[RCBinTN]

I've heard the Yggy paired with great amps - Ragnarok and WA5 - at the Nashville meet and, if you have the $ and space the Yggy will amaze you with its SQ.  Don't be afraid of too much detail - this DAC is as musical as digital music gets, at least in my experience.
 
I own the GMB and it's close to the Yggy in SQ but not quite as velvety smooth.  Still, I'm keeping it because it sounds Great.  If I ever have a real space to put larger equipment, I will be a Yggy owner.
 
Just as always IMHO.
 
Kind regards,
RCB

 

[lolovitch]

Hi all, new Yggradasil owner checking in!

Very happy with the upgrade from a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic Plus. Actually still surprised by the magnitude of change but thoroughly enjoying it. While I am notoriously bad at describing subjective perceptions in words, it just feels there is so much more music to be listened to.

One question on the "you need to buy better gear" LED: This lights up when connected to the coaxial output of my NAD C546 CD player. Is this because this is indeed such a crappy digital source? While not overly worries as most of me listening is computer-based, that would still somewhat surprise me from a rather recent CD player.

Any thoughts? Maybe something to do with the cable (no-name generic)?

 

[crazychile]

edited... Any thoughts? Maybe something to do with the cable (no-name generic)?

 
Are you using a 75ohm coax cable meant for digital, or just half of a set of cheap RCA cables?

 

[lolovitch]

Are you using a 75ohm coax cable meant for digital, or just half of a set of cheap RCA cables?

No, proper coaxial cable.

 

[gefski]

Hi all, new Yggradasil owner checking in!

Very happy with the upgrade from a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic Plus. Actually still surprised by the magnitude of change but thoroughly enjoying it. While I am notoriously bad at describing subjective perceptions in words, it just feels there is so much more music to be listened to.

One question on the "you need to buy better gear" LED: This lights up when connected to the coaxial output of my NAD C546 CD player. Is this because this is indeed such a crappy digital source? While not overly worries as most of me listening is computer-based, that would still somewhat surprise me from a rather recent CD player.

Any thoughts? Maybe something to do with the cable (no-name generic)?

Have tried a few players I have around. "Buy better gear" lights up with a couple Sonys and surprisingly, my Rega Apollo. Doesn't light up with a 15ish year old Marantz CD63 SE. Cables don't change anything. I don't have any pure transports around anymore to try.

Like you, I'm listening to computer files, so am not concerned about it.

 

[gefski]

Hi all, new Yggradasil owner checking in!

Very happy with the upgrade from a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic Plus. Actually still surprised by the magnitude of change but thoroughly enjoying it. While I am notoriously bad at describing subjective perceptions in words, it just feels there is so much more music to be listened to.

One question on the "you need to buy better gear" LED: This lights up when connected to the coaxial output of my NAD C546 CD player. Is this because this is indeed such a crappy digital source? While not overly worries as most of me listening is computer-based, that would still somewhat surprise me from a rather recent CD player.

Any thoughts? Maybe something to do with the cable (no-name generic)?

Have tried a few players I have around. "Buy better gear" lights up with a couple Sonys and surprisingly, my Rega Apollo. Doesn't light up with a 15ish year old Marantz CD63 SE. Cables don't change anything. I don't have any pure transports around anymore to try.

Like you, I'm listening to computer files, so am not concerned about it.

 

[crazychile]

 

Are you using a 75ohm coax cable meant for digital, or just half of a set of cheap RCA cables?

No, proper coaxial cable.

 
Even a cheap coax should be adequate. I doubt spending $$ on  a better one would make the light turn off. Just a hypothesis, but it wouldn't surprise me if some companies that make decent CD players cheap out on their digital output implementation, since a relatively small percentage of people ever use it. Maybe Jason or Mike could share more detail on what sort of things the Yggy are monitoring to determine if the input is good, or not so good. I'm assuming jitter is a factor but maybe there are other things being considered.

 

[hifimckinney]

Cable would be the first place to look into considering the fact that it is an NAD and NAD is not cheap. I have an 542, and it works without any issue.

 

[Ali-Pacha]

  Hi all, new Yggradasil owner checking in!
  Very happy with the upgrade from a Cambridge Audio Dacmagic Plus. Actually still surprised by the magnitude of change but thoroughly enjoying it. While I am notoriously bad at describing subjective perceptions in words, it just feels there is so much more music to be listened to.
  One question on the "you need to buy better gear" LED: This lights up when connected to the coaxial output of my NAD C546 CD player. Is this because this is indeed such a crappy digital source? While not overly worries as most of me listening is computer-based, that would still somewhat surprise me from a rather recent CD player.
  Any thoughts? Maybe something to do with the cable (no-name generic)?

Welcome 

No problem by my side with three very average gears : Marantz CD6003, Philips CD930 (that old) and my internet box/decoder (orange), which has a spdif RCA output.
The light is blinking for around 30 sec when switching on...but I always let my Yggdrasil on, except when changing some cables (did some tests yesterday).
 
