Schiit Gumby - Gen 5 USB - Worth the upgrade?

rrwwss52 · February 22, 2018, 5:57pm

I have a Schiit Gungnir Multibit (Gumby). Curious if anyone on the board has done the Gen 5 USB upgrade, and their thoughts on whether or not the upgrade was noticeable enough to justify the upgrade cost? Thanks in advance.

—-Robert

DrTone · February 22, 2018, 6:23pm

It measures much better on jitter tests if that helps you.

rrwwss52 · February 22, 2018, 10:39pm

An audible difference a mere (old) human could detect?

Fernando_Pereira · February 23, 2018, 3:54am

I don’t know about Gumby. On Bimby, Gen 5 USB improves mid-to-high frequency range definition (especially transient edges) over original USB with a cheap USB source (Raspberry Pi 2). With a better source (microRendu+UpTone LPS-1) the difference was not as noticeable.

evand · February 24, 2018, 3:04am

and how’d it fare in the Yggy?

rrwwss52 · February 24, 2018, 3:44am

Long story, I’ll PM you.

Fernando_Pereira · February 24, 2018, 4:41am

Don’t know, My original Yggy is on a pure AES/EBU regime, its widely favored input, even by its designer.

allan · February 24, 2018, 5:08am

I thought the Gen 5 USB on Yggy basically brought USB on par with AES or BNC. After I got mine upgraded, I basically couldn’t tell the difference between the USB, AES, or BNC outputs from the same RPi3-based endpoint. If you’re already using USB, it’s definitely worth the upgrade. If you’re currently using some other input, it’s not going to make the USB better that what you’re already using. If anything, I have yet to find a USB endpoint that sounds better than the best of AES/SPDIF network bridges or DDCs. Even though I got the upgrade, I still prefer to feed my Yggy via AES or BNC.