Schiit Yggdrasil Impressions thread
Oct 15, 2017 at 4:23 AM Post #5,897 of 12,049
do i need to worry about yggy blowing up my speakers if i dont turn on / off my amp and source in the right sequence?

Huh? How could Yggdrasil blow up your speakers?
 
Oct 15, 2017 at 11:15 AM Post #5,898 of 12,049
do i need to worry about yggy blowing up my speakers if i dont turn on / off my amp and source in the right sequence?

No, the Yggy doesn't send a spike down the line.

The Schiit Mani does, however, as described in the owner's manual.
 
Oct 15, 2017 at 5:45 PM Post #5,899 of 12,049
Actually there is a little known secret button sequence with the phase invert and input select.. this activates the Yggdrasil "turbo mode" you know you have done it right when the x8 LED lights red. This will send a powerful signal through your gear, use with extreme prejudice.
 
Oct 15, 2017 at 7:15 PM Post #5,901 of 12,049
Received delivery of my Yggy on Friday. After about 48 hours of warm up, I noticed less sibilance issues. I also rolled a NOS 1950's EC355 in my Zana Deux S at the same time, so both parts are breaking in/warming up together. I did not have the patience to let both run for a continuous week without listening. Very resolving. Using reference level interconnects and AC cabling (DR Acoustics Silver Alliance and Red Fire, Dynamic Design Spirits), but I'm still waiting on my power conditioning to come (Nordost Thor), and I'm contemplating sending the Yggy to Schiit for the Gen5 USB upgrade but I don't want to be without it for another two weeks (or longer?) and have to wait another week or more for it to warm up again... rough life.
 
Oct 15, 2017 at 8:10 PM Post #5,903 of 12,049
Yea I got mine about a month ago and it has the gen5. I also know they were a bit backed up because they ran out and were building new ones, so it is not like they could have shipped an old one from a store room. If yours does not that would be extremely odd.
 
Oct 17, 2017 at 10:12 AM Post #5,904 of 12,049
Hello everyone. I'm new to *this* forum, and my aim is true :slight_smile:

Okay, so I’ve finally (on order over 2 months) received my Schiit Yggdrasil. The unit arrived in exactly perfect condition (i.e. well packaged).

Upon first (and second) listening through all sources/inputs, I would need a stethoscope to discern any difference among my current components and connectivity. I also cannot detect any difference using the phase inversion button.

I suppose the aforementioned is a testament to how good my current system (before/without Yggy) already sounds. :)

I can easily A-B test because the Yggy is hooked in via the same RCA (and balanced) cables as my other components. My other components are also hooked directly to amp via RCA..

Also, obviously I have NOT let the unit "burn in" for days because I just got it, however, it has come to full operational temperature after being powered on continuously over 24 hours.

System configuration: (Yggdrasil > XLR > Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amplifier > Golden Ear Triton Reference speakers )
all cables blue jeans cables "best" offering

Emotiva ERC-3 CD player > AES/EBU > Yggdrasil
Oppo UDP-205 blue ray player > coax > Yggdrasil
Samsung SMT-C5320 cable box > optical > Yggdrasil
Gateway NV79 Windows 10 64-bit computer > USB > Yggdrasil

I’ll be patient, but if there are any suggestions to "try" in order to hear *some* audible difference, that would be great. Appreciate any feedback you have.

Thanks.
 
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Oct 17, 2017 at 1:20 PM Post #5,905 of 12,049
If you received your Yggy last Friday it must have Gen 5 USB already.

Got it 2nd hand, it's Gen 3 right now. Not sure if I should get the eitr or G5.

Hello everyone. I'm new to *this* forum, and my aim is true :slight_smile:

Okay, so I’ve finally (on order over 2 months) received my Schiit Yggdrasil. The unit arrived in exactly perfect condition (i.e. well packaged).

Upon first (and second) listening through all sources/inputs, I would need a stethoscope to discern any difference among my current components and connectivity. I also cannot detect any difference using the phase inversion button.

I suppose the aforementioned is a testament to how good my current system (before/without Yggy) already sounds. :)

I can easily A-B test because the Yggy is hooked in via the same RCA (and balanced) cables as my other components. My other components are also hooked directly to amp via RCA..

Also, obviously I have NOT let the unit "burn in" for days because I just got it, however, it has come to full operational temperature after being powered on continuously over 24 hours.

System configuration: (Yggdrasil > XLR > Musical Fidelity M6si integrated amplifier > Golden Ear Triton Reference speakers )
all cables blue jeans cables "best" offering

Emotiva ERC-3 CD player > AES/EBU > Yggdrasil
Oppo UDP-205 blue ray player > coax > Yggdrasil
Samsung SMT-C5320 cable box > optical > Yggdrasil
Gateway NV79 Windows 10 64-bit computer > USB > Yggdrasil

I’ll be patient, but if there are any suggestions to "try" in order to hear *some* audible difference, that would be great. Appreciate any feedback you have.

