[afireinside]

Is there any timeline, trend, or even rumors to when they make a production run of black finish yggys? Call me vain, but I'll be damned if I spend $2300 on a piece of gear that looks absolutely hideous when a good looking version exists. I'm assuming that making the black finish a limited production item is some sort of marketing thing... but even that doesn't make sense. At least do a pre-order or something? I'm ready to upgrade from my Gungnir, but I'm more than happy enough with it where I won't throw down a decent chunk of cash on something I know I'll look at every day and think "I wish I waited for what I wanted". A quick search shows I'm not the only insane person out there... Common Schiit!

 

[QwertyQmin]

   
It's always nice to get positive feedback / validation from someone who doesn't become aroused at the sight of glistening brushed metal, bright lights, and the smell of electrical components heating up.
 
That being said it should always, at the end of the day, be about each individual listeners perception of what their hearing and how it affects them and the pleasure they derive from the experience.
 
I rarely get worked up because someone rails against a piece of hardware I happen to own and who favors some other manufacturers gear. Their point of view is just as valid for their listening likes, dislikes, and biases. And, this is not life or death.
 
But, it is always comforting to get a vote of support from your spouse after an outlay of hard earned income.

 
sweet jesus, 'aroused'? ... 

 

[Argo Duck]

^ I thought the word entirely appropriate for the reactions of some audiophiles to gleaming audio gear.

Myself excluded of course

afireinside, email and ask to be put on their list for when one becomes available. Black ones aren't produced in "runs". Silver is the only finish. But when cases have a cosmetic defect they get refinished in black.

I guess it's time to 'fess up. When I placed my order it was with a clear directive from my wife that "black preferred if we're lucky, otherwise silver is ok". And lucky we were! Amy let me know they had one available a couple of days later.

I ordered 'B' stock (after all my wife was paying!). Might have something to do with getting lucky I suppose...and we can't find a blemish anywhere.

 

[manpowre]

^ I thought the word entirely appropriate for the reactions of some audiophiles to gleaming audio gear.

Myself excluded of course

afireinside, email and ask to be put on their list for when one becomes available. Black ones aren't produced in "runs". Silver is the only finish. But when cases have a cosmetic defect they get refinished in black.

I guess it's time to 'fess up. When I placed my order it was with a clear directive from my wife that "black preferred if we're lucky, otherwise silver is ok". And lucky we were! Amy let me know they had one available a couple of days later.

I ordered 'B' stock (after all my wife was paying!). Might have something to do with getting lucky I suppose...and we can't find a blemish anywhere.

lucky you having a wife paing the good stuff.. I thought it was the other way around..
 
Personally I think the silver yggy looks damn good, and it sits out on top of my shelf looking like the excellent music instrument I expect a unit like that to look like!

 

[Argo Duck]

She owed me . She didn't owe that much though - I even tried to talk her out of it! We're both glad I failed.

We're renovating and partner is in charge. Gotta admit black looks smart with our decor.

lucky you having a wife paing the good stuff.. I thought it was the other way around..

Personally I think the silver yggy looks damn good, and it sits out on top of my shelf looking like the excellent music instrument I expect a unit like that to look like!

 

[johndean]

She owed me . She didn't owe that much though - I even tried to talk her out of it! We're both glad I failed.

We're renovating and partner is in charge. Gotta admit black looks smart with our decor.

I suspect you had to service her for this purchase

 

[crazychile]

I've had my Yggy for 2 days now and up until this afternoon I was going through my collection on external hard drive via the USB input. I also have a Regen in the chain. What I've noticed so far (compared to a Bimby) is that the elements sound more separate and precise. Complex passages that sounded like mush before now sound like separate instruments. Even on crappy recordings I notice this to some extent.

I bought a B stock unit and it is cosmetically flawless from what I can tell. My unit may have just been a return. If that's the case, there is really no way of knowing where I am in the burn in process, so what I hear in a couple of days might be as good as it gets, or not. I'm not keeping a log of this or obsessing the process, but maybe my unit gets "there" sooner than a virgin unit.

