Audiowords
Schiit Bifrost 2/64

Schiit Bifrost 2/64

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

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.

OverreviewDAC17 sourcesas of 2026-09-08

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.

The overview

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.

Where they agree

  • 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.
  • The feature set is deliberately spare — three inputs, PCM to 24/192, no DSD or MQA, no volume control — and sources treat that as a choice rather than an oversight.
  • Non-oversampling mode is a curiosity, not a reason to buy: listeners who tried it went back to Schiit's filter.
  • It wants to be left switched on; several sources describe it as unsettled until it has been warm for hours or days.
  • The 2/64 boards measure about 10 dB cleaner than the 2019 boards on the same Audio Precision suite.

Where they split

  • 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.
  • Whether the Unison USB input beats the S/PDIF inputs: one reviewer says USB is clearly and audibly the best way in, another prefers feeding it S/PDIF from an external interface.
The verdict, mappedEvery aspect on one axis — criticized to praised. Hover a point for its spread; click to jump.
CriticizedNeutralPraised

By aspect — in detail

Transparency

Contested · 11 src

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

Value

Contested · 9 src

Sources agree on the facts and split hard on the conclusion. On one side: the price has not moved in years while rivals launch high and drift down, the box is built and assembled in the United States, it carries a five-year warranty, and the modular architecture has now twice extended the life of the same chassis — an upgrade path nothing else at the price offers. WaveTheory called the jump from sub-$250 DACs a gamechanger and worth every penny; GoldenSound scored it four stars and said the flavour is the only reason not to buy it; Headfonia conceded it is plainly not three times the $199 Modius and recommended it anyway. On the other: a converter that measures where this one measures can be had for a fraction of the money, and ASR's launch thread said so about the cheaper original. The cleanest statement of that objection is Schiit's own, printed on its product page: if great measurements are the goal, buy the cheap Modi instead and save over half a thousand dollars.

Measured

Schiit's own FAQ makes the objectors' point for them, in its own words: "It even measures similarly. But measurements don’t tell the whole story. If you want great measurements, there’s Modi+—that’ll save you over half a thousand dollars on this guy."

Where it splits
$799 buys American build, a five-year warranty and an upgrade path no rival offers77%

“the Bifrost 2/64 does have the longevity factor, with the ability to be upgraded to newer versions for 3/8ths of the original price, something no other rival can do”

Amos Barnett, hear.audio
$799 buys conversion that measures well behind boxes at a fraction of the price23%

“For the $699 that's not very impressive performance, unless you believe in the magical claims about their new USB interface.”

Veri, Audio Science Review

Features

Strong consensus · 8 src

Narrow by design, and read that way almost everywhere. Three digital inputs — coaxial, optical and Schiit's own Unison USB — all capped at 24-bit/192 kHz PCM, with no DSD, no MQA, no AES or I2S, no volume control, no preamp function and no headphone jack. The remote handles source, mute and phase invert only. What compensates is the part nobody else offers: the DAC/analog card and the USB card slide out of the back, firmware loads from a MicroSD slot, and a 2019 Bifrost 2 becomes a 2/64 for $300 without leaving the owner's desk. Reviewers list the format gaps as cons and the modularity as the headline, and net out mildly positive; the community thread is where the upgrade path is treated as the whole point. Non-oversampling mode is the one feature everyone treats as a novelty: AudioHead reports that group listening sessions came back unanimously preferring Schiit's filter switched on, one owner found NOS much darker with the soundstage collapsed, and another concluded it was a checklist item.

“only Bifrost 2/64 provides complete hardware and firmware upgradability”

Schiit Audio, product page

“The NOS feature? Tried it, turned it off. Much darker, soundstage collapsed.”

Bevan_Court, forum.headphones.com

“unanimously returned with a preference for Schiit’s digital filter to be in the on position”

AudioHead

“Cons: Good, but not class-leading detail retrieval. No DSD. Maxes out at 24/192 PCM decoding. Performs best when left on round-the-clock.”

WaveTheory, Head-Fi
Measured

Schiit's published specification: coaxial S/PDIF, optical S/PDIF and Unison USB in, all up to 24/192; RCA at 2.0 Vrms and XLR at 4.0 Vrms out, 75 ohms output impedance on both; four TI DAC8812 converters with an 8x-oversampling filter on an Analog Devices SHARC DSP; 24 VA transformer; 12 W draw; 9 x 6.75 x 2 inches, 5 lb; five-year warranty.

Build

Moderate · 6 src

The least controversial thing about it. The folded-aluminium sled chassis, the connectors and the finish are praised by essentially everyone who has handled one — GoldenSound calls the build fantastic outright — and the unit is designed, machined and assembled in the United States behind a five-year warranty. hear.audio notes the only visible variation between his two review units is the batch of metal. One owner review is the outlier and it is a sharp one: Sean_MR docked a full star after three Schiit defects inside a year, including a Bifrost 2 that came back from repair and failed again after two weeks, and one that ran scorching hot with a burning smell. He himself frames it as bad luck, and a sweep of all 539 posts in the headphones.com thread turns up no matching pattern — the recurring hardware notes there are benign ones, like the audible relay click when the sample rate changes.

“The build on the bifrost 2 is fantastic.”

GoldenSound, Head-Fi

“I had 3/3 defects from Schiit within a year, resulting in an essentially 100% failure rate for me.”

