[D2Girls]

Sorry for the foolish question but is that sr7 thing the same thing as something like a AQ Niagara 5000? I'm not sure what or if there's a difference. They both have a bunch of power outlets on them!

 

[D2Girls]

Don't the Paul Hynes SR7 power supplies have a year+ wait time to be built. From what I read, there is a 2-4 month wait time to even get Paul Hynes to even respond to an email.

I'm also curious, but what cables were the 6 gauge used? That seems like an insanely thick cable, & I haven't really seen any sold that big.

I mean he/she has a ARC Ref6 preamp... I think it comes default with a 20ampre power cord. Actually, pretty much every ARC owner seems to own garden hose thick cables!

 

[Limniscate]

Sorry for the foolish question but is that sr7 thing the same thing as something like a AQ Niagara 5000? I'm not sure what or if there's a difference. They both have a bunch of power outlets on them!

No, not even close to the same thing. The AQ Niagara is, I believe, a power conditioner. The Paul Hynes SR7 is a linear power supply.

 

[Whazzzup]

Don't the Paul Hynes SR7 power supplies have a year+ wait time to be built. From what I read, there is a 2-4 month wait time to even get Paul Hynes to even respond to an email.

I'm also curious, but what cables were the 6 gauge used? That seems like an insanely thick cable, & I haven't really seen any sold that big.

Just picked up perfect wave ac12, its 8 gauge and insanely intense power cable.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ps-audio-perfectwave-ac-12-power-cable.886654/

 

[smodtactical]

Since I haven't reviewed a DAC (or done anything else on this process) here in about a year and a half, and have no intention of doing so, I would say "No".

I reviewed a couple of DENAFRIPS DACs elsewhere.

Sorry so to clarify you are saying the Venus and terminator are inferior to the Yggdrasil?

 

[Torq]

Sorry so to clarify you are saying the Venus and terminator are inferior to the Yggdrasil?

I'm not saying anything at all about how the Venus or Terminator compare to Yggdrasil.

I am saying that I stopped this process, and for the most part even commenting in this thread (unless someone quotes me or references me directly - and not always then), a year and a half ago. And as a result neither the Venus, the Terminator, or any other DACs are going on "the list".

 

[D2Girls]

I'm not saying anything at all about how the Venus or Terminator compare to Yggdrasil.

I am saying that I stopped this process, and for the most part even commenting in this thread (unless someone quotes me or references me directly - and not always then), a year and a half ago. And as a result neither the Venus, the Terminator, or any other DACs are going on "the list".

I saw your PONTUS review but I didn't see anything about your thoughts on the Terminator. Could you PM me the link?

 

[Thenewguy007]

I saw your PONTUS review but I didn't see anything about your thoughts on the Terminator. Could you PM me the link?

I think he has officially stopped auditioning DACs.
He hasn't auditioned the Venus or Terminator at all or any other newer DAC.

Kinda of a shame though, his reviews were a lot more trustworthy than the ones you see on various websites.

 

[D2Girls]

I think he has officially stopped auditioning DACs.
He hasn't auditioned the Venus or Terminator at all or any other newer DAC.

Kinda of a shame though, his reviews were a lot more trustworthy than the ones you see on various websites.

For some reason I thought I saw Torq say he reviewed the Terminator already. Ah well. There's plenty of reviews of it already online.

 

[Torq]

I saw your PONTUS review but I didn't see anything about your thoughts on the Terminator. Could you PM me the link?

No, because I've never reviewed it.

I think he has officially stopped auditioning DACs.

I stopped the "Life after Yggdrasil" review cycle/thread (for a variety of reasons).

I still review DACs occasionally, and will likely do rather more of it in the future, but it won't be in this format.

Since reviewing the Ares and Pontus, I've done the Soekris dac1541, the Massdrop x Airist Audio R-2R DAC, the Holo Audio CYAN (PCM and DSD) and several others - including a bunch that I've not published/posted yet. Though, only the Soekris unit was done in the same vein as what I was doing here.

 

[Reggy]

For some reason I thought I saw Torq say he reviewed the Terminator already. Ah well. There's plenty of reviews of it already online.

