[winders]

That's nice, except some of us live international, and shipping to schiit for an upgrade board would be a sizeable expense. Not to mention the fact I haven't bought it yet and neither have a few other people who have recently posted by the looks of it. I guarantee you if I emailed Mike moffat about it he'd ignore the email with a "he wouldn't have bought one anyway" sort of adage mindset to it. Which he's certainly had with other customers he knows nothing about.

No manufacturer is going to comment to the general public about upgrades coming down the road. That is how you kill sales of existing products. You are expecting far to much from Schiit as a potential customer. Hell, I have spent a ton of money with them I wouldn't expect an answer to the question if I asked it.

 

[sheldaze]

I am thinking of upgrading my Perfectwave but wonder how much of an improvement it might be. Has anyone ever compared the Yggy to the PS Audio Perfectwave II? I have struggled with this decision for too long and thought I would get some input. If so, what would you say are the audio differences between the two DAC's? I have searched and not found any direct comparisons.
TIA

I never heard version I - purchased version II, as I was seeking other (non-Chord) examples of an FPGA. The Perfectwave has a certain "clarity" but without the traditional zing or ringing sound that I hear in most D/S shelf implementations. For that reason it displaced my Yggy. It did not replace my Yggy, just moved it into a room where I'm more focused on music listening, not movies with the occasional song. On headphones, I could never adjust to the sound of the Perfectwave. It still had too much treble-push for my taste. But in a stereo speaker setup, it made for extraordinary spacial cues, helping add excitement to movies.

Yggy is still another step up - way up in my opinion. It just gets to the core of something, passing through the brain straight to the spine. Emotional, if the music calls for it. I never get into the same mind-space with the Perfectwave - it kind of stays in my head. It sounds great, but just does not get me there, despite the wonderful clarity. Cannot explain it. It did not replace or equal the Yggy for music, not at all! I should point out, too, the Yggy balanced and unbalanced outputs are all good. The unbalanced outputs on the Perfectwave are trash - use XLR on it or go home.

 

[D2Girls]

No manufacturer is going to comment to the general public about upgrades coming down the road. That is how you kill sales of existing products. You are expecting far to much from Schiit as a potential customer. Hell, I have spent a ton of money with them I wouldn't expect an answer to the question if I asked it.

I don't expect an answer To anything. I was explaining how Mike Moffat would have viewed me as a potential customer. "If he's reluctant to buy now because of a rumour, he'll never have bought it anyway!" seems to be the kind of attitude he has with potential customers. It's pessimistic sure but that's just how he is as a person I suppose. Anyway, he's the one laughing just look how successful schiit has been, even with the polarizing marketing and treatment of people who annoy him. He's definitely laughing.

 

[alpovs]

This isn't a rumour that originated online. Someone was physically in california and had a chance to listen to the new analog boards that schiit was working on. Apparently these boards will be available for the gungnir as well.

Does this sound like your rumor? https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/schiit-yggdrasil-upgrades
"It was brought to my attention the Yggdrasil has a Eye opening upgrade in the works .
Sometime possibly spring 2017 one reviewer mentioned killer dac--upgrade from a very Good source."
"It was told to me from another sourse ,whom is very good friends with a very respected reviewer which 2 past leads were spot on !! I will leave it at that."
12-15-2016

 

[D2Girls]

Does this sound like your rumor? https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/schiit-yggdrasil-upgrades
"It was brought to my attention the Yggdrasil has a Eye opening upgrade in the works .
Sometime possibly spring 2017 one reviewer mentioned killer dac--upgrade from a very Good source."
"It was told to me from another sourse ,whom is very good friends with a very respected reviewer which 2 past leads were spot on !! I will leave it at that."
12-15-2016

I was wondering if someone would try to say thats the rumour I was talking about. No, the rumour I was talking about was not discussed online, it was person to person. Someone actually was there in california and had time to listen to the new board. Where in that thread do you see any mention of an analog board update? What Im talking about is obviously something different. I'm done trying to explain it here, I already went into detail where I heard the rumour but I got my post deleted for trying to do so. Just PM me if you're interested.