Sean_MR, Head-Fi

Noise

Moderate · 4 src

Not where the argument is. Schiit's Audio Precision report puts A-weighted signal-to-noise at 124.06 dB on the balanced outputs and 120.93 dB single-ended, with channel-to-channel crosstalk at -134.9 dB at 10 kHz. The only independent bench of the platform — atomicbob's PrismSound dScope run on SBAF, made after a week of warm-up and to AES17 — reached the same conclusion in plainer words, and added that jitter spurs sit close to Yggdrasil's and that balanced and single-ended noise floors are nearly identical. Reviewers who care about the USB path single out the genuinely galvanically isolated Unison input, which one of them found cleaned up a PC ground loop. The one dissent is a single line in GoldenSound's cons list wishing the background were blacker.

“Noise floor and dynamic range are exceptional for an 18 bit multibit instrumentation DAC.”

atomicbob, Super Best Audio Friends

“Jitter spurs are nearly as low as yggdrasil.”

atomicbob, Super Best Audio Friends

“resolution is 'good' but not amazing, blackground could be better, no DSD or high sample-rate support”

GoldenSound, Head-Fi
Measured

Balanced A-weighted S/N 124.060 dB / 124.058 dB, single-ended 120.930 dB / 120.835 dB, crosstalk -134.9 dB at 10 kHz (Schiit APx555 report, May 2022). atomicbob's independent dScope III bench of the 2019 boards found balanced and single-ended noise floors nearly identical.

Ergonomics

Moderate · 6 src

A mixed bag with one standout and several small irritations. The standout is a side-effect of Unison USB: it stays enumerated to the computer even when a S/PDIF input is selected, so exclusive-mode playback and ordinary system sound can coexist without unplugging anything — WaveTheory rates that a distinct advantage over every other DAC he has used. Against it: the power switch is on the back, the input and remote icons are tiny enough that hear.audio found them readable only close up, and the unit clicks a relay audibly when the sample rate changes. The most consistent complaint is warm-up. hear.audio evaluated his after weeks of being left on and says a cold Bifrost sounds wonky; WaveTheory lists round-the-clock operation as a con; purr1n, less patiently, thought a month of break-in was too much to ask.

“it is quite clear that BF2 sounds best from its USB input, and the difference isn’t small”

WaveTheory, HiFiGuides Forum

“the hieroglyph-like symbols over the LED-based lights are so small they are only readable close-up”

Amos Barnett, hear.audio

“the Bifrost is best used after some warm-up, and some days of being left on”

Amos Barnett, hear.audio

Best 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

Skip 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

At a glance

↳Consensus
73 / 100weighted mean across 17 sources — an aggregate, not a single verdict
↳Type
DAC
↳Sources
17 · 6 classes
↳As of
2026-09-08

Where to buy

Sources17 reviews across 6 classes. Weight reflects expertise × independence; echoes collapsed.
  1. s1APx555 Standard Test Suite report: Bifrost 2/64 (PDF, 51 pp.)Schiit AudioMeasurementunknown2022-05-26w0.75
  2. s2Bifrost — product page, specifications and FAQSchiit AudioMeasurementunknownw0.70
  3. s3Schiit Bifrost-2 Technical Measurements (PrismSound dScope III, AES17:2015)atomicbob, Super Best Audio FriendsMeasurement2019-09-26w0.95
  4. s4Schiit Audio's Bifrost 2/64 DAC Versus the World (4.5/5)Amos Barnett, hear.audioEditorial2024-12-28w1.00
  5. s5Schiit Bifrost 2 Vs. Bifrost 2/64 — A Schiit Shootout! (blind group A/B)AudioHeadEditorialunknown2022-08-24w0.75
  6. s6Schiit Audio Bifrost 2 & Modius ReviewMatty Graham, HeadfoniaEditorial2020-12-01w0.85
  7. s7Why have neutral when you can have fun? (4/5)GoldenSound, Head-FiEditorialaffiliate2021-02-09w0.80
  8. s8Schiit Bifrost 2 ReviewWaveTheory, HiFiGuides ForumEditorial2021-01-18w0.80
  9. s9Schiit Bifrost 2 DAC — Official Thread (539 posts, 55,064 views)forum.headphones.comCommunity2019-10-25w0.90
  10. s10Schiit Bifrost 2 thread — 2/64 impressionspurr1n, Super Best Audio FriendsCritical2022-12-23w0.90
  11. s11New Schiit. With measurements.Veri and trl, Audio Science ReviewCritical2019-08-30w0.80
  12. s12Amp to go with a Bifrost 2, or a new stack entirely? — volume-matched A/B vs the Apple donglemajingotan and Kw6, Audio Science ReviewCritical2021-01-14w0.70
  13. s13Bifrost 2/64 — owner thread, compared with an Oppo BDP-95rickyhgarcia, Audio Science ReviewOwner2023-06-24w0.55
  14. s14An Absolutely Stellar Entry into Multibit/R2R DAC's (4/5)Sean_MR, Head-FiOwner2021-01-26w0.60
  15. s15Schiit Bifrost 2/64 Review — Did Schiit just ruin the Bifrost 2? (40.8k views)Passion for SoundVideoaffiliate2022-11-26w0.55
  16. s16Schiit Bifrost 2/64 DAC Full Review & Comparison w/ OG Bifrost 2 (40.4k views, self-funded unit)Reviews By WaveTheoryVideo2022-08-30w0.70
  17. s17Schiit Bifrost 2/64 vs. Topping, Yggdrasil, Modi Multibit and Gustard R26CurrawongVideoaffiliate2024-12-27w0.15

Limitations & method

Consensus-of-sources synthesis · as of 2026-09-08 · not a measurement verdict or ground truth.