[emptymt]

Hi all, first time in this thread, and I need some feedbacks regarding on which DAC I truly want to buy next.

I just learned of the existence of MHDT labs DAC, the question is, is it worth it to get the SE pagoda + eitr compared to buying a Gumby with gen5 usb?
The headphone will be Focal Utopia, and the amp is Cavalli Liquid Carbon but I'm planning to upgrade the amp at one point.

I know that if going for pure performance I may need to get something like the Yggy, however my genre of preference is mainly Metal, so I'm scared that the combination of Yggy and Utopia will be too revealing and kill the recording exposing all the bad stuffs in it.

My sound preference is a forward powerful and dynamic one with lots of speed that is distinct and clear but does not sound thin in a reasonable amount of space with just a touch of warm to sooth my soul a bit.

I can audition the Gumby but not the pagoda, which is one of the difficulties to make the decision. Thx

 

[crazychile]

Hi all, first time in this thread, and I need some feedbacks regarding on which DAC I truly want to buy next.

I just learned of the existence of MHDT labs DAC, the question is, is it worth it to get the SE pagoda + eitr compared to buying a Gumby with gen5 usb?
The headphone will be Focal Utopia, and the amp is Cavalli Liquid Carbon but I'm planning to upgrade the amp at one point.

I know that if going for pure performance I may need to get something like the Yggy, however my genre of preference is mainly Metal, so I'm scared that the combination of Yggy and Utopia will be too revealing and kill the recording exposing all the bad stuffs in it.

My sound preference is a forward powerful and dynamic one with lots of speed that is distinct and clear but does not sound thin in a reasonable amount of space with just a touch of warm to sooth my soul a bit.

I can audition the Gumby but not the pagoda, which is one of the difficulties to make the decision. Thx

Have you ever listened to the Fostex TH-X00? Metal sounds darn good with these and Yggdrasil. Or even the TH-900...You'd still spend less than a Utopia. But I admit to never hearing the Utopia. Maybe it really is $4k worth of awesome.

 

[jcn3]

I can audition the Gumby but not the pagoda, which is one of the difficulties to make the decision. Thx

i've had the gumby and now have a yggy. you can't go wrong with a gumby -- great performance for the price. yggy is slightly better (imo), but i bet i'd have a tough time in a blind test.

 

[Jimster480]

i've had the gumby and now have a yggy. you can't go wrong with a gumby -- great performance for the price. yggy is slightly better (imo), but i bet i'd have a tough time in a blind test.

I wish you were closer, I'd be glad to setup a blind test session for you.

 

[Barra]

Hi all, first time in this thread, and I need some feedbacks regarding on which DAC I truly want to buy next.

I just learned of the existence of MHDT labs DAC, the question is, is it worth it to get the SE pagoda + eitr compared to buying a Gumby with gen5 usb?
The headphone will be Focal Utopia, and the amp is Cavalli Liquid Carbon but I'm planning to upgrade the amp at one point.

I know that if going for pure performance I may need to get something like the Yggy, however my genre of preference is mainly Metal, so I'm scared that the combination of Yggy and Utopia will be too revealing and kill the recording exposing all the bad stuffs in it.

My sound preference is a forward powerful and dynamic one with lots of speed that is distinct and clear but does not sound thin in a reasonable amount of space with just a touch of warm to sooth my soul a bit.

I can audition the Gumby but not the pagoda, which is one of the difficulties to make the decision. Thx

Heard most of the MHDT lineup and love them dearly. They are very versatile with tubes that allow you to change the signature to match your AMP. I purchased the Havana2 when I had the Schiit Mjolnir which is a little bight to warm up the paired signature and it worked great. However, the Ygg is a clear step up in balanced detailed performance. The MHDT can be more fun, but the Ygg will get out of the way to let your AMP do the talking. For example, my Eddie Current black widow is a very warm tuby amp where the combo with my Havana2 was too much regardless of tube choice. The Ygg took my BW to the next level. I just purchased the Hugo2 and found that it did the same thing taking my BW to a new level again. Where I am having fun with my Havana2 is in my speaker setup driving tube flavors into my Maggies. For the MHDT DACs to have a chance against the Ygg, the associated amp or HP would need to be on the bright edgy side looking for warmth. Or you would need to be a tube nut loving to tube roll looking for euphonics. Having gone that direction myself, I traded up to an eddie current zana duex so the Havana2 is sitting on the sidelines with my HUGO2 taking over my main DAC duties. Will either be selling the Havana2 or dedicating it to my speaker system as a preamp.

 

[jcn3]

I wish you were closer, I'd be glad to setup a blind test session for you.

not sure i'm following you -- i was only talking about gumby vs yggy.

 

[Makiah S]

Let me ask you guys this! I've got an NFB10ES2 dac at the moment, if I want to keep the same... colder sound sig but gain some resolve/micro detail and have further improvements to Sound Stage would the Yggdrasil be a step up without adding tooo much warmth? I've often considered the Gumby but I'm not sure just how MUCH warmer it will be nor how it will play with the rest of my system.

For some one who's heard both the Audio GD ESS Sabre Chips and the Gumby/Yggy what did you find?

 

[emptymt]

Have you ever listened to the Fostex TH-X00? Metal sounds darn good with these and Yggdrasil. Or even the TH-900...You'd still spend less than a Utopia. But I admit to never hearing the Utopia. Maybe it really is $4k worth of awesome.

I actuall had the TH-X00 at one point, sold it after 1 week, it was good however the bass takes the center stage with that, I want things to be more proportionate in the mix.

hahaha $4k is a lot of money, no headphone should worth that much IMO, but in saying that, I did spend the money.