Ali

 

[Baldr]

The "BuyBetterGear" light illuminates when the frequency of the clock source is sufficiently off (either up or down) so that our highest quality Yggy internal clocks cannot lock on the signal.  Since CD transports are generally crystal controlled, this is a rare problem.  The real-world result is that when the BBG light is on, that means the output signal will be affected by higher jitter, and the audio will either be slightly (very slightly) sharp or flat.

 

[Currawong]

 
In an age old dilemma : should I ditch my Chord Hugo for the Yggy ?! 

 
It was pretty apparent to me how much better the Yggy was even at CanJam when it had only a couple of days run-in. I've now become so used to the Yggy that even when I haven't been listening to music, when I listen with any other device it is glaringly apparent what I'm missing. My Hugo has been relegated to the living room system (for family use), and the Mojo is now pretty much only for portable use as a result.  Yggy has the huge advantage of not needing to be portable, nor drive headphones though. 
 

 

I find Chord Hugo and Chord QBD76HD limited in soundstage size particularly in soundstage depth, although they are very detailed and articulate

Actually that's my concern also. 
 
I want a bigger sound stage, but I wonder if I'm limited by the LCD-3 that I'm having ?

 
Yes and no. Headphone soundstage is really a perceived soundstage which is the result of how your brain interprets the level of different frequencies and the timing information of their arrival. A couple of upshots are both simple and complex -- the simple is to get HD800s if you always want a large soundstage, and the complex is that more detail can make the soundstage seem smaller. If you can remember the first time you heard a track on high-end gear that you'd only ever heard played back on a regular car stereo, radio, or through piped in-store music and the surprise at how different it sounded, it's rather like that.

 

[zeissiez]

 


In an age old dilemma : should I ditch my Chord Hugo for the Yggy ?! 

It was pretty apparent to me how much better the Yggy was even at CanJam when it had only a couple of days run-in. I've now become so used to the Yggy that even when I haven't been listening to music, when I listen with any other device it is glaringly apparent what I'm missing. My Hugo has been relegated to the living room system (for family use), and the Mojo is now pretty much only for portable use as a result.  Yggy has the huge advantage of not needing to be portable, nor drive headphones though. 

 

I find Chord Hugo and Chord QBD76HD limited in soundstage size particularly in soundstage depth, although they are very detailed and articulate

Actually that's my concern also. 

I want a bigger sound stage, but I wonder if I'm limited by the LCD-3 that I'm having ?

Yes and no. Headphone soundstage is really a perceived soundstage which is the result of how your brain interprets the level of different frequencies and the timing information of their arrival. A couple of upshots are both simple and complex -- the simple is to get HD800s if you always want a large soundstage, and the complex is that more detail can make the soundstage seem smaller. If you can remember the first time you heard a track on high-end gear that you'd only ever heard played back on a regular car stereo, radio, or through piped in-store music and the surprise at how different it sounded, it's rather like that.

I understand the limitation of soundstage offered by headphones. But there's still a degree of realism in soundstage if done right. For example, the sound projection of the HE1000 creates a believable stage IN FRONT of the audience, whereas the LCD-X has more of sound inside the head. Then DACs help further up. From what I heard so far, I categories soundstage/imaging in 3 types: one which has good depth and good front to back layering and the instruments seemingly "rooted" with pin-point position ON the stage, Rockna Wavedream is one such DAC. Then there's ethereal soundstage, which there's relative positioning between the instruments and air between them, but the instruments seem to float in the air within the border-less soundstage, Audiogd Ref5.32 is one. Then there's the last type of soundstage where the stage barely exist, Hugo sounds to me like such.

 

[Currawong]

Yeah, it's a funny experience to have a much better DAC on hand and observe in oneself how the perception of the sound from a component changes relative to one's new experience. We had a similar parallel as my family moved recently to a bigger place. A few days ago we visited a family member who was still in the same apartment they'd been for maybe almost 15 years. The place felt really tiny!
 
I had realised getting the Yggy would ruin my appreciation for other gear here, especially as I'd just gotten my system dialled in perfectly.

 

[DACLadder]

I've had my new Yggy powered on for 3 months.  What a great DAC!  Sounded OK when first powered on and even better today.  Recently went back to the Master 7/ Off Ramp 5 combo I loved for a few years.  It is no contest in comparison.  The Master 7 sounds bloated on the bottom, hissy on top, and gainy/ recessed vocals.  The Yggy is clear, open, and transparent without sounding overly clinical.  The Yggy USB interface is very good and have been using its single ended outputs.  All my old music files sound so much better through the Yggy.
 
No longer have a desire to perpetually tweak my system.  I have reached sonic nirvana.... at least, for this moment in time.

 

[RoundRound]

Did anyone have a chance to compare the Yggy to Chord's Dave?
 
I realise it costs 4 times than the Yggy, but once you account for the Dave's distributer and retailer margin (around 50% of the price?) and the 'aircraft grade aluminium' chassis I imagine the actual component cost is quite similar though these are obviously different architectures.