[tincanear]

I have Gungnir MB, Freya [original] , Saga [original]. Ageir, and 3 other tube power amps, I cannot hear an appreciable difference between the SE and Balanced outputs of Gungnir. I use the term 'appreciable' because level differences tend to bias you toward the louder source.

if feeding the SE and balanced sources into Freya or Saga, then you can compensate with a few clicks (either 3 or 6) of the volume buttons, as they are 1dB per click.

 

[RCBinTN]

I prefer to consider the gear transparent and listen to the music. What it's about for me

 

[bobbmd]

I have been wondering about the same thing. Since Nexus has been described as the "holy grail" gain stage, and we know from Freya S that Nexus also works as a buffer stage, then taking the analogue signal from out of the 4 D/A chips in Yggdrasil/Gungnir and feeding it into a Nexus buffer stage should produce both balanced and single-ended outputs without any summers. And based on the performance of Nexus is other products, the result should be fantastic. So Jason, any reason why Nexus would not work in this application?

@Alexnova @&@grapefarmer: trying to follow all this but am low intellectual Schiithead so to speak(but also high intellectual Deadhead) I have a brand new Yggdrasil GS(in black) and an equally black Ragnarok 2 (just the amp) can y'all simply explain 'gain'. There are 3 levels of gain on the amp and to me it just plays music louder(not necessarily 'better' but IS IT made 'better' by increasing the gain) so one doesn't have to turn the volume higher correct and stress the amp?--- where does gain come into play with the DAC which is 'upstream' so to speak and is already sending the music to the amp. I know the only stupid question is the one not asked but is my question stupid am I not seeing the forest b/o the trees if so sorry for wasting your time bobbmd

 

[sam6550a]

if feeding the SE and balanced sources into Freya or Saga, then you can compensate with a few clicks (either 3 or 6) of the volume buttons, as they are 1dB per click.

Of course-my point is that the "first impression" is colored by the perceived volume.

 

[tincanear]

@Alexnova @&@grapefarmer: trying to follow all this but am low intellectual Schiithead so to speak(but also high intellectual Deadhead) I have a brand new Yggdrasil GS(in black) and an equally black Ragnarok 2 (just the amp) can y'all simply explain 'gain'. There are 3 levels of gain on the amp and to me it just plays music louder(not necessarily 'better' but IS IT made 'better' by increasing the gain) so one doesn't have to turn the volume higher correct and stress the amp?--- where does gain come into play with the DAC which is 'upstream' so to speak and is already sending the music to the amp. I know the only stupid question is the one not asked but is my question stupid am I not seeing the forest b/o the trees if so sorry for wasting your time bobbmd

congrats on your purchases of nice gear i'd recommend that you pick the lowest gain setting that allows for the volume knob to be in the 10 o'clock to 1 o-clock range for your preferred listening level. Amp stress is a function of the overall listening level and not dependent on the gain switch setting.

 

[bobbmd]

congrats on your purchases of nice gear i'd recommend that you pick the lowest gain setting that allows for the volume knob to be in the 10 o'clock to 1 o-clock range for your preferred listening level. Amp stress is a function of the overall listening level and not dependent on the gain switch setting.

@tincanear thanks that is basically where i have found the volume for the best listening and with the gain at first lowest level thank you bobbmd

 

[Rensek]

Yeah, let's always add an implied "IMO" to every opinion.

But, let me (again) dispel the notion that SE is "gimped" in any of our products. As I've said before, SE in Yggdrasil and Gungnir is summed from the balanced outputs, in order to retain the benefits of hardware balancing (that is, using one DAC per phase). SE is summed with a simple 2-JFET summer, and the balanced analog stage itself is also composed of 2-JFET buffers in these hardware balanced DACs.

This is in contrast to Bifrost 2, which does not use hardware balancing, but derives its balanced and SE with op-amps (LME49724, as noted previously.) This is a completely different topology, so it will sound different (it absolutely measures differently!)

If there's any confusion as to the topology/hardware balancing/output stages/etc, the Specs tab on every product tells what's in it.

I personally prefer Bifrost 2 to Yggdrasil, through whatever output. But that's IMO. YMMV. And it's filtered by the fact I like the form factor. But not because the outputs of the bigger DACs are "gimped."

Do you keep track of how many times a year you have to repeat the same stuff? You must have a list of 10 things that you repeat 2-3 times a year. The gimped vs not gimped comes up fairly often, that must be near the top of your list. You need some canned responses saved to your email that you can just copy paste into the various forums you are active on.

Make a bit out of it.

Have a section of canned stationary on your website dedicated to the most common things you have to respond to..

Print em on your toilet paper, print em on a shirts, etc.

 

[johnjen]

congrats on your purchases of nice gear i'd recommend that you pick the lowest gain setting that allows for the volume knob to be in the 10 o'clock to 1 o-clock range for your preferred listening level. Amp stress is a function of the overall listening level and not dependent on the gain switch setting.

