[Mike-WI]

My Yggy 2 is "out for delivery"...

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

Well I got it a day earlier than Canada Post predicted. First impressions:

As compared with my Marantz PM-7005 integrated which did what this 4-piece kit (Vidar, Saga, Mani, Modi MB) is now doing.

• Mani is an underrated little beast! Pops and clicks are noticeably less than before, channel separation and detail are very nice.
• Detail and decay are insanely good on digital, to the point where I sometimes feel the music is being slowed down to let me better analyze complex stuff like Le sacre du printemps. Multibit sure seems like something special. Does it really get better than Mimby if one throws 2x, 4x or 8x this amount of money at a DAC?
• Love the amount of control at low volume on Saga. With the Marantz, anything above 9 o'clock would get banging on the ceiling from my better half. Now there is lots of room up to 1 o'click (getting used to the clicks is faster than one fears at first).
• Tube sound is very subtle (my first time with tubes), but I already feel like the Tung-Sol might be adding just the amount of fairy dust that I might get addicted to.
• Vidar + Kef R300 = a feeling of perfect control and responsiveness to whatever input is thrown at them. The soundstage depth (front-back) that I crave with my Kef's is even better - not so much deeper than before, but more defined - I now feel as if I can tell that one instrument is 2 feet behind another.
• Very happy with the appearance of this all-B-stock system; I have yet to notice what cosmetic flaws were worth the $230 rebate.
• When I unboxed Saga, I was disappointed at first to get the old credit-card-sized remote. Oh well, B-stock, c'est la vie! But now... I must be the only person who likes the small remote! I have about ½ square foot of free space on my computer table so the small footprint is very practical.

Congratulations on your new system. It sounds like you're off to a good start.

Re your observations on the Mani. It may well be a big improvement over your Marantz integrated amp (easily ascertained by running the Mani into one of the Marantz line level inputs) but I would suggest that the major improvement here is the Vidar amp. This may not seem obvious but let me explain.

When I replaced my Parasound Halo A23 with a Vidar amp last year there were many improvements that were immediately obvious. The biggest improvement, though, was in my vinyl playback system (Clearaudio Concept w/ Concept MC cartridge, PS Audio GCPH phono stage). Surface noise was greatly reduced - to an astonishing degree. I don't have many records with ticks or pops but those that I do have were much less intrusive. Bass frequencies just solidified but improvements in the midrange were a surprise. More detail, clearer transients, increased dynamics. And I only changed the power amp.

I originally attributed these improvements to the larger open-loop bandwidth of the Vidar over the A23. I also believe that the characteristics of Vidar's EI power transformer over the A23's toroid is also responsible for some of the improvement that I hear.

Anyway, it sounds like you're as happy with your system as I am with mine. Thanks, @Jason Stoddard for building such great products.

JC

 

[D2Girls]

My Yggy 2 is "out for delivery"...

Congrats hope you like it lots

 

[Mike Foley]

Like @Delirious Lab my Vidar arrived this week, and I am very impressed so far. I’m getting similar results, although I am using different speakers. Will give my impressions once it’s run in.

 

[Mike Foley]

And here it is!

 

[D2Girls]

And here it is!

Wow cool what's that tube shaped thing on the middle shelf, left side?

 

[tricolor]

Hey folks...

I have been using the Bifrost for a few years now... but only recently I decided to play around with the UBS and toslink connections...

I have noticed that USB handles up to 192/24 bitrate BUT Toslink stops at 96/24... is this a "problem" with my hardware? or Mac OS itself? it is not a biggie at all... I just thought toslink would hold the highest quality... so wanted to confirm...

Cheers!

 

[Mike Foley]

Wow cool what's that tube shaped thing on the middle shelf, left side?

It’s a Musical Fidelity X-Ray CD player. It’s nearly twenty years old, but sounds great and looks good. I always wanted one, but couldn’t afford it new (£799.00), so when I saw this for sale at £199.00 a few months ago I snatched it up. When it arrived it came with a certificate saying it had been through MF factory upgrade programme, another £499.00, so a bit of a bargain! I like a bargain...

http://www.musicalfidelity.com/fine-tuning/fine-tune-cd#xray

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

Toslink is only spec'd to 96/24. It is possible to get it to run at 192/24 if everything is just right and the gods are smiling but it's generally not reliable at that speed (hence the 96/24 spec).