Thanks.

Could you show us a picture of behind your components?
 
Oct 17, 2017 at 3:52 PM Post #5,907 of 12,049
Hello everyone. I'm new to *this* forum, and my aim is true :slight_smile:

I’ll be patient, but if there are any suggestions to "try" in order to hear *some* audible difference, that would be great. Appreciate any feedback you have.

Thanks.

Welcome to this forum. Apologies in advance for the long reply.

I guess what makes audio most times a journey is that our brains are constantly learning how to hear in different ways. We don't - most of us - arrive at adulthood highly trained in how to perceive and process sound.

I've had two experiences that may be relevant.

First was a multi-way DAC comparison some years ago, triggered because I'd just bought the Schiit Bifrost, v1.0. I went in expecting to hear no differences, and was amazed to find - after a few listening sessions of about 2 hours each - that clear differences emerged. Btw, these comparisons were level-matched. (They were not blind. However, on one occasion I mistook which unit I was listening to and thought "oh, that difference isn't there after all" but on going to make my next switch I discovered the mistake, and the observation was confirmed after all).

To put this in context, as I recall the 'reliable, repeatable' differences I found were subtle, amounting to resolution of detail or microdetail, microdynamics and tonal differences. Resolution of detail might apply to a few fractions of a second here and there through a track, so <1% of the entire track. For detail freaks, this might be critical., i.e. subtle but important. Tonal differences? This might be detectable throughout a track and become a matter of preference, and simply not noticed at all outside an A/B process. Microdetail and microdynamics I personally found important: most noticed with subtle vocal or instrumental inflections - not auto-tune territory.

A key discovery was that I had to strive to listen to everything without focus. Focus on one thing - i.e. a predecision about what to listen for or what's important - made it too likely I would miss real differences elsewhere. To support this: don't listen while tired or distracted.

Something to watch out for: there's a lot of information in even a few seconds of music. Our attention wonders on repeated listening - our brains seek novelty because that's what's most valuable and efficient - so a track can sound different in two closely repeated plays for no more reason than this! Once you think you hear a difference it's repeated listening on different occasions that 'confirms' it or - quite often - shows it's not there.

Second experience concerns Yggy versus my Meier 'StageDAC' dac, one of the units in the comparison above. It's a superb for its price level implementation of wolfson chips and it works very well with my old Audeze LCD2.1. Last year I compared these two units (again, level matched) and was - at first - stunned to hear no differences whatever :xf_eek:

I'm sure it's obvious where this is going...about two sessions later the differences were quite clear, but again subtle: listening to the Meier was like hearing a live performance from a different room, whereas Yggy was like being in the room. All kinds of fine audio cues were involved in this difference in immediacy, from room reverb and echo to the highs, greater precision of sound-stage and imaging and so on. Yggy bass has greater quality and texture (micro stuff again) but this was noticeable or not depending on the material. Another contributor - and a surprising one - was that Yggy did the highs better. It's made me suspect Jan Meier toned down the highs a little to remove some of the reputed delta-sigma edge or digital glare (but I'm speculating!).

Overall, Yggy simply provides more information, which is exactly what I prize in a DAC. Your downstream chain can't reproduce stuff it can't 'hear'. How much more? We might be talking about going from 99 to 99.9% in this comparison. In my case, it matters.

The point of this last story is the differences are still subtle, and that - in this comparison - I still had to 'learn' to hear them: it seems I wasn't sufficiently attending to that kind of cue or I guess I might have heard the difference sooner.

None of this means you will hear these differences or even - ultimately - differences at all. There are far too many other factors in play and so - as you'll notice often in this forum - YMMV.
 
Oct 17, 2017 at 4:28 PM Post #5,908 of 12,049
@Argo Duck

Thank you for your detailed response. I shall "digest" it along with whatever other feedback happens to come my way. That said, please allow me to pose the following question to you specifically.

I'll preface the question by stating that assume my other gear is capable of resolving micro detail changes, and that I am capable of hearing them. That said, how would/could you explain the fact that there is also no obvious audible difference when using (on various random sample music passages) the phase inversion button?
 
Oct 17, 2017 at 5:15 PM Post #5,909 of 12,049
I also don't hear any change with the phase inversion button.
 
Oct 17, 2017 at 6:16 PM Post #5,910 of 12,049
Hi gdhal, of course I don't know the answer to your question, and have no intention of supplying speculation in answer. And...I've not tested whether I hear a difference personally.

I do recall - and B1II's experience speaks to this - that most found no difference on most tracks. Thinking about it, the absolute phase button is not a function that seems to have attracted much discussion.

I'm very interested in what differences you find or not after a few days.

Cheers, Andre
 

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