[EVOLVIST]

So, I don't suppose the Yggy is any good running into a SPL Auditor and into HD800s, huh?

 

[1adam12]

  Ok thanks, I guess it's time for me to find "any good solid state preamp".

 
 

If your rig is in another room will you have line of sight? If not, the remote control will have to be RF or WiFi and not IR. The range might come into play also.

It'd add an extra component in the mix, but the newer Logitech Harmony remotes operate on wifi to a base station which then transmits IR, so no need for line of sight. There's also one that supports an iPhone app. I have one in my living room and it's pretty sweet. 

 

[Baldr]

I have now a postmortem on the Yggy non-delivery problem and a prognosis on when shipments may resume. The problems were a perfect storm of prioritizing, at every level from the PCB assembly house to our own internal growing pains.
 
Part of the storm was the PCB house forgetting all of the 6 Yggy boards needed to be delivered in order for us to finish even one Yggy.
 
Before the fact of the Yggy, there were 16 Schiit Products with a total of 24 PCBs. Introducing Yggy made 17 Schiit products with a total of 30 PCBs. Overnight, the number of different PCBs increased by 25%. That is a major increase for Schiit operations to absorb.
 
I made the assumption (always dangerous) that if I husbanded the first run through that a product of this complexity would be able to be automagically quickly built. Seems reasonable except a product of this level requires far more initial training and hand holding. All of these problems delayed the delivery of 50 units by 8 weeks.
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so when am I going to get my Yggy?? The smart-ass answer is FIFO by order date. The production answer is a very conservative 30 units per week starting next week. (It will probably be more than that.) 250 units are in production, you can do the math.
 
Yeah, you say, but what about after that?
 
We have two major parts hassles. Since we use DACs which are proper to defense and medical applications, which have much smaller production runs, we are constantly dancing with suppliers who need to ramp their production up. We believe we are on track to start the next run of Yggys within the next 30-60 days, which is important considering the current run is sold out.
 
A similar situation exists with the audiophile grade caps, of which several dozen are designed into the Yggy. These are normally made in quantities proper to over-priced audio gear made for a very unlimited price in very limited quantities by happy audiophile elves for customers who spent hundreds of thousands in their audio gear with three songs in their playlist. Unfortunately, they really do sound better. We just have to wait until the suppliers adjust their production.  If you order the parts, they eventually show up.
 
Most of the time, we are actually doing the best we can. Sometimes, that isn't good enough. The Yggy is a very improbable DAC made by a very improbable start-up. If I could Schiit some, I would. It is not in our interest to NOT ship DACs. Those who need instant gratification should probably look elsewhere.
 
I sold thousands of Theta Gen whatever over several years. They were never completely out of backorder. Ever. It is a supply/demand problem. It could be easily fixed if we were to raise the price, which we will not. Thanks to all for putting up with the delays. For now, the internal ones are handled.

 

[Velomane]

Thanks Baldr, I appreciate the fact that you keep us in the loop. Even if the news isn't always good, this customer appreciates it.

 

[eddypoon]

   
Part of the storm was the PCB house forgetting all of the 6 Yggy boards needed to be delivered in order for us to finish even one Yggy.
 
Before the fact of the Yggy, there were 16 Schiit Products with a total of 24 PCBs. Introducing Yggy made 17 Schiit products with a total of 30 PCBs. Overnight, the number of different PCBs increased by 25%. That is a major increase for Schiit operations to absorb.
 
 

Haha... I feel your pain. Production line operations management is an art and science. Thank you for sharing with us your update. You guys are the best schit company to deal with. 

 

[Ableza]

 audiophile grade caps, of which several dozen are designed into the Yggy. These are normally made in quantities proper to over-priced audio gear made for a very unlimited price in very limited quantities by happy audiophile elves for customers who spent hundreds of thousands in their audio gear with three songs in their playlist. Unfortunately, they really do sound better.

 
Ah, this section made me smile.  Been there as the one waiting, done that designing them in "because the really do sound better", glad to be back in the real world (but also glad to have "audiophile grade caps" in my DAC.) 

 

[Khragon]

   
 

It'd add an extra component in the mix, but the newer Logitech Harmony remotes operate on wifi to a base station which then transmits IR, so no need for line of sight. There's also one that supports an iPhone app. I have one in my living room and it's pretty sweet. 

I use IR repeater, and since I have CAT5 drops all over the house I just use one of the drop to transmit the IR signal.

 

[1adam12]

  I use IR repeater, and since I have CAT5 drops all over the house I just use one of the drop to transmit the IR signal.

 
That's probably a more reliable solution.