JC

 

[tricolor]

Toslink is only spec'd to 96/24. It is possible to get it to run at 192/24 if everything is just right and the gods are smiling but it's generally not reliable at that speed (hence the 96/24 spec).

JC

@JohnnyCanuck, thanks! Interesting 'cause I thought that the best interface would be optical... and that USB would create a bottleneck... but despite being quite subtle, the difference (at least with my speakers), 192 sounds a bit better indeed...

cheers

 

[Alcophone]

Hey folks...

I have been using the Bifrost for a few years now... but only recently I decided to play around with the UBS and toslink connections...

I have noticed that USB handles up to 192/24 bitrate BUT Toslink stops at 96/24... is this a "problem" with my hardware? or Mac OS itself? it is not a biggie at all... I just thought toslink would hold the highest quality... so wanted to confirm...

Cheers!

I have used 24/192 optical in the past (from a MacBook Pro to a Sound Blaster E5, but also briefly tried with Yggy). I noticed that most combinations of cable + Mini TOSlink adapter did not work beyond 96 kHz. That was particularly sad with the MBP + E5 Combo because both use Mini TOSlink, and it's hard to find optical cables with that on both ends. Luckily, PI Manufacturing had me covered, though I had to wipe some greasy substance off the cables.
Anyway, make sure to not use TOSlink adapters, but cables with the right termination.

 

[tricolor]

I have used 24/192 optical in the past (from a MacBook Pro to a Sound Blaster E5, but also briefly tried with Yggy). I noticed that most combinations of cable + Mini TOSlink adapter did not work beyond 96 kHz. That was particularly sad with the MBP + E5 Combo because both use Mini TOSlink, and it's hard to find optical cables with that on both ends. Luckily, PI Manufacturing had me covered, though I had to wipe some greasy substance off the cables.
Anyway, make sure to not use TOSlink adapters, but cables with the right termination.

Good morning @Alcophone & folks!
Hope all is well!

Thanks! Mine's a Hackintosh... ASUS Sabretooth motherboard... I might try to play with another cable, but I guess it ain't that much of a biggie... I'll check and degrease the ends just in case as well...

Cheers!

 

[Alcophone]

Good morning @Alcophone & folks!
Hope all is well!

Thanks! Mine's a Hackintosh... ASUS Sabretooth motherboard... I might try to play with another cable, but I guess it ain't that much of a biggie... I'll check and degrease the ends just in case as well...

Cheers!

Haha, it was actually the cable itself, not so much the connectors.

Just hooked up Yggy using the Mini TOSlink to TOSlink version, and it works just fine at 24/192.

 

[Delirious Lab]

Only two (too short) evenings with the new gear, and already I've had a couple of "whoa, scary good" moments with it:

Night One was with the Tung-Sol tube on Saga; at one point I try the Rite of Spring (Boulez/Cleveland), and somewhere in the middle of part 1 I realize how much freaking detail is in that music. Like a painting with a myriad of hidden codes that are in plain sight, only you look at it a little more carefully than usual and you notice it for the first time. As I said before, I had the impression that things were slowing down so I could examine all the interweaving woodwind parts.

Night Two was LISST time, and after trying on various things I go "Let's have some Zeppelin". My go-to track is Whole Lotta Love - yeah, good punch, Bonham is banging them cans and all is good, but as we got to the middle section with the effects and the wild left-right stereo pans (if you know the song you know what I'm talking about) the soundstage began to get downright eerie on me. Imagine the sound going from 7:30 to noon to 4:30 on a clock, back and forth, with me being in the center...

Both moments, with completely different genres of music, left me tripping as if I had taken something.

 

[artur9]

As I said before, I had the impression that things were slowing down ...

I had that same impression when I got my Gumby. I said on that thread that music I was listening to seemed to go from da da DA da to da daa DA da and it was freaking me the hell out. What could possibly be the explanation for that effect?