Dedicated Schiit Yggdrasil thread

I mean - let's be real here. He incorporated Murder was the Case in his review. HOW CAN YOU NOT DO THIS?!?! But seriously - I love that album for similarly nostalgic reasons. And I *really* want to find that Gary Karr album he mentioned.

 

It's ordered. I'm very good at talking myself into buying audio thingies. Now I just need to patiently wait (hah!) the two or three weeks it will take for them to get them in stock. I don't have that particular G.Karr album but I have this one on vinyl and it is extremely well recorded:

http://www.amazon.com/Adagio-Dalbin...id=1446617860&sr=8-3&keywords=gary+karr+vinyl

 

Congrats!! I really want to pit Yggy against my Aqua DAC but all the effort I went through to rid myself of USB could be lost if I tried. In other words, since I have a PC to feed the DAC, I'd have to acquire a sound card of relative substantial cost to put the two on as equal a footing as I can manage, so it's not an easy proposition

 

Thanks. I have heard nothing but very good things about the Aqua DAC's and La Voce S2 was on my "short list". The 15 day return policy swayed me to the Yggy. I have no issues with my current DAC (Eastern Electric Supreme with Sparko discrete Op amps) but like the idea of having 2 DAC's of different topology (Sabre and R2-R ). Kind of like having a TT with 2 different cartridges.

 

If your experience is like mine, you will love it and never look back!

 

I've been too distracted with listening to the Gumby to remember to come back to this thread and comment about I heard and what I hear in the DAC.

What I noticed right away was a change in timbre that was much greater than I expected. A loss of treble glare or sheen. So much loss of glare that it results in an immediately noticeable change in timbre from what I've been listening to. The Gumby almost sounds dull in comparison. The Gumby isn't dull. It's the sound of smooth and natural. I go back now and listen to the LH Labs Pulse Xfi or PonoPlayer and I cannot unhear the treble glare they both have. Once you've heard the Gumby you cannot unhear how it makes even a good Sabre DAC implementation sound like.

Another aspect that I heard at first was just a sound of natural comfort. A natural and comfortable sound that just invites you in to listen to the music. It just sounds so natural. Part of that is probably the lack of Sabre glare. But I think it's also to do with the sound of the filter. It just sounds natural. The sense of 3D space in the recording just sounds so coherent. No artificial separation. It all sounds as one, yet so dimensional. The Pulse Xfi still presents the sound as being slightly bigger and deeper and fills in the middle a little better (for headphone listening, and depending on the filter used). But the Xfi's sound is more separated and less coherent and less natural. The Gumby's sound is a little smaller, but more natural and actually more dimensional. The Gumby is just more enjoyable on an emotional level.

This likely will depend on system synergy. I'm using a Cavalli Liquid Fire amp right now. The LF amp is very transparent to the source, but also adds it's own color, smoothness and spatialness to the sound. It isn't being kind to the Sabre treble glare and the Xfi. It actually seems to be exaggerating the Sabre glare. I'll be getting a Cavalli Liquid Carbon amp in a few week or two and I'll be very interested in comparing how the Liquid Carbon amp sounds with both the Pulse Xfi and the Gumby. Interested to find out if the Liquid Carbon amp brings out the Sabre glare as much as the Liquid Fire amp does. Interested to find out if the new amp pairs as well or better with the Gumby.

Very happy with the Gumby. Which makes me wonder if I'd like the Yggy even better and if the Yggy might pair even better with my amps and headphones.

 

I am extremely happy with my Yggy purchase. I think the Yggy is a great match with tubed electronics that are not ultra transparent. My philosophy has generally been to go with more detail on the DAC as long as there is no digital harshness. From what I've read the Gumby gets you 90-95% of the Yggy so even if you get the Yggy there probably won't be a night and day difference. That being said, what music do you listen to? I listen to a lot of classical orchestral music and being able to pick out individual instrumental detail is important to me. I am much less finicky when listening to other musical genres where instrumental separation is generally not as much of an issue.

 

I've got a hybrid headphone amp that is designed to blend the sound of the tubes and the solid state. The blending is designed to color the sound. That's kinda the point. At the same time it is very transparent to the source. Which is a reason I've been wondering if the Yggy would give me a cleaner sound that sounds better with that amp. I'm listening to the amp and the Gumby combo and hearing what I think is a coloration in timbre of the sound, and wondering if that coloration is due to what the Gumby does differently than the Yggy or if it's the amp. The only way to find out is to listen to both the Yggy and the Gumby with my amp. Which seems to be the quest I'm not destined to take. Is that last 10% that noticeable to me? Is that last 10% delivering what I've really been chasing? Is there a difference in timbre or tonality? Is the soundstage noticeably better and better filled in? Only way to find out is to listen to them both. I'm going to a head-fi meet in Seattle in a few weeks. Hopefully there will be a Yggy there and I'll get to find out (although meet conditions are noisy).

