[tincanear]

@Jason Stoddard can Freya S 115V AC version be converted via PCB jumpers (by a qualified technician or engineer) to 230VAC?

is transformer 50/60hz universal?

 

[Ion Specter]

Seems Schiit.co.uk is out of stock on pretty much everything.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

Free Qobuz downloads:

https://headphone.guru/qobuz-music-gifts-free-downloads-of-high-rez-music/

 

[renault4]

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”

In anticipation of retirement, I have been working down the path of planning a two-channel speaker system, based mostly on Schiit products. I have reached the stage where I think I am settled on Maggie 1.7i, freya+ and Vidar monos, and this is where I hit the fork.

I have a moderate collection of CDs, about 500, mostly classical and a good Cambridge Audio transport, along with a Bifrost Multibit and a Valhalla 2. I have nothing left of my vinyl collection but fond memories.

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

 

[judson_w]

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”

In anticipation of retirement, I have been working down the path of planning a two-channel speaker system, based mostly on Schiit products. I have reached the stage where I think I am settled on Maggie 1.7i, freya+ and Vidar monos, and this is where I hit the fork.

I have a moderate collection of CDs, about 500, mostly classical and a good Cambridge Audio transport, along with a Bifrost Multibit and a Valhalla 2. I have nothing left of my vinyl collection but fond memories.

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

I love vinyl and have a steadily growing collection, but if I were in your position and did not currently have vinyl, I would caution against going path 2. That is potentially a lot of media for you to buy or rebuy. If you are factoring in those costs and the energy to reacquire records, then maybe option 2. There is a bit of fun digging through crates looking at used stuff or trying to find diamonds in the rough. But it is a bigger commitment.

I would see if I could pull off a hybrid of 1 and 3. You already have the CDs, CD Player, and DAC, and adding a decent streamer with a subscription can be a great way to learn what new music is out there to enjoy. I have Qobuz and have started to pay attention to their emails about staff picks of things coming out and it is nice. Also, depending on what is in your CD collection, some of it might not be available on Tidal or Qobuz, and it would be a shame to lose those things.

 

[GearMe]

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”

In anticipation of retirement, I have been working down the path of planning a two-channel speaker system, based mostly on Schiit products. I have reached the stage where I think I am settled on Maggie 1.7i, freya+ and Vidar monos, and this is where I hit the fork.

I have a moderate collection of CDs, about 500, mostly classical and a good Cambridge Audio transport, along with a Bifrost Multibit and a Valhalla 2. I have nothing left of my vinyl collection but fond memories.

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

Should be a great two channel system...congrats!

If it were me, I'd stick with the Bifrost, Schiit-can the Sol/Mani idea, and use your $$$$ to buy more music! -- CDs and digital downloads. That said, I moved from albums to CDs a long, long time ago and never regretted it.

 

[ipeverywhere]

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

Option 4... Which is what I ended up doing and am thrilled with the results now that I'm 1+ year into this...
Rip all your CDs to FLAC (or, really, any lossless format)
Invest in Roon and get that going with an endpoint plugged into the Bifrost (my first endpoint was a 2009 MBP via USB)
Enjoy your new speakers, pre-amp, and amp for a while
Eventually... upgrade the DAC.. upgrade the Roon endpoint... enjoy the improvement every step of the way. It will be much sweeter.

As much as it is about the gear... I find most enjoyment in discovering new music and that's why Roon has been such a good investment. It's also an excellent platform to build around. As I've upgraded my main system I've been able to hand-down the older stuff and significantly improve my living room system. Nice having the same interface in every room.

 

[tincanear]

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”

In anticipation of retirement, I have been working down the path of planning a two-channel speaker system, based mostly on Schiit products. I have reached the stage where I think I am settled on Maggie 1.7i, freya+ and Vidar monos, and this is where I hit the fork.

I have a moderate collection of CDs, about 500, mostly classical and a good Cambridge Audio transport, along with a Bifrost Multibit and a Valhalla 2. I have nothing left of my vinyl collection but fond memories.

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

don't budget so tight, sounds scary to me to run it that close.

start with the Magnepans, a Freya+, and a single stereo Vidar.

don't go crazy with $$$ interconnects and speaker wires.

