New Schiit! Ragnarok and Yggdrasil

[ciphercomplete]

  I have the Yggy turned on!   I'm having difficulty getting the CMedia USB input working with my 3-month old PC.  Connecting the Asus motherboard USB output to the Yggy and WIndows 8.1 doesn't want anything to do with audio.  The computer did not automatically restart on the USB driver load and shutdown.  I had to manually yank the power cord to unfreeze the PC.   On the reboot Foobar2000 freezes, Sound Forge won't open, and Windows Sound Manager popup stalls and becomes catatonic.  But I see the CMedia device OK in Windows Device Manager... I give up (for now)...l want hear music dammit!
 
Reconnect the Off Ramp 5 S/PDIF into the Yggy BNC connector and all normal as far as the computer and USB operation.   With 15-minutes.power on it sounds OK but soundscape is narrow and not very deep.  The Master 7 has more bass fed via the Off Ramp HDMI I2S.   But I hear good things in the trebles.  Cymbal crashes sound like cymbals and not splashes of white noise.  And not much excessive sibilance (my pet peeve) - a little every now and again but controlled and seems to get better as it warms (and I cool off!).   And I am using speakers with Yggy single ended outputs driving my tube amp.  I'm already hearing new textures in the music and sound is very dynamic but a little rough at this early point.
 
So off to a rocky start but up and running on the reliable Off Ramp 5.  For USB I have a Wyrd and will try it next plus connect external +5V power to the JCAT USB board and totally bypass the PC motherboard USB and power.  For some reason I always have hell with new USB audio connections. 
 
Also I measure 23.2W of power consumed on the Kill-a-Watt meter @ 119Vac.  And getting better sounding as I type!!!  159.5 more hours to go!

 
Sorry to hear about the USB troubles.  Its a shame because I prefer the Yggy's built in USB to the CIaudio transient and I think you would probably prefer it to the Offramp.  Aside from the usb issues, your assessment of the two DACS mirrors my own at this point. The Master 7 seems to have more sort of propulsive bass but I chalk that up to it being a much more forward sounding dac.  Both have wide soundstages but the Yggy has a much deeper soundstage.  On direct comparison the Yggy exposes some unnatural roughness in the Master 7 vocals.  Both DACS are extremely good so this is all relative of course.    

 

[amalgamist]

   
Viper, can you tell us a name of the black stand you use for Rag in the picture?

 
This with the pull out tray removed http://www.amazon.com/Lorell-84148-Mesh-Monitor-Stand/dp/B00B8NBWMI/ref=pd_sim_op_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=01HQW8EGM24PMSNW5DA1

 

[EraserXIV]

This with the pull out tray removed http://www.amazon.com/Lorell-84148-Mesh-Monitor-Stand/dp/B00B8NBWMI/ref=pd_sim_op_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=01HQW8EGM24PMSNW5DA1

How do you get the Rag to fit on it? The specs say it's only 10" deep

 

[amalgamist]

Looks like the OP has the front of his rag resting on the lip of that stand and I assume the rear feet just barely clear.

 

[Viper2005]

How do you get the Rag to fit on it? The specs say it's only 10" deep

I measured it and its 12" deep.
 

 
It also says 12" deep in the specs here:
 
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00B8NBWMI/ref=pe_386430_30332290_TE_3p_dp_1

 

[EraserXIV]

Ah I see, the feet on it just barely make it, as amalgamist said.
 
Interesting.. I may pay a visit to IKEA tomorrow for a quick project I had been putting off for a while.

 

[amalgamist]

 
I measured it and its 12" deep.
 

 
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00B8NBWMI/ref=pe_386430_30332290_TE_3p_dp_1

 
What do you think about that stand ? The link says its made of plastic, is it sturdy ? Does it hold its shape well with the heavy Rag on it ?

 

[Viper2005]

  Ah I see, the feet on it just barely make it, as amalgamist said.
 
Interesting.. I may pay a visit to IKEA tomorrow for a quick project I had been putting off for a while.

 
It just clears.  But I like it since it's mesh it doesn't trap heat like a rack would.

 

[wnmnkh]

It's very nice. Thank you guys.

 

[kstuart]

Originally Posted by Baldr /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
But techno? Computer generated music? (Just press start) I dunno What to do with that. It never vibrated in free 14.7 psi air – it never made any acoustical anything. How do I reproduce something that never existed? I give up. I dunno. This leads to the question, who does? Whoever does must live in his own subjective universe and build his “good sounding” stuff for himself, praying that enough other people might agree. Too much of this thinking exists in the audio biz. This is why there are so many providers of and compulsive changers of gear. Peter Walker was right!
 
My best advice is to get something that sounds good on a lot of different music. Stuff that vibrated the air. Not techno pop stuff designed with DSP to correct the pitch of singers who can't sing. Real screw*n music that once lived in the physical universe.  That is exactly where I aimed with Yggy.

This makes sense in the audiophile world - but has nothing to do with how music is actually created in a recording studio.
 
When a record is made, (ideally), the artist, mixing engineer and producer listen to the final mix in the studio.  Great engineers - listen to the mix on a variety of systems.  For example, Bob Clearmountain listens to it in his Honda's car stereo.
 
This mixing of the instruments together gives a song a particular sound - which can be far different from a mix which clearly presents each instrument in a way that corresponds to how it sounds live.
 
A good example is Phil Spector's mixes.  If you went back to the multitrack masters and remixed it so that all of the instruments and voices sounded like they do live, and were all heard clearly, you would have a different album.  In fact, someone did just that to Derek and the Dominoes (originally mixed by Tom Dowd), and the result sounded like a live Allman Brothers album and nothing like the Dominoes.
 
So, the same thing applies to electronic instruments (which have been in use for over 60 years).  How it is supposed to sound is what the artist and engineers heard when they approved the masters.
 
Having said all that, designing your DAC so that an acoustic piano recordings sounds like a real piano (and so forth), is undoubtedly an excellent reference point for your design.

 

[Tropic]

4 OHMs to 600OHMs from a universal amplifier... Wow. Let's not mention the price tag.

 

[EraserXIV]

Rediscovering all my music.
 

 

[Viper2005]

   
What do you think about that stand ? The link says its made of plastic, is it sturdy ? Does it hold its shape well with the heavy Rag on it ?

The entire stand including the mesh is made of metal not plastic, and the tube frame is completely rigid.  The mesh does not sag under the weight of the Rag because the feet are positioned just at the edge before the tube frame.
I've had the Rag on the stand since the beginning of December and it not changed shape at all since that time!
There is 1 3/4" separation between the Ygg and the Rag when using the stand.

 

[Exidrion]

  Rediscovering all my music.

Same. I had a wds-1 and a Bifrost before this, and they both were good, but this? This is special. I can't wait till the Rag finally gets here.
 
According to purrin this "sounds like **** the first few hours."
 
I can't imagine what this is going to sound like in a week.

 

[norbert2nd]

#30983 (230V) shipped!