So... ygg the best? 

Yes. Best - but allow me to qualify.

I simply cannot see how any of the vintage DACs can be better. Really when it comes down to it, Spectral, Theta, ML, SF, Classe, dcs, etc. they are really more different than significantly better than the other in the larger scheme of things. Although Theta and dcs do stand out - as they actually did think out-of-the-box. Most of the others were putting in lego pieces (PMD100, UltraAnalog, PCM63, DIR9001, etc.) together in terms of the digital section.

In terms of different, we are talking about voicing. One attractive aspect of "R2R" or "NOS" is lack of that sigma-delta hash - the smoothness and liquid sound. Going down this road sometimes leads to a warm or laid-back sound. Going further, it gets to syrupy mush. (like a TT with a bad suspension, warm cart, and bad speed control.)

This is not what I am looking for or what would define as "best". I can control how I want my speakers to sound (up to bringing alternate designs from my garage) to "voice" my system. I'm actually OCD enough to adjust my speakers/subs slightly differently depending if I am using SFD-1 or Theta Gen V. What I want from a source is the clearest most un-fucked-with information.

The Yggy is neutral. I think some people who prefer the "R2R" or "NOS" (noted use of quotes) sound as they have experienced it may not that like. They may want some warmth. They may want attacks to be softened. They may want the edge taken off. They may want a rolled sound. Yggy will not do that. Yggy will will show defects of headphones. Yggy will make it very clear if the recording ever went through a digital process. Yggy is unrelenting. Yggy will bite your head off if you are not careful.

To be honest, I have not been doing much listening to headphones. (Headphone listening is very different.) So when I heard Yggy with Abyss, I was taken aback and actually disturbed how resolving and clear it sounded. Yggy has a magnitude more clarity than anything else I have heard. You can add Empirical Overdrive DAC, $30K MSB DACs, $8K Bricasti, etc. Whatever. Nothing, absolutely nothing touches Yggy in terms of resolution and clarity. (I'm not surprised of this given the hints Mike Moffat has given us about what they may be using. And now I'm convinced more than ever that accuracy / INL [see "DAC guts" thread] has everything to do with resolving power of DACs.)

So in that sense, Yggy has very much a modern DAC sensibility. Clean, clear, resolving, unadulterated attacks. Just no delta-sigma hash. No UltraAnalog warmth. No PCM1704 softness. This is not to say that Yggy is not capable of qualities of warmth, softness, etc. It's just to say that Yggy will better differentiate these  qualities within recordings. I found some of the more recent MSFL recordings difficult (they tend to be bright). Yet Luis' Axel F and Harry Belafonte remasters were excellent.

As I said above, when the drummer hits a tom to my lower left, and I turn my head. It's like a WTF experience.

Thanks for your thoughts and clarification. Yggy sounds like it will be incredible and I wanna hear it, but you're making me think I'll probably want to pursue something else for my tastes.

That would be awesome! Trying to weed out if it's just the DAC-1's particular implementation that tires me over long listening sessions or if I really just want to end up going the NOS route. So far, NOS or very low oversampling has been my answer, but I don't want to be hasty. SFD-1 would certainly help me narrow it down.

I felt obliged to quote myself, for the whole world to see:

"OK, this one goes out to Marv and Greed: the Gen V is fucking AMAZING! Can throw everything else away, seriously... I'm usually on the calm and conservative side of neutral, but nah this thing is just something else entirely! If Schiit can release something remotely close to it for < 2500 (with a nicer chassis and modern connectivity), that would be a breakthrough. Not a joke like a Hugo. A true high-end bargain. End of story for me as well."

So, with all this talk about ultra analog and other PCM63 chip ladder dacs, I got curious about a mark levinson 30.5 which came up on sale locally.

I first went to listen to it through speakers (and ML preamp / power amps) the past week end, marvelous experience.

I was getting myself ready for the irrational decision: spending 4 thousand bucks for a 20 year old DAC that might dye on me any day and a mere 3 months warranty from the shop.

I did pace myself however and decided to go back there today, this time bringing my whole rig so I could compare with my phones and against my current DAC (a Yamamoto YDA-01 which nobody knows about, even here in Japan actually).

Well, I will be brief: it was a total letdown. Using the same SPIF (MBP with OS X mavericks / Audirvana+ > Wyrd > Audio-gd D/D converter), I just could not find anything that my existing DAC could not do. Even worse, it even sounded better overall. I was looking for the usual suspects, cymbal shimmer, soundstage depth, instrument positioning and air around them, dynamics, handling of busy sections with multiple instruments / wide dynamic swing. Nothing.

The good news is that I save a lot of money by taking the time to drag my rig to the store today and also free from anxiety of owning a piece of equipment that might let you go any day. But, I was really surprised considering the 30.5 redefined the DAC's ranking system when it came out in 1994. Apparently, all subsequent iterations from Madrigal (moving away from the crazy separate box power supply and ultra analog days) were steps toward more resolution but not necessarily more natural / smoother.

I went back through my notes from 1 year back when I had a TotalDAC D1 at home for a short day, which I also A/B against my Yamamoto dac. At that time, the Yamamoto sounded like a toy in comparison to the total DAC, it was agressive, compressed, poorly staged and simply sounded worse no matter what the music I threw at it. I was expecting the same experience today, especially since listening to it a week before through speakers sounded very promising. Oh well.

The thing is, Marv's comments about the Iggy being sensitive to quality of recordings was a big turn off to me. I know the TotalDAC sounds great with average recordings and absolutely stunning with great recordings. Once you've listened to that kind of sound, it's very hard to forget / give up upon. I was expecting this much from the Iggy, it being a ladder dac. But D/A topology isn't probably all, far from it. I have a strong feeling I am also of the non oversampling camp (which TotalDAC does), and more tempted than ever to byte the bullet with a D1-dual or D1-integral. It's absurdly expensive though, I can't get my mind away from the crazy price tag.

Now, I don't think that means my current DAC is really great. All I can say though is that, for all the DACs I have compared against it until now (very few actually), only the D-1 was a real game changer. Theta / Sonic Frontiers and other Classe DACs are not available here in Japan AFAIK so I can't really compare to you guys experiences, I guess I have to bet on someone around taking a shot on the Iggy.

Otherwise, any chance Schiit might listen to your comments Marv and, for example, offer alternative filter that might give away some of the resolution for a bit more sweetness for those recordings that need it?

Arnaud