@bdp24…
After I had my first pair of MMG’s I moved up the line, the .7, followed by the 1.7i model. To my humble ears the .7 presented better than the 1.7i - although either model possessed the Maggie magic.
One of the issues I have with Maggies is their size - when I had the 1.7i’s I got a weird fright one morning as I was coming downstairs. In the shadowy, fuzzy morning light it appeared that two people were standing near my stereo. It was only for a coupla’ seconds but… I have seen the Tympanis up for sale once in a while, and at what appear to be bargain prices. Alas, I don’t have the room for anything that size in my space. (14 ft wide, 24 ft long with a ceiling that goes from 9ft to a 17 ft apex.)
I just connected my just received Schiit Modius DAC to my Aurender N100H server.
(See the pattern here? I always start out in the cheap seats and move forward if I like what I tried.) I have to be mindful of the fact that the Jolida FX Glass Tube Dac is an older piece of equipment, exactly how old I don’t know. I felt that I had too many tubed components altogether, so I decided to come up to date with a current model Dac. (The Belles 250i Integrated’s preamp is tubed, and my Pro Ject turntable uses a Pro Ject DS tube phonostage) Don’t get me wrong, I like tubed equipment. The first piece that started me chasing the hi-fi dragon here was a Cayin A50T integrated.
I actually purchased a Mytek Liberty Dac off of USaudiomart after researching a few, but I could not load the required drivers onto my iPad so that, unfortunately, didn’t work out. I over-spent my budget with the purchase (used) of the Aurender, so the budget for my Dac shrank accordingly. I narrowed down my search to Mytek, Benchmark, and Schiit.
I decided upon the Schiit Modius for a number of reasons, first and foremost being that it was brand new direct from the manufacturer. It is also “plug n’ play” like the Jolida was. I operate the Aurender and Qobuz through my 9th generation iPad, the Mytek, and from what I got from research the Benchmark, would have had me use a laptop. For all intents and purposes I will be using the Aurender server way more often than I’ll be streaming Qobuz from it.
Anyway…with all fairness accorded the old and still 100% functioning Jolida, my immediate impression is that this is probably the best $229 I ever invested in my stereo. It is a remarkable improvement. I don’t want to imply that the Schiit is “warmer” than the Jolida, but the tracks - by different artists - that I use to judge stuff by displayed better separation, better depth, and perhaps a buffing of the treble in tunes that had previously sounded a little “etchy” to me. (“Crocus” by Ani DiFranco for one, “Cyril Davis” by Ginger Baker for another) I never minded the “etchy” treble I sometimes caught on those tracks and others before, but I noticed a definite difference playing through the Schiit.
The sonics are SO improved with the addition of the Schiit that I haven’t even bothered to employ the subwoofer. (The MMG’s go down to 50hz, which some people may feel ain’t too deep) This is real good.
I know all too well myself’s past pattern of starting out with an “economical” piece, then moving up the product line. Right now I’m really happy. The next model up the Schiit Dac line is the Bifrost, roughly six hundred dollars more than this.
That’s gonna be awhile…