Lobby > Head Amps, DACs, Sources, Portable Equipment Discussion
Schiit Yggdrasil Review and Impressions yggygiggity thread (production units)
Anaxilus:
Buy it NOW!
schiit.com/products/yggdrasil
If you are a resolution whore like me, an HD800 owner who didn't buy it just for looks or comfort, or at the end game of your ToTL audio journey. BUY THIS NOW!!
I haven't A/B'd with my PWD yet directly, but I know it is now for sale. It's that stark and obvious a difference to me.
This is the first time in a long time I've had to recalibrate my brain to how much new information I am hearing and I just want to keep listening to all my old stuff.
Beware! This DAC will not make your shitty recordings sound like they have been properly remastered or hide their flaws. It is ruthlessly honest. If your music is clean, smooth and liquid it will sound so but with the clarity, resolution, ambient cues, inner harmonics and tonal color dynamics kicked up beyond your last reference DAC. If your music is harsh, gritty or digital sounding on the master (not from your crappy sigma delta or poorly filtered Sabre DAC) it will let you know just how bad it is.
This thing slaughters the MSB analog/diamond/platinum/rhodium/beryllium whatever DAC. If you want a warm and easy going tone imparted on all your music no matter how it was recorded please buy an MSB and DO NOT buy this DAC.
Full review and A/B comparisons coming at the end of next week...
Pre-production notes and impressions here:
www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2047.0.html
Some third party measurements:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/764787/yggdrasil-technical-measurements
Other measurement thread added:
http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2405.0.html
Ancillary Yggy OMGWTFBBQ thread here:
http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2414.msg66831/topicseen.html#new
(Man I'm still listening and stuff is just popping out of the 'blackground' and scaring me...) :boom:
Anaxilus:
Reserved
Negatives
One:
--- Quote from: Maxx134 on June 07, 2015, 05:40:29 PM ---The Lampy had a larger dynamic range, and mids "poped" out from space, which I attribute to the usage of tubes.
--- End quote ---
This ^! This is the only flaw I've found with the Yggy thus far. A sense of greyness to the back ground that hampers just as you say. Proper tubes offer unprecedented clarity, blackness of background, and depth all which contribute to increased perceptions of resolution and dynamics.
I noticed this comparing the Yggy to my PWD mk1>2 which already was an average to just above average performer with blackness compared to the best DACs out there. The PWD mk1>2 was a little blacker.
That's not to say the Yggy isn't clear, it's astonishingly clear and accurate. It's really two different phenomena. The first is the digital section where anything that isn't part of the recording just melts away and disappears. You have to hear it to believe it. In that sense, every DAC up to this point has clearly been coloring music and people are just used to it. There's simply no way to get around this fact. Anyone that has had a proper superior vinyl experience will understand this. Plus the way images are just locked in and super sharp yet perfectly organic speaks volumes about this DAC. The second phenomenon I believe to be part of the analog output stage. MArv and I have noticed and commented on this sort of greyness before as a Mosfet mist. In this case, Jfets. BJTs have often sounded clearer and blacker IME, but it seems they would be much more difficult to work with in this application and at this price point.
Believe me, you aren't the first to talk about developing a tube output stage for the Yggy.
http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2346.msg69739.html#msg69739
Two:
While USB has greatly improved on the Yggy, I still feel coax from an uber transport like a high end vintage CDP or current megabuck CDT (Esoteric, Boulder, etc.) sounds better than PC. That gap has clearly shrunk compared to prior generations of USB implementation, but it is still there if absolute sonics are what you are after. I am still preferring to run the Yggy with the Lynx Hilo as an offramp (USB>AES) from my PC for the best PC side performance I currently get. I have a couple other options I will be exploring in future. In the end, it's clearly a supply side issue and I think a DAC can only do so much when it's being fed garbage to begin with.
Freddy1201:
Yep, i'm only at 4 days of warm-up/burn-in and this dac drives me crazy! What are you using for amplification for your hd800?
Anaxilus:
--- Quote from: Freddy1201 on April 28, 2015, 10:30:05 PM ---Yep, i'm only at 4 days of warm-up/burn-in and this dac drives me crazy! What are you using for amplification for your hd800?
--- End quote ---
EC Leviathan prototype.
evanft:
There's a possibility my order is after the June shipment cut-off, so I'm on the edge of my seat.
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