CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS

  • December 31, 2015, 11:23:01 AM
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8

Author Topic: High-end DAC & All pretenders discussion  (Read 5585 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #20 on: September 14, 2015, 07:16:00 PM »
The only thing about vinyl is the huge hassle and having to build up your music library again. Keep your records clean and in good condition, and pops, static, etc. with a quality TT setup are rarely an issue, especially on speakers. In any even, you will learn to listen past this. I find people coughing, cell phones going off, and babies crying at concerts more distracting.

I grew up with vinyl so the hassle and occasional noise issues are not a big deal. My vinyl collection is arguably better than my CD collection, mainly because I was willing to pick up random stuff based on how cool I thought the album covers were when I was a kid. I have also been fortunate enough to live near used record shops like Rasputins, Amoeba, and Streetlight Records. Found some great gems in the dollar bin.

The great thing about vinyl setups is that you can tweak them accordingly. There is little or no mystery on what tweaks do what to the sound.
Logged

schiit

  • Schiit Audio
  • Pirate-at-Heart
  • Pirate
  • **
  • Brownie Points: +109/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 194
  • Terrible gear for the least discerning listeners.
    • Schiit Audio
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #21 on: September 14, 2015, 07:41:24 PM »
Quote from: romaz on September 13, 2015, 08:15:37 PM
Obviously, breathtaking presentations but I wouldn't be surprised if the Yggy 2 that comes out in a few years comes awfully close for less than 1/20th of the price.

There will never be an Yggdrasil 2. There's no need for one.

It's called "upgradability." An unfortunately overlooked concept in our all-too-expensive industry.
Logged
Lots o Schiit around here.

joeexp

  • Powder Monkey
  • *
  • Brownie Points: +14/-16
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 57
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #22 on: September 14, 2015, 08:38:57 PM »
Quote from: Marvey on September 14, 2015, 07:16:00 PM
The only thing about vinyl is the huge hassle and having to build up your music library again

Haven't got the nerve for sandbagging again. LOL
 Apart from how much space those LPs need compared to the size of a Hard-drive.

But - the rewards can be huge!
Logged
If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got..

Negura

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +22/-3
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 127
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #23 on: September 14, 2015, 09:14:56 PM »
Out of interest, is Yggdrasil going to be user upgradable or would have to be sent to a dealer? I opened my Yggy and I am not bothered to do so again as I have figured out which out of the gazillion screws exactly need to be removed. I can see some messing up the cable lead to the front plate.
And the screws into plastic are going to fail very quickly if some boards are retained, but the DAC has to be opened. And yes, there is an user error element to it too.

When some upgrades are in, I am quite sure I am going to get one. Sorting out greyness and sound stage are the highest on my sound upgrade list.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2015, 09:46:43 PM by Negura »
Logged

Clemmaster

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +10/-1
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 239
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #24 on: September 14, 2015, 09:20:30 PM »
One cannot possibly take M. Moffat seriously: what's with the hair?!  :-00. He definitely didn't spend as much time in a telecom lab as the other 3 ...
Logged

schiit

  • Schiit Audio
  • Pirate-at-Heart
  • Pirate
  • **
  • Brownie Points: +109/-0
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 194
  • Terrible gear for the least discerning listeners.
    • Schiit Audio
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #25 on: September 14, 2015, 09:30:34 PM »
Quote from: Negura on September 14, 2015, 09:14:56 PM
Out of interest, is Yggdrasil going to be user upgradable or would have to be sent to a dealer? I opened my Yggy and I am not bothered to do so again as I have figured out which out of the gazillion screws exactly need to be removed. I can see some messing up the cable lead to the front plate.

It depends on the upgrade.

Past upgrades have been performable by someone who is familiar with working on electronics (we cannot say "owner performable," due to the litigious nature of the USA and the "no user-serviceable parts inside" clause.) Seriously, if anyone says their stuff can be opened by an owner, they will not have a company for long. Because someone will do the upgrade with the product plugged in...in the bathtub.

However, the latest upgrade (Gungnir to Gungnir Multibit) requires new motherboard firmware, which is installed via an internal network socket and requires a specific programming interface. In that case, it has to come back to us, or to an authorized service center that is set up to do it (currently in UK, Denmark, and Australia only.)

Still better than extorting another $10-50k out of people. But that's my opinion. I find 5-figure audio price tags sickening.
Logged
Lots o Schiit around here.

Negura

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +22/-3
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 127
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #26 on: September 14, 2015, 09:34:57 PM »
Ha! Who doesn't. I'd rather push you to deliver more (and pay some upgrades) where I'm finding the product has some limitations vs the mega-buck gear and buy another Yggdrasil. The core solution seems to be very capable. Hopefully it's around it that needs future thought.

Yes, I know. It's crazy. You struggle to meet demand for your still freshly released DAC, which was a long going project. But that's all good news for the company medium/long term I'd suppose and every successful company I know is restless in its future plans.

However if I look at the Yggdrasil product from a pricing perspective there's nothing to comment about it, at all. Quite the opposite - that's a lot of sound quality for the money. If we talk about what (some) 10-15k products exactly warrant, one could find there are some good reasons. This is not a rule as there are some ridiculously awful and overpriced things out there. But not being a rule works both ways, in my limited experience.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2015, 10:32:41 PM by Negura »
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #27 on: September 14, 2015, 10:58:09 PM »
You know Yggy upgrades will happen based on past history (Theta). Give it two or three years. Next month or two might be unreasonable.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2015, 12:12:45 AM by Marvey »
Logged

Negura

  • Able Bodied Sailor
  • Pirate
  • ***
  • Brownie Points: +22/-3
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 127
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #28 on: September 14, 2015, 11:04:00 PM »
Sure. This thread is called 'High-end DAC discussion'. If you don't disagree please drop the 'MSB' tag. The Yggdrasil today is part of this group, only if imo at the lower range of it. I'd like to see the thread develop with comments on both pretentious high-end, and expensive DACs that can pull off a thing or two. Also any lower costing surprises that fit the category.

When I have the time I will investigate a few more things like the TotalDAC D1 or some newer non-cluster-f*** Lampizators.
Logged

Marvey

  • The Man For His Time And Place
  • Master
  • Pirate
  • *****
  • Brownie Points: +555/-33
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6698
  • Captain Plankton and MOT: Eddie Current
Re: MSB and high-end DAC discussion.
« Reply #29 on: September 15, 2015, 12:14:32 AM »
Quote from: Negura on September 14, 2015, 11:04:00 PM
The Yggdrasil today is part of this group, only if imo at the lower range of it.

Are we talking high-end or high-cost? If Yggy is on the lower range of "high-end", that would be DACs like the Bricasti M1, PSA DirectStream, Berkeley Alpha 2, Lampi Big 7, Auralic Vega, and the old firmware Analog+Powerbase+384 USB don't even belong here.
Logged
Pages: 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8
« previous next »