[Argo Duck]

Hi D2Girls, I think you're missing my point that predicting what another person thinks or will do ("how...treats his customers....I'm convinced that he would simply write me off") is chancey at best. You may be entirely right. Equally, you may be entirely wrong. With Mike, who knows? With anyone, who knows?

It's good you don't need lectures about value (funny, I thought this site is all about assessing and reporting value? Oh well...) or how people hear differently, yet you give us lectures about Mike Moffat's internal thought processes. What's up with that?

At the risk of being thought a shill or lecturer (actually I am an ex-lecturer), I do understand your concern about upgrade costs (I'm even more overseas than you) and I do hope you get the satisfaction you want from Yggy. Or any DAC you buy. I wish you all the best with the journey.

This is my last word on the topic.

 

[D2Girls]

hi duck thanks for the response. youre right, who knows what mike moffat would think.
but i just meant i dont need to be lectured on the value of the yggy. been told over and over its a waste of money to spend more than $2 on a dac and also that the yggy is a waste of money and also that the yggy is insane value. i've heard more convincing arguments that the yggy is good as opposed to its bad, all the negative discussion i see boils down to 'you cant hear the difference betweeen cheap pc dacs vs expensive dacs' which i dont buy. i have no doubt im going to be very satisfied with the yggy as it is. if the new analog board winds up being quite costly, like over $500, i am considering just holding off on upgrading for 3-6 months, and just enjoying the yggy as is. more 'listening to the music' and less 'worrying about upgrading gear' so to speak.

 

[Currawong]

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.

That's not what I said in my review, and it was of the DAVE specifically. My theory of what is going on with the DAVE is connected with what goes on with typical DAC design. There is a white paper or blog post on DAC design on Benchmark's site somewhere about this, but basically regular DA chips output, along with the music, a lot of noise. DAC makers have to design around this, so their aim is a "blacker background" that removes this noise. In that noise floor is underlying background sounds, down, I believe, to levels below directly audible sounds. The other day I found an interesting article related to this, into whether recording engineers are influenced by these things or not. Anyhow, the DAVE was the first DAC that gave me the kind of reaction to music that I feel when I am listening live (listening direct with headphones). I think that is because the design has such an incredibly low noise floor (and other factors) that this underlying "background" in the music is resolved. Some of that is obviously lost connecting through other equipment that has a higher noise floor, such as amps.

So overall, the "black background" that is so favored in regular DACs is actually an example of their limitations, not their capabilities.

Now back to the Yggy: I didn't realise how good it was until I had Utopias here. I'm sure if I could fit a good speaker system here I would discover more again.

 

[DoubleIPA]

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.

What's your price point on amps and what type? I'm set on most of my components except for amp. I've looked at pairs of monos in the 1500 to 3000 range and stereo amps from about 2K to 3K. It's hard to decide and I have no ability to demo them.

 

[johnzz4]

What's your price point on amps and what type? I'm set on most of my components except for amp. I've looked at pairs of monos in the 1500 to 3000 range and stereo amps from about 2K to 3K. It's hard to decide and I have no ability to demo them.

After hearing several amps including the Simaudio 430 HA, Agd Master 9, V281 and several lower cost amps, I keep coming back to the wells Audio Milo. I’ve doubled down and sent it in for the reference upgrade. It’s incredibly clean, resolving and dynamic. The following review nails it:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/1216/Wells_Audio_Milo_Headphone_Amplifier_Review.htm

I will say that I feed it clean power from a PS Audio P3 regenerator, use Shunyata cables throughout and have the vishay and Khozmo options installed. At $2400ish, it remains the best amp I’ve personally heard to date. I’m just hoping Jeff Wells can one-up himself with the reference upgrade which will set you back $5k total. I haven’t heard the upgrade, so I can’t comment on it... yet.

Don’t forget synergy and preference though. I’m listening to the Master 9 while the Milo is getting its makeover and it reminds me how different amps are. With a brighter headphone, I may prefer the smoothness of the Master 9. With the Aries, Yggy and LCD-4, the Milo comfortably pulls ahead IMO.

Good luck.

 

[alpovs]

theres lots of talk about it on other forums and places.

they signed nda's so obviously there wont be any online discussions about it from them

I don't know... These two statements were in the same post.

 

[funch]

After tonight's experience (don't ask), I'm going to start rebooting my Yggy every time I sit down to listen. Too many frustrating things have, and continue to happen.

 

[theveterans]

After tonight's experience (don't ask), I'm going to start rebooting my Yggy every time I sit down to listen. Too many frustrating things have, and continue to happen.

Hopefully your Yggy is functioning as it should that it needs a reboot. I do input cycles on it on a day to day basis just to make sure and since then it never froze on me.

 

[funch]

One thing I found with the reboot is that the overall sound quality improves.

 

[theveterans]

One thing I found with the reboot is that the overall sound quality improves.

Would I be right to say that before you rebooted the sound was on the harsher/metallic side? Switching inputs from time to time fixed that issue for me without the need for reboot.

 

[funch]

Actually, the sound was slightly less detailed. Oh, and the left channel was d-e-a-d.

 

[purehifi192]

Actually, the sound was slightly less detailed. Oh, and the left channel was d-e-a-d.

May I ask which output, balanced or single-ended, you use? I've had similar issues with the balanced left channel out of my Yggy. I sent it to Schiit for review, but they couldn't find anything. I sent them back the whole 2 channel setup to test and try to re-create the issue, but haven't yet heard back. Really want that to get resolved and have no interest in a refund.

 

[funch]

Lately I'm using single ended, but have used the balanced when I had a Balancing Act amp. With that amp, the Yggy would sometimes stop recognizing the input signal. A reboot solved it, but I never had only one channel quit.

 

[alpovs]

Oh, and the left channel was d-e-a-d.

Is it dead for good or it comes back after a reboot?

 

[funch]

The reboot fixed it. All is good now, which is why I've decided to do a reboot before each listening session.