[Baldr]

I assume the Gumby has the same DSP built into the mother board whereas in the Yggy they chose a DSP as a separate and upgradable board.

Exactly -- less integration..............

 

[Baldr]

Polarity = absolute phase.  With the megaburrito filter, the absolute phase switch will have a clear audible difference engaged/not according to the recording, AND the phase characteristics of the cans or speakers in the playback system as well.  Engaged is out of absolute phase.  Not engaged is in absolute phase.  Most of the time, the correct position will be not engaged, but when wrong, it is unbelievably so.  My default is to look askance at audiophile recordings.  I tire of motets sung by choirs consisting of prison guards recorded by "twinkle ears" the engineer.  Generally, such recordings are artistically  stunted as the norm, but there are some which are useful.  Jazz at the Pawnshop comes to mind as a minimally miked amazing sounding example.  The polarity button position is obvious with this recording on my gear.  In addition, there are many older recordings (the old Mercury Gold Classical releases) which also will benefit in the correct position.  Multi miked recordings are more varied in their outcome, but almost always have a clear winning position on the switch, unless they are a hopeless phase soup mixture (usually only pop, thank god).
 
Finally, an anecdote which may help some wrap their heads around polarity/absolute phase.  i once a chance to hear John Iverson's (Electro Research) NMP (No moving parts) full range speakers back in the early 1970s.  They were the most amazing audio experience of my life - more on that on my blog later.  Part of his demo was to feed dc into his speakers.  At positive absolute polarity, the speakers blew air out of the front and sucked it from the back.  (They were bipolar)  At negative absolute polarity it was the opposite - sucked from the front and blew it out the back.  The obvious conclusion is that positive polarity blows and negative polarity sucks.  No schiit.

 

[Oklahoma]

So one thing I have noticed is I can run the volume louder on my amp without blowing my ears out. I would attribute this to how open the Yggy is and that since there is space between the instruments it doesn't seem like everything is crammed together like when you apply a lot of compression to make music louder.

 

[johnjen]

Absolute polarity has been 'on my plate' for a while now.
But recently, after reading that albums can be reverse polarized, a light bulb went 'on' and I added another column in JRiver indicating 'normal' or 'reversed' polarity.

And there are 3 distinct types of albums I can identify with regards to phase.
1. It obvious when its in AND out of phase.
2. It seems to make no difference, or the differences are very slight, or it's REALLY hard to tell which is 'correct'.
3. Sometimes even during the same track, the bass will exhibit both phases. (thankfully this is rather rare).

But what can make these distinctions much easier to determine, at least in my system, is a slightly boosted sub sonic region of the FR spectrum (below 20Hz.).

Right now I'm listening to Eric Clapton Unplugged (#1 above).
Using his foot falls for the tempo on the stage are a dead giveaway as to which phase is 'correct'.

JJ

 

[mourip]

Anyone out there using an Yggy via USB with Windows 2012 Server? If so, which drivers did you download?
 
The site shows some for Windows 10 and a different download for XP/7/8.
 
Thanks!

 

[mourip]

I emailed Schiit Audio and they replied that the Yggdrasil(Yggy) is not supported on Windows Server 2012. Bummer!

Looking on their web site I can now see that it is not specifically mentioned even though Windows XP/7/8/10 are. I am hopefull that one of the driver packages will work even if not specifically supported. It seems odd to me that a DAC at that price point and technological sophistication would not be tested to work on Server 2012 since many advanced users use it.

I am hoping to use it in my headphone system. I have a Vega in my speaker system which I love but wanted to try something new.

The good news is that they have a 15 day trial however there is a 5% restocking fee and of course return shipping.

BTW this is a beautiful unit, very heavy, and built like a tank...

I remain hopeful...

 

[jfoxvol]

[COLOR=333333]I emailed Schiit Audio and they replied that the Yggdrasil(Yggy) is not supported on Windows Server 2012. Bummer![/COLOR]
[COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]Looking on their web site I can now see that it is not specifically mentioned even though Windows XP/7/8/10 are. I am hopefull that one of the driver packages will work even if not specifically supported. It seems odd to me that a [/COLOR]DAC[COLOR=333333] at that price point and technological sophistication would not be tested to work on Server 2012 since many advanced users use it.[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]I am hoping to use it in my headphone system. I have a Vega in my speaker system which I love but wanted to try something new.[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]The good news is that they have a 15 day trial however there is a 5% restocking fee and of course return shipping.[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]BTW this is a beautiful unit, very heavy, and built like a tank...[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR][COLOR=333333]I remain hopeful...[/COLOR]

Best of luck. It is a tremendous DAC.

 

[ciphercomplete]

Schiit is good about responding and good luck but percentage wise very few people are using Server 2012 for music servers. It possibly might offer benefits over Windows home/pro etc (and at a hefty premium) but it offers none over Linux or Mac. So a special driver for 2012 might not be in the cards.

In any event there are lots of tutorials out there about forcing Server 2012 to use unsigned drivers. They are long and complicated but they are out there. You will have the best luck with Windows 8 drivers.

 

[mourip]

Schiit is good about responding and good luck but percentage wise very few people are using Server 2012 for music servers. It possibly might offer benefits over Windows home/pro etc (and at a hefty premium) but it offers none over Linux or Mac. So a special driver for 2012 might not be in the cards.

