DACOverreview

Schiit Bifrost 2/64

The ladder DAC whose own maker tells measurement-chasers to buy the cheap one instead.

17 sourcesUpdated
$799Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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Schiit Bifrost 2/64

The short version

What to know.

A $799 line-level desktop DAC using four Texas Instruments DAC8812 ladder converters behind a Schiit-written digital filter, with coaxial, optical and Unison USB inputs (PCM to 24/192, no DSD, no MQA), RCA and XLR outputs at 2.0 and 4.0 Vrms, a remote, and user-replaceable DAC and USB cards. Sources agree on most of it. The chassis and connectors draw consistent praise, the whole unit is built in the United States and warranted for five years, and the card architecture is not marketing: the same 2019 chassis is on its second set of boards and its owners installed them at home. Noise is not the argument either — Schiit's own Audio Precision report shows about 124 dB A-weighted signal-to-noise on the balanced outputs, and the one independent bench of the platform called its noise floor and dynamic range exceptional. The feature list is narrow on purpose and everybody reads it that way, and the non-oversampling mode is treated as a curiosity: listeners who tried it went back to the filter. Two things genuinely split the field. The first is whether the box has an audible character at all. Almost everyone who has written about it describes one in detail, and the 2/64 boards changed it — the original's warmth and roundness giving way to something clearer and, to a minority, brighter and less cohesive, which is why a long-time owner calls the $300 upgrade a sidegrade. Against that, volume-matched A/B tests posted on Audio Science Review — including one against a $9 Apple dongle — report no difference at all. The second split follows from the first: whether $799 is well spent on conversion that measures well behind delta-sigma boxes costing a fraction as much. Schiit's own answer, printed on its product page, is that if great measurements are what you want, buy the cheap Modi instead and keep the change.

About this product

The 2022 revision of the 2019 Bifrost 2, and the version Schiit currently ships as simply "Bifrost" at $799. Per Schiit's own FAQ the changes are three: the two Analog Devices AD5781 18-bit converters became four Texas Instruments DAC8812 16-bit converters (the same basic part as Yggdrasil Less Is More); the analog stage went from internally single-ended with derived balanced outputs to genuinely hardware-balanced; and a non-oversampling mode was added, entered by holding the front button for more than two seconds. Everything else carries over — the chassis, the 24 VA linear supply, the in-house Unison USB input, the remote, and the slide-out card architecture. An original Bifrost 2 becomes a 2/64 with a $300 card and a MicroSD firmware file, installed by the owner; the "64" is Schiit's own joke about spec-sheet inflation (four dual 16-bit DACs = 64 bits per channel), not a resolution claim. Not the Bifrost 1 / Bifrost Multibit, which shares no parts and cannot be upgraded, and not the Modi Multibit below it or Gungnir 2 above it. It is a line-level DAC only: three digital inputs, RCA and XLR out, no headphone jack, no volume control, no DSD and no MQA.

Schiit's Bifrost sits in the middle of the only mainstream DAC range still built around resistor-ladder conversion. Seven hundred and ninety-nine dollars buys a five-pound American-made box with four Texas Instruments ladder converters, a digital filter running on a SHARC DSP, Schiit's own Unison USB input, three digital inputs, balanced and single-ended outputs, a remote, a five-year warranty — and cards you slide out of the back yourself when the next revision arrives. The 2/64 is that next revision: a 2022 board swap that a 2019 owner can buy for $300 and fit with a screwdriver.

It is also the cheapest place the hobby's oldest argument gets a fair hearing. Resistor-ladder conversion measures relatively poorly against delta-sigma parts, and Schiit does not pretend otherwise: it publishes a full Audio Precision report for the thing and then, in its own FAQ, points anyone shopping on numbers at a box five hundred dollars cheaper. What the reviews argue about is whether you can hear the difference that buys.

A good fit for

  • Listeners who want a DAC with a deliberate voice rather than a straight wire, and who already know they like what ladder conversion does
  • Anyone who values a box that can be repaired, updated and re-carded for a decade over one that gets replaced every eighteen months
  • Buyers who want American manufacture, a five-year warranty and a price that does not slide the month after launch
  • Owners of an original Bifrost 2 who specifically want more clarity and less midrange thickness — and know that is the trade

Think twice if

  • You want the lowest distortion and noise your money can buy; several delta-sigma DACs at a fraction of the price measure well ahead of it
  • You need DSD, MQA, sample rates above 192 kHz, AES or I2S, a volume control or a preamp — it has none of them
  • You are not convinced DACs sound different, in which case the level-matched comparisons in this set are the ones to read first
  • You want something that sounds right the moment you switch it on and can be turned off between sessions
  • You already own an original Bifrost 2 and are happy with its warmth — the $300 card changes the voicing more than it raises the ceiling

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

2 / 6topics divide opinion
featuresbuildnoiseergonomicstransparencyvalue
1 Strong agreement3 Mostly agree2 Divided opinions

Common ground7

  • Build and finish draw near-universal praise — a folded-aluminium chassis designed and assembled in the United States, behind a five-year warranty.
  • The modular architecture is real, not marketing: the DAC and USB cards slide out from the back and firmware loads from a MicroSD card, so 2019 units became 2/64s at home for $300.
  • Noise is not part of the argument — about 124 dB A-weighted signal-to-noise balanced on the maker's bench, and the one independent lab run called the noise floor and dynamic range exceptional.