 

[DoubleIPA]

I believe Schiit has stated they wouldn't do arbitrary upgrades, that upgrades would have to have a quantitative improvement over what's currently being offered, not minor. In my logic, when considering reviews by users and professionals, I am not sure how an analog upgrade would improve what's currently been implemented, especially at $1000. That seems questionable to me, but I know nothing. I've read some minor criticism in stereohpile which seemed purely subjective and that of the USB interface which seems to plague a lot of devices, but was resolved with Gen 5.

I've been planning to purchase this unit and have a family member traveling to the states whose offered to pick it up along with the Freya. If I miss the opportunity I am looking at $770 in shipping, taxes and import fees. Granted I may be going to the US next year, if my house in Colorado sells, but that's a big if. Then again I'm planning to use it with my Statement II's and haven't even begun building those.

 

[D2Girls]

I believe Schiit has stated they wouldn't do arbitrary upgrades, that upgrades would have to have a quantitative improvement over what's currently being offered, not minor. In my logic, when considering reviews by users and professionals, I am not sure how an analog upgrade would improve what's currently been implemented, especially at $1000. That seems questionable to me, but I know nothing. I've read some minor criticism in stereohpile which seemed purely subjective and that of the USB interface which seems to plague a lot of devices, but was resolved with Gen 5.

I've been planning to purchase this unit and have a family member traveling to the states whose offered to pick it up along with the Freya. If I miss the opportunity I am looking at $770 in shipping, taxes and import fees. Granted I may be going to the US next year, if my house in Colorado sells, but that's a big if. Then again I'm planning to use it with my Statement II's and haven't even begun building those.

I stated this before but the new analog board has better blackness. This is exactly what makes the chord dave surperior to the yggy. It's a known fact that the Yggy's weakness is how it handles blackness, even the Hugo 2 can improve on this, apparently. I don't think that an upgrade to the analog stage that improves the blackness would be an arbitrary upgrade. I also doubt the upgrade will cost that much, it's possible but we'll have to see. I was just stating that in terms of value, even if the upgrade cost a grand or more that it would still be mighty more attractive price than the chord dave. I'll state again, if you want to know more about where I heard this rumour you'll have to PM me because I'm not allowed to talk about it here.

 

[Blueshound24]

I never heard version I - purchased version II, as I was seeking other (non-Chord) examples of an FPGA. The Perfectwave has a certain "clarity" but without the traditional zing or ringing sound that I hear in most D/S shelf implementations. For that reason it displaced my Yggy. It did not replace my Yggy, just moved it into a room where I'm more focused on music listening, not movies with the occasional song. On headphones, I could never adjust to the sound of the Perfectwave. It still had too much treble-push for my taste. But in a stereo speaker setup, it made for extraordinary spacial cues, helping add excitement to movies.

Yggy is still another step up - way up in my opinion. It just gets to the core of something, passing through the brain straight to the spine. Emotional, if the music calls for it. I never get into the same mind-space with the Perfectwave - it kind of stays in my head. It sounds great, but just does not get me there, despite the wonderful clarity. Cannot explain it. It did not replace or equal the Yggy for music, not at all! I should point out, too, the Yggy balanced and unbalanced outputs are all good. The unbalanced outputs on the Perfectwave are trash - use XLR on it or go home.

Thanks for the impressions! I believe I have maximized the performance of the Perfectwave by including in my chain "optimized /w Fidelizer Pro -> Industrial Intona Hi Speed Isolator -> UpTone Audio USB Regen -> Perfectwave II”. I do like it but, you know… Yggy’s reputation and allure, and also the claims Yggy's Gen 5 upgrade may not need any USB gadgets to improve the sound.

I just had another thought. Instead of getting the Yggy, (I know, this would be highly unpopular on the Yggy thread ), for about the same cash, maybe get the Hugo 2 and the advantage would be that I could use it for both my desktop AND portable. That is.... if it's DAC was as good as the Yggy. I don't know... just thinking aloud.

 

[wink]

Get the YGGY.......

 

[commtrd]

I have the Mojo but never use its portability as I have a very high end sound system in my truck and work in petrochemical/refinery plants so cannot use non-intrinsically safe devices at work.

