New Schiit! Ragnarok and Yggdrasil

[reddog]

I agree. Going from SE to balanced on HD800s/Rag made a big difference. The sound that review described with HD800s was similar to what I heard with the stock cable single-ended. It all changed when I got my balanced cable. ymmv

The balanced out of my Ragnarok, drives my Alpha Prime's far better, than does single-ended output of the Ragnarok.

 

[johnjen]

  The reviewer used the hd800s in SE mode though... so his impressions aren't completely valid imo. 

I agree…
 
To me, if someone spends $1700 on an amp and then uses it (reviews it) in crippled mode (SE), they miss the entire point.
 
The circlotron circuit, which is one of The Rok's unique attributes, when not utilized to its full capacity, immediately raises the question of, why bother?
 
It's like putting $39 tires on a new porsche.
Sure it'll get you where you're going but with no where near as much fun, or control, or enjoyment, etc…
It completely defeats the whole design purpose from the get go…
 
JJ

 

[jibzilla]

I'm fairly computer illiterate but just thought I would throw it out there for the windoze frustrations. My auralic dac uses a ASIO driver that was pretty easy to download from foobar and it sounds great. The instructions were inside the auralic manual and very easy to follow, only like 10 steps, 3 pages, 20 min. tops. I'm sure ASIO has its critics but this might be a good way to get around windoze issues and I can tell ya it sounds wonderful.
 
I remember the mac mini talk around the time I bought my tranquility dac. The maker (sorry I can't remember) pretty much told his buyers to buy a mac mini, that his dac would sound better from a mac mini than anything else, $400. I almost went for it but did not. Then I thought about the vortex box that I saw someone on here mention and purchasing a sonore server that was on sale locally in my area, $1k. I then saw why the person was selling it and it was because he got the tidal bug and did not have a need for it anymore, even included 10k songs. Then I tried tidal and yeah I'm a big fan and while I had to download google chrome that took like 2 minutes.
 
My point is to not to get so caught up in the windoze. If I did I would have 2 items at over $1400 that I would have no use for.

 

[estreeter]

TIDAL still not available in my (adopted) country, I'm afraid, but it seems like a good deal. Sure, I could mess around with proxy servers and the like, but is that really the grid you want carrying a high quality streaming service ? I think not  
 
https://tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202453191

 

[reddog]

Neither?

I'm just stating that he didn't use the Ragnarok to its full potential and he compared the SE hd800s to the balanced he-500s, which isn't fair. Others have stated that the circolotrons of Ragnarok benefits significantly from the balanced output, and the SE output is just there for convenience. The reviewer's impressions could have been much different with the rag if he had used a balanced cable with the hd800s. Just saying that anyone who's thinking of getting a ragnarok should be using it to its full potential by using its balanced output.

+1 Well said. The real magic of the rag is in balanced output mode.

 

[arnaud]

  TIDAL still not available in my (adopted) country, I'm afraid, but it seems like a good deal. Sure, I could mess around with proxy servers and the like, but is that really the grid you want carrying a high quality streaming service ? I think not  
 
https://tidalsupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202453191

That's why there's Qobuz for you. Working fine from Japan... I did register through a proxy but not even sure that matters.

 

[prot]

Want to run that part about 'the Windows drivers will work fine' past me again, Chief ? 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/667711/new-schiit-ragnarok-and-yggdrasil/5190#post_11449383

Mike is going to have to put in whatever hours it takes to get these drivers right - somehow I doubt he shares your outlook. 

No DAC dev needs to share any outlooks with me. They just have to do the work as everyone else ... and windows drivers are no rocket science cause hundreds of people/companies did it already. And then he names a price for his effort & extra support costs and I decide if it's worth it. Simple as that.

And btw, we customers also have to work and earn the money to pay for those DACs.. that includes unpleasant and/or meaningless tasks quite often. Some people are so passionate/addicted to this stuff that they work & save a year just to buy such a highend component. What if each one of us starts to whine about his own?!

 

[mikek200]

No DAC dev needs to share any outlooks with me. They just have to do the work as everyone else ... and windows drivers are no rocket science cause hundreds of people/companies did it already. And then he names a price for his effort & extra support costs and I decide if it's worth it. Simple as that.

And btw, we customers also have to work and earn the money to pay for those DACs.. that includes unpleasant and/or meaningless tasks quite often. Some people are so passionate/addicted to this stuff that they work & save a year just to buy such a highend component. What if each one of us starts to whine about his own?!

Well,taking into account that-this dac is probably a "state of the art" dac,and it is priced very low{IMHO} ,and is made in the USA,we should just relax,and give Jason a few weeks,or,months..to get this stupid driver problem solved
In the meantime,we wait!!,not the end of the world,think how much electricity you will save-LOL
 
Mike

 

[bfreedma]

Well,taking into account that-this dac is probably a "state of the art" dac,and it is priced very low{IMHO} ,and is made in the USA,we should just relax,and give Jason a few weeks,or,months..to get this stupid driver problem solved
In the meantime,we wait!!,not the end of the world,think how much electricity you will save-LOL

Mike

I'm pretty sure that's his point. The trouble with Windows USB drivers is being hugely overstated here. As Jason posted earlier, they will have stable Windows drivers for the Yggy, just as they have for their other DACs. I'm sure the need for working Windows drivers was not forgotten when the product was envisioned and the development scheduled.

That the Yggy is SOTA as a DAC has zero to do with getting Windows USB drivers working properly.

