Several months ago, my trusty Emotiva Dac died a full death, and it was to old to repair, so I went looking for another DAC. After doing a lot of research, I settled on the Schitt Bifrost. Part of it was the success I had with the little Eitr device I reviews previously. The DAC received great reviews and was within the price I wanted to spend.
I have not been disappointed after having it in the system for about 6 months now. It has an extremely detailed and clean sound. Absolutely no coloration regardless of the bit depth or sample rate. It is a good bit cleaner with better sound stage that the older Emotiva DAC, however I believe that is just an improvement in the technology over several years. It does have a galvonicly isolated USB input, and it reclocks the signal just as the Eitr did.
My only complaint is the there is no indication of the sample rate or bit depth on the front panel. In normal use, that is not an issue, however when setting up parameters in Pulse Audio on Linux, it makes it difficult to know if the config file is correct. Consequently I have to us my portable headphone DAC to see those settings. Once the config files were squared away, the Bifrost was seamless and transparent. If it remains reliable it will be in the system for a long time.
For some reason, I have this weird fascination with clocks that are out of the ordinary. The requirement is that they be electronic, and hopefully in kit form so I can assemble it.
This version is based on an oscilloscope tube. The kit was very easy to assemble, although the plastic case had some issues with fitting, and small broken pieces. The actual electronics worked the first time, and are still functioning perfectly after a year.
The SCTV Scope Clock from Cathode Corner is a unique, hand-made timepiece that brings the time to life on a vintage cathode-ray tube. The hours, minutes and seconds glow gently in green numbers formed with a precision circle generator. Driven by a tiny yet powerful Teensy computer, the clock can also display poetry and play games.
The Scope Clock is housed in a laser-cut case made of clear acrylic plastic. The clock case design evokes memories of the old TV sets from days gone by. The plastic version puts the tube and the circuit board on display. A set of four knobs allows adjustment of the display brightness, focus and centering. The large function knob provides quick selection of one of several clock faces, haiku, Pong or Tetris.
The clock faces are designed for simplicity and beauty. The digits are reminiscent of Nixie tubes. Each digit is formed of circles, arcs, ellipses and lines. The extensive use of curves avoids the jagged appearance of the typical vector display.
Tetris uses the two lower knobs as rotation and position controls for the falling block. given the unique characteristics of a vector display, the ‘bucket’ that the blocks are piled into is drawn as one outline object. Each hole in the bucket is drawn separately.
Pong uses the two lower knobs as the paddle controls for the left and right side players. English may be applied to the ball by hitting it near the edge of the paddle. Each game goes up to 11 points.
There are hundreds of haiku available, displayed in a random sequence. Each is credited to its poet.
The clock is easy to set up and use. The User Manual provides all the necessary guidance.
The Scope Clock uses a precision crystal clock circuit to keep time to within 3 minutes a year. If this isn’t accurate enough for your needs, a USB GPS receiver (GlobalSat BU-353S4) may be plugged in to keep the time accurate to a fraction of a second. A standard CR2032 coin cell keeps the onboard clock running in case of power failure, so the time only needs to be set once for years of operation.
The long-life 3RP1-A CRT has been shown to run for typically 20 years of continuous operation.
The clock is powered by a 12 Volt, 1.5 Amp DC wall adapter. An American, European, UK or universal adapter is provided as needed.
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