I'm sure the Terminator is a great piece of gear from the number of reviews I've heard, problem is it has a lot of competition for its price tag ($4294 USD) so it may not work well as a value-price performance aspect (Plus the Yggdrasil from the looks of it has boasted perhaps almost everything out there to achieve the lowest price/value marker at $2400). I hold a strong opinion that for the majority of "non-hobbyists", that is people who are not in it for the process of journeying on a "quest" and just want the end result should spend no more than $3000, well just because of sanity and common sense of where technology, audio, costs and diminishing return of satisfaction intersect.

Surprisingly though the Venus is pretty close to the price tag of the Yggdrasil as the Singapore dollar has gone down recently its down to now $2821 USD, so only $400 more. There are very few reviews on it though which is unfortunate. All I know is if it holds pretty much inline with the same performance as its flagship then it may be something to consider if one is looking for an all out musical sub $3000 DAC depending on tilted preference where it lies, but I really don't know where it lies as the majority seem to go all out and get the flagship.

Compared to the Ares and the Pontus it gets higher precision R2R resistors (0.005 % tolerance) like the Terminator oppose to 0.01% ones on the Ares and Pontus so that may or may not have an effect in the quality of details presented in some of the microdetails and dynamics. It also claims to possess 26 bits of resolution like the Flagship (not that will theoretically help as I believe for practical reasons 21 is the highest that's useful).

I'm not in the means of upgrading though, as for sub $1000 I think the Ares pairs really well with my lean Genelec monitors but depending what happens in the next couple years particularly in the R2R market of DACs it would be interesting if the Venus takes shoulders with the other ones at the $2500 level.

You might be interested in this general tech review of the Yddrasil to the HoloAudio Spring DAC "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3 it seems honest and jumping to the comparison of the Holo it appears the reviewer is honing on the fact that the preferences lie to how much "firmer" one wants the sound compared to the extreme raw resolution of the Yggy which possesses a slightly softer sound, that also goes hand-in-hand with a slightly less exaggeration in ambience and air:

https://www.cnet.com/news/the-best-schiit-ever-the-yggdrasil-digital-audio-converter/#

 

[Rhamnetin]

I'm sure the Terminator is a great piece of gear from the number of reviews I've heard, problem is it has a lot of competition for its price tag ($4294 USD) so it may not work well as a value-price performance aspect (Plus the Yggdrasil from the looks of it has boasted perhaps almost everything out there to achieve the lowest price/value marker at $2400). I hold a strong opinion that for the majority of "non-hobbyists", that is people who are not in it for the process of journeying on a "quest" and just want the end result should spend no more than $3000, well just because of sanity and common sense of where technology, audio, costs and diminishing return of satisfaction intersect.

Surprisingly though the Venus is pretty close to the price tag of the Yggdrasil as the Singapore dollar has gone down recently its down to now $2821 USD, so only $400 more. There are very few reviews on it though which is unfortunate. All I know is if it holds pretty much inline with the same performance as its flagship then it may be something to consider if one is looking for an all out musical sub $3000 DAC depending on tilted preference where it lies, but I really don't know where it lies as the majority seem to go all out and get the flagship.

Compared to the Ares and the Pontus it gets higher precision R2R resistors (0.005 % tolerance) like the Terminator oppose to 0.01% ones on the Ares and Pontus so that may or may not have an effect in the quality of details presented in some of the microdetails and dynamics. It also claims to possess 26 bits of resolution like the Flagship (not that will theoretically help as I believe for practical reasons 21 is the highest that's useful).

I'm not in the means of upgrading though, as for sub $1000 I think the Ares pairs really well with my lean Genelec monitors but depending what happens in the next couple years particularly in the R2R market of DACs it would be interesting if the Venus takes shoulders with the other ones at the $2500 level.