 

[mikek200]

I'm pretty sure that's his point. The trouble with Windows USB drivers is being hugely overstated here. As Jason posted earlier, they will have stable Windows drivers for the Yggy, just as they have for their other DACs. I'm sure the need for working Windows drivers was not forgotten when the product was envisioned and the development scheduled.

That the Yggy is SOTA as a DAC has zero to do with getting Windows USB drivers working properly.

OK,Thanks for your comments/reply.....

 

[prot]

I'm pretty sure that's his point. The trouble with Windows USB drivers is being hugely overstated here. As Jason posted earlier, they will have stable Windows drivers for the Yggy, just as they have for their other DACs. I'm sure the need for working Windows drivers was not forgotten when the product was envisioned and the development scheduled.

That the Yggy is SOTA as a DAC has zero to do with getting Windows USB drivers working properly.

Thx bfreedma, that's pretty much the point. There no reason to believe that schiit's windows drivers would have any issues. And while I wont be a first batch customer I am very interested and hopeful that the iggy will be an easily audible step up in the DAC arena ... and generally dont mind waiting a while for quality.
The iggy and hd1000 threads have an annoying tendency to get out of proportion very fast ... that's the price of building up hype I guess.

 

[jibzilla]

 
That's why there's Qobuz for you. Working fine from Japan... I did register through a proxy but not even sure that matters.

I really think this tidal, Qobuz, etc. is going to be the next new wave. Not quite sure what a proxy is, like I said I'm fairly computer green, but I just downloaded google chrome and registered to tidal and it sounds pretty rootin tootin. Can I understand the frustration? Yes absolutely but at the same time the people have been figuring a way around it since at least 5 years ago with the mac mini and more recently with the sonore/vortex box so if you want to get around windows I'd say it has been really easy for a while now. I know when I bought my Samsung 17" series 7 chronos labtop about 3 years ago it had twice the specs at half the price of an equivalent mac, open box $250 off deal but still. I know specs are not everything but I could have the samsung and a mac mini for the same price of just a 13" mac labtop with half the specs of the Samsung, at least of 3 years ago. 

 

[DSNORD]

Been following the CanJam feed especially regarding the Yggy/Rag combo. Not sure what to make of the impressions. Some thought it was okay but nothing special, definitely not the end all and be all the "hype" has led us to believe, and yet others said the magic was definitely there and it appears to be the real deal. On the other hand, the Cavalli stuff got rave reviews from basically everyone.

Several recurring themes that I could glean were listener fatigue (too many systems over too many hours), poor music choices and difficulty finding familiar genres, interface difficulties connecting one's own sources to test rigs, and general elevated sound level of the environment (guy next to you blasting open HFs at 120 dB while you too are using open HFs), all of which can skew the results.

So rather than get depressed that Yggy isn't a whole lot better than than my Gungnir with my Rag and LCD-X, I have to hope that upon release to the public, the forthcoming reviews done under more ideal and typical home situations will prove that the hype wasn't just a bunch of BS. Anyone care to weigh in, especially if you were at the show?

DSN

 

[ZoNtO]

Been following the CanJam feed especially regarding the Yggy/Rag combo. Not sure what to make of the impressions. Some thought it was okay but nothing special, definitely not the end all and be all the "hype" has led us to believe, and yet others said the magic was definitely there and it appears to be the real deal. On the other hand, the Cavalli stuff got rave reviews from basically everyone.

Several recurring themes that I could glean were listener fatigue (too many systems over too many hours), poor music choices and difficulty finding familiar genres, interface difficulties connecting one's own sources to test rigs, and general elevated sound level of the environment (guy next to you blasting open HFs at 120 dB while you too are using open HFs), all of which can skew the results.

So rather than get depressed that Yggy isn't a whole lot better than than my Gungnir with my Rag and LCD-X, I have to hope that upon release to the public, the forthcoming reviews done under more ideal and typical home situations will prove that the hype wasn't just a bunch of BS. Anyone care to weigh in, especially if you were at the show?

DSN

Looking forward to responses, as I've wondered the same.
 
I always try to take reviews with a grain of salt. I would imagine that a product that initially sounds exciting and different ends up being fatiguing for one reason or another, especially if the different sound signature jumps out at a listener so much under less-than-ideal conditions like those at a meet.

 

[thegunner100]

Been following the CanJam feed especially regarding the Yggy/Rag combo. Not sure what to make of the impressions. Some thought it was okay but nothing special, definitely not the end all and be all the "hype" has led us to believe, and yet others said the magic was definitely there and it appears to be the real deal. On the other hand, the Cavalli stuff got rave reviews from basically everyone.

Several recurring themes that I could glean were listener fatigue (too many systems over too many hours), poor music choices and difficulty finding familiar genres, interface difficulties connecting one's own sources to test rigs, and general elevated sound level of the environment (guy next to you blasting open HFs at 120 dB while you too are using open HFs), all of which can skew the results.

So rather than get depressed that Yggy isn't a whole lot better than than my Gungnir with my Rag and LCD-X, I have to hope that upon release to the public, the forthcoming reviews done under more ideal and typical home situations will prove that the hype wasn't just a bunch of BS. Anyone care to weigh in, especially if you were at the show?

DSN

 
The two vintage dacs that I have (Parasound D/AC-1100 and Sonic Frontiers Transdac) are clearly better sounding than my gungnir right now. If they're any indication of great sounding R2R dacs, then I don't think you'll have to worry about the Yggy not being significantly better than the gungnir.