I'd recommend sticking to the CD's you already have. 500 discs is a reasonable collection. (adding Sol/Mani is more trouble and cost than you think (replacement styli, new $$ interconnects from turntable to pre-amp, record cleaning machine), especially as you enter retirement and your eyesight worsens and your hand gets less steady, plus the records will wind up being more expensive to re-buy (re-sale value of the CD's is very low, given the limited demand, and specificity of classical works orchestra, soloist, conductor, venue)

don't sell your existing transport. it will cost at least double if you need to re-buy something else.

add streaming capability for new music only. even if you eventually transfer ALL your CD's to pcm/ flac, keep the discs in storage in a low-humidity, temperature-controlled environment. you should back up the music server also.

the Bifrost OG (original generation) units are excellent DACs for the money. if you have a Bifrost 4399, Uber or other D/S version, and like the D/S sound, then either update the Bifrost to 4490 DAC board for $250, or upgrade to a Gungnir D/S for $899.

upgrade to another DAC only after the rest of the system is set up and dialed in (months, not weeks, from now). If you want a Multibit upgrade, consider the Yggdrasil GS for $1599. (if at some point, perhaps 5 years from now, there is an Analog 3 version you can jump from gen 1 to gen 3 for the bigger step improvement THEN)

 

[srserl]

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

I've had an Yggdrasil for several weeks now, and it was a major upgrade (had the multibit card in Ragnarok
2). It really is musical and closer to analog than I have ever heard. I also have the Sol and it is very good.

If I were you I would get the Yggdrasil, keep your cd collection (just keep the really good albums and also rip all of it to lossless files), get Qobuz and run it from a computer (I use my laptop). Keep your vinyl records and try picking up a used Sol when people tire of it.
I have not heard the Bifrost, so don't know how much it gives up to the Yggdrasil.
I have been collecting quite a lot of Schiit since the Ragnarok 2 in August:
Asgard 3
Yggdrasil
Sol
Aegir

I am currently waiting on KEF LS50 for my office where I plan to use the Asgard 3 as a preamp into Aegir (and as a headphone amp).

 

[tincanear]

@renault4 since budget is critical (and you thought you would need to sell off the CD's, CD transport, etc) just to get the Yggdrasil, it's definitely better, IMO, to keep your existing media collection intact, and stay with the Bifrost DAC.

on the speaker cables, don't waste $100 or more on fancy banana plugs, just get bare quad wire (like Canare 4S8 or 4S11 from Markertek free ship with $25 order) strip the ends, twist the strands together with bare hands, and tighten down directly into the binding posts on the amp and speakers.

 

[renault4]

@renault4 since budget is critical (and you thought you would need to sell off the CD's, CD transport, etc) just to get the Yggdrasil, it's definitely better, IMO, to keep your existing media collection intact, and stay with the Bifrost DAC.

on the speaker cables, don't waste $100 or more on fancy banana plugs, just get bare quad wire (like Canare 4S8 or 4S11 from Markertek free ship with $25 order) strip the ends, twist the strands together with bare hands, and tighten down directly into the binding posts on the amp and speakers.

so far:

I'll keep the CDs (wasn't going to sell them) and the CA transport
I'll rip the CDs to FLAC
I have zero vinyl, so I don't believe I will start out at this stage
I'll stick with the Bifrost Multibit DAC and hold off on a DAC upgrade
I'll invest in Roon and Qobuz, use my MacBook Pro as a Roon Core and go with a Bluesound or raspberry solution as an endpoint.
I stay with something like Blue Jeans for any cables.

thanks!

 

[Roy G. Biv]

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”

In anticipation of retirement, I have been working down the path of planning a two-channel speaker system, based mostly on Schiit products. I have reached the stage where I think I am settled on Maggie 1.7i, freya+ and Vidar monos, and this is where I hit the fork.

I have a moderate collection of CDs, about 500, mostly classical and a good Cambridge Audio transport, along with a Bifrost Multibit and a Valhalla 2. I have nothing left of my vinyl collection but fond memories.

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

Answering in no particular order:

It can be challenging, if not impossible, with streaming services to match exactly what is in your CD collection. So if I were you, I'd rip your CDs to FLAC (or something else lossless) and use Roon or Audirvana to manage and listen. I've used both and to me, the sound quality is close enough to be a tie, but I chose Roon because of it's metadata skills. Also, and this isn't a small deal, both Roon and Audirvana integrate your CD collection with Qobuz and Tidal.

