Schiit Gungnir 2 is one of the newest digital to analogue converters that the American company with that really peculiar name has to offer. This DAC is at the same time the second from the top in the whole Schiit’s converter line-up, with only the flagship Yggdrasil being more expensive. Yet at the same time, it is also a very important, quite possibly even a milestone device for the company that is a frequent guest on our website. And this is because of many reasons, its market positioning being actually the least important one. You see, Schiit is one of those manufacturers that really wants to disrupt somehow stale audio industry. And, moreover, they just don’t make another delta-sigma or whatever-technology-you-choose converter with any more or less random off-the shelf chipset that is widely available.
What is actually important in this particular case of the Gungninr 2 is the fact that a few important new solutions emerge here and are at the same time combined in one new device. It’s not only about their Forkbeard remote control and firmware update technology, nor about the upgradeability. But rather about the fact that this is one of those devices that may well be pointing a new direction for the company and really feels like something new in the DAC market, where almost everybody seems to use the same old recipe and gets usually similar results.
Going back to the gist of the matter, the Gungnir 2 take the name from its predecessor Gungnir, which was then based on the AKM chipset, well-acclaimed and produced quite a few years ago. Yet with the new design that we’re review now Schiit definitely wanted to bridge the gap between the Bifrost and the Yggrrasil DACs. But, as you will see, they also wanted to introduce some new, and really interesting (not to say that in some aspects revolutionary) technologies. And something also tells me that this is (or maybe, until they come up with something new) somehow of a final convergence of the company’s approach to the modern digital front-end gear. What I mean by that is while this is a digital-to-analogue converter, when you also take a closer look at its functionality, especially with the new Forkbeard update, a new and even more interesting picture instantly emerges.
And in this picture, we will clearly see that this is not only a DAC anymore. Since, with the latest upgrade it sports not only a volume control (more on that later), but also a fully defeatable EQ. This actually means a lot, since now you can directly connect the G2 to a power amplifier (or amplifiers) and you can even deal with some room-modes (which are actually quite easy to spot or calculate when you know what you’re doing and what you’re looking for) using the built-in equalisation. And don’t forget that it has not one, but actually two USB-C inputs (one is limited to 192 kHz, but the second it fully 384 kHz compatible). And this also opens up new possibilities, since the Gungnir 2 by the virtue of being able to receive signal via USB from two digital sources can serve as a centre of pretty well-though out audio system that can be used for both music listening and, for example, music production as well.
We will come to some practical aspects of the Gungnir 2 a bit later, since there is a lot to cover, and in the meantime let’s take a look at the price and the market positioning. The sticker on the G2 is 1599. This means that it’s a few hundred bucks cheaper than the flagship Yggdrasil. And more or less twice as expensive as the well-known Bifrost that’s been sitting in the middle of the Schiit’s converter range for quite a while. Looking from a purely objective point of view, what we get here is an R2R DAC together with an in-house developed conversion technology (which is some adaptation of the Multi-Bit approach, more on that later), with a digital preamp functionality (meaning the ability to control volume as I mentioned earlier). And with the EQ functionality and those two USB inputs. So, at least on paper, you get quite a lot. Then there’s that modularity and the possibility to upgrade. This is another thing worth mentioning right in the beginning. You see, Gungnir 2 is currently selling in its Multi-Bit version, but the company is working on their proprietary Singular technology, which will be high-speed and high-resolution Delta-Sigma conversion that the company claims will be something really new on the market. So, there’s a lot of going for it, but as it usually happens in audio, we need to take a closer look to really get the notion of what we are dealing with.