[uncola]

I just realized its been exactly a year since my first contribution to the pulse campaign. I hope some positive user reviews start showing up as the pulse gets delivered

 

[RingingEars]

I think I'm going to upgrade my Pulse to the X, but I may wait until next week to see if they run any kind of turkey deals

 

[Clemmaster]

  Almost jump on the Geek Soul train, almost....
...and then I suddenly remembered about Schiit Yggdrasil....could somebody give me a reason why I choose Geek Soul over Yggdrasil ?

 
While both DACs pursue the same goal of achieving the highest fidelity, they use rather antithetical approaches:
- The Geek follows the modern trend (and marketing fluff) with super High-res and DSD capability, using Delta-sigma DAC chips for a ultra clean, ultra sharp sound.
- The Yggy gives a middle finger to this (stupid) trend and rather re-set the bar of traditional redbook playback, featuring an architecture from the 90s (the golden era, where R2R was the way to go), with modern R2R chip and DSP processing that - by all indication - are much more potent than what was available in the 90s.
 
While I don't fall in the "every sigma-delta DAC is crap" category, I must admit that I had way more success with my various R2R DACs than sigma-delta ones, which tends to give me headache and overall sound "gray" (as in lack of texture) and mechanical. Not to say I did not enjoy my NFB-27 or the Ayre QB-9 DSD, I really did. But they are more the exception than the rule.
From what I read, LH labs know their schiit and produce good S-D DACs with very little of what makes these DAC annoying to my ears. I just bought a Geek Out IEM and backed up the Geek Pulse, to confirm with my own ears.
 
Having said that, I recently acquired an old Theta Gen Va DAC, which was designed by Schiit's Mike Moffat and use a similar architecture than the Yggy (the Gen V is actually the DAC I mentioned earlier. The Yggy is like the modern version of it).
Nothing I heard in the past comes close to this DAC's performance with redbook. Period. Neither the Master-7, nor the QB-9 DSD (the latter from memory) can touch it. Bass, tone, dynamics, transparency, SOUNDSTAGE. No compromises.
 
The Yggy is said to improve on the Gen Va. I personally can't wait to finally have a listen. In the meantime, I will continue enjoying this superb dinosaur DAC... until it dies on me 

 

 

[longbowbbs]

  Almost jump on the Geek Soul train, almost....
...and then I suddenly remembered about Schiit Yggdrasil....could somebody give me a reason why I choose Geek Soul over Yggdrasil ?

Both are formidable.... Geek is DSD capable and is both a DAC and an Amp, Ygg is not DSD capable and is a stand alone DAC only. Otherwise you are considering sonic character differences of two very strong pieces of gear.

 

[Boban85]

 
No problem using the 240v on a 230v mains. Certainly in the UK, the mains (which used to be 240v BTW)  is currently required by law to be delivered at 230 Volts, (50hz) within a tolerance of +10% / – 6%, that is, within the range 253 Volts to 216.2 Volts.
The value of 230 Volts is a ‘nominal voltage’ It went down to 230v to standardise with the rest of Europe. (which went up from 220v to 230v.) The mains voltage in my home never really shifts from 247v, way over the standard!
 
Check the wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country to find your own countries info.
 
Hope that helps,but if you're still not convinced, just email LH Labs!

 
Thank you Valve5425 for a very informative post. Cheers! 
 
 

  I think I'm going to upgrade my Pulse to the X, but I may wait until next week to see if they run any kind of turkey deals

 
Same here

 

[mark5hs]

   
I've been wondering that about the LPS myself, and ultimately I'd rather not pay more for a power supply than what I paid for the pulse itself (original $300 Pulse backer).  I no longer own the HE400, but I can easily say that the HE560 bests the HE400 in everything except bass quantity.  That bundle is a steal and if I had not already bought the HE560 and backed the Pulse I would not hesitate to get it.

Thanks! I think I'm just gonna get the Pulse by itself. The 560s would be nice, but I have no complaints with the 400 and I don't have a ton of money right now... I think I'll wait a couple years till I'm out of school and see if they have anything new. I did just order myself an RE-600S for $200.

