The back panel features RCA L/R output jacks; digital coax, TosLink and USB inputs; a power switch; and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The DAC also sports a USB Gen 2 input, which can handle 24-bit/192kHz data.
Unlike many DACs, the bifrost 4490 review is not only a bit-perfect master clock management system, but it also has a fully discrete analog section that filters and boosts your music’s analog signal before it goes out to your headphones. That means it can deliver the full dynamic range of your music and isn’t squaring off its bits with an oversampling chip like so many others do (which, in fact, destroys dat fidelity).
As with all Schiit products, the bifrost 4490 review uses completely unique D/A converters and our proprietary time- and frequency-domain optimized digital filter. The D/As are four DAC8812s, the same basic chips used in our Yggdrasil Less is More and Gungnir Multibit, and the digital filter is implemented on an Analog Devices SHARC DSP.
The result is a DAC that sounds amazing, particularly with high-resolution and transparent headphones like the Sennheiser HD 650 and V-Moda M-80s. Dynamic peaks in orchestral pieces sound much more natural with less compression and congestion. Bass has more texture and foundation, and tracks like Daft Punk’s Tron soundtrack have a greater sense of stage depth.
