[winders]

Larry,

Vinyl seems to have enough dynamic range to still sound great. The major benefit to vinyl to my ears is how smooth the sound is as it lacks