 

[emptymt]

Heard most of the MHDT lineup and love them dearly. They are very versatile with tubes that allow you to change the signature to match your AMP. I purchased the Havana2 when I had the Schiit Mjolnir which is a little bight to warm up the paired signature and it worked great. However, the Ygg is a clear step up in balanced detailed performance. The MHDT can be more fun, but the Ygg will get out of the way to let your AMP do the talking. For example, my Eddie Current black widow is a very warm tuby amp where the combo with my Havana2 was too much regardless of tube choice. The Ygg took my BW to the next level. I just purchased the Hugo2 and found that it did the same thing taking my BW to a new level again. Where I am having fun with my Havana2 is in my speaker setup driving tube flavors into my Maggies. For the MHDT DACs to have a chance against the Ygg, the associated amp or HP would need to be on the bright edgy side looking for warmth. Or you would need to be a tube nut loving to tube roll looking for euphonics. Having gone that direction myself, I traded up to an eddie current zana duex so the Havana2 is sitting on the sidelines with my HUGO2 taking over my main DAC duties. Will either be selling the Havana2 or dedicating it to my speaker system as a preamp.

Come to think of it, IDK if tube rolling is a thing for me, looks like I can end up doing a lot of experimantation and spend some money on the tubes, something like the bendix is quite expensive, which adds up to the total cost for the DAC.
I'm not sure I have the time for this, and even if I do, IDK if I will use it to do some research for tubes instead of doing other more important things.

i've had the gumby and now have a yggy. you can't go wrong with a gumby -- great performance for the price. yggy is slightly better (imo), but i bet i'd have a tough time in a blind test.

Hows the mids in the Gumby compared to Yggy and other DACs in Gumby's price range? I heard some people say that it has a slight haziness to it, I like clear immediate mids, which is why I like my Utopia a lot, so don't want to hazy it up.

The MHDT DAC's are apparently warmer in presentation compared to the Gumby.

 

[Currawong]

Let me ask you guys this! I've got an NFB10ES2 dac at the moment, if I want to keep the same... colder sound sig but gain some resolve/micro detail and have further improvements to Sound Stage would the Yggdrasil be a step up without adding tooo much warmth? I've often considered the Gumby but I'm not sure just how MUCH warmer it will be nor how it will play with the rest of my system.

For some one who's heard both the Audio GD ESS Sabre Chips and the Gumby/Yggy what did you find?

You'll be fine with the Yggy. Depending on the headphones you have, you'll just get a lot more detail and it will stop being about sound signatures. Given your amps are SE, have you considered a Hugo 2?

 

[jcn3]

Hows the mids in the Gumby compared to Yggy and other DACs in Gumby's price range? I heard some people say that it has a slight haziness to it, I like clear immediate mids, which is why I like my Utopia a lot, so don't want to hazy it up.

i would say that the gumby and yggy both try to be neutral. i never had a chance to do a direct comparison between the two, but the yggy seems to be a bit more detailed and delineates individual instruments a bit better. i wouldn't say the gumby is hazy, just that the yggy is more detailed.

 

[Makiah S]

You'll be fine with the Yggy. Depending on the headphones you have, you'll just get a lot more detail and it will stop being about sound signatures. Given your amps are SE, have you considered a Hugo 2?

I had 2 weeks with it, given the cost I wasn't too impressed... the detail was mildly improved but the tonality wasn't always to My liking it did have its own "signiture" ... plus I don't need potabability and my stand alone amps r SE when I'm ready to upgrade my dac, I'll need to also upgrade my balanced amp as well since I have a combo unit

I have 2 headphones I enjoy while employing phase reversal with my balanced amps, so any upgrades will need to have balanced input/out in addition to some more SE outputs.

Chances are I'll get the amp first as my current dac has balanced out...

Though hopefully the Yggy will have a more spacious image over the NFB10ES2. But thank you!

 

[UntilThen]

I had 2 weeks with it, given the cost I wasn't too impressed... the detail was mildly improved but the tonality wasn't always to My liking it did have its own "signiture" ... plus I don't need potabability and my stand alone amps r SE when I'm ready to upgrade my dac, I'll need to also upgrade my balanced amp as well since I have a combo unit

I have 2 headphones I enjoy while employing phase reversal with my balanced amps, so any upgrades will need to have balanced input/out in addition to some more SE outputs.

Chances are I'll get the amp first as my current dac has balanced out...

Though hopefully the Yggy will have a more spacious image over the NFB10ES2. But thank you!

You will love Yggy. 6 months on and I've never regretted the purchase. It's the only dac I'll ever need. A friend who had a good speaker system came over to listen to my Eikon on the Yggdrasil and Ragnarok setup and he was very impressed with the level of details. He told me he had no idea that headphone setup can sound so good.

 

[Makiah S]

You will love Yggy. 6 months on and I've never regretted the purchase. It's the only dac I'll ever need. A friend who had a good speaker system came over to listen to my Eikon on the Yggdrasil and Ragnarok setup and he was very impressed with the level of details. He told me he had no idea that headphone setup can sound so good.

I'll have to take your word on it! I should be on the look out for a Pre Gen 5 USB used model to get the best price! I have an Etir, and I don't really want to have to use USB again. The Etir seems a bit more stable in my system than most of the USB driver based dacs I hook into it...

 

[UntilThen]

Not just my word. You will find a lot of Yggy owners who will tell you the same thing.

Yeah sure whether it's Eitr or Gen 5. I ain't really fussed.

I heard a Accuphase D37 at a recent local meet. I prefer my Yggy. I had both connected to Ragnarok and Woo Audio WA5.