One of the most beneficial aspects of stepped volume controls is their ability to track the balance of the 2 channels to each other over the entire sweep of the MOAR knob.
It took me a while to break my old habit of staying in the sweet spot (≈10:30 to 3) to keep the channel balance as close as possible, when I 1st got my Rok amp.

And I also found that I preferred the SQ of gain 2 over 1 and 3, regardless of where the MOAR knob was…
And granted the new Rok amp may have a different SQ signature, so gain #2 may not stay as the king of the heap, so to speak.

So my criteria was for maximal SQ and the stepped vol control allowed me to choose which gain setting to use rather than being limited to the sweet spot range of a standard volume control potentiometer and using the gain stage to get me there.

Just my 2¢

JJ

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

I run both Tidal and Qobuz from the same transport into my 2 channel stack.
Comparing identical tracks from both providers always results in a "heavy" sounding from Tidal and a (for me) more "truthful" sounding track from Qobuz.

OK, so it really isn't just me or the Windows laptop on which I first tested both providers. Thanks for confirming that for me.

Sounds like a good argument to keep the Qobuz subscription active as well, despite their more limited catalog.

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

Wow. Didn’t have time to really listen to them...
.

And couldn't really hear a difference between either in the listening sessions he did, which is a sound reason to heartily recommend the Heresy edition over the Magni 3+.

Makes sense, yeah?

 

[dieslemat]

One of the most beneficial aspects of stepped volume controls is their ability to track the balance of the 2 channels to each other over the entire sweep of the MOAR knob.
It took me a while to break my old habit of staying in the sweet spot (≈10:30 to 3) to keep the channel balance as close as possible, when I 1st got my Rok amp.

And I also found that I preferred the SQ of gain 2 over 1 and 3, regardless of where the MOAR knob was…
And granted the new Rok amp may have a different SQ signature, so gain #2 may not stay as the king of the heap, so to speak.

So my criteria was for maximal SQ and the stepped vol control allowed me to choose which gain setting to use rather than being limited to the sweet spot range of a standard volume control potentiometer and using the gain stage to get me there.

Just my 2¢

JJ

you are really committed to the Rok and JggyB monickers

 

[KoshNaranek]

you are really committed to the Rok and JggyB monickers

 

[bobbmd]

One of the most beneficial aspects of stepped volume controls is their ability to track the balance of the 2 channels to each other over the entire sweep of the MOAR knob.
It took me a while to break my old habit of staying in the sweet spot (≈10:30 to 3) to keep the channel balance as close as possible, when I 1st got my Rok amp.

And I also found that I preferred the SQ of gain 2 over 1 and 3, regardless of where the MOAR knob was…
And granted the new Rok amp may have a different SQ signature, so gain #2 may not stay as the king of the heap, so to speak.

So my criteria was for maximal SQ and the stepped vol control allowed me to choose which gain setting to use rather than being limited to the sweet spot range of a standard volume control potentiometer and using the gain stage to get me there.

Just my 2¢

JJ

@johnjen Hey thanks for your perspective also - still playing with all different aspects of those 2 Schiits of mine especially the amp--- is the ROK amp you refer to is that the Schiit Ragnarok or something else and what is MOAR knob is it the stepped volume knob---what i have found is that gain#3 sometimes makes SQ 'hasher' but becomes 'softer' at lower volume level and the SQ really depends on quality of the recording be it a cd/sacd/dvd-a from one my 2 changers/other being HDCD changer for Dead recordings or if listening to streaming from A+3/ROON/or TIDAL-Qobuz on their respective desktop apps
thanks again for your thoughts
bobbmd

 

[Derrick Swart]

Hi All,

If the shipping to Portugal was not more than 50% of the product value I would buy one:

https://www.schiit.com/products/eitr

Now on last call for an excellent price!
Handy for upgrading your poor old usb and besides usb outputs you only have a cheap ass toslink spdif transmitter on your personal computer.

For 99 dollars i would have wanted to try if it is better than my current spdif toslink out of my iMac (only got spdif inputs on my DAC) but for 150 dollars plus import duties uuhhh nay

 

[Tim van der Leeuw]

Hi All,

If the shipping to Portugal was not more than 50% of the product value I would buy one:

https://www.schiit.com/products/eitr

Now on last call for an excellent price!
Handy for upgrading your poor old usb and besides usb outputs you only have a cheap ass toslink spdif transmitter on your personal computer.

For 99 dollars i would have wanted to try if it is better than my current spdif toslink out of my iMac (only got spdif inputs on my DAC) but for 150 dollars plus import duties uuhhh nay

How's the delivery costs for you when ordering from Schiit Europe?

https://www.schiit-europe.com/index.php/producten/eitr-usb-to-spdif-converter.html