[DSNORD]

MOFOfunk,
That is a great question. I'm about to try to answer that with a new system I am putting in in a bedroom being converted to a listening/reading room. My daughter has moved out to her own place and took her furniture, so now I have an opportunity for the Dream system.

I have a nearfield setup in my office that is Mac Mini/Audirvana3-AOIP/unDAES-Yggy-Rag-KEF LS50/JL AUDIO E110. It is spectacular and end game for me.

I was thinking about an even bigger system for the new room to the tune of Roon streamer-Yggy-Freya-dual Vidar-Salk Song 3/JL Audio e110 or e112. This would push close to 10-11 Grand.

I can run that system with my eyes closed, but I had to consider my wife would not be amenable to having to deal with something potentially complex to just "listen to some tunes," and I'd totally catch hell for "putting in all those boxes that she couldn't easily use."

I battled back and forth over the options and for now have settled on a KEF LS50 Wireless setup for the time being. For $2200, I get the awesome LS50, 4 DACS, 4 amps, streamer, and DSP ability all in one compact, gorgeous, wife pleasing- and ear pleasing- package with each component being optimally tuned for the complete system.

I have Paradigm Active 20s in my 7.2 theater system and have always thought that active speakers can have a real leg up on separates if done right.

But knowing how awesome and end game my Schiit system is, my audio nervosa side won't shut the hell up and has me wondering if the bigger package still might be better and worth the significant financial and complexity upcharge.

In other words, the battle rages between one side knowing separate "Schiit" is great versus the other side hoping a completely engineered front to back tuned system might be equally good even though it's missing the marvelous megaburrito filter among other Schiit innovations.

So time will tell. Sure I'd like all the tinkering and the eye candy of the big system, but a happy wife and heavier wallet win this round. The room is under construction, but I've been breaking in the speakers on a table in my office and so far they sound mighty fine.

 

[Argo Duck]

My very long overdue Yggy review: http://www.head-fi.org/products/schiit-audio-yggdrasil/reviews/18270

What a terrific review. I've read so many by now I didn't think anything new could be said. This articulates a couple of points not highlighted elsewhere, and is very well and lucidly expressed giving a new and down to earth insight even on points commonly covered elsewhere such as "the Moffat bass".

 

[draytonklammer]

I found this. Same exact issue I faced before sending my DAC back to Schiit...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NulsjiQGxAM

 

[MOFOfunk]

.

I have a nearfield setup in my office that is Mac Mini/Audirvana3-AOIP/unDAES-Yggy-Rag-KEF LS50/JL AUDIO E110. It is spectacular and end game for me.

I was thinking about an even bigger system for the new room to the tune of Roon streamer-Yggy-Freya-dual Vidar-Salk Song 3/JL Audio e110 or e112. This would push close to 10-11 Grand.

.

Hola Mr Nord. That sure is a sweet 2ch/HP endgame office setup. That sub looks very Interesting like punch in an nice package. Do you send the music from the mini through the ethernet port to this unDaes? An how much is it?

But with all those setups you have going I see why you do well to oblige the wishes of your wife and make a cozy reading room. With that office you seriously don't need another listening room.

The wifi speakers are pretty slick and very WF if she digs the design. The Darko dude is very impressed. I read his review with interest until I reached: "Purists should be made aware that all incoming analogue signals are instantly digitised to 24bit/192kHz PCM..." WHAT! This purist can for one not accept his precious sine waves being digitalised to be sent to another speaker. Not sure if I could hear it, but the mere thought of it is enough.

That said, I totally understand the temptation by the 2ch Schiit setup. Although my amp (Rega Elicit R) is only three years old and i have been happy with it. I believe my Harbeth superHL5 would benefit from the power of twin vidars. And tube rolling sounds fun eventhough it seems like most owners struggle to reach the JFET quality in Frej(or i)a (= correct spelling) w. the tubes.

But that will have to wait.

First I want to see how Mani works with my RP6 w. Ortofon orange and what the Multibit magic does to my system.

How or where does one get the perspective to chose between a Gungnir and the mighty Yggdrasil?
I know that it is not twice as good. And I appreciate that the differences may be more the listening sensation than something measurable. Balder once wrote something along the lines that Gungnir could make his wife sing or dance and Yggdrasil could make her cry.

I would like more of that kind of comparisons. Not so much the YGG gives you a ride on the knees of the sweatdripping violinist in the second row.

Can I save money on expensive streamers and DDC's if I spend my whole budget on the Yggdrasil or should I get the Gumby and invest the difference in such devices?

