[preproman]

yggy had no harsh trebles, especially compared to most if not all modern non-tube dacs..

 
It's interesting to see what "most if not all modern non-tube dacs" you've heard.

 

[purrin]

LOL, I've heard modern tube DACs with harsh treble.
 

still, it will not have a tube/analog smoothness, which is what is meant by the trebles.
Many of the best dacs implement tubes to give more holographic and organic nature to their dac, which makes them musical, but the dac chip portion itself may or may not be as truthfull to the source as the yggy.

Also I know that a tube amp on yggy sigle-ended outputs can still beat out a top solid state amp on the balanced outs, because I herd it happen with my own ears..

 

What would be interesting might be to replace the FETs on the Yggy with a tube buffer. That is a proper tube implementation that doesn't color the sound in tubey way. Maybe a low gain tube with a high quality transformer (no caps in signal path). I may try it in my spare time. Don't try this at home. Voids warranty. I don't want Jason @ Co. blaming me for other people being stupid or killing themselves with high voltage.

 

[evillamer]

Lampazitored Yggdrasil! Yikes!

 

[AlanU]

  LOL, I've heard modern tube DACs with harsh treble.
 
What would be interesting might be to replace the FETs on the Yggy with a tube buffer. That is a proper tube implementation that doesn't color the sound in tubey way. Maybe a low gain tube with a high quality transformer (no caps in signal path). I may try it in my spare time. Don't try this at home. Voids warranty. I don't want Jason @ Co. blaming me for other people being stupid or killing themselves with high voltage.

 
Not sure if it's possible to have a "non coloured" tube buffer. Every single different Tubes I use will always change the sound signature.
 
6L6GC buffer tubes (BIG) is incredible compared to my Kt66 or 6550. This is the draw to tubes for many folks for the added compression, overtones and pleasant distortion to the human hear.  My independent power supply to my tube buffers (rectifier) alone is a massive improvement but $$$ 
 
I'd keep the yggy solid state for the solid state "sound". The yggy does a good job in that realm. I dont think a modded yggy can even compare to other offerings for the tube fans.

 

[Maxx134]

yggy had no harsh trebles, especially compared to most if not all modern non-tube dacs..

It's interesting to see what "most if not all modern non-tube dacs" you've heard.

haha!
No where as many as you,
but I have herd a few nice ones in meets.
And I know first hand how sabre & AKM dacs are.
Also my post is not specific enough to realize should state there are smoother dacs.
I consider my old Irdac and also the LIO to have a smoother presentation.
The LIO is AKM dac which I herd quite a few times at friends house.
The others at meets cannot be mentioned because the fact it was a meet sort of diminishes the value of the impression.
Anyway the point I should have made was that I never experienced any harshness out of a yggy.

 

[preproman]

haha!
No where as many as you,
but I have herd a few nice ones in meets.
And I know first hand how sabre & AKM dacs are.
Also my post is not specific enough to realize should state there are smoother dacs.
I consider my old Irdac and also the LIO to have a smoother presentation.
The LIO is AKM dac which I herd quite a few times at friends house.
The others at meets cannot be mentioned because the fact it was a meet sort of diminishes the value of the impression.
Anyway the point I should have made was that I never experienced any harshness out of a yggy.

 
Well I urge you to listen to the Bricasti M1.  All Sabre DACs don't sound the same.  Just like all R2R DACs don't sound the same.  So you know first hand how that / those specific DACs sound.  Not how all sabre DACs sound. 
 
I would dare to say you have not heard a real good sabre implementation until you heard the M1.

 

[Radio_head]

I believe the Bricasti M1 uses the Analog Devices AD1955 in a mono configuration, at least last I heard.  Have they switched to Sabre?

 

[preproman]

Sorry - it's a Sigma-Delta DAC..,

 

[JWahl]

  LOL, I've heard modern tube DACs with harsh treble.
 
What would be interesting might be to replace the FETs on the Yggy with a tube buffer. That is a proper tube implementation that doesn't color the sound in tubey way. Maybe a low gain tube with a high quality transformer (no caps in signal path). I may try it in my spare time. Don't try this at home. Voids warranty. I don't want Jason @ Co. blaming me for other people being stupid or killing themselves with high voltage.