 

[walfredo]

  Almost jump on the Geek Soul train, almost....
...and then I suddenly remembered about Schiit Yggdrasil....could somebody give me a reason why I choose Geek Soul over Yggdrasil ?

 
How can one say anything about them yet?  Neither exist as of now.

 

[mandrake50]

Thanks! I think I'm just gonna get the Pulse by itself. The 560s would be nice, but I have no complaints with the 400 and I don't have a ton of money right now... I think I'll wait a couple years till I'm out of school and see if they have anything new. I did just order myself an RE-600S for $200.

Must be terrible to be a starving student....
:wink_face:

 

[jexby]

How can one say anything about them yet?  Neither exist as of now.

I listened to both Pulse Xfi and Ragn and Yggy at RMAF, for 10 min each with my own balanced HE-560.
But the listening was so short, without common material in a noisy environment it would not be fair to claim any comparison winner until final products are in the wild.

 

[eac3]

Must be terrible to be a starving student....

1st world problems

 

[FraGGleR]

I listened to both Pulse Xfi and Ragn and Yggy at RMAF, for 10 min each with my own balanced HE-560.
But the listening was so short, without common material in a noisy environment it would not be fair to claim any comparison winner until final products are in the wild.

This is Head-Fi! Do it anyways!

 

[Boban85]

+ 1
 
We would love to hear your impressions on both rigs Pretty please... 

 

[nicolo]

  Almost jump on the Geek Soul train, almost....
...and then I suddenly remembered about Schiit Yggdrasil....could somebody give me a reason why I choose Geek Soul over Yggdrasil ?

 
The Yggdrasil is not a sigma delta DAC like the Geek Soul/Pulse and 99.99% of all the other DACs. Sigma Delta DACs reduce the original data stream to 1bit width and use interpolative algorithms to "guess" at the constituents of the output signal. Some DACs d it better than others, while some do it differently. Why do all of the above? Because it's cheaper than the earlier multi-bit DACs.
 
The Yggdrasil retains the signal as is from source input to output without any conversion steps like upsampling/oversampling etc, which all Sigma Delta DACs have to do. If i were you, i would save up the cash and wait for Q1 2015 when the Yggdrasil is slated for production.

 

[mandrake50]

   
The Yggdrasil is not a sigma delta DAC like the Geek Soul/Pulse and 99.99% of all the other DACs. Sigma Delta DACs reduce the original data stream to 1bit width and use interpolative algorithms to "guess" at the constituents of the output signal. Some DACs d it better than others, while some do it differently. Why do all of the above? Because it's cheaper than the earlier multi-bit DACs.
 
The Yggdrasil retains the signal as is from source input to output without any conversion steps like upsampling/oversampling etc, which all Sigma Delta DACs have to do. If i were you, i would save up the cash and wait for Q1 2015 when the Yggdrasil is slated for production.

Unless, for some reason, as it has become boutique, you want/need high bit rate(HD?) and DSD/DXD capabilities.
Just a thought.

 

[miceblue]

The Yggdrasil is not a sigma delta DAC like the Geek Soul/Pulse and 99.99% of all the other DACs. Sigma Delta DACs reduce the original data stream to 1bit width and use interpolative algorithms to "guess" at the constituents of the output signal. Some DACs d it better than others, while some do it differently. Why do all of the above? Because it's cheaper than the earlier multi-bit DACs.

The Yggdrasil retains the signal as is from source input to output without any conversion steps like upsampling/oversampling etc, which all Sigma Delta DACs have to do. If i were you, i would save up the cash and wait for Q1 2015 when the Yggdrasil is slated for production.

Not quite accurate there. It's close, but most ΔΣ modulators use multi-bit technology now, which is far superior to 1-bit streams. 1-bit = DSD, which is not what the modern DACs do for PCM data. Only PS Audio's DirectStream DAC does that as far as I know.