[macdonjh]

@digitaldufferme My wife made a great joke tonight, I mixed some Emergen-C for her and she goes " should I put vodka in this and have a quarantini" comic gold in this day n age.

My daughter says the Millenials are making Quaran-tunes play lists. I told her they should be drinking Quaran-tinis while dancing to their Quaran-tunes and was hip. For a minute or two.

 

[rkw]

It's nice the Yggdrasil matches what Tidal is sending regardless of what is selected in Windows.

Curious if anyone has encountered the same with Unison USB.

It has nothing to do with Yggdrasil or Unison. When you run an audio player in exclusive mode (Tidal and Qobuz have a setting to do this), Windows will ignore your bit rate/depth selection and stream data bit-perfect from the player to the DAC in its original resolution.

Without exclusive mode, Windows will resample the audio to the resolution you selected. Windows resampling is not high quality and ideally you want to send the audio bit-perfect, and let the external DAC do its own resampling. When not using exclusive mode, you'd want to select the resolution that matches your audio source so that Windows won't resample it.

 

[Alexnova]

Ah I see. I guess I had some issues with a different DAC that wouldn't change its sample rate when I had it locked into Exclusive mode. Thought it was a Yggdrasil/Unison feature. That is good to know.

 

[shapeshifter44]

@Jason Stoddard Hi Jason, I am planning to move from headphones to speakers. I was wondering if Aegir *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 80W RMS) would be a good fit for Bowers & Wilkins 804 D3 which says "Recommended amplifier power: 50W - 200W into 8Ω on unclipped programme" in the info sheet. Or Vidar *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 400W RMS)? Thank you in advance!

 

[Zer0.p0int.Zer0]

e

Question for you Unison USB owners, I have 32-bit options available in Windows 10:

I didn't think the Yggdrasil goes up to 32/192. Maybe Unison USB has these options for future DACs that might use 32bit chips?

The other interesting thing for me is even if I select 16-bit/44.1khz, in Tidal if I'm playing "Master" quality files, the Yggdrasil will change its sample rate to match. So it'll either double to 88khz, or do 96khz depending on the track. I'm surprised by this because on other DACs, those "Master" files would be downsampled to the default format rate in Windows.

It's nice the Yggdrasil matches what Tidal is sending regardless of what is selected in Windows.

Curious if anyone has encountered the same with Unison USB.

I never even noticed this with my Yggdrasil, but I will pay attention now

 

[A Jedi]

@Jason Stoddard Hi Jason, I am planning to move from headphones to speakers. I was wondering if Aegir *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 80W RMS) would be a good fit for Bowers & Wilkins 804 D3 which says "Recommended amplifier power: 50W - 200W into 8Ω on unclipped programme" in the info sheet. Or Vidar *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 400W RMS)? Thank you in advance!

You're better off with Vidars. The Aegirs don't have enough grunt for those speakers.

 

[roadcykler]

@Jason Stoddard Hi Jason, I am planning to move from headphones to speakers. I was wondering if Aegir *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 80W RMS) would be a good fit for Bowers & Wilkins 804 D3 which says "Recommended amplifier power: 50W - 200W into 8Ω on unclipped programme" in the info sheet. Or Vidar *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 400W RMS)? Thank you in advance!

The nominal impedance on those speakers is 8 ohms and minimum is 3, so a conservatively rated 80 watt amp will work just fine and drive the speakers to probably as loud as you'd want them to go.

 

[tincanear]

@Jason Stoddard Hi Jason, I am planning to move from headphones to speakers. I was wondering if Aegir *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 80W RMS) would be a good fit for Bowers & Wilkins 804 D3 which says "Recommended amplifier power: 50W - 200W into 8Ω on unclipped programme" in the info sheet. Or Vidar *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 400W RMS)? Thank you in advance!

depends on how loud you normally listen. for lower volume listeners, try a pair of Aegir amps (in monoblock mode, using the XLR input from Freya for each channel), for higher volume listeners, I'd recommend a pair of Vidar amps (also using the XLR amp input on each amp).

 

[tincanear]

I never even noticed this with my Yggdrasil, but I will pay attention now

16 bits is 96dB dynamic range, 24 bits is 144dB dynamic range, 32 bits (192 dB dynamic range) is 8 bits wasted in cpu overhead / emi noise / link bandwidth / etc.

for reference, a jet engine at 1 foot is ~180dB SPL.

just set the link to 24 bits and be happy.

 

[Brubacca]

@Jason Stoddard Hi Jason, I am planning to move from headphones to speakers. I was wondering if Aegir *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 80W RMS) would be a good fit for Bowers & Wilkins 804 D3 which says "Recommended amplifier power: 50W - 200W into 8Ω on unclipped programme" in the info sheet. Or Vidar *2 (Mono, 8 ohms: 400W RMS)? Thank you in advance!

If its a really big room and you listen to grunge or metal at ear bleeding levels than go Vidars. If your room is not gigantic and you listen at normal levels Aegir Monos probably fit the bill.

Its really up to your room and listening habits. 80 Watts is actually a lot of power if you listen at reasonable levels. For example if you sit 10 ft away the Aegir Monoblocks can generate a Peak SPL of about 101 dB. Thats really loud and harmful to your hearing long term.

 

[Derrick Swart]

He said something along the lines of trust the doctors regarding Corona but I was wondering why he didn't trust the Mayo clinic doctors in regards to tinnitus.

anyway the wind blows
for me in this serious situation we should be kind and correct politely if somebody understands or states incorrectly. Please be rational with this and better a few weeks prison at home than months of disaster. Macau and Hong Kong proof that it works to stay put!

 

[Derrick Swart]

I think that post should be required reading before anybody starts buying audio equipment to actually listen to music for enjoyment.

After reading that, which I largely tend to agree with, I have two possible solutions to audiophilia nervosa.

1. Always drink alcohol or listen in noisy environment so that 0.1% SQ improvement for $10,000 is neither perceived nor necessary.

2. Since "blind listening" is never possible in one's actual home, always have your spouse buy the audio equipment without telling you which and hide them behind curtains for you to enjoy.

agree for 10k you can buy loads of spirits

 

[Derrick Swart]

Ragnarok 2 and LS50s is a great combo--that's what I use.

try atc scm19, slightly bigger but you will be rewarded! it really is if they have a mid-driver

 

[Derrick Swart]

Yes, thank you very much for bringing that up, the TV needs Optical or HDMI so I would still need the external DAC. The Bifrost 2 has had rave reviews from users like yourself, I'm just on the fence whether to wait and see whether a replacement for the Gungnir is in the pipeline with the autonomy architecture built in, whereas I don't believe this will come to Yggdrasil even in the medium term. One of the considerations for the Bifrost 2 was that it is very simply user upgradeable which is important when you're not in the USA.

don’t worry about soundbar connections, do proper stereo and you don’t miss soundbar/center channel; a sub is what you really need for films and tv unless you only watch the news

 

[Rensek]

don’t worry about soundbar connections, do proper stereo and you don’t miss soundbar/center channel; a sub is what you really meed for films and tv unless you only watch the news

I can concur on this. I recently bought a refurbished Marantz integrated to push my KLHs and replace a sound bar in my living room. The sound coming out of two ch is far superior to the image the soundbar gave. Even the sub isn't missed.

I'm using my schiit rig in the basement as 2ch and 2ch home theater. It all works quite nicely.