[rb2013]

  After a week of tube rolling my opinions are:
 
E88CC
 
Philips Mini-Watt SQ 60's - powerful bass, sweet mids, good treble, really nice spacious sound. Would recommend this for any cans where you want extra bass impact.
 
Tesla NOS 70's- fairly neutral, tighter bass, more treble extension, not as spacious or holographic as Philips. Best sound for the price.
 
Mastu****a Brimar Tooling 60's- very bright and airy, a bit too sibilant for me. Would recommend this for any cans needed more treble extension/presence.
 
6N23P
 
74 Reflektor Single Post, Silver Shield - best of the bunch so far. Less bass presence than Philips, but great extension to the sub bass, slight warmth to mids, very nice treble extension. Very spacious sound. Just sublime with acoustical tracks. Highly recommended and staying in my MJ2 for now.
 
75 Reflektor - will be testing them in a week or so. Borrowing from a friend who doesn't know he will be selling these to me yet 

Nice!

 

[tuxbass]

The last piece of the puzzle i.e. the DAC selection is driving me nuts now
My question to you guys is that if I've the MJ2, is getting the Yggy an overkill ? Would I still benefit from Yggy's superiority over Gumby or I should have gotten a Rag to take full advantage of the Yggy ?
 
I also plan on using the unbalanced out of the DAC to feed my powered Audioengine A5's (Since I don't keep my MJ2 ON all the time).

 

[shultzee]

  The last piece of the puzzle i.e. the DAC selection is driving me nuts now
My question to you guys is that if I've the MJ2, is getting the Yggy an overkill ? Would I still benefit from Yggy's superiority over Gumby or I should have gotten a Rag to take full advantage of the Yggy ?
 
I also plan on using the unbalanced out of the DAC to feed my powered Audioengine A5's (Since I don't keep my MJ2 ON all the time).

I am shooting for the Gumby.  From everything I have read the Gumby is close to the yggy and is very good.  I am not sure my 57 yr. old hearing would pick up the  differences so I am going to save the extra $1000.00 it would take to go Yggy.     

 

[bflat]

Keep in mind that >80% of what you have heard on Yggy was before Gumby even hit the market. Also why would Yggy owners also buy the Gumby? There are only a few folks who have compared the 2 and while all agree Yggy is more detailed, I don't think many of them would say Yggy is not worth the price premium over Gumby because that's hard to do when you spend that kind of money. If the price delta is not a big deal to you and you want the DAC that Schiit will upgrade first with their next gen technology, then get the Yggy. Otherwise, I think you will be happy with the Gumby and will just need to wait longer for future upgrades to trickle down.
 
If I had to do it all over, I would just have Bimbies. I am in the camp of thinking a well designed SE out and in components are 99% as good as balanced.

 

[rb2013]

  Keep in mind that >80% of what you have heard on Yggy was before Gumby even hit the market. Also why would Yggy owners also buy the Gumby? There are only a few folks who have compared the 2 and while all agree Yggy is more detailed, I don't think many of them would say Yggy is not worth the price premium over Gumby because that's hard to do when you spend that kind of money. If the price delta is not a big deal to you and you want the DAC that Schiit will upgrade first with their next gen technology, then get the Yggy. Otherwise, I think you will be happy with the Gumby and will just need to wait longer for future upgrades to trickle down.
 
If I had to do it all over, I would just have Bimbies. I am in the camp of thinking a well designed SE out and in components are 99% as good as balanced.

Another decision point and I'd be interested in comparing: a Gumby with a better external USB bridge like a Hydra Z with LPS, and maybe a Regen added into the mix vs a Yggy with just it's on board USB GEN2.  That's of course if you're using PC audio as your main source.
 
I just did a 5 USB bridge shootout and the differences are not small.  The Regen engineer has a lot posted on the noise (he calls packet noise) generated by the USB processor while decoding incoming data packets.  This feeds (according to JS at Uptone) back into the DAC's power supply and clocks.  So going with an external unit keeps their PS's separate.
 