I was actually thinking the same thing, since it's only running a buffer on the output anyways, and not a gain stage.  But who knows, being modular, perhaps they'll release a tube buffer on their own eventually.  I'm saving up for an Yggy myself now.  Making due with a Modi + iUSB which is actually surprisingly decent, given the transparency of the rest of my chain.

 

[AlanU]

  I was actually thinking the same thing, since it's only running a buffer on the output anyways, and not a gain stage.  But who knows, being modular, perhaps they'll release a tube buffer on their own eventually.  I'm saving up for an Yggy myself now.  Making due with a Modi + iUSB which is actually surprisingly decent, given the transparency of the rest of my chain.

 
There isn't much a following for tube buffers (separate units) in the hifi world. Some love them and some don't care for them.   For my situation I know that my Grant Fidelity B-283 mk2 tube processor/buffer (with black treasures or Sylvania vintage tubes) really takes the edge off of  digital solid state dacs. Makes my Burson Virtuoso extremely pleasing with musical enjoyment eliminating solid state "sound."  I'd be very certain that if you have preference to compression and additional harmonics (extremely desirable to the human ear) you'd love your current dac with the addition of a tube buffer over many new solid state dacs on the market. 
 
The desire for transparency is very common for many folks. Then there's a shift in hifi folks venturing into vinyl, tube amps and pre amps for analog representation of music that just seems to hit the sweet spot for many seasoned hifi hobbyists. There is still a lot of detail lost in the conversion of the artist's work in analog then converted to digital (flac, wav etc) converted by a DAC. The intent of tube buffers is to re introduce the lost musical bliss (harmonics, overtones, compression, distortion) that has been lost in the Studio's analog tape to digital conversion. Live music always sounds better for this reason......
 
It's not feasible for many companies to build a tube buffer because of the lack of popularity. Not many adapted to that sort of kool aid. Tube dac's, tube pre amps and tube amps is a whole different world. I love both but I will gladly take on the additional hassles of tubes any day vs solid state.  
 
I'm really eager to audition the yggy and use it with a 2 channel tube amp.  Rich lush mids is quite a treat to the ears for vocals.  There is something extremely appealing with tubes that solid state folks should really be open minded to "take a listen".
 
The solid state transparency hyper detail lovers should hope the yggy never has tubes involved in the "mix".....there's slight "high's and low" roll off in tubes stripping the over emphasized characteristics so many are listeners/hobbyists are accustomed too in the solid state world. 

 

[HemiSam]

I am interested in the yggy except for the warm up time, I dont like leaving electronics on when not in use. From this thread, am I getting it right that the yggy needs to be left on 24/7, otherwise you get a harsh treble?

 
 
It was very thin sounding on my rig when I first plugged it in and I would not recommend it, especially for the money, if it sounds that way every time it's unplugged an hour or more and then restarted.  What I cannot offer is what it does sound like after a long burn-in and then turn it off for over an hour and then on again.  Said another way, I do not know if the thermal equalization process is faster after the initial burn-in as I have yet to turn mine off since it arrived two and a half weeks ago.  If it sounds the same as at first power-up, and you plan on turning it off each time you are done listening to it/leaving your abode, I would not recommend spending $2300 on it.  You can do better for a lot less money IMO.
 
Good luck with your search.
 
HS

 

[JWahl]

   
There isn't much a following for tube buffers (separate units) in the hifi world. Some love them and some don't care for them.   For my situation I know that my Grant Fidelity B-283 mk2 tube processor/buffer (with black treasures or Sylvania vintage tubes) really takes the edge off of  digital solid state dacs. Makes my Burson Virtuoso extremely pleasing with musical enjoyment eliminating solid state "sound."  I'd be very certain that if you have preference to compression and additional harmonics (extremely desirable to the human ear) you'd love your current dac with the addition of a tube buffer over many new solid state dacs on the market. 
 
The desire for transparency is very common for many folks. Then there's a shift in hifi folks venturing into vinyl, tube amps and pre amps for analog representation of music that just seems to hit the sweet spot for many seasoned hifi hobbyists. There is still a lot of detail lost in the conversion of the artist's work in analog then converted to digital (flac, wav etc) converted by a DAC. The intent of tube buffers is to re introduce the lost musical bliss (harmonics, overtones, compression, distortion) that has been lost in the Studio's analog tape to digital conversion. Live music always sounds better for this reason......
 