The H2 costs about the same as Yggy so I figured the Yggy would be the preferable solution for my uses primarily home desktop and still have the Mojo if I ever do want to go portable.

Imagine the Yggy paired with a really good amp and the Audeze LCDi4! Sweet. Just not sure about which amp to go with. Researching that.

 

[Argo Duck]

I don't expect an answer To anything. I was explaining how Mike Moffat would have viewed me as a potential customer. "If he's reluctant to buy now because of a rumour, he'll never have bought it anyway!" seems to be the kind of attitude he has with potential customers. It's pessimistic sure but that's just how he is as a person I suppose. Anyway, he's the one laughing just look how successful schiit has been, even with the polarizing marketing and treatment of people who annoy him. He's definitely laughing.

You were explaining your speculation of a mindset that Mike might have, and reporting it as if fact - "that's just how he is as a person I suppose". Really?!

Another possible explanation is that he's a tad busy and doesn't have time to monitor every Schiit thread on head-fi. Of note, he is frequently absent even from his own thread on this forum. Also of note, Schiit's co-founder Jason has for some time apologized - see his sig - that he no longer has time to respond to PMs. As well, Jason learnt a lesson some years ago to not pre-announce anything. IIRC it was that the traffic simply got too much.

No doubt there are other explanations.

You also state as "a known fact" that "Yggy's weakness is how it handles blackness". Perhaps. Never noticed this myself, and what this leads to is that different things matter to different people. Because different ears, different brains, different preferences. Are you sure that 'blackness' is decisive for you in finding the best DAC for you?

For me Yggy has brought things to the table I simply never got from other DACs in many years of searching. Blackness may be critical for you, but for me it is far surpassed by other qualities such as speed, immediacy, natural tone and timbre, bass quality and - with the right material - a strikingly holographic precision of sound-stage and imaging. Upgrades to Yggy? For me, it's likely to be at best a 0.1% kind of thing!

It seems that for most people who have tried Yggy it brings an immense degree of satisfaction. Certainly I am one of them.

I believe I may know the site you mean. It is not allowed to be mentioned around here, you are quite right. It's an unwritten rule.

 

[UntilThen]

It seems that for most people who have tried Yggy it brings an immense degree of satisfaction. Certainly I am one of them.

I'm with Duck. Get the Yggy !!!

 

[D2Girls]

I think youre missing my point. I was just expressing how I think mike moffat treats his customers. yeah there are obviously other reasons why he wouldn't be able to respond to an email. if he did have time to read my concern about the analog board, im convinced that he would simply write me off as a needy customer who expects everything. i mentioned about that its a weakness of the yggy with blacks. i've actually never heard a yggy, im going to be upgrading from the garbage dac in my avr but i know it'll sound better. i was originally just expressing my unhappiness with the fact i'll have to spend $350 out of my own pocket to get my yggy sent into schiit for the new analog upgrade at some point down the line. could be 3 months, could be a year. theres lots of talk about it on other forums and places. quite a few people who went to the rocky mountain audio show apparently were given the new analog boards. they signed nda's so obviously there wont be any online discussions about it from them, its all word of mouth. maybe jude has one? i did hear [redacted] from [redacted] has one, no doubt that its true. also i am not crap talking schiit or the yggdrasil its the dac i've actually decided to get and im going to be buying one soon, even knowing that the analog upgrade could possibly be coming in the next few months. thats how much faith i have in the product. i dont need lectures about value or need to be shilled it again.

I'm with Duck. Get the Yggy !!!

yep thats the plan...

 

[bacobits]

Sorry, I don't believe for a minute Schiit gave out to anyone analog upgrade boards with NDAs at RMAF.
They don't do business that way. That's just absurd!!
Where else has this even been mentioned?
Yiggy has a problem with blackness? Go away! You never heard one, friggin more nonsence.

 

[D2Girls]

thats up to you if you want to write me off but the dudes who described the blackness thing know a lot more about sound than me or you. currawong mentioned it in his yggdrasil review. and the other people who discussed it to me are well known from that other forum which i cant mention. so it is a thing. i dont have need to have heard it to pass along factual info. and i never once said the yggy has a problem with anything i just said its a weakness.