I think my Schiit Stack has Schiit the bed

[WhiteNoise]

Interesting. Would have thought a tube guy would not prefer Sabre chip.

Well, I do for my electrostatic setup. My main DAC for my tube amps is an MHDT Labs Pagoda (PCM1704 R-2R ) which I think is the best sounding chip out there for tube and analogue lovers.

But I wanted a dedicated DAC for my electrostatic system and after trying a few DACs out I found that I love the DAC-2 by Wyred4Sound.

For some reason, I seem to prefer solid-state with my STAX and Koss headphones. Though I normally gravitate towards tubes I have to admit SS and STAX is a solid combo. I own a Tubed Stax amp too but stopped using it once I purchased the Mjolnir Audio amp.


This is my STAX headphone stack. It's fantastic!




This is the Pogoda. The best DAC I have owned to date. It feeds three tube amps (two headphone amps and one speaker amp)

 

[Muadib]

Ok you win. A Stax setup is my endgame, and I'm no where near that level.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

lol that's some heavy duty gear. I'm thinking about a Benchmark DAC3, but not a priority right now.

 

[WhiteNoise]

Ok you win. A Stax setup is my endgame, and I'm no where near that level.

TBH I wish I would have tried STAX years ago. I could have saved myself a lot of money. I was floored the first time I listened to my L700mkII headphones. I'm telling you straight up, best damn headphones I have ever heard. I also own a pair of the Koss 95/x and I use them daily. Not the same league as my Stax but a good all-rounder once I put some custom pads on it and bought an adapter so it can work with the Mjolnir and Stax amps I own.

I recently sold a few headphones and amps because I'm so in love with the Stax sound.

 

[WhiteNoise]

lol that's some heavy duty gear. I'm thinking about a Benchmark DAC3, but not a priority right now.

I've played with the Benchmark DAC2 (loaned to me) and really thought long and hard about buying it. That is a great DAC for sure. Back then I was looking for a new DAC and tested several. The Benchmark was near the top of my list but ultimately I chose another DAC. If I ever see a good price on one in the used market I will happily pick it up.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Magni Modi 2 stack hooked up to my PC suddenly stopped working. It was giving me issues for a while where if I turned off my PC or restart, I would not get my PC to see the "USB" device which was my DAC. Somehow, unplugging it and randomly trying other USB ports worked a few times, but now this little trick stopped working.

I have confirmed the cable is good that I'm using, and I also tried another cable (from my printer) and I also tried every USB port, and confirmed said ports do still work. I emailed customer service and they said to try and run it in Linux or another OS to verify it's not a drivers issue. I have the latest drivers/updates for Win10, so I'm not sure if an update has made a connection issue or what.

Is the Modi toast or is this a likely software issue? What else should I do before I decide to just ditch it?

Looks to me as if you are up Schiit`s creek...….

 

[aigomorla]

ugh... i can drop 1300 dollars on a video card, but i still have problems dropping 1300 dollars on audiophile stuff, because i know at least with a 1300 video card, thats the end, but 1300 dollars on audiophile stuff is just walking though the front door.

 

[shortylickens]

ugh... i can drop 1300 dollars on a video card, but i still have problems dropping 1300 dollars on audiophile stuff, because i know at least with a 1300 video card, thats the end, but 1300 dollars on audiophile stuff is just walking though the front door.

You can get a 200 dollar proper home theater setup and its a heck of a lot better than TV speakers. But anything more and I am of the opinion you should have an actual home theater (which I still plan to do some day).