It's not feasible for many companies to build a tube buffer because of the lack of popularity. Not many adapted to that sort of kool aid. Tube dac's, tube pre amps and tube amps is a whole different world. I love both but I will gladly take on the additional hassles of tubes any day vs solid state.  
 
I'm really eager to audition the yggy and use it with a 2 channel tube amp.  Rich lush mids is quite a treat to the ears for vocals.  There is something extremely appealing with tubes that solid state folks should really be open minded to "take a listen".
 
The solid state transparency hyper detail lovers should hope the yggy never has tubes involved in the "mix".....there's slight "high's and low" roll off in tubes stripping the over emphasized characteristics so many are listeners/hobbyists are accustomed too in the solid state world. 

 
Not to get too off topic, I won't argue that tubes will bring a certain "flavor" to the sound.  But I do think that well designed tube circuits can be just as transparent as solid state.  My Super 7 amp, for instance, especially modded, can be ruthlessly transparent at times.  I've actually traditionally preferred solid state, until I got a hold of this amp.  My previous amp was the Burson Soloist, and as much as I loved it, it wasn't in the same league.  
 
I don't particularly like a "warm and tubey" sound, but the main attribute that this amp has that seems missing from most solid states I've tried is the rendition of acoustic space.  Different tubes mainly alter the soundstage presentation, so I think that tubes also do something in the time domain, that seems to be missing from most solid state amps I've listened to.  But like I've said this is a well designed tube amp, solid state rectified, with quality Electraprint OPT's and I've replaced signal path caps with Jantzen Silver and Superior.  Definitely not your stereotypical tube sound.
 
I'm really thinking it should be able to easily demonstrate what the Yggy is capable of.

 

[PATB]

It was very thin sounding on my rig when I first plugged it in and I would not recommend it, especially for the money, if it sounds that way every time it's unplugged an hour or more and then restarted.  What I cannot offer is what it does sound like after a long burn-in and then turn it off for over an hour and then on again.  Said another way, I do not know if the thermal equalization process is faster after the initial burn-in as I have yet to turn mine off since it arrived two and a half weeks ago.  If it sounds the same as at first power-up, and you plan on turning it off each time you are done listening to it/leaving your abode, I would not recommend spending $2300 on it.  You can do better for a lot less money IMO.

Good luck with your search.

HS

Thank you. I guess this is not the dac for me.

 

[AlanU]

   
Not to get too off topic, I won't argue that tubes will bring a certain "flavor" to the sound.  But I do think that well designed tube circuits can be just as transparent as solid state.  My Super 7 amp, for instance, especially modded, can be ruthlessly transparent at times.  I've actually traditionally preferred solid state, until I got a hold of this amp.  My previous amp was the Burson Soloist, and as much as I loved it, it wasn't in the same league.  
 
I don't particularly like a "warm and tubey" sound, but the main attribute that this amp has that seems missing from most solid states I've tried is the rendition of acoustic space.  Different tubes mainly alter the soundstage presentation, so I think that tubes also do something in the time domain, that seems to be missing from most solid state amps I've listened to.  But like I've said this is a well designed tube amp, solid state rectified, with quality Electraprint OPT's and I've replaced signal path caps with Jantzen Silver and Superior.  Definitely not your stereotypical tube sound.
 
I'm really thinking it should be able to easily demonstrate what the Yggy is capable of.

The term holographic is commonly used for "tube" sound stage. Your tubes can be quite revealing. If your using current day 6sn7 modern tubes this can provide revealing results. Vintage mil spec tubes can be a totally different sound.  My tube dac  can use up to kt120 tubes for a buffer stage!!! even my tube rectifier can use 40kv "Massive 8020" vacuum tubes (look it up 

) 
 
Typically the larger tubes change the dynamics that is why you'll see larger rectifier tubes on high end tube systems. 
 
Source is king so this is why I'm waiting to audition a yggy for a solid state dac. 

 

[citraian]

Placed order #400000347 for Yggdrasil & Wyrd on schiit-europe.com. Now the wait begins...