of these DACs down-sample or even up-sample lower rates to 176.4 or 192 to avoid the filter?

2

I do not down sample when using the mimby. I let the native files > 96kHz play. They sound just fine. In fact, it is basically a NOS mode for those files, no oversampling or DAC filters at all. Some people really like the sound of NOS DACs.

3

Thanks for your input @Rugby, I look forward to testing both options with Roon when the Mimby arrives later this week!

4

I definitely did when I auditioned the Mimby. This was ages ago and I didn’t end up keeping it, so I don’t really have any adjectives on hand, but I did find it was possible to coax slightly different sound signatures using various HQPlayer filters at 192.

5

Both the Modi and Bifrost Multibit employ a 4x digital filter; it’s a slightly less sophisticated filter than the one used in the Gungnir (Multibit) and Yggdrasil. What this means for your music is:

  • sample rates of 176.4kHz and 192kHz pass straight through the ‘comboburrito’ filter untouched, and into the Analog Devices DAC.

  • sample rates of 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz and 96kHz are upsampled to either 176.4kHz or 192kHz using the closed-form comboburrito filter, preserving all the original samples in the process. The filters that are built into most off-the-shelf DAC chips typically discard the original samples during this process.

If you down-sample files with rates of 176.4kHz and 192kHz using Roon, that process will also discard the original samples. The Schiit ‘multibit’ products are all about preserving the original samples.

6

My advice is: only downsample for compatibility.

You could try upsampling with Roon but that defeats the reasons for buying a DAC with the “comboburrito” filter. Maybe you’ll prefer the sound of Roon’s upsampling over Schiit’s who knows, only you can make that determination.

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