In any event there are lots of tutorials out there about forcing Server 2012 to use unsigned drivers. They are long and complicated but they are out there. You will have the best luck with Windows 8 drivers.

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.
 
I was successful in getting the Yggy USB drivers for Windows 8.1 to load in Windows 2012r2 but so far I only see an option for WASAPI which is not supported in Audiophile Optimizer in Core Mode. I am however up and running fine in regular GUI using WASAPI and optimizer by AO. The good news is that straight out of the box I can already hear greatness. I am looking forward to breakin and will be playing music 24/7 for at least 10 days.
 
So my question is not do most folks use WASAPI or ASIO? I could not get the Yggy ASIO install to launch how ever I wonder if ASIO4All might work?
 
Best,
 
Paul

 

[RoundRound]

I second that,
I'm currently using a Raspberey Pi, along with a HiFiBerry optical and Coax add-on board - running JRiver MC 21 and it sounds brilliant.

I also got a custom linear PSU for the Pi (from Tomanek ($100) - made a nice improvement and added a power button

All is feeding the Yggya and works great.

The only issue with the Pi is that you have to be a little technical and work a bit with a headless Linux box.

Though if you can read a forum and cut and paste you're golden

Before that I used a Mac mini and a Windows 7 fabless PC - I feel the Pi is the cleanser most elegant.

 

[TubemanRQ]

  Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.
 
I was successful in getting the Yggy USB drivers for Windows 8.1 to load in Windows 2012r2 but so far I only see an option for WASAPI which is not supported in Audiophile Optimizer in Core Mode. I am however up and running fine in regular GUI using WASAPI and optimizer by AO. The good news is that straight out of the box I can already hear greatness. I am looking forward to breakin and will be playing music 24/7 for at least 10 days.
 
So my question is not do most folks use WASAPI or ASIO? I could not get the Yggy ASIO install to launch how ever I wonder if ASIO4All might work?
 
Best,
 
Paul

Hi Paul,
 
Congrats on the Yggy. It truly, TRULY is a special DAC. I have had mine since the 16th of this month and have been running the XLO/Reference Recordings test/Burn-in CD  burn-in track continuously since I powered it up on the 16th, unless I was watching movies or listening to music. I would guess I have about 300 hours or so of play through the unit and it sounds better than it did a few days ago.
 
I have to admit, when it was new, there was a hardness to the sound and others had pointed it out also. Even after a week there was a bit of harshness, although right out of the box there was greater detail and openness, and much more depth and space in the music than with the Gumby, but there was that hardness that actually kinda hurt my ears to listen to it for long sessions.
 
Well, yesterday and today I sat and listened to 2 CDs straight via my JPlay 2-PC setup, using Win 8.1 Pro on both, and the harshness has gone, and the last two days there was a  DRAMATIC opening up of the soundstage and it seems two extra layers of detail have emerged. I am now hearing harmonics and details that add to ambient cues that I had NEVER heard before from very familiar recordings. And the focus and imaging is very impressive. Rather than give small pin-point images of musical instruments, there is a transparency and scale to reproduced instruments that conveys body and weight and size to instruments, especially with purist recorded material.
 
Yep, give it at LEAST 15 FULL days with a signal going through it constantly. I am glad I stuck with Yggy, because there were a couple roller-coaster days where I was wondering, "Hmmm, maybe I don't enjoy music as much as I thought I did." I think that Yggy was going through a couple break-in phases and has emerged from another one and all this amazing high-frequency air and detail has just leaped out of the music.
 
Cheers!

 

[jfoxvol]

  Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.
 
I was successful in getting the Yggy USB drivers for Windows 8.1 to load in Windows 2012r2 but so far I only see an option for WASAPI which is not supported in Audiophile Optimizer in Core Mode. I am however up and running fine in regular GUI using WASAPI and optimizer by AO. The good news is that straight out of the box I can already hear greatness. I am looking forward to breakin and will be playing music 24/7 for at least 10 days.
 
So my question is not do most folks use WASAPI or ASIO? I could not get the Yggy ASIO install to launch how ever I wonder if ASIO4All might work?
 
Best,
 
Paul

I use WASAPI with my W7 office machine with JRiver.  I did have a little back and forth with Schiit a while back and, at the time, they wholeheartedly recommended WASAPI as the overall better choice.  Of course, every system different.

 

[mourip]

 
I use WASAPI with my W7 office machine with JRiver.  I did have a little back and forth with Schiit a while back and, at the time, they wholeheartedly recommended WASAPI as the overall better choice.  Of course, every system different.

Glad to hear that. Trying to be patient during the "curing" process.
 
I already like the tonality and with headphones hear more detail than my Vega.

 

[jfoxvol]

Enjoy. After a week or so it just seems to vanish. So amazing.

 

[Khragon]

...
Yep, give it at LEAST 15 FULL days with a signal going through it constantly. I am glad I stuck with Yggy, because there were a couple roller-coaster days where I was wondering, "Hmmm, maybe I don't enjoy music as much as I thought I did." I think that Yggy was going through a couple break-in phases and has emerged from another one and all this amazing high-frequency air and detail has just leaped out of the music.

Cheers!

I wanted to try yggy but the return policy is only 15 days and it took at least 15 days for yggy to burn in. Kinda hard to evaluate like this, I think schiit should increase yggy return period to 30 days.