Points of contention4

  • Whether the box has an audible character at all: most sources describe one in detail, while volume-matched A/B tests posted on Audio Science Review — including one against a $9 Apple dongle — report none.
  • Whether $799 is well spent on conversion that measures where much cheaper delta-sigma boxes beat it, a tension Schiit's own FAQ concedes by pointing measurement-shoppers at its own entry-level Modi instead.
  • Whether the 2/64 revision improved the Bifrost 2 or merely changed it: some hear the original's roughness gone, others hear brightness and lost cohesion, and one owner who compared both cards calls the $300 upgrade a sidegrade.

A closer listen.

6 topics · 2 divided
Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Transparency

Leans positiveDivided opinions
Reviewer sentiment11 supporting sources
CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

The central argument, and the reason this DAC exists. On the bench it is clean but not class-leading: Schiit's own Audio Precision report puts balanced THD+N at 0.00082% — about -101.7 dB — with A-weighted signal-to-noise of 124.1 dB, and the maker's launch note claimed the 2/64 was the first True Multibit Schiit to clear -100 dB. Sources split on what that buys. The large majority describe a real, specific voice: GoldenSound calls the platform emphatically un-neutral and enjoys it anyway, WaveTheory hears a slightly-warmer-and-thicker-than-neutral tilt with unusually convincing timbre, Headfonia found it rich and "un-digital" after weeks of living with it, and hear.audio distinguishes it in detail from an Yggdrasil, a Chord Qutest, a Gustard R26 and a Topping D70 Pro Octo. A much smaller group reports that the character disappears under level-matched switching — one ASR member found no difference against a $9 Apple dongle with gain matched, another none against an Oppo disc player's onboard DAC. There is a second disagreement layered on top, and it is the one a Bifrost 2 owner actually has to decide: whether the 2/64 boards improved the DAC or merely changed it. Several long-term owners say the original's "random roughness" is gone; others hear the warmth and the cohesion go with it. SBAF's purr1n found it tipped up at both ends with difficult highs, hear.audio judged that it lost some of the character that made it unique, and one owner who A/B'd both cards concluded the $300 upgrade is mostly a sidegrade. AudioHead's blind group listening at Schiit's own showroom found the two versions consistently distinguishable and the preference between them almost evenly divided.

Measured

Schiit's APx555 report for the 2/64 (May 2022): balanced output 3.989 Vrms at 0 dBFS, THD+N 0.000819% (-101.7 dB), A-weighted S/N 124.06 dB, second harmonic -109.6 dB, crosstalk -134.9 dB at 10 kHz; single-ended 1.995 Vrms, THD+N 0.000787%, S/N 120.93 dB. The identical test suite run on the original 2019 boards reads THD+N 0.002610% (-91.7 dB) with a second harmonic at -94.3 dB, so the revision is about 10 dB cleaner on the same bench.

vs. listeners — The objectivist case on record was made against the 2019 boards — ASR's launch thread estimated roughly 90 dB SINAD from Schiit's first report and called that unimpressive for the money — and the 2/64 answered about ten decibels of it. No independent lab has published a bench of the 2/64, so the numbers both sides argue over are the maker's own. And the listening split does not track the numbers at all: the revision that measures better is the one a vocal minority calls bright and less cohesive.

Where it splits
it has a real, describable voice — and the 2/64 traded the original's warmth for clarity85%

“the original Bifrost 2 makes instruments in high-quality jazz sound a bit bloomy, whereas the 2/64 has them sound more distinct”

Amos Barnett, hear.audio
volume-matched, it does not separate itself from far cheaper conversion15%

“I have volume matched A/Bed the $9 Apple dongle against my Bifrost 2 (reduced gain to match volume) and found no sonic difference”

majingotan, Audio Science Review
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The hardware

Specifications.

Checked

Design

Form factor
Desktop
DAC
Texas Instruments DAC8812 x4 · Multibit
PCM
192 kHz / 24-bit

Output

Signal-to-noise
≥ 124 dB

Connection

Digital inputs
Coaxial, Optical
Line outputs
RCA, XLR
Power
Mains (internal PSU)

Physical

Weight
2,268 g
Dimensions
228.6 × 171.45 × 50.8 mm

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from schiit.com.

Follow the evidence

Sources 17

1–6 of 17 sources

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of

What to keep in mind 6

  1. A read of where the reviews land as of September 2026. Schiit has held this box at $799 for years, but the field around it keeps moving.

  2. The only published bench data for the 2/64 itself comes from Schiit; the independent lab work was done on the earlier 2019 boards, so the two sets of numbers here were not taken by the same people.

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