I've also got a new solid state headphone amp arriving this week. That will help me figure out how much of the coloration may be due to the hybrid tube blending compared to pure solid state. We'll see. It's all a journey to explore how this sort of gear sounds together.

One thing I love about the Gumby is there is no digital harshness. It's DSD sound done right. It doesn't sound digital. It's uncanny in that respect. This is PCM at redbook resolution? High res sounds even better. Which also makes me wonder if the Yggy delivers more of that sound. A lot of digital sound like it has extra brightness or harshenss. My Geek Pulse Xfi is now sounding like it has extra brightness or harshness. The Gumby does not.

I also listen to a fair amount of classical and acoustic recordings. It's the classical and acoustic recordings that make the sonic characteristics of the Gumby most obvious. Recordings that are all acoustic or have an obvious acoustic element in the recording style are more likely to let the Gumby show off what it does. But even with modern studio recordings you can hear what it's doing.

 

Just my personal opinion but I don't necessarily think a Solid State amp is the best pairing with the Yggy. While most of the customer reviews of the Yggy have been positive the negative ones seem to call the Yggy too bright. I would not be surprised if these people are also using SS amps. There is a person on Head-Fi forum who has Bimby, Gumby and Yggy. He has stated that as you go up the Schiit chain there is more detail and less euphonics. He mentioned he thought the Yggy would be the better as a studio playback machine but thinks most consumers would probably be just fine with the Bimby/Gumby due to the slightly warmer presentation.

Hopefully, you can hear the Yggy at the Seattle meet up. If so, let us know what you think.

 

I've heard mostly good things about the Yggy, those criticisms I have read all seem to be similar coming from different people. I would say the comments that I have read people complain more that it is somewhat flat and warm (not bright). Just to add a little balance to this thread I'll post a few of the negatives that I have read below...

This first set of comments was in comparison to Decware's ZDSD player. The guy who made the comments switches DACs like his socks, and has had some mighty fine DACs come through his kit such as Chord, PS Audio DSD, etc., etc. However he has kept a hold of the Decware player the longest.

Here were a few of his comments:

•It needs more energy/PRaT.....like Steve's Output Stage/ZDSD has!
•It sounds more on the warm side of neutrality
•more focus and clearer leading edges are needed
•I wish the dynamic range and macro-dynamics in general were a little bit better................Steve's tight/tuneful bass from his output stage can shake my Room (sans Subwoofer). The Yggy can't...... .

....it's detailed/and musical....but Steve's is more so.....with all the things the Yggy lacks/needs (stated above).

The extended clean musical Treble, I can extract from Steve's Output Stage with my Ediswan's...is incredible. The Yggy can't.

But hey, it has only been on for 51 hours straight....with 17 hours of Listening time. I will hear/see...........right now though....I'm really appreciating the Superiority of Steve's ZDSD creation!

.....the Pitch and Timbre are superior as well....coming out of the ZDSD.
However, more time needed on the Yggy....... (He posted later on that he didn't know if the DAC was for him).

This was another person commenting on the Yggy after reading Computer Audiophile's review:

Funny, I had a different experience with this DAC. To sum up my feeling I think it lacks soul. this is after using it for a few months and I am now using my Aqua as my main DAC.

This was another post on the Computer Audiophile review:

I agree with BeerCan. My friend brought his recently bought Schiit over to run against the DAC in my Lumin A1. Using the Lumin strictly as a server into the Schiit sounded ok....if a bit on the flat and sterile side. When switching back to the Lumin exclusively, the magic returned. Music takes on an organic, visceral quality that the Schiit can't attain.

For the price, it appears to be a solid choice....albeit no DSD capability. But I'm having a hard time with all the "best DAC at any price" comments I'm reading on some other forums.

 

I've had my Yggy for about a month. I upgraded from a Bifrost. My impressions...

I had been using the original Bifrost and did the uber analog and gen2 USB updates. To be honest, I didn't notice too much of an upgrade on these. I was using an Esoteric ux-03 as my CD player as another point of comparison.

The Yggy does not sound bright at all. I would say it sounds relatively neutral. Can understand how somehow may use words like flat and sterile, although I don't hear it that way. The top to bottom sound seems fairly accurate to me, seems faithful and with a nice soundstage. Richer sound than the Bifrost, whose bass was a little lean by comparison. The Esoteric is a little different altogether - top end is very airy and even sparkly, sounds nice, but I'm not sure how accuate it was.

Using my benchmark recordings (in terms of sound quality and favorite material), I think this is a very balanced sounding dac. It projects sound consistently from top to bottom and present a nice realistic image. I suppose a better dac would increase the transparency and potentially project a slightly richer soundstage, but I feel the Yggy gets most of the basic elements right.

 

The guy who has the Bimby, Gumby, and Yggy and has been doing the measurements is in the Seattle head-fi group. He'll probably be at the meet. He has a really good ear for sound quality and the sound of different gear.

I got my new solid state amp today. Been listening to it with the Gumby for the past four hours. It's a keeper. It's brighter than my hybrid amp, but is not a bright amp. It's shaping up to be a very good pairing with the Gumby.

