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Author Topic: Pyrate Leaderboard  (Read 99019 times)

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Bill-p

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #470 on: January 01, 2015, 09:21:47 PM »
Quote from: zerodeefex on January 01, 2015, 02:24:01 AM
If QH had made the meet, I would have compared the two. I think the XFi + LPS was superior to the X-Sabre.

On that note, I'd nominate/second Geek Pulse Xfi + LPS as a good general all-in-one solution. Price is a pity, though.
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zerodeefex

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #471 on: January 01, 2015, 09:52:54 PM »
Err, that unit was a Geek Pulse XFi SE + LPS4. The cheapest you could have gotten that stack is just south of $3k.

We should see where the regular XFi + LPS lands.
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Bill-p

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #472 on: January 01, 2015, 10:28:38 PM »
Oops.

Yeah, my bad... then in that case, I don't think I'd know where Xfi (without upgrades) would land.

Will definitely have to give the low-end version a try then.

The high-end at $3k would probably be not such a great value because Yggdrasil + some DIY amp would still beat that combo in terms of sound quality and value.
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antifocus

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #473 on: January 01, 2015, 10:41:52 PM »
LHL is confident that the Geek Pulse Xfi could at least compete against ~$3K DACs very well, the MSRP is $3K without LPS anyway.
Well...We'll see.
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Anaxilus

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #474 on: January 02, 2015, 12:08:13 AM »
Quote from: antifocus on January 01, 2015, 10:41:52 PM
LHL is confident that the Geek Pulse Xfi could at least compete against ~$3K DACs very well, the MSRP is $3K without LPS anyway.
Well...We'll see.

I have no doubt of that. The Yggy is NOT your typical $3K DAC though wrt performance (unless you power it on, listen cold and put it back in the box).
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zerodeefex

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #475 on: January 02, 2015, 12:28:55 AM »
So, I was going to mention this in my review, the unit you and I have heard is version .96. There are new chokes and transformers and the production units will not take 6 hours to warm up :)

The Yggdrasil competes against $15-20k DACs very well. The MSRP of $2300 is a steal. It is a different category of component to the Pulse XFi. The XFi SE + LPS4 was not a comparable DAC to the Yggdrasil, but it was a great all in one desktop unit. I can't think of any other DAC/amp that I like better off the top of my head.
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Bill-p

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #476 on: January 02, 2015, 01:20:16 AM »
I think the Xfi SE + LPS4's problem is that the Sabre DAC chip can't give the same tonal density as Yggdrasil. It was wonderfully transparent, clean, and tight, but too thin... so not as 3D as Yggy.

Even my TransDAC does better with tonal density than the Xfi DAC in that regards. But I totally can like that amp, since it somehow eliminated most of what I didn't like with Sabre DAC.

And you're right. The whole package is quite good, though... at $3K, I'm not sure if it's good enough? Maybe if they used R2R in there instead.
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antifocus

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #477 on: January 02, 2015, 01:20:37 AM »
Quote from: zerodeefex on January 02, 2015, 12:28:55 AM

The Yggdrasil competes against $15-20k DACs very well.
F@ck me, I am saving now.
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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #478 on: January 02, 2015, 01:59:06 AM »
I haven't even heard the Yggy myself, but based on early impressions and what I know about the hardware and implementation alone, it would be priced much, much more from other companies and sounds like it will be an awesome DAC. I say good on Schiit for trying to price it under $3K.
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Anaxilus

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Re: Pyrate Leaderboard
« Reply #479 on: January 02, 2015, 03:34:19 AM »
Quote from: zerodeefex on January 02, 2015, 12:28:55 AM
So, I was going to mention this in my review, the unit you and I have heard is version .96. There are new chokes and transformers and the production units will not take 6 hours to warm up :)

Among other things. ;) Still the proof will be in hearing the final production unit. I can think of 3-4 different prototypes from different companies that I've recommended in the past who's sonics changed significantly enough to me in production that I wish I hadn't said anything about. From now on I'm going to caveat the hell out of my prototype impressions if I say anything at all about them.

Quote from: Bill-p on January 02, 2015, 01:20:16 AM
I think the Xfi SE + LPS4's problem is that the Sabre DAC chip can't give the same tonal density as Yggdrasil. It was wonderfully transparent, clean, and tight, but too thin... so not as 3D as Yggy.

Even my TransDAC does better with tonal density than the Xfi DAC in that regards. But I totally can like that amp, since it somehow eliminated most of what I didn't like with Sabre DAC.

Is this dynamics, punch and impact as a DAC only or headphone amp AIO? If it's just thin versus full as opposed to weight or heft, then I'd ask what filter was being used and whether you got to hear FRC versus TCM?
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