You might be interested in this general tech review of the Yddrasil to the HoloAudio Spring DAC "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3 it seems honest and jumping to the comparison of the Holo it appears the reviewer is honing on the fact that the preferences lie to how much "firmer" one wants the sound compared to the extreme raw resolution of the Yggy which possesses a slightly softer sound, that also goes hand-in-hand with a slightly less exaggeration in ambience and air:

https://www.cnet.com/news/the-best-schiit-ever-the-yggdrasil-digital-audio-converter/#

The Venus and Terminator are both overbuilt for the price (same for Audio-GD). Their main competition in terms of build quality and capability are >=$5k DACs like the Metrum Pavane and Audio Note DAC 5.1 Signature and Wavelength Audio (the latter two go above and beyond in other ways like in current to voltage conversion). Compare the amount of resistor ladders these DACs have, as well as the precision of the resistor matching, and the power supply designs to that of the Yggdrasil or Spring DAC. They're not even close.

 

[Reggy]

The Venus and Terminator are both overbuilt for the price (same for Audio-GD). Their main competition in terms of build quality and capability are >=$5k DACs like the Metrum Pavane and Audio Note DAC 5.1 Signature and Wavelength Audio (the latter two go above and beyond in other ways like in current to voltage conversion). Compare the amount of resistor ladders these DACs have, as well as the precision of the resistor matching, and the power supply designs to that of the Yggdrasil or Spring DAC. They're not even close.

Well those aspects are definitely one to consider, I'm guessing by resistor matching you don't mean tolerance but the way they are laid out? Did you ever manage to hear a Venus since it being $2800USD I would have thought to compare it to sub $3000 competition for a little more lee way.

 

[Rhamnetin]

Well those aspects are definitely one to consider, I'm guessing by resistor matching you don't mean tolerance but the way they are laid out? Did you ever manage to hear a Venus since it being $2800USD I would have thought to compare it to sub $3000 competition for a little more lee way.

I did mean the tolerance actually, my mistake. I owned a Venus but never an Yggdrasil. The Venus is able to sound smooth and laid back without sacrificing detail though. A bit too laid back and "soft" for my taste, seems like the Yggdrasil is the opposite?

 

[Reggy]

Cool, so you have owned the Venus, not too many people have. For the tolerance I couldn't find the Yggdrasil resistor tolerance, one member here claims unless the designer is randomizing the selection every clock cycle to get 26 bit resolution (proclaimed with the Venus) you will need 11 million resistors, as per the person on Audiogon: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussi...nd-schiit-yggdrasil-evaluation-and-comparison

As for a soft or harder sound of the Yggdrasil I am not sure when comparing to the Venus.

From https://www.cnet.com/news/the-best-schiit-ever-the-yggdrasil-digital-audio-converter/#
The reviewer claims the Yggy is softer compared to the Holo spring

While here: https://community.roonlabs.com/t/what-exactly-is-an-r2r-dac/22735/18

The conclusion written by Robert Harley states:

I don’t know how Schiit Audio has done it, but the $2300 Yggy
is in many ways competitive with any DAC I’ve heard regardless
of price. In some criteria—transient speed without etch, clarity
of musical line, whole-body involvement—the Yggy is as good
as digital gets. Yet the Yggy’s bold incisiveness may not resonate
with listeners who prefer a more relaxed and easygoing sound.
I, however, have no such reservation; this is a DAC I could
listen to and enjoy for a long time. In fact, there was something
different about the Yggy that pushed my buttons—I felt a musical
exhilaration that was experienced not as some intellectual
abstraction, but at a more fundamentally visceral level.
If you’re looking for a DAC that does quad-rate DSD, decodes
MQA, offers a volume control, and includes a headphone
amp, look elsewhere. But if the very best reproduction of PCM
sources is your goal, the Yggdrasil is the ticket. It’s a spectacular
performer on an absolute level, and an out-of-this world bargain.
The Yggy is not just a tremendous value in today’s DACs,
it’s one of the greatest bargains in the history of high-end audio.

So I am going to guess for absolute conveyance of resolution that does mean the Yggy is the outperformer at that price level and even when compared to even the higher price DACs. However unless you are listening to Audiophile or natural recordings of live music like jazz or classical it may not vibe to the modern day recordings. The stunning technicals may not be noticeably immediate to enjoy however I don't doubt it will continue to impress for years to come.

I own the Denafrip Ares and I am going to guess its a lot harder or moister in sound compared to the Yggy. Would you consider the Venus to be somewhat sweet like the Holo Spring?