[darkarn]

I am planning to replace my Fiio Taishan D03K (and Audinst HUD-MX1) with Modi Multibit, but it is paired with an extremely basic tube amp.
 
Will I be able to see any SQ improvement or should I focus on changing the amp first (I am eyeing one of the Garage1217's tube amps)?

 

[belgiangenius]

 
​Paper only (latest issue), for now. Stereophile tends to post reviews to their website some time after the magazine is out.

Now that is living far in the past.

 

[DigitalFrontEnd]

 
I do like the sound of it better than the Emotiva XSP-1. I hear you can take it up a notch by getting a better power supply. there is a power supply that people are buying on eBay for the Mani.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Upgrade-Audiophile-Linear-Power-Supply-for-Schiit-Audio-MANI-phono-pre-16VAC-Out-/281988496071
 
they are out of stock .

Thanks. Yes, phono stages def. benefit from good power. Truth be told most if not all "budget" phono preamps ship with wal warts.

 

[sam6550a]

 
​Yes, Stereophile praises the sound and musicality of the Yggdrasil, but they seem far less impressed with the measurements. I heard the Yggdrasil/Ragnarok combo at THE Show driving Salk speakers and was very impressed. Hmm, I wonder how that combo would sound with my Zu Audio speakers?

In re-reading John Atkinson's measurements section, I suspect that something may be amiss in either the test sample or the test configuration. Since the Schiit Adapticlock circuitry is incorporated in the Yggdrasil specifically to address the clock jitter problem, the odd results of the word clock jitter testing and the significant differences between the left and right channels seem to indicate that something is wrong somewhere. Assuming that the circuitry for the left and right channels are identical, some component parameter [specified or unspecified] is different, a component is on the verge of failure, or the measurement configuration changed. Although Atkinson is not enamored with the choice of 21 bit vs 24 bit D-A converter chips [he mentions this more than once], the inconsistent test results between left and right channels certainly warrants investigation by Mike, Jason, and Dave.

 

[madwolfa]

  Although Atkinson is not enamored with the choice of 21 bit vs 24 bit D-A converter chips [he mentions this more than once]

 
I hope he as well does realize, that the aforementioned 24 bit D-A converter chips are not truly "24 bit" either...

 

[jjgr]

I'm curious how audible the clicking is when changing the volume on Freya?  Does the clicking pass through the audio signal (i.e. get amplified and come out the speakers), or is it just a mechanical noise inside the unit?  Is it annoying?  Best,

 

[Odin412]

 
In re-reading John Atkinson's measurements section, I suspect that something may be amiss in either the test sample or the test configuration. Since the Schiit Adapticlock circuitry is incorporated in the Yggdrasil specifically to address the clock jitter problem, the odd results of the word clock jitter testing and the significant differences between the left and right channels seem to indicate that something is wrong somewhere. Assuming that the circuitry for the left and right channels are identical, some component parameter [specified or unspecified] is different, a component is on the verge of failure, or the measurement configuration changed. Although Atkinson is not enamored with the choice of 21 bit vs 24 bit D-A converter chips [he mentions this more than once], the inconsistent test results between left and right channels certainly warrants investigation by Mike, Jason, and Dave.

​I'm not an expert in DAC measurements, but some of the graphs look a bit odd, especially the one that shows zero crossing noise/distortion on an undithered -90 dB sine wave. I'm not sure I buy the explanation/suggestion that this is due to the 20-bit DACs. It that were the case that would imply (I think) that what we're seeing is rounding and/or truncation effects, which are not evident anywhere else on the graph.

 

[watchnerd]

  I'm curious how audible the clicking is when changing the volume on Freya?  Does the clicking pass through the audio signal (i.e. get amplified and come out the speakers), or is it just a mechanical noise inside the unit?  Is it annoying?  Best,

 
Mechanical. It's not from the speakers.
 
I can hear it from 11' away. I don't find it annoying.

 

[sam6550a]

 
​I'm not an expert in DAC measurements, but some of the graphs look a bit odd, especially the one that shows zero crossing noise/distortion on an undithered -90 dB sine wave. I'm not sure I buy the explanation/suggestion that this is due to the 20-bit DACs. It that were the case that would imply (I think) that what we're seeing is rounding and/or truncation effects, which are not evident anywhere else on the graph.

Exactly my point. Something is not right, either the unit under test, the test equipment, or the test configuration. However, since the test environment has been disturbed [I assume that the Yggy is not still connected on JAs bench], we may never know. I do believe that Mike should review this article, and retrieve the test sample for comparison with other Yggys.

 

[Pandahead]

  I'm curious how audible the clicking is when changing the volume on Freya?  Does the clicking pass through the audio signal (i.e. get amplified and come out the speakers), or is it just a mechanical noise inside the unit?  Is it annoying?  Best,

​Nothing passes though, and because it starts up at wherever level you left the volume knob when you turned it off (I leave mine at a reasonable level) I generally never hear it as I raise the volume remotely to the desired level. I personally like the sound. It's feed back that you're not using an endlessly spinning encoder.

 

[US Blues]

 

  Although Atkinson is not enamored with the choice of 21 bit vs 24 bit D-A converter chips [he mentions this more than once]

 
I hope he as well does realize, that the aforementioned 24 bit D-A converter chips are not truly "24 bit" either...

Oh no, we can't let that cat out of the bag in Stereophile, what with people paying $30K+ for DAC's with $5- chips and all that. Have to keep up the pretense, old boy.

 

[StanD]

 
Oh no, we can't let that cat out of the bag in Stereophile, what with people paying $30K+ for DAC's with $5- chips and all that. Have to keep up the pretense, old boy.

"What you don't know can't hurt you."Or as Sgt. Schultz used to say, "I know nothing."

 

[Ableza]

Stereophile used to be relevant. In the 70's.

 

[watchnerd]

Stereophile used to be relevant. In the 70's.

 
Their subjective commentary has become boilerplate and boring.  But they still do more measurements than pretty much anybody else in the English language press (German audio mags are the best for this).

 

[RickB]

Stereophile used to be relevant. In the 70's.

It's interesting that they repost so many articles and reviews from the 70s. If you don't check, it's easy to get fooled for a minute into thinking it's a current article.