[Exidrion]

Also he said it was bliss, so he's prob selling it for other reasons

 

[reddog]

Learn how to read properly.
Never said I preferred.
Just said from hearing other expensive musical dacs,
that I can understand why one would prefer something else.
And the realization of the yggy being at that catagory of top level..
You calling my observations hype & nonsense, is your own problem.

How much more clear I have to make that?

Also,
Adding my own impression of how I dislike the new chord should not affect my previous pionts,
unless you cannot follow two different topics in same post,
which, again, is your problem...
Not liking my post doesnt change or invalidate the views and points I posted.
That's your choice.

Well said +1

 

[45longcolt]

I confess to being a bit confused about the "summing" circuits - not so much about the need for them as about exactly how they are configured. I have heard on Ragnarok the deleterious effects on SQ from the SE phone jack, and I blame the summers. So if it's the same circuit in front of the RCA outs on Ygg (and on Rag for that matter, which I use to feed a sub and am thus not all that worried about) then I can easily understand why it would be worth avoiding the RCAs on Ygg even if it meant making custom-wired adapters. So far I've fed the balanced outs from Ygg to balnaced ins on Rag and been quite happy. Still trying to work up the guts to replace the fuse - any step-by-step guide out there for the timid?

 

[Ric Schultz]

Yes, absolutely, you would want to float pin 3.....if you shorted it to ground then the negative phase would be driving a short all the time.  Not good for the circuitry.
 
It all comes down to the listeners versus the techies.  The techies say summing the phases lowers distortion.  This listener says listen to the positive phase only and it lowers distortion.  Who would you believe?  A techie or your ears.  I trust my ears.  I have never found a summing circuit that did not mess the sound some.  A super low distortion low impedance silver transformer does very little to the sound.  Most solid state summers.....well, not so good.
 
The only way to know what something does to the sound is to listen to it.  All words are meaningless without listening tests.  When you hear something....then you know something.  These kind of things are not subtle.  A lot of people would say you guys are all woo woo with all your warm up/burn in sound change drama.  I KNOW otherwise...because I listen.  Burn in and warm up are real.  So is removing circuitry that is not needed and that adds AUDIBLE distortion.....Not talking measurements here....talking audible differences that anyone can hear.

 

[llkmi]

Hi Folks, Just wanted to give some more first impressions of Yggy. Maybe not a lot to say that has not already been said – but here are some impressions anyway. First, I am just over 3 days in with my Yggy – running 24x7 on a solid stream of JRiver over USB. (Luckily my business trip got cancelled and was working from home this week so it went into service within 20 minutes or so of arriving). I downloaded and installed the USB driver with no issues. For what it’s worth I had no previous Schiit driver installed.  I am using an older laptop that was upgraded to windows 8.1 and I am using a Pangea usb cable. The “buy better gear” light did not illuminate so I assume my source is fine. All listening is done on speakers.
Some quick background – I had a fairly high end system many years ago but sold it after marriage and kids with the intent to re-purchase newer and better a few years later (so young, so naïve). It is now many years later and I am slowly building up again – mostly buying used. The next target on my list was a dac. To hold me over I did a budget dac search and selected a Parasound Zdac that I was very impressed with for the price (and I still highly recommend for the ridiculous used price now) .
Cold out of the box – I much preferred Yggy over Parasound Zdac (as I should for the price) – more real, dynamic and solid sounding. The difference was not subtle. The Parasound is known for solid bass but with Yggy I felt like I was listening to my 18 inch velodyne sub from my basement system instead of the 12 inch ACI Titan in my office.  One of the strong points of the Parasound was the solid foundation of the bass so I was pleased. After reading some of the feedback I was afraid Yggy would be unlistenable at first – but that is not the case at all. It still needed development but quite impressive from the start. I am a firm believer in burn in so nothing I heard worried me. I have indeed heard the odd things reported with the treble though. I would describe it as an  odd resonance or oscillation at a particular high frequency that was prominent on certain portions of certain tracks (Sarah McLachlan Surfacing, Rob Wasserman Duets (end of the Bobby McFerrin track around 4 minute point, and Angel Eyes). I would describe it as a touch steely, glassy or hyper illuminated – like a halogen light shining on that frequency if that makes any sense. I used to experiment building ribbon tweeters and it reminded me a bit of aluminum foil ribbon resonating.  Anyway it was a little less obvious after 48 hours and much better after 3 days. Not being prominent on all music I was only occasionally bothered. Piano and vocals sounded great – so real. Strings, not as much. (I will break this up so I don’t have one giant post)

 

[llkmi]

Continued from above - The soundstage was not huge but was very good. There is a real sense of palpability. Real people, real instruments in a real space, yet I felt there was more to come.  To put things in perspective, I had a Musical Fidelity Vdac II which had a big soundstage, but to me it seemed like sound just was just splashed all over the place – a special effect vs real music. I refer to is as the silly putty effect. The image on the silly putty from the newspaper starts off rich and focused but when stretched, it may be wider but image density is not there and is distorted, not real. I am fine with the Yggy soundstage so far – I don’t want larger than life – I want life.
Day 2 Morning – One of the nice things about breaking in a piece of equipment is I let JRiver just run through music files. When I wake up, I raise the volume and sometimes hear something I have not listened to for quite a while or even forget I own. Day 2 morning I had a literal jaw drop experience when I turned the volume up. The soundtrack to Don Juan De Marco was playing – the track was Arabia. I have not given this album a thought in a good 20 years or so. Boy did it sound good though – full on dynamic orchestra. I take back what I thought day one regarding soundstage – I got both big and real. The low end was tremendous. Not to overblow things, it was still breaking in, still had the squirrelly treble thing going on,  but I was getting a sense of this dac’s capabilities.
 Day 3: About 75 hours in and the high end continues to improve, as does image focus and, more than anything, palpability. I had my son listen to the zdac vs Yggy and he described the same differences and also noted that the Zdac sounded really good – but Yggy was a whole different level of realism. I just got Eric Bibb’s Booker’s Guitar CD – another jaw drop moment. Awesome CD both musically and sonically – the realism is just amazing to me. Across the board everything continues to improve. This 3 day mark seems to coincide with others’ comments as a burn in milestone. So looking forward to what else is to come. 