 

[DSNORD]

UnDaes is $599 from FullCompass.com. AIOP via AES to Yggy just "feels better" to me than USB although I can't hear any major difference as I wrote in a previous post. There's a greater sense of calm and relaxation I find from AOIP although I can't explain it at all.

My initial Schiit Gumby mono bit and Mojo have moved to my office desk at work and play through Airmotiv 5s. Great sounding system, but Yggy/Rag swamp it.

Yggy is everything everyone raves about. I hear stuff on albums I've played for years that I never knew was there. Lack of Yggy in my new system is what's triggering my audio nervosa. That nervosa will likely win out one day causing me to build the Schiit Dream system I mentioned above.

 

[DSNORD]

Also the KEF wireless is being fed a digital 16/44 AIFF stream from my NAS drive. So there's nothing lost to digitization assuming any upsampling done by the various internal DACs don't mess with the signal to any degree.

 

[MOFOfunk]

It sure is a neat setup for all digital salsa mr. DS Nord. But I have already begun my trip up the long and winding road to audio valhall. I love my LP's and hope to meet a girl like Freya up there. Who know what happens after a few years of rolling. Maybe we'll have twins.

All I need now is a great multibit dac mostly for the CDs and some of that old www. My GF is good with the CDs. Even think our daughter could do it and shes just 1,75 years old. I can't spend xxxx$ on something I don't hear, but if Yggdrasil really is remarkably better / more fun/interesting than GungnirMB I could find the money for that.

My GF is slightly deaf in lower frequencies from "to many" festivals w.o. earplugs and semi pro west African dancing. And I play the bass and loved a nice bass sound since childhood. In fourth grade I told my dad that I wanted to play either tuba or double bass. And from fifth grade I played double bass in an symphonic orchestra for seven years. Also love to play folk music and bluegrass, and Funk and blues on the fenderJazz and African drums.
So bass is very important and I'm surely going to love the Moffat bass in any of the MB units?


Which would you use for listening to a Graham Central Stations (try earthquake) or world music stars like Salif Keita.
Which is the most fun listening to?
Could I get a better overall sound by spending the difference on other parts of the chain that I have missed?

@earnmyturns. I think you are saying. That you cant polish a turd. With diamonds you don't need to. But you wont have much joy of the diamond if its placed in a turd.

 

[earnmyturns]

So bass is very important and I'm surely going to love the Moffat bass in any of the MB units?

Even the Bimby gives very worthy bass. Just listening to the new Pi Recordings Miles Okasaki release "Trickster." Straight 44.1/16 through my headphone home office setup (see sig below). Track "Eating Earth" has a dense electric bass line punctuated by dry cymbals and Craig Taborn's piano, the electric bass has a great presence, fast attack. I'll have to check out this same album on the 2-channel system downstairs with the Yggy.
 

@earnmyturns. I think you are saying. That you cant polish a turd. With diamonds you don't need to. But you wont have much joy of the diamond if its placed in a turd.

Right. I listen to lots of live music, mostly modern jazz and classical (Thursday: Still Dreaming Quartet led by Joshua Redman at SFJAZZ; Friday: Emerson String Quartet playing Ravel, Berg, Debussy at Stanford), and my current non-portable systems (see sig) bring the music to me at acceptable quality relative to those live music experiences. I feel these systems are relatively well balanced. I could imagine upgrading my home office system (I may, in fact), but nothing stands out like a sore thumb. 

 

[winders]

In my quest for the best sound quality possible from my digitally sourced music, I concentrated on devices to clean up and decrapify the USB signals sent to my Yggdrasil. I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing to do. But, a thread over on CA reminded me that there are other important steps to be taken as well. One of those steps is providing clean power in the first place.
 
John Swenson (of UpTone Audio fame) suggested getting an isolation transformer with extremely low inter-winding capacitance (.005pf). This type of isolation transformer "doesn't pass the high frequency crud on the AV main". He then suggested using a quality power strip with no filtering or surge suppression as the isolation transformer will handle that. He recommended plugging all the audio components into the power strip. He said "This dramatically cuts down on the impedance between boxes, significantly lowering noise generated by leakage loops." John uses a Topaz isolation transformer.
 
I bought a 1.8KVA Topaz 91018-11 Line Noise Suppressing Utra-Isolator (.005pF) transformer and received it today. I plugged it in to a wall outlet and then plugged a TrippLite power strip with all my audio equipment (not the computer) into it. The first bit of good news is that the transformer is virtually silent. If I stick my head right next to it I can here a slight hum but it is well below the ambient noise of the room with no music playing. I have no idea how clean or dirty my AC power is on the outlet I had the audio equipment plugged into.
 