 

I started the thread, so I just want to pop in with a non- sequitur: I ended up with a Multi-bit BiFrost. For one thing space and the tendency to have to move is an issue. Second, as someone pointed out I think I'd need a seriously warm amp to tame Yggy. So until then I'll be using the MBBF.

I can hardly wait. My new stands came today. Already assembled and waiting. Bass traps, new speakers and the MBBF arrive within the week (I hope.) It's been a long, hard semester. Time to kick back over the break.

 

Has anyone tested the Yggy with lo-fi recordings? These are the only type that I found Schiit to be toooo revealing. Particularly lo-fi punk. Gawd. Bright City. I think Sabre DACs (or at least the OPPO-BDP-95) handled them better. But that's the only time though.

 

Which Schiit DAC were you using? And what is an example of what you consider a lo-fi punk recording?

I don't consider my Gungnir Multibit to be bright at all. My Geek Pulse Xfi with dual Sabre ESS9018K2M chips is brighter.

 

At the time it was a regular BiFrost. And things like the Minor Threat CD for example. And other homegrown type stuff. Got thin and bright when I went from OPPO to Schiit. But that's really just the Schiit revealing the limitations. I considered it to be neutral. However the OPPO gave it a tolerable sheen (without stripping the lo-fi aesthetic).

 

I don't have Minor Threat, but my local library system does. I'll have it in a few days and give it a listen with both the Gumby and Geek Pulse.

 

Just paid for the Gungnir multi bit upgrade and was told I'm #21 in the Queue... Anyone know how long before I can expect to hear from Schiit that it's time to ship it off? Thanks!

 

Beware, it's not just Schiit's timeline you have to worry about. Also FedEx. FedEx is way backed up. My Bimby should've been here last week. As it is they missed the date and rescheduled. I'm looking at Monday. (It's that time of year).

 

Check and see if it's the original CD or the remaster too. (The remaster is the Blue cover. If I remember correctly.)

 

The library had the 2003 remaster version with a yellow cover. Which version do you have?

 

The original and the remaster. But my covers are Red (original) and Blue (remaster). Never seen a Yellow one.

EDIT: Other great albums for comparison's sake are the Behind Bars and Back on the Streets albums from Chicago punks 88 Fingers Louie. These two are various levels of DIY/lo-fi, not quite home made but not "pro" either.

For some reason the my BiFrost made these albums kind of "icy" whereas my OPPO BDP-95 made them much fuller and warmer.

Again, these types of recording are the only one I noticed this discrepancy with the Schiit. For all other types of recordings I preferred the BiFrost. But I think Schiit's neutral sound doesn't suit everything 100% of the time.

EDIT 2: I now have speakers with soft dome tweeters, so I will see how these (and my multi-bit upgrade) compare now.

 

The Minor Threat remastered CD sounds fine on the Gumby for what the recording is. Some songs have better or worse sound quality than others. The Gumby isn't making me think "this is a crazy audiophile way to listen to this music".

These DACs though do bring out different aspects of the recording and the recording quality. You may notice aspects of recording quality with the Gumby that you may not notice when using another DAC. As an example, before I got the Gumby I thought the 2011 Discovery edition Pink Floyd CDs were good and were actually my preferred versions for most of the albums. Now with the Gumby I find them lacking. The Discovery remasters don't have much (if any) of the multibit style of sound in them when played with the Gumby. Playing those recordings on the Gumby is like playing them on a regular DAC. There's no multibit magic going on. When played on the Gumby the Discovery versions sound flatter without the multibit spatical cues going on. The older versions of those albums have it. The Discovery versions do not. It's as if the EQ or digital cleanup or the ADC converter used during editing and mastering has wiped those multibit spatial cues out of the recording. The Discovery edition CDs are no longer my favorite versions of the Pink Floyd CDs if listening with the Gumby.

That was unexpected. But brings home the point that the DAC you use can influence what mastering you may prefer. Kinda throws a wrench into discussions of mastering quality over on the music side of this forum.

 

Only took a couple of days to hear from Schiit that it's time to ship! Sending the Gungnir out today and it's coming back a Gumby! Excited. My only concern is that my speakers are probably near the top end of their capability now with all the upgrades I've done so hope Im still able to appreciate the difference.

 

Yeah. I'm just saying the OPPO played a little nicer with the bass on recordings like this. Again, that's no fault of Schiit's. The DAC is essentially reproducing what's there. I'm just making the observation (as some one who listen for the bass player) that the OPPO brought out and isolated bass guitar on these types of recordings a bit more. It was just interesting that even my favorite DAC isn't a once-size-fits all for every type of recording. But then, how could it be?

EDIT: I can hear the bass in the mix, but I can't feel it. The subwoofer is esentially the kick drum in my set up for these CDs. (Currently listening to Back on the Streets by 88 Fingers Louie.) I have noticed this DAC playing nicely with drums though. Give and take I suppose.