Reviews for Gungnir
“We’re not really sure how to put this any more clearly than saying the Schiit Gungnir is the new King of Affordable DACs! There’s nothing that can give you all the features and sound quality of the Gungnir for the price.”
"I only had this DAC for a short time, with unrelated stressors affecting my experience, but I liked it very much. It is not a characterless DAC, but its character makes a genre's "imprint" clearer rather than showing off the sound of the Gungnir MB. ("Gumby"). I read that Schiit's Jason Stoddard prefers the Gumby to Schiit's twice the cost Yggdrasil. Reading that before hearing the Gumby (I've not heard the Yggdrasil) I thought the comment disingenuous. In my system, with the Pass noted above, the sound was rich, detailed and propulsive, but not propulsive in an unrelenting way. Older Naim products can sound unrelenting in the wrong system, for example. That's not what I mean here. I did not feel deprived of detail with the Gumby and it was certainly a good and perhaps exciting match with my ATC speakers. The Gumby and Prism Callia were meatier and tonally richer (saturated) than my LampizatOr Euforia and so a better match for my system. I really liked the sound and thought it no less than competitive with the other DACs, despite a lower price. Perhaps it performed better than the other DACs I mention here."
Review Coming
"This is my favourite thus far, and less for the price of admission of the likes of Bryston BDA-1 and NAD M51. Like half....
The Gungnir I would describe as "natural", "smooth", "organic" and "warm". And musical, of course. The main input used was optical, but I did try the USB as well, and it was actually hard to tell the difference. To me that indicates a very well implemented USB architecture.
You seriously can't go wrong with this DAC. It sounds better than DACs costing 2 to 2.5 times as much."
"Gungnir Multibit’s sonic signature is intriguingly different to any other DAC I have listened to, and it was initially quite a challenge to hear recordings, with which I thought I had intimate familiarity, presented in this way. Music emanates from a distant, inky black expanse, ebbs and flows with natural fluidity, and possesses an incredible smoothness and depth that is reminiscent of a high-end analogue system."
"Listening to Gungnir Multibit it is like being alone in the auditorium; there is nothing to distract your attention from the musical mastery unfolding before you, and you can sit a few rows back, relax and fully appreciate the intended scale, dimensionality and dynamism whilst still being completely immersed in the experience."
"While the single-ended circuits are excellent, trading up to balanced elevates the performance to exceptional - and I dare say peerless - in this price range."
"The Schiit is expansive, providing a rich and easy going aspect to the music. The sonics sound expensive, put it that way. In fact, as I proceeded to vary the musical genres, the Gungnir responded with a, ‘Hey, no problem!’. That is, any music you throw at it seems well within this DAC's capabilities. As such this is a DAC that you quickly learnt to trust. Percussion is weighty, hefty and massive in size. You really get your money’s worth with big bass drums while bass guitar drives the song along with gusto."
"...the multibit Gungnir could be Schiit’s sharpest value proposition to date. In the context of its sub-US$2K positioning, this DAC’s sound quality is like nothing else I’ve heard to date."
"The Gungnir’s talents with spaciousness echo a visit to a Planetarium. With imaging thrown wide and deep and with (seemingly) endless detail, music is drawn as a fresh new universe, ready for the listener to explore. The Schiit decoder is one of those products that’ll have you rediscovering your digital audio library anew for months, years even."
"I’d double DAR-KO award this piece of Schiit if I could – it’s that good."
"Sounds seem to arise from a broad expanse with spatial cues being projected both wide and deep. Imaging is top-notch but the slightly warm tone that this DAC imparts along with its lack of forthright transients places it slightly behind the much more expensive Schiit Yggdrasil and PS Audio Perfectwave II models in overall separation and resolution. This is a real testament to the Gungnir Multibit as it essentially able to compete with heavyweights many times its own price bracket."