 

[Pidgeon]

So, if someone ordered Yggdrasil on the first half of July, he'll receive it the first half of October?

 

[mttbsh]

... and if I placed my order in late May I should receive it by the end of August?

 

[Pidgeon]

And if I never placed my order, will I receive it anyway? 

 

[rmoody]

  And if I never placed my order, will I receive it anyway? 

You'll receive or order all right! And you know this, maaaaan!

 

[slambanna]

I hadn't been monitoring this thread for the last week.  I missed Baldr's excellent and accountable posts, so I was surprised to get an email today.
 
Schiit will be shipping my Yggy out tomorrow apparently!!!!  I ordered in the latter half of May.
 
I didn't realize that I was that close to the front of the line.  So anyone who ordered in May or early June shouldn't have much longer to wait.
 
I also let Schiit know a while back that I would prefer black if possible.  I was told at the time that they were not sure that black would be available for my order.  My invoice was for a "Yggdrasil 115s".  I'm going to assume that "s" stands for silver.

 

[llkmi]

Folks - hang in there it really is worth the wait. I feel your pain - I just missed the initial "in stock" order period but was fortunate enough to get one of the straggler units that shipped after the first run. Those weeks of waiting were torture so I can only imagine these extra delays. 
 
But you will need to exercise patience for a while. Next is the burn in period. While big gains happened after a week, I felt it was much longer for it to fully settle in. I unfortunately can't pinpoint the date as life got in the way these last couple of months, but it is nothing but pure pleasure now. I suspect that those couple of early adopters who gave up after a couple of weeks may not have realized the full potential - curious what others have found. Any signs of steely or glassy treble are gone (and I seemed to hear it longer than others).
 
Here are a few random observations after 2 months:
 
1. The palpable sense of space and instruments is stronger than ever. Piano - if you love piano - omg it sounds so real. I went to a local high end shop recently as I was considering upgrading my amp. I got to hear a fairly high end system - $25K speakers etc - you get the idea. And while I am know individual component were better than what I own, and sounded great (as it should for the price) I still felt that the sense of realism I get with Yggy to be missing. Of course I can't pin it on the source, but after many years in this hobby you kind of get a sense.
 
2. In with the old, out with the new. I find some incredible sound from the flac rips of my very old cd's. I am not finding my high res downloads to be more musical than some old CDs. I mentioned this in my earlier posts but feel even more strongly now. Although this is just a casual observation (I have not set up controlled testing) but I don't feel the need to drop top dollar on high res downloads. I mentioned the piano sounding terrific - some of the best is on a couple of 1980s Telarc CDs - Beethoven Piano Concertos and Malcolm Fraser plays Chopin. Not what I expected. My recommendation - Put your money toward new equipment and buy thrift shop CDs.
 
3. It gets the best out of the rest of your system. I have been slowly building my system back up after selling off my high end stuff some years ago. The stuff I cobbled together was good - but I did not realize how good. I think the lack of grain, grit and harshness in the Yggy helps prevent the components down line from exacerbating the situation. Which brings me to my last observation.
 
4. It makes you want to upgrade other components to see just how good it can get. I do have several components that I swap in and out of the system. It is clear which ones are more resolving now that the source is better. So now I have to see just how good it can get. This is going to get expensive...
 
So I am curious if others had the same observations... 

 

[atubbs]

I'll go with the simpler approach, though I believe I'm mostly just paraphrasing myself at this stage.
 
I got a Yggdrasil. I've been selling the rest of my DAC inventory and ordered another Yggdrasil. It's that good. Maybe there are 5-figure DACs out there that are better, but it gets tedious after a point. When Yggdrasil #2 shows up, my NAD M51 goes up. Wadia and Wyred4Sound and CIAUDIO are already sold. They're all great, but it's better.
 
Worth a reality check. Ragnarok is a pretty decent box of functionality for the price point. Sounds good at the price point. Clean. Neutral. Output switching was half-assed, but on balance it's a good product. "Yeah, okay, not bad" is the overall impression."
 
Yggdrasil is just good. No nonsense. No material flaws. It's not something I plugged in and said "F yes, the world has changed, take me to your leader." Gear doesn't give me goosebumps anymore. Maybe I'm jaded. But, it's a product you plug in and say "Yep. That was worth it." Incremental improvement from where things were before. Nothing glaring to make me say "gee, I wish..." That's as good a place to stop chasing dragons as any. 
 
So, to llkmi's point, has it sent me dragon chasing? No. I was already dragon chasing. Has it diminished my interest in dragon chasing? Yes. And that, to me, is more impressive. Just wish it came in black.