[gefski]

Bifrost Multibit has been repurposed to make room for Yggdrasil, which I am auditioning. I listened to it straight out of the box. It has already exceeded my expectations. I have to trust Moffat & Co. when they say the sound will improve if I leave it on. I can’t imagine how.

Ragnarok 2 is powering a pair of Heresy IVs in my system. This setup was already pretty good and fun to listen to, especially since these speakers do wonders for vocals. Enter Yggdrasil.

Obvious changes: It takes a while to boot up. It’s louder than Bifrost (I’m using the XLR outs) which made volume-matching for comparison tricky. For reference, at the lowest gain, I usually listen at 3:30. Now I’m closer to 1:45.

Busy tracks with a lot of percussion have been the most insightful to experience. TRS’ Sympathy for the Devil, for example, is a very good benchmark to compare Yggdrasil to others. Yggy seems to effortlessly place everything in its right place, with very defined and natural attacks, and disciplined (and very fun) sustain. Bifrost was already doing a great job, but Yggy came to say “there’s more space to explore...”. It’s as if it shines a brighter light on everything. Phil Collins’ Big Band is a busy record, with a somewhat claustrophobic soundstage at times. Yggy does wonders here. I feel space in between sounds that was simply not there. I have them in vinyl in another setup, and Yggy pretty much delivers a similar intangible fun factor. Go figure.

Vocals are crazy good. Again, my Klipsch speakers excel at that. Yggy is feeding them quality here. McCartney & Wing’s Band on the Run and Peter Gabriel’s third album are good records to highlight all the positive differences.

I put a few of Lang Lang’s records through it. Little improvement over Bifrost, but not as dramatic as the others.

I’ll try some Allman Brothers, Clapton, Grateful Dead, Beatles, some Operas, and a few Concertos I know well over the next few days. I’ll try various headphones as well, since I know Ragnarok’s profile well by now. If sound quality changes, I‘ll report it. But I think I have Yggy’s strengths mostly mapped out in my head and can anticipate how my favorite tracks will compare to Bifrost: Very, very favorably.

Grievance number 1: Most pictures of Ragnarok 1 and Yggy I’ve seen show them stacked with the dac below. Can’t do that with Ragz 2. So I did it the other way and I pray the heat sinks to the sides are enough and this is safe.

Grievance number 2: I want an Yggdrasil tshirt. And an Ape Schiit poster. And they are not included in the box.

Grievance no. 1
Get a small shelf providing more space around each or...
Get taller feet (1/2” work great) providing more space around each.

 

[Mikem53]

When I installed my Yggy cold from the box, it wowed me at first too. Over time,I realized it was just bright, which made it seem, I had a huge wide soundstage. In my system which includes a Pass Lab intergraded, the sound changed many times, until finally it settled. At that point the Yggy just sound so natural and organic, that it was like there was no dac at all in my system. Just the right amount of warmth and with very good resolution. In my system, just the perfect balance.

I gave up my analog rig in the mid 90’s after purchasing the Sony SCD1 SACD player.. Finally got a taste of digital that sounded good and showed promise.. After all, those digital televisions never looked so good, so why not digital audio? The Sony did redbook CD’s better than my ARC CD player and SACDs had that analog characteristic that sounded promising.. Yet the format was never supported enough by the industry so limited selections made it a dead end.. I was determined to wait it out.. waiting for the digital world To sort it all out and deliver a proper format and wide selection of music.. I have since had a number of DACs and CD players come and go thru the years and still have 4 to choose from.. They are all respectable DACs and players.. one of my favs is the Cary 306 SACD player.. I used a digital front end into the Carys DAC which proved to be quite musical but a bit colored , but quite pleasing.. Still not matching my friends expensive analog rig on vocals, organic sounding.. etc..
Along comes the Yggy GS which I purchased for my office systen, headphones and bookshelf speakers paired with a Pass ACA amp.. the yggy is about 1/3 the price of the Cary which I purchased about 17 years ago.. the Yggdrasil Sounded good right out of the box.. but after a few weeks of up time, not much listening time.. I was blown away by the SQ and the detail.. So I moved the Cary 306 out of the way.. and setup the Yggy in my main setup.. This was a Life changing experience for me.. I had redbook CDs that sounded so good.. so amazingly ANALOG.. but without the artifacts, wow and flutter, etc... FINALLY !!! I had music with Flesh and Blood.. liquid smooth.. but not muted or artificial.. detail without harsh or edgy sound or distraction from the music.. just music , it was all there.. So I purchased a Modi Multibit DAC for the office and kept the Yggdrasil in my main system. I took the Modi MB over to my analog only friends house along with my laptop and played it through his system.. to my ears it equaled or bettered his $$$ TT setup.. in fact, he has Since purchased a bifrost and is using Amazon unlimited HD As his digital source.. I think he will move up to a Yggy soon.
So my dilemma now is, do I send in my Yggdrasil GS for an upgrade? Or do I keep the current one and buy a new full version 2.0, Unisom, etc.. ? That modi mutibit is pretty good.. doesn’t quite have all the nuances and dynamics of the Yguy , but for my little system it does quite well. I’m afraid that if I upgrade to the newer version it might not be to my liking as well, which I realize is probably silly and Me trying to justify another one..

