In recent years, my system has focused on analogue. I’ve always been satisfied with digital. Then the prices of vinyl records became absurd…

In the summer of 2016, I bought my first DAC, a ProJect Dacbox E, because, perhaps due to the need to discover more and more new music after starting to play guitar in a band again, I began listening to a lot of digital music, starting with – believe it or not – YouTube!

The choice of ProJect was dictated by the parameters: as inexpensive as possible but from a brand that has always been committed to high fidelity. So, for about 80e, the little black box arrived at my house to convert the digital signals from both the CD player and the television, as well as the computer, of course.

The Austrian company’s entry-level model had only one optical and one coaxial input.

The conversion section was entrusted to a Texas Instruments converter with Cirrus Logic chips that allow the management of files up to 24 bit/192 KHz (coaxial only). The low-noise circuitry, SMD components and internal metal shielding contribute to a thoroughly respectable sound.

I tried a few free subscriptions from the main audio streaming providers and decided on Tidal, which offers hi-fi resolution at the same price as Spotify, which still compresses its files.

At times, I thought that continuing to buy CDs seemed unjustifiable! The problem is that modern music is compressed, as are the remastered versions of old records offered by streaming platforms. Compared to my analogue system, they always lose out. However, I must admit that my analogue system performs better than my digital one… at least until now…

Now, with a decent DAC, what will happen to my passion for vinyl? Records are always overpriced, CDs usually cost significantly less, sometimes half as much. Downloading HD files costs almost as much as a CD, sometimes more. Streaming is much cheaper unless you are sure you can limit your music purchases to around 120e per year. Not to mention the fact that you can discover a lot more music with millions of tracks available to stream in decent quality.

In short, in 2025, I decided to upgrade the digital section of my system. I would have liked to get a high-quality CD player, perhaps with separate mechanics, and use its prestigious DAC for other digital applications. But since I couldn’t spend too much, I had to think about a high-quality but affordable converter. I was a little wary because I know that if you don’t make big leaps in digital quality, it’s difficult to hear the differences.

While searching, I came across an advertisement for a Schiit Modius at an attractive price. I remembered the excellent review on TNT-Audio because I had made a note that it could be one of the contenders. It was considered worthy even for high-end systems. For 140e, it became part of the system.

The American company designs and assembles the circuits in Texas, while the power supply comes from China. The chip they use is an AK 4493, the LME49724 operational amplifiers handle the balanced connections, while the OPA1662s take care of the normal RCA connections. Yes, the Modius is a balanced DAC, offering both S/PDIF (coaxial RCA) and AES/EBU (XLR) inputs, as well as optical Toslink. The USB input is declared compatible with any operating system without the need for drivers. Both XLR and RCA outputs are also available.

In short, unlike the ProJect, there is much more choice and, above all, there is a button on the front to select the inputs, which is impossible with the ProJect.

The optical input will collect the digital stream from the Pioneer PD S603, which, with its Stable Platter mechanism (the CD is inserted face up), can still be a good reader. Streaming from a computer will go through the USB port, which is certainly more ideal than the Toslink output of the old MacBook.

The Modius’ low end is remarkable and goes well with the characteristics of my system (Unison Research Unico + TDL Studio 0.5). Now the digital section of my system is more competitive than the analogue section…

The review on tnt-audio.com