From the folks I've talked to their DACs tend to sound better with a top external USB bridge vs the on board one.
 
Sorry for the side track - but this is something I've been weighing.  Of course the deep pocket crowd can have it all.
Anyone who has had this kind of experience - please post over on my Gustard U12 thread.
 
 
Back to the awesome MJ2

 

 

[bflat]

 
Another decision point and I'd be interested in comparing: a Gumby with a better external USB bridge like a Hydra Z with LPS, and maybe a Regen added into the mix vs a Yggy with just it's on board USB GEN2.  That's of course if you're using PC audio as your main source.
 
I just did a 5 USB bridge shootout and the differences are not small.  The Regen engineer has a lot posted on the noise (he calls packet noise) generated by the USB processor while decoding incoming data packets.  This feeds (according to JS at Uptone) back into the DAC's power supply and clocks.  So going with an external unit keeps their PS's separate.
 
From the folks I've talked to their DACs tend to sound better with a top external USB bridge vs the on board one.
 
Sorry for the side track - but this is something I've been weighing.  Of course the deep pocket crowd can have it all.
Anyone who has had this kind of experience - please post over on my Gustard U12 thread.
 
 
Back to the awesome MJ2

 

Very important points! I have a Wyrd for each of my Schiit DACs! Probably didn't need the very expensive AQ Carbon USB cables but what the hell.
 
LOL, I didn't notice your awesome 6922 reviews until now! Very glad I didn't contradict your impressions!

 

[shultzee]

 
Keep in mind that >80% of what you have heard on Yggy was before Gumby even hit the market. Also why would Yggy owners also buy the Gumby? There are only a few folks who have compared the 2 and while all agree Yggy is more detailed, I don't think many of them would say Yggy is not worth the price premium over Gumby because that's hard to do when you spend that kind of money. If the price delta is not a big deal to you and you want the DAC that Schiit will upgrade first with their next gen technology, then get the Yggy. Otherwise, I think you will be happy with the Gumby and will just need to wait longer for future upgrades to trickle down.

If I had to do it all over, I would just have Bimbies. I am in the camp of thinking a well designed SE out and in components are 99% as good as balanced.

Another decision point and I'd be interested in comparing: a Gumby with a better external USB bridge like a Hydra Z with LPS, and maybe a Regen added into the mix vs a Yggy with just it's on board USB GEN2.  That's of course if you're using PC audio as your main source.

I just did a 5 USB bridge shootout and the differences are not small.  The Regen engineer has a lot posted on the noise (he calls packet noise) generated by the USB processor while decoding incoming data packets.  This feeds (according to JS at Uptone) back into the DAC's power supply and clocks.  So going with an external unit keeps their PS's separate.

From the folks I've talked to their DACs tend to sound better with a top external USB bridge vs the on board one.

Sorry for the side track - but this is something I've been weighing.  Of course the deep pocket crowd can have it all.
Anyone who has had this kind of experience - please post over on my Gustard U12 thread.


Back to the awesome MJ2  

What would you consider a decent usb bridge after your research?

 

[rb2013]

 
Very important points! I have a Wyrd for each of my Schiit DACs! Probably didn't need the very expensive AQ Carbon USB cables but what the hell.
 
LOL, I didn't notice your awesome 6922 reviews until now! Very glad I didn't contradict your impressions!

What do you think with or without the Wyrd - notice a difference?  Thinking of doing a USB gizmo shootout.  Have a jitterbug - that was a nice incremental improvement - keeping it inmy system.  I'm to the point of selling my analog stuff - the music server/USB/tubed DACs are sounding so good - don't play LPs much any more.
 
Well your take those sweet SWGP silver shield Reflektors is spot on  - folks on the Woo WA2 have had similar outstanding results - one experienced tube roller called the HG '75's the best he has ever heard - over his Siemens CCa's and Amperex white print 6922's.
 
Great to see they're working out in your MJ2. 