 

[bfreedma]

I gave up my analog rig in the mid 90’s after purchasing the Sony SCD1 SACD player.. Finally got a taste of digital that sounded good and showed promise.. After all, those digital televisions never looked so good, so why not digital audio? The Sony did redbook CD’s better than my ARC CD player and SACDs had that analog characteristic that sounded promising.. Yet the format was never supported enough by the industry so limited selections made it a dead end.. I was determined to wait it out.. waiting for the digital world To sort it all out and deliver a proper format and wide selection of music.. I have since had a number of DACs and CD players come and go thru the years and still have 4 to choose from.. They are all respectable DACs and players.. one of my favs is the Cary 306 SACD player.. I used a digital front end into the Carys DAC which proved to be quite musical but a bit colored , but quite pleasing.. Still not matching my friends expensive analog rig on vocals, organic sounding.. etc..
Along comes the Yggy GS which I purchased for my office systen, headphones and bookshelf speakers paired with a Pass ACA amp.. the yggy is about 1/3 the price of the Cary which I purchased about 17 years ago.. the Yggdrasil Sounded good right out of the box.. but after a few weeks of up time, not much listening time.. I was blown away by the SQ and the detail.. So I moved the Cary 306 out of the way.. and setup the Yggy in my main setup.. This was a Life changing experience for me.. I had redbook CDs that sounded so good.. so amazingly ANALOG.. but without the artifacts, wow and flutter, etc... FINALLY !!! I had music with Flesh and Blood.. liquid smooth.. but not muted or artificial.. detail without harsh or edgy sound or distraction from the music.. just music , it was all there.. So I purchased a Modi Multibit DAC for the office and kept the Yggdrasil in my main system. I took the Modi MB over to my analog only friends house along with my laptop and played it through his system.. to my ears it equaled or bettered his $$$ TT setup.. in fact, he has Since purchased a bifrost and is using Amazon unlimited HD As his digital source.. I think he will move up to a Yggy soon.
So my dilemma now is, do I send in my Yggdrasil GS for an upgrade? Or do I keep the current one and buy a new full version 2.0, Unisom, etc.. ? That modi mutibit is pretty good.. doesn’t quite have all the nuances and dynamics of the Yguy , but for my little system it does quite well. I’m afraid that if I upgrade to the newer version it might not be to my liking as well, which I realize is probably silly and Me trying to justify another one..

I'll actually read that wall of text if you make some attempt to format it.

 

[rfernand]

So my dilemma now is, do I send in my Yggdrasil GS for an upgrade?

Schiit won’t upgrade Yggy GS to A2 / Unison. See the FAQ in https://www.schiit.com/products/yggdrasil-gs . Support confirmed that GS is upgradeable for post-A2 stuff*. I asked because I was considering GS before I decided to go all in

* which is of course proof that MQA and DSD512 support with carbon nanotubes filled with unicorn tears is all coming. #iwanttobelieve

 

[Mikem53]

Got it... Thanks.. that Makes my decision easier…

 

[gefski]

Schiit won’t upgrade Yggy GS to A2 / Unison. See the FAQ in https://www.schiit.com/products/yggdrasil-gs . Support confirmed that GS is upgradeable for post-A2 stuff*. I asked because I was considering GS before I decided to go all in

* which is of course proof that MQA and DSD512 support with carbon nanotubes filled with unicorn tears is all coming. #iwanttobelieve

Looking at that faq, I see it’s referring to the Analog 2 upgrade, not necessarily the Unison USB card. If a Yggy GS owner is using the USB input, it could be very worthwhile to consider upgrading to Unison USB..