A piece of advice that I've read suggested using streaming services for day-to-day listening, and vinyl for the pieces that mean the most to you. Solid advice if you have vinyl. Since you don't... Don't...

So here's what I'd do based on the info you provided:

Buy an Apple MacMini and an external CD/DVD drive to rip your CDs to FLAC/ALAC whatever. DBPoweramp is a nice program, as is XLD Audio.
Use said Apple MacMini to run Roon/Audirvana to feed your Bifrost using USB.
Keep your nice Cambridge CD transport to feed the Bifrost via spdif. One can never go wrong with physical media you already own.

Whatever money you have left over, I doubt you can go wrong with Freya+ and mono Vidars.

Just one guy's opinion. Looking forward to see what you land on!

 

[Balthazar B]

so far:

I'll keep the CDs (wasn't going to sell them) and the CA transport
I'll rip the CDs to FLAC
I have zero vinyl, so I don't believe I will start out at this stage
I'll stick with the Bifrost Multibit DAC and hold off on a DAC upgrade
I'll invest in Roon and Qobuz, use my MacBook Pro as a Roon Core and go with a Bluesound or raspberry solution as an endpoint.
I stay with something like Blue Jeans for any cables.

thanks!

Make sure you have a good solid strategy for off-site backup/restore of all those CD rips. You will never want to have to do that a second time. And make sure you test the backup/restore process before you rely on it.

 

[RickB]

As Yogi Berra once famously said, “when you come to a fork in the road, take it”

In anticipation of retirement, I have been working down the path of planning a two-channel speaker system, based mostly on Schiit products. I have reached the stage where I think I am settled on Maggie 1.7i, freya+ and Vidar monos, and this is where I hit the fork.

I have a moderate collection of CDs, about 500, mostly classical and a good Cambridge Audio transport, along with a Bifrost Multibit and a Valhalla 2. I have nothing left of my vinyl collection but fond memories.

Working to a budget cap I have worked out I could:

1. stick with CDs and upgrade my DAC to an Yggdrasil (probably drop from mono to stereo amp),
2. stay with my Bifrost, the CDs, and add a Sol/Mani to rekindle those old memories, or
3. retire all physical media and go digital with a streamer, like a Bluesound Node or better, and qobuz/tidal. Here I could squeeze in an Yggdrasil if I can sell my transport (truly burning my bridges!) as well as the Bifrost to help stay within budget.

If I had the resources, I would happily do all three and take pride in the sheer diversity of sources I would have managed to accrue—that truly would be doing a Yogi Berra!

But alas, I must and will choose, I’m curious as to what you would do?

If you have the space, do CDs. Like vinyl did, I think they will come back

 

[renault4]

Answering in no particular order:

It can be challenging, if not impossible, with streaming services to match exactly what is in your CD collection. So if I were you, I'd rip your CDs to FLAC (or something else lossless) and use Roon or Audirvana to manage and listen. I've used both and to me, the sound quality is close enough to be a tie, but I chose Roon because of it's metadata skills. Also, and this isn't a small deal, both Roon and Audirvana integrate your CD collection with Qobuz and Tidal.

A piece of advice that I've read suggested using streaming services for day-to-day listening, and vinyl for the pieces that mean the most to you. Solid advice if you have vinyl. Since you don't... Don't...

So here's what I'd do based on the info you provided:

Buy an Apple MacMini and an external CD/DVD drive to rip your CDs to FLAC/ALAC whatever. DBPoweramp is a nice program, as is XLD Audio.
Use said Apple MacMini to run Roon/Audirvana to feed your Bifrost using USB.
Keep your nice Cambridge CD transport to feed the Bifrost via spdif. One can never go wrong with physical media you already own.

Whatever money you have left over, I doubt you can go wrong with Freya+ and mono Vidars.

Just one guy's opinion. Looking forward to see what you land on!

So an Apple Mac mini would serve as the Roon core and in your model, you would also have it feed the DAC via USB; I thought the core and endpoint had to be separate units largely because the Mac can be electronically noisy?