 

[bflat]

  What do you think with or without the Wyrd - notice a difference?  Thinking of doing a USB gizmo shootout.  Have a jitterbug - that was a nice incremental improvement - keeping it inmy system.  I'm to the point of selling my analog stuff - the music server/USB/tubed DACs are sounding so good - don't play LPs much any more.
 
Well your take those sweet SWGP silver shield Reflektors is spot on  - folks on the Woo WA2 have had similar outstanding results - one experienced tube roller called the HG '75's the best he has ever heard - over his Siemens CCa's and Amperex white print 6922's.
 
Great to see they're working out in your MJ2. 

Cool. As far as Wyrd goes for me it's mixed.
 
On my home system the difference is huge because I was getting some noise without it. My home system is a custom rig I built so has no EMI shielding and FCC certification of any sort. It was built for pure speed and liquid cooled. Getting USB power separated to the Wyrd eliminated the noise. There were also times that the sampling rates got screwed up without Wyrd, so that's another obvious issue that got fixed.
 
On my Macbook system at work, I really can't tell much difference due to the short and direct connection to my Macbook Pro. However, I got the second Wyrd from a fellow Headfier and he actually measured THD and SNR from his system with and without and there were definite improvements in the measurements. I think it's up to individuals if that equates to perceived differences.
 
I basically view the Wyrd as an insurance device against extraneous noise and connectivity problems. For $100 I think it's worth it.

 

[rb2013]

 
Cool. As far as Wyrd goes for me it's mixed.
 
On my home system the difference is huge because I was getting some noise without it. My home system is a custom rig I built so has no EMI shielding and FCC certification of any sort. It was built for pure speed and liquid cooled. Getting USB power separated to the Wyrd eliminated the noise. There were also times that the sampling rates got screwed up without Wyrd, so that's another obvious issue that got fixed.
 
On my Macbook system at work, I really can't tell much difference due to the short and direct connection to my Macbook Pro. However, I got the second Wyrd from a fellow Headfier and he actually measured THD and SNR from his system with and without and there were definite improvements in the measurements. I think it's up to individuals if that equates to perceived differences.
 
I basically view the Wyrd as an insurance device against extraneous noise and connectivity problems. For $100 I think it's worth it.

Cheers to that!

 

[tuxbass]

  Keep in mind that >80% of what you have heard on Yggy was before Gumby even hit the market. Also why would Yggy owners also buy the Gumby? There are only a few folks who have compared the 2 and while all agree Yggy is more detailed, I don't think many of them would say Yggy is not worth the price premium over Gumby because that's hard to do when you spend that kind of money. If the price delta is not a big deal to you and you want the DAC that Schiit will upgrade first with their next gen technology, then get the Yggy. Otherwise, I think you will be happy with the Gumby and will just need to wait longer for future upgrades to trickle down.
 
If I had to do it all over, I would just have Bimbies. I am in the camp of thinking a well designed SE out and in components are 99% as good as balanced.

This is good reasoning.
The only other thing to consider is the Gen3 USB in Yggy. Wondering how close would a Gumby with Wyrd or Uptone REGEN be to the Yggy ?

 

[steved21]

Hi
 
I have a  MJ2, quite like the LISST but prefer the 6BZT.  Are you able to tell be how the stock tubes (6BZT) stack up to the ones  you describe, in particular the 6N23P that you like. Also whats you DAC?   I'm finding the source make most of the difference in my sound, aside from the headphones. 
thanks
Steve

 

[rb2013]

  This is good reasoning.
The only other thing to consider is the Gen3 USB in Yggy. Wondering how close would a Gumby with Wyrd or Uptone REGEN be to the Yggy ?

Yes good point - I read the GEN3 is only available on the Yggy.

 

[MattTCG]

I went with mjo2 and GUMBY and ended up adding Wyrd to eliminate usb problems. Well, I did solve the usb problem without the Wyrd but I liked what the Wyrd did for the sound that I kept it anyway. 

 

[shultzee]

  I went with mjo2 and GUMBY and ended up adding Wyrd to eliminate usb problems. Well, I did solve the usb problem without the Wyrd but I liked what the Wyrd did for the sound that I kept it anyway. 

Enabler