 

[rfernand]

If sound quality changes, I‘ll report it.

It’s been about 60 hours since I first plugged it in. The sound did change. It’s hard to put in words, it sounds livelier.

It‘s the same feeling you get when you improve something and a fatiguing characteristic goes away. Except there was nothing fatiguing here. I did not feel the out of the box sound to be bright or edgy, btw. So I’ll just leave it at this: It’s true. All of it. It sounds fantastic and then some.

 

[Mikem53]

Looking at that faq, I see it’s referring to the Analog 2 upgrade, not necessarily the Unison USB card. If a Yggy GS owner is using the USB input, it could be very worthwhile to consider upgrading to Unison USB..

I just ordered the Unison upgrade for the Yggdrasil.. I was using a Bel canto Reflink reclocker from USB to AES and I couldn’t detect much difference actually preferring the gen5.. looking forward to an even better interface..

 

[tesarpa]

After I installed Unison to my Yggy A1, I instantly forgot about any improvement on upstream chain. They are simply unnecessary. Now I play directly from Roon core on MacMini and it plays heavenly. USB cable is generic black, standard USB 2.0, no problem with that.

 

[Mikem53]

After I installed Unison to my Yggy A1, I instantly forgot about any improvement on upstream chain. They are simply unnecessary. Now I play directly from Roon core on MacMini and it plays heavenly. USB cable is generic black, standard USB 2.0, no problem with that.

Thanks.. Always look forward to removing devices/cables from the music stream !! Less is more..

 

[rfernand]

It’s been about 60 hours since I first plugged it in. The sound did change. It’s hard to put in words, it sounds livelier.

I am now well-past the recommended 72 hours. No significant development to my ears, but I did notice another interesting thing about Yggy, which is the effortless resolution of the dynamics of classic Spanish guitar (nylon, think of the hits and sustained changes when, say, Paco de Lucia picks and then strums). While Bifrost multibit sounds great and the attack is lively and warm, Yggy’s resolution is closer to listening to guitar without amplification (or with a simple mic, no compression or such tricks). The peaks are precise and soft but do not cross over to being unnaturally rigid, which is usually the tell-tale of not playing vinyl. So if you have records in which the engineer focused on capturing a more orchestral performance rather than a more processed sound, Yggy will bring out the nicest juice out front. I said effortless because this feels like the device is truly getting out of the way.

I could listen to this thing day and night if my children did not tell me to be quiet and let them sleep...

 

[rfernand]

Grievance no. 1
Get a small shelf providing more space around each or...
Get taller feet (1/2” work great) providing more space around each.

Since this is now looking like a keeper, do you have any specific recommendations? I’ll take ‘em

 

[gefski]

Since this is now looking like a keeper, do you have any specific recommendations? I’ll take ‘em

This is just a monitor shelf that came with this desk, but there are monitor shelves, amp stands, etc. this has 6” vertical plus plenty of width. It usually has two amps on it but all my gear except this one system is packed for an upcoming move. It’s just my personal thing that I don’t like to stack components on each other. But if you do, there are a bazillion stick on feet in many sizes to gain more airflow on eBay & Amazon. Sorbothane feet are a bit sticky and keep lightweight components from sliding around (I don‘t attribute any sonic benefits to them). The sky’s the limit $ wise if one wants to get into exotic component isolation.

 

[darmccombs]

You can run Roon on your PC, and use a Pi4 as a network endpoint with usb out to your DAC and it will sound great and is super simple and cheap. At some point in the future, if you want to upgrade you can get a dedicated Roon core and HQPlayer as well, which I use and I think is worth every penny!

I was thinking of doing this too. Can I ask what HQPlayer conversion filter you found best with the Yggy, for PCM?

 

[Gavin C4]

It is possible that the Ygg is built into the modular form just like the new Bifrost? Then upgrades in the future would be easy. It is because shipping fees are so expensive for overseas users.