 

[llkmi]

Now for some philosophical discussion

. I know everything I have stated needs to be taken with a grain of salt as I don’t have a mega bucks system like others. In my defense, I do pretty well at seeking out great used gear at a great price and ending up with a system that sounds much better than it should.  Comparing to a Dac a quarter of the price is not much help. For me to buy new at this price is a big deal. I am not interested in comparing Yggy to the MSB Analog or even the Auralic Vega as those price points are not really an option (after all, we need a well balanced system so all the money needs to be spread around components). Keeping the $10K dac over the $2k dac because it is slightly better is not really a concern for me (sorry Wino – love your posts btw – God bless that you can). What is a concern is whether the Yggy sounds better than a used dac in the same price range. I have heard dacs such as the PS Audio PWD II and NAD M51 but unfortunately not in my system. They sounded good but I can’t say anything jumped out at me to make me believe they were better than the Yggy - but again, without hearing them in the same system it is all conjecture.  Should I find someone with one locally who wants to compare – I may be game. So why did I buy new? Partly the direct pricing model which has served me will in the past with ACI speakers (who were way ahead of their time). Partly because a 5 year warranty vs luck of the draw with used. Mainly because it is a Mike Moffat statement dac for around $2K. For those of us who have been around a while, that is like Dan D'Agostino leaving Krell to open his own company and selling his statement Amp direct to the public for  $3k instead of $30K (or whatever his amps are going for these days). You bet I would buy it. While I never owned a Theta Dac, I did have their Data II transport which I liked a lot. (Paid well over $2k for it back in the early 90’s – kind of makes me cringe now). Regardless, he is legendary. I applaud the approach of Mike and Jason. I don’t need a piece of visual art, I need a piece of sonic art. Simple cases (which are still quite nice in person) are fine with me – make it sound good. No DSD – fine with me as long as it sounds good. By and large I feel like I have already spent too much on high res music which is also part of the rationalization for pulling the trigger on the Yggy. Last week I bought 51 CDs at an estate sale for a buck each. Simple math - $51 for CDs or $1k for high res downloads. CDs on the Yggy vs high res on the Zdac? No contest – Yggy all the way. Looks like I already have it half paid off

 Did I make the right decision – I have no idea but I am happy so far and am willing to compare more to give more objective feedback (but not until I am further along the burn in trail).

 

[goobicii]

can someone explain to me how warm up can improve sound quality? Yggy is all about that bit precision,the higher the heat the bigger is thermal noise and thermal noise is huge limiting factor,limiting dacs at room temperature to max 21bit accuracy
 
couldnt it be that Yggy is more accurate from the start,this accuracy shows more flaws of the recorded audio,its harsh treble that producents failed to notice becose they didnt have DAC accurate as Yggy so thats why it sounds bad and as it warms up the thermal noise hides,smooths out the harsh truth.

 

[lukeap69]

  can someone explain to me how warm up can improve sound quality? Yggy is all about that bit precision,the higher the heat the bigger is thermal noise and thermal noise is huge limiting factor,limiting dacs at room temperature to max 21bit accuracy
 
couldnt it be that Yggy is more accurate from the start,this accuracy shows more flaws of the recorded audio,its harsh treble that producents failed to notice becose they didnt have DAC accurate as Yggy so thats why it sounds bad and as it warms up the thermal noise hides,smooths out the harsh truth.

Mike Moffat already did on one of his posts. 

 

[goobicii]

  Mike Moffat already did on one of his posts. 

what page?

 

[lukeap69]

  what page?

Sorry, I don't have time to search for you. There are tools for that.

 

[Solude]

  can someone explain to me how warm up can improve sound quality?

 
It's about thermal stability.  I.e. not in a state of change as far thermals are concerned.  That said class a products improve with heat so there's that =)

 

[goobicii]

   
It's about thermal stability.  I.e. not in a state of change as far thermals are concerned.  That said class a products improve with heat so there's that =)

 thanks alot,but what if I made DIY yggy mod that would cool the chips using a freezer to -30 to -60.... it would be thermaly stable but at much lower temperature so that would theoreticaly be more accurate right?

 

[Solude]

No.  Accuracy is from the changes of opening and closing gates remaining the same.  That said, we are talking parts per million here so there is that

 

[goobicii]

  No.  Accuracy is from the changes of opening and closing gates remaining the same.  That said, we are talking parts per million here so there is that

 
pardon,bad word,didnt meant accuracy but thermal noise....now I would never do this but theoreticaly if I put Yggy in freezer,let it on like Moffat said to reach thermal stability,it would reach that point but at much lower temperature and it would be more perfect sound due to lower thermal noise