My biggest shock came this afternoon when I decided to spin a few CDs. I have a crappy el-cheese-whiz Sony Blu-ray player that cost me a whopping $40 brand new less than a year ago. I have it connected with a 20 year old Wireworld digital coax that was about $30 new. I fully expected that the "buy better gear" light would come on, but it didn't. In fact, I think the sound of this kills USB. It's just a lot more lively and more of all the good stuff. CDs are a hassle for me and new ones immediately get ripped to hard drive as .wav files, but if this little experiment has shown me anything it's that USB by comparison sounds noticeably inferior. Maybe if I wait out the break in and warm up period something will happen to bring the performance between the two closer together, but I'm not seeing much of a reason why it would.

I'm using Audirvana + on a new Mac Mini. I'm letting Audirvana optimize the Mac settings, and I'm not using any upsampling. I also have Tidal Hi-Fi, and it sounds about like my stored .wav files as expected but both of those connect to the Yggy via USB. I also have a glass fiber Toslink connected to Mini-Yggy, but I haven't tried that yet.

 

[mulveling]

My biggest shock came this afternoon when I decided to spin a few CDs. I have a crappy el-cheese-whiz Sony Blu-ray player that cost me a whopping $40 brand new less than a year ago. I have it connected with a 20 year old Wireworld digital coax that was about $30 new. I fully expected that the "buy better gear" light would come on, but it didn't. In fact, I think the sound of this kills USB. It's just a lot more lively and more of all the good stuff. CDs are a hassle for me and new ones immediately get ripped to hard drive as .wav files, but if this little experiment has shown me anything it's that USB by comparison sounds noticeably inferior. Maybe if I wait out the break in and warm up period something will happen to bring the performance between the two closer together, but I'm not seeing much of a reason why it would.

I'm using Audirvana + on a new Mac Mini. I'm letting Audirvana optimize the Mac settings, and I'm not using any upsampling. I also have Tidal Hi-Fi, and it sounds about like my stored .wav files as expected but both of those connect to the Yggy via USB. I also have a glass fiber Toslink connected to Mini-Yggy, but I haven't tried that yet.

Yet another Mac user here who learned to shun the Yggy's USB input due to its sonics. I use an Audiophilleo 2+PP converter via coax, but I suspected it didn't have so much to do with the USB converter's quality as it does with simply avoiding the Yggy USB. Now that I'm used to the Yggy's coax input sound, there is NO going back to USB. Also the BNC input sounds extremely similar to coax, and I haven't tried toslink. Sadly I didn't have this problem with the USB inputs of the M51 or Eximus DP-1; the Audiophilleo had much less effect on those DACs and the USB inputs were quite enjoyable on their own.
 
GREAT DAC, if you can avoid its USB.

 

[crazychile]

I may try the USB without the Regen, but I seem to remember that most people who have one thought it helped the Yggy, so I'm not in a big hurry to try that.

I was following the big thread for a while that had all the USB to coax converter combos, but the thought of connecting a series of boxes, gizmos, LPS, etc just to bring USB to the level of coax doest appeal much to me. And now guys are trying the ethernet solutions with supposedly great results. I may check back on that in a year or so when some of that tech settles a little bit. Maybe someone will have a one box solution thats reasonably priced.

 

[crazychile]

My biggest shock came this afternoon when I decided to spin a few CDs. I have a crappy el-cheese-whiz Sony Blu-ray player that cost me a whopping $40 brand new less than a year ago. I have it connected with a 20 year old Wireworld digital coax that was about $30 new. I fully expected that the "buy better gear" light would come on, but it didn't. In fact, I think the sound of this kills USB. It's just a lot more lively and more of all the good stuff. CDs are a hassle for me and new ones immediately get ripped to hard drive as .wav files, but if this little experiment has shown me anything it's that USB by comparison sounds noticeably inferior. Maybe if I wait out the break in and warm up period something will happen to bring the performance between the two closer together, but I'm not seeing much of a reason why it would.


I'm using Audirvana + on a new Mac Mini. I'm letting Audirvana optimize the Mac settings, and I'm not using any upsampling. I also have Tidal Hi-Fi, and it sounds about like my stored .wav files as expected but both of those connect to the Yggy via USB. I also have a glass fiber Toslink connected to Mini-Yggy, but I haven't tried that yet.