I can say that with the Topaz I think the noise floor is lower. In other words, the background sounds quieter. It's like the music is coming from a noiseless place. The details and clarity in the timbre of voices and instruments has improved. Finally, the separation of instruments and voices is even better than before.
 
Listening to Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen" is amazing. The soundstage is fantastic. It is not too wide and the I can clearly discern the location of the various instruments better than before. Wow. I just listened to CCR's "Susie Q". Wow...just wow!! The clarity, separation, and detail are incredible! As I keep listening to my favorite "critical listening" songs, I continue to be more and more amazed.
 
Using the Topaz isolation transformer and TrippLite power strip is certainly a step up in sound quality. I am impressed! Very Impressed!!
 
I am still using the Singxer F-1 to feed my Yggdrasil via its SPDIF coax port. When the ISO Regen comes out I will test it to see if there is an improvement in sound quality. But, I have to admit that I have a hard time believing it could get much better than what I am hearing now!
 

 

[johnzz4]

Guys.. my Yggy doesn't even get warm. Literally room temp. I just noticed that the owners manual said it runs hot?! There have been a couple times where I would say it was slightly warm, and it sounded particularly smooth those times. Anyone else noticing the Yggy is usually at room temp? The room stays right around 72 degrees f.

 

[Thenazgul]

What are the benefits of using the AES input and using a audio interface (from AES to USB) towards pc? Only thing is that you bypass the built-in USB controller?

Is this one better than the YEllowtec PUC2 lite? https://www.musicstore.de/nl_NL/EUR/Mutec-MC-3-Smart-Clock-USB/art-REC0012424-000;pgid=RACgou81YlJSRpvk3AYfjsjj0000ClX6asii?gclid=Cj0KEQjwqtjGBRD8yfi9h42H9YUBEiQAmki5OvmkwSzYWTEwxxu3PwTjI8Ipj2AmxdDozhZUk8SNnZoaAvet8P8HAQ&campaign=GBase%2FNL 

or the motu 8d

https://www.thomann.de/nl/motu_8d.htm?ref=search_rslt_usb+interface+aes_409920_21 

 

[LarryMagoo]

My Yggy runs around 82-86 depending were I measure it.  I even have a Oppo HA-1 Amp sitting on top of it and the Yggy still only runs warm.  I've yet to spend my first Summer with this splendid DAC  so I have no idea what it will run then... Boy is she sweet or what?

 

 

[earnmyturns]

  What are the benefits of using the AES input and using a audio interface (from AES to USB) towards pc? Only thing is that you bypass the built-in USB controller?

The theory and some of the observations are that USB hardware was not originally designed for high-quality audio, so it is prone to carrying switching and power electrical noise from the source to the DAC, while AES is much simpler and less likely to carry electrical noise. Whether this is audible depends a lot on your source. I've not used AES yet, but I found that a USB>S/PDIF coax converter improves on direct USB with some lesser sources, although I can't hear a benefit with my current USB source (see sig below). There have been some hints on a differend thread that Schiit is exploring further improvements to USB, so maybe this is not the time to rush to buy expensive USB to S/PDIF or AES converters like the Mutec.

 

[Thenazgul]

  The theory and some of the observations are that USB hardware was not originally designed for high-quality audio, so it is prone to carrying switching and power electrical noise from the source to the DAC, while AES is much simpler and less likely to carry electrical noise. Whether this is audible depends a lot on your source. I've not used AES yet, but I found that a USB>S/PDIF coax converter improves on direct USB with some lesser sources, although I can't hear a benefit with my current USB source (see sig below). There have been some hints on a differend thread that Schiit is exploring further improvements to USB, so maybe this is not the time to rush to buy expensive USB to S/PDIF or AES converters like the Mutec.

Fair enough. Budget-wise I have to wait a few months anyway. Saving up for some Adam S2V monitors. Those have priority.  

 

[FLTWS]

Guys.. my Yggy doesn't even get warm. Literally room temp. I just noticed that the owners manual said it runs hot?! There have been a couple times where I would say it was slightly warm, and it sounded particularly smooth those times. Anyone else noticing the Yggy is usually at room temp? The room stays right around 72 degrees f.

 
I find mine just warm to the touch and I leave it on all the time. Just coming out of winter and here and I keep my room temp at 68 degrees all winter and 74 degrees all summer. Yesterday was a warmer than usual day here for this time of year and so was my Yggy ( and other Schiit). I think ambient room temperature has a bearing on whether the case will feel warmer or cooler. Cooler room air temps dissipate heat quicker?