I had Rob’s multibit Gungnir and coax for the last week and did a fair amount of A/B with my Chord QuteHD DAC with liner power supply.  

The Chord ran Mac Min-->Pangea Gold USB-->Regen-->Curious USB-->Chord.  

The Gungnir ran Mac Mini-->Pangea Gold USB-->Regen-->Curious USB-->Matrix USB/SPDIF-->High Fidelity CT-1 Coax-->Gungnir.  Keep in mind the High Fidelity coax is $$$$.

I also did some tube swapping between my 6922 Mullards, and ‘74/’75 Silver Shield Reflektor 6n23ps with single wire getter.

I started out thinking that the Gunny was a little laid back for me and not giving the “big sound” I like.  After all, the OBs were my answer to more open sound.  The more the better.  But yesterday, I worked from home sitting in my listening chair and probably listened for 9-10 hours in total.  And that’s where the seduction took place.

My post over on the Ediswan thread still rings true, even with more listening:

The Gunny was more detailed and tonally true - plus more analog sounding and just easier to listen to.  I didn't discern a difference in imaging in terms of placement, just the perceived differences in the space the instruments occupied.  The Chord seemed to exaggerate the reverberation.  The Gunny maybe under emphasized it.  As a result, the size of soundstage was significant between the two DACs.  Not sure which is truer to the original master, but I would tilt it in the Gunny's favor.  Just seemed a little too artificial in the Chord.


But it’s in spending more time with the Gunny that you really become enamored with how smooth and analogue it really is.  I did a lot of switching back and forth on the same song and sometimes I’d think, well, they are both good.  But then I ran for an hour or so with just one or the other and that’s where the more digital nature of the Chord came through.

I tossed multiple tubes configurations at it.  I thought the Mullards would sound too warm.  Not necessarily so.  The 6n23ps were bright on the Chord, but the Gunny, they were fine.  I wanted to try a more "mortal" coax as the High Fidelity is the best I've heard, but ran out of time.  

I eventually took steps to try to match the sound between the two DACs by changing the settings on the Torii for the Chord and had some success.  I got closest with the Mullards and the treble shunt on the Torii dialed back to about half.  That gave me the big sound I like and a little less digital sound.  But I still liked the long term listening on the Gunny better.

Anyway, I could see where people would say the Gunny is a bit too laid back or warm.  I think you just need to take time to be seduced.

10-Roger on all the above.  This has been my quandary and discovery since I came upon full-rangers and Decware, and thus part of the reason why I have accumulated multiple duplicative components in my quest for the "best synergy".  There is more than one path that leads to sonic nirvana.
I just can't seem to pick "one" best combo and go with it.   The problem is: with some tube rolling, various cable combo's, etc., I can "get" to the same sonic end with multiple combinations of any of the components.  I have been unable, so far, to pick "one" combination - sonically.  Because I can reach the same destination multiple ways.  So I need to choose some other determining factor for my final decision criteria.  Perhaps flexibility, features (remote control), # of inputs, outputs, bit/sampling rate the component can process, blah, blah, blah.  This has been perplexing me for quite some time now.  Perhaps I need to seek attention for my audiophile nervosa.......

If your not using balanced outputs, I think the Schiit Bifrost Multiput comes pretty close to the Gumby for half the price.  My Bimby has less then 100 hours on it and it's already warm and super detailed.  I use it with a SE84UFO2 and home made OB's using the Betsy drivers.

ProggRob, I have not personally listened to the Gumby.  I based my previous post on stuff I have read on the Head-fi forum.  Some have said if you compare all three multibit dacs using single ended outputs that there is a subtle improvment as you go from Bimby to Gumby to Yaggie.  All three dacs use the same multibit and burrito filter technology, although they have different dac chips and output circuits.  I think adding balanced outputs adds a lot to the cost so that may be the reason the Gumby cost twice as much as the Bifrost.  
I don't think the Bimby is warmer then the Gumby, but it's been said that both of them may be a little warmer then the   Yaggie. I have not heard the Yaggie either but it supposed to be one of the most detailed dacs on the market.

I can say that in my setup in my room, that I really like the Bimby.  I don't think another dac under 1k can beat it.