Yet another Mac user here who learned to shun the Yggy's USB input due to its sonics. I use an Audiophilleo 2+PP converter via coax, but I suspected it didn't have so much to do with the USB converter's quality as it does with simply avoiding the Yggy USB. Now that I'm used to the Yggy's coax input sound, there is NO going back to USB. Also the BNC input sounds extremely similar to coax, and I haven't tried toslink. Sadly I didn't have this problem with the USB inputs of the M51 or Eximus DP-1; the Audiophilleo had much less effect on those DACs and the USB inputs were quite enjoyable on their own.

GREAT DAC, if you can avoid its USB.

My statement wasn't really aimed at Yggy USB being crap, but just USB in general. But my experience isnt as vast as yours, so maybe you're on to something. However, I know Mike doesnt much like USB, but he knows enough to do at least a decent implementation. Maybe the guys that designed those other DACs just went a step further with USB to not make the gap between it an coax seem so wide. As I mentioned previously, I think this is an area of discovery thats changing pretty quickly.

 

[earnmyturns]

I'm using Audirvana + on a new Mac Mini. I'm letting Audirvana optimize the Mac settings, and I'm not using any upsampling. I also have Tidal Hi-Fi, and it sounds about like my stored .wav files as expected but both of those connect to the Yggy via USB. 

Are you sure Audionirvana and the Mac audio drivers are totally out of the way? I've been using Macs for decades but I'd not know how to ensure clean USB audio connection. That's one reason I don't use general-purpose Macs or PCs for audio, but instead custom Linux/MPD distros that are designed to stay out of the way.

 

[gefski]

I may try the USB without the Regen, but I seem to remember that most people who have one thought it helped the Yggy, so I'm not in a big hurry to try that.

I was following the big thread for a while that had all the USB to coax converter combos, but the thought of connecting a series of boxes, gizmos, LPS, etc just to bring USB to the level of coax doest appeal much to me. And now guys are trying the ethernet solutions with supposedly great results. I may check back on that in a year or so when some of that tech settles a little bit. Maybe someone will have a one box solution thats reasonably priced.

Sounds like you may have seen the ethernet/Rednet thread http://www.head-fi.org/t/806827/audio-over-ip-rednet-3-16-review-aes67-sets-a-new-standard-for-computer-audio

Some Seattle Head-Fiers have jumped into it big-time, and are banishing USB from their rigs forever. I had a chance to get a feed from it into my Yggy at our Bellingham meet a week ago. Here's my comment at that time: "Thanks to soundsgoodtome and muziqboy for the exposure to Rednet. Tapped into Andrew's I came away with a single impression overall. A couple slightly dirty panes of glass had been removed, while the essence of the Yggy sound remained unchanged. This "unchanged" factor is not trivial. Sometimes we gain transparency, but pay a price with some irritating "edge" popping up."

This was not a true A/B, just Rednet feeding my Yggy.

It's impressive, but there is the usual "fiddle-factor" and are some glitches (with Yggy and Linn converters) so like you, I'm watching from the weeds for a while. My July through September are plenty busy anyway.

This is, after all, audiophiles bringing pro gear in to consumer audio through the back door. But thumbs up to the Seattle Head-Fiers that are diving in!

Enjoy Yggy. Sonically, RedBook is now "Hi-Res" in your world !

 

[gefski]

IMO on my post...

...and YMMV (or as atomicbob here in Seattle says "YMWV")

 

[earnmyturns]

This was not a true A/B, just Rednet feeding my Yggy.
 

I can't understand the benefit of this gear in domestic uses rather than large scale multicast applications. After all, you still need a digital device (de facto, a small computer) to receive the audio-over-Ethernet RTP packets, buffer them, and send the bits out with fresh clock to the DAC. I can't think of any technical reason why such a device will be more effective than a similar priced USB audio converter, or well-designed USB audio source. I keep wondering if much of the complaining about USB audio is really about bad USB sources (software and hardware) rather than about the USB audio protocol itself. 

 

[acguitar84]

What I've noticed so far (compared to a Bimby) is that the elements sound more separate and precise. Complex passages that sounded like mush before now sound like separate instruments. Even on crappy recordings I notice this to some extent.

 

This is what I was hoping for. I'm definitely going to save (still saving) for Yggy (s). I need detail in audio more than anything else really. I'm not going to worry about USB (changing to something else) either. I might invest in a very good cable eventually (looking at Curious Cables maybe). But I think the Yggy, then it will be endgame for the foreseeable future for me.