They aren’t too expensive, in the world of audiophile cables. I just don’t want to start spending significant money on USB C cables yet.
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Just did the USB C vs coax from DDC test on MM2. Very similar to BF2. Slight improvement, but nothing drastic. USB implementation is solid.
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So I received the MB2/Piety yesterday as part of the loaner tour. I got some listening in last night after letting in acclimatize, and several hours today having left both items powered on overnight.
I’m really impressed with the Modi MultiBit 2. It’s a smooth, “musical” little DAC that doesn’t stand out in any one aspect, but does everything well in a natural, and pleasant manner.
I agree with @elementze in that it’s very similar to the OG Bifrost 2 (going off of memory). I haven’t heard the 2/64, but I imagine that the MB2 would be a good alternative for those that found the 2/64 somewhat harsh or forward.
I would say that the MB2 slightly rolls off at both ends, lacking a touch of sub bass, with a similar roll-off of the highs. It’s very subtle, but noticeable when compared to something like a Chord DAC.
When paired with my Inverting O2 the sound is very smooth, allowing for some fun music listening. This is an excellent little pair for ‘rocking out’. I forget I’m “analyzing” gear and instead just let the tunes play, going from track to track, bobbing my head and tapping my foot to the beat. Even ripping some gnarly air-guitar riffs from time to time!
The O2 is designed with harmonics such as those found in tube amps, so it has some ‘sweetness’ to it. Gotta love the right kind of distortion.
The soundstage is appropriate in size to the recording with a decent amount of separation to instruments and vocals, remaining coherent with an appropriate level of detail.
If I had to put a number, I’d say this gets you at least 80% of what an OG BF2 gets you in a SE only version.
The Unison work’s excellently as it does with any Schiit DAC I’ve used that had it implemented.
The Nische Piety is interesting. It has some sweetness to it, but it’s just a little too forward in the upper mids for my preferences. It’s more of a junior Jotenheim, where my preferences lean towards the Asgard (smoother, warmer as my preference vs. detail/resolution).
Listening to Rhinoceros off of Gish as I write this, and the guitars just sounds so right. Liquid, and with transients that just flow as they should. Billy Corgan’s vocals hanging in just the right place, never becoming overbearing.
The best summation for this pairing (MB2/Inverting O2) is smooth and coherent.
My main setup is a Chord Qutest with an LTA MZ3, which I love. That’s holographic and at times ‘hyper-real’, which can sound artificial, where this more humble setup is more akin to a vinyl-like smoothness. It’s very “musical” and allows you to just enjoy your tunes. The Qutest/MZ3 is a little too revealing in comparison and limits what I’ll listen to at times. This is just fun.
I’m enjoying the MB2 more so than I did the BF2 which id kind of funny. I’m also enjoying the MB2 enough that it’s making me wonder about the new Yggdrasil + with an OG card…
If you’re curious about Schiit MultiBit DACs I recommend trying out the Modi MB2. It’s the best entry level DAC that I’ve heard (the previous was the Schiit Modius AKM), and it’s a steal at $299, imo.
I don’t feel bad that I missed out on the Piety, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to try it.
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Did you notice any difference in forwardness between low gain and high gain? I thought I noticed high gain being more forward than low gain.
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I haven’t tried high gain yet, but I imagine it would be more pronounced.
I went back to my O2 after about 45 minutes. 
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I tried the NOS mode earlier this evening. It’s less focused and softer than with the MegaComboBurrito filter. My preference is for the the filter, or Oversampling enabled.
I’m really digging this little Modi. I may have to pick one up.
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Sadly my time with the Modi MultiBit has come to an end. It’s been shipped to the next participant of the tour.
I really enjoyed my time with the MM2, enough so that it’s a DAC I’d strongly consider as a secondary table side setup.
It’s fun and smooth while still offering a good level of technicalities such as resolution and staging. Paired with the right amp (in my case it was an Inverting O2) it gives a very easygoing, toe-tapping, rockin’ out experience. It doesn’t measure very well, but IMO that’s what lends to its ‘sweet’ sound.
My guess is that it would be a solid pairing with a Vali+ as the third order harmonics of my Inverting O2 yielded a ‘sweet’ to my ears sound.
It’s my new favorite entry-level/budget DAC.
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Next stop on the Modi Multibit 2 tour is my house!
I’ve only gotten one day of listening on the MM2, but the first chain I tried it on was swapping out the Exogal in my Quicksilver chain and the differences are pretty noticeable even with a short listen.
The MM2 sounds to me like it’s noticeably emphasizing the mid-bass, giving it a kind of punchy/slammy quality, and it’s generally on the warm and thick side of things. The punchiness was maybe a little much for me since the chain that I’d slotted it into wasn’t built around that kind of sound, but as ValentineLuke mentioned, it’s pretty great for rocking out, lol.
It’s obviously not as detailed or immersive as the Exogal that it replaced, but there’s definitely something about the specific way in which the MM2 is soft that sounds quite pleasing.
In that sense, I think the MM2 is probably super-well positioned in the low-end market, since probably a lot of the entry-level amps people are buying these days both won’t have quite enough oomph and will likely have some amount of harshness to them: both things that the MM2’s characteristics should help alleviate.
I unfortunately haven’t heard too much else around this price point, so I don’t know how it compares to say, a similarly-priced Geshelli J2 or something like that, but on it’s own merits, I’d already feel super-comfortable recommending the Modi Multibit 2 for it’s $300 asking price.
Build-wise is exactly what you’d expect from Schiit’s other entry-level products: the wall wart is very large, but the chassis itself is very small, and the size-to-quality ratio I think is a big selling point for potentially just throwing this at whatever tertiary systems you might have around the house. Like, I have some speakers in the living room and the MM2 could easily fit under my TV, for example. The USB input is USB-C, which is probably great for most non-audiophiles, but it means that I don’t have a nice USB cable to throw at it.
Also, um, the Piety is mine. It’s kinda funny that as part of the tour, I’m getting my own amp back before sending it out again, but who knows: I’ll probably give it another listen this week too and see if how I feel about it has changed at all.
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If it helps anyone, I have a J2 (AKM version 1). It is more detailed than the other dacs I have heard in this price bracket. A little dry and sometimes a little bass light, occasionally it can feel a little brittle. Imaging and staging is what you would expect from the price point. I keep it as a nice cheap counterpoint to the Bifrost as it can give me something the BF2 can sometimes lack in music that wants more air and delicacy.
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Geshelli is one of those brands that I’d like to hear. I’m always rooting for the ‘little guy’, and Geno and Shelly seem like genuinely kind people.
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So I’ve had a MM2 in after seeing some of the stuff on here, I can agree it’s really great for the price, would say almost one of the best 300 buck new dac I’ve heard (that’s still currently produced at least) in some aspects, but I’m mixed on it and aren’t fully sure of that statement.
The main problem: it’s still got some of the compression issues of the past, but in different places. Like stage and presentation feels a bit compressed compared to something like a bf2 which is somewhat offputting, presentation overall seems more forward than it should be which likely contributes to the general sense of spatial compactness as well. This is in contrast to how the bf2 handles things being a bit more wide than deep and a lot more open spatially in comparison. This isn’t a case of the mm2 just taking a depth focus over width, it just feels a bit squished overall spatially.
Another problem is it’s overt macro focus without having much micro to back it up at least dynamically, it feels somewhat empty on the inside after comparing to the bf2, and imo while at first listen I thought they shared a lot of similar characteristics, I actually think it doesn’t sound all that similar after more listening and goes in a different direction than I expected it to. I think one thing that contributes to this is a bit of lack of overall control which makes it feel a bit sloppy at times. I hear the roll off that has been mentioned above but am not really bothered by it in comparison to some of the other complaints I have with it.
Now taking into context price, I can look past a lot of this, but I think despite the impressive technical performance for the money, I don’t really like listening to it because it feels like a “so close yet so far” sort of situation, I’d easily prefer it from anything topping for example, yet comparing to an allo rev or modius and j2 from memory, there’s still plenty compelling reasons to consider those, and they overall do sound more refined than the mm2 albeit less interesting, the mm2 provides you with some characteristics and flavor that you really just don’t get at this price point, but that comes at the cost of some naturalness that has gotten to me. Enjoy it while listening to it considering price, but then don’t feel the greatest about it afterward (like eating greasy fast food and regretting it later lol)
Timbre and tonality are quite good for a dac in this range, detail is as well although not as standout, nice smoothness, but to be honest not much positive is coming to my mind right now to try and describe the mm2. It sounds like it’s trying to artificially emulate what something like the bf2 has and not doing the best job vs sounding more like a scaled down bf2 (which is really what I expected it to be instead of what it is, so perhaps my disappointment could be from that), sort of sounds like they were more focused on flavor than anything else
I feel it has a lot of the right pieces to be a killer dac at this price point, but it’s just not putting them together properly. But for 300 bucks? Can’t really complain too much I guess, but I don’t really think it’s for me personally
I will say I haven’t even touched NOS mode yet despite listening to it for a fair amount of days, so perhaps that might change my mind on things, will have to get to doing that
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It does seem to give a “wall of sound” presentation, imo. Probably related to the compression issues you described. That’s probably why I enjoyed it with rock music. It does the ‘flavored’ things pretty well, but lacks in technicalities.
I sometimes wonder if manufacturers intentionally hold back on their lower end products.
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I don’t know if I’d call it wall of sound, since when I think of dacs with that sort of wall of sound, it’s still very defined, textured, and clear, it’s very grand and is like an actual big wall, but this feels more like a squished blob/mush/mass of sound to me where things aren’t all that defined and feel artificially placed rather than a defined wall of some sort. It’s not like dealbreaking mind you (well it is for me, but likely not most), but that’s just what I hear so far
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Oh, it definitely not a technical DAC. I just meant that it stages from basically one dimension out in front of you.
@M0N, did you have any amps in the price range to pair it with?
It seems like a good DAC to throw on an optical out from a TV for a great bang for the buck 2.1 system.
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Hmm… what amp?
It would honestly be kinda cool of schiit made small speaker amp monoblocks in the magni/modi chassis or a stereo amp in like bf2/jot chassis for a desktop or compact tv setup, honestly surprised they haven’t ever looked into doing that
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It would have good WAF too! I think they’d excel at those types of systems and it would be nice to have a legitimate audio first manufacturer doing something like that. Own the college dorm room and small apartment demographic as well as integrating nicely into a modest TV setup with killing capabilities.
@ericg I’ve currently got a Topping E30 plugged right into a pair of Dynaudio LYD 5 monitors.
Maybe just for giggles at some point I’ll try my BF2 on it and see what it sounds like, may motivate me.
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Funnily enough, just for kicks I tried using my BF2 in the living room, but most of what it did was make it abundantly clear how terrible the audio quality is on a bunch of the YouTube videos we watch, lol. (Though I do still think about using a real DAC in the living room again decently often.)
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I don’t have Shitt on my TV but i did plug an old Apple TV streamer to a Parasound P5 > Emotiva BassX > Polk LSIM 703’s and have had trouble free tv sound system for at least a year if not longer and in all honesty it kicks ass 
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