dav1dd

Fair enough - sorry - too many white knights.

Fair enough. I know my B&W 685s took 2 - 3 months for their drivers to loosen up. That was fairly light use, so maybe 200 hours. They started out with a one-note bass, which then opened up during that time.

How can you assess the performance of your new speakers yet? I assume they are brand new. It should take a few months for them to loosen up. Unless they are 2nd hand, of course.

McIntosh amps go very well with Focal. I've heard 1008BE and 1028BE with McIntosh (sorry don't know which amp), and they are very resolving - not bright. One thing I've noticed from listening in a demo lounge, compared to at home, is the complete lack of ambient noise. I think this helps the retailer a LOT.

Too many prudes in this thread. I had a look over the Totem pics posted by PeterSt and thought they looked good. Even the one with the shirtless dude (above) looks good.

I have a Mac and I have a Gumby. It replaced an Arcam rDac. I don't know what the deal is with the Gungnir but it makes music sound eerily different from what I am used to from years of listening to CD players and the rDac. What you get with the Gumby is a sense of timing that is unnervingly 'accurate'. I suspect it's the multibit part of the dac, but I don't know.

It's an illusion. It only looks smaller up high because the sky dwarfs it, whereas the trees, buildings etc down low make it seem bigger.

My money is on them having done this in order to turn their products into consumer electronics. I'm thinking BOSE - only with genuinely decent products.

Hi, I really like this thread. ATM I am shopping for a replacement for my Arcam rDac, which I have had since it was first released. Originally, I was always going to get a 2Qute, especially given the hype surrounding the Hugo. But I started to get bugged by things like the fact that it doesn't have a power switch (my Dac and Macbook often 'disconnect' after I re-open it from sleep and so I need to flick the power on and off on the switch on the back of the Dac). Pulling the power plug in and out of the 2Qute would be a nuisance for me and is a deal breaker. Also, the input selector is at the back, which is also a pain, if not cheap. My rDac is a cheap Dac and it has an input selector on the top and a power switch on the back. Hell, when it comes to user utility, even my Dac Magic is better specced than the Chord. For the same price (circa $2000 AUD) as a 2Qute I can buy a Gumby. This one has only been on my radar for a little while but I have looked into it more given the hype surrounding the Yggy. I've yet to read anything bad about the Gumby and think I will probably get it. I like it's sleek design and it has both an input selector and a power switch. I could pay almost twice as much for the Yggy but am reserved to do so because: 1. It is big / chunky 2. The price makes it less disposable when I decide to upgrade again in 5 years. 3. I believe in diminishing returns and am thinking I may well be quite happy with the Gumby. I won't get to try either before I buy. Anyway, these are just a few thoughts from another potential Schiit consumer.

Please let us know how the Gungnir works out.

I thought I would give some feedback on this product. I run a Macbook (a white one from 2006) into an Arcam rDac using a Cardas Clear usb cable. After that is a Marantz KI Pearl amp and Focal 1007 Be (which were on the CASH list at some point). I figured my laptop, being quite old, would be noisy and perfect for this type of product so I bought two (as suggested by reviews and Audioquest's website). The pair cost me about $160 AUD. After trying one and hearing absolutely no improvement, I didn't even open the second one. If anything I wondered whether the first one was possibly even impeding the direct signal from my Macbook to the dac, so I removed it. I didn't trust it. The usb ports on my Macbook are too close together to try the second one in place but i figured, why bother? I'd heard enough. At least I can get some money back on Ebay from a sealed, unopened product. In short, I wasted my money. What concerns me is the way this product is being marketed. In his HiFi plus review (AudioQuest JitterBug | Hi-Fi+), Alan Sircom suggests you 'take a punt' on the product because what do you have to lose? The cost of a round of drinks according to him. I mean, seriously?

Hi - Are you still doing a review?

Thanks for the heads-up. I had a look over there and found there's quite a bit of love for the 2Qute in that forum.

The What HiFi review is pretty lame, as are most of their reviews - they tend to read more like press announcements and are completely without substance. Which is why it's good to hear from genuine owners on forums like this. Components like this simply aren't stocked in many bricks and mortar stores and so sometimes you need to buy online based on faith (I live in Australia and there is no stockist in Queensland - the closest is Sydney, which is a ten hour drive away).

Thanks for this. I really enjoy the review and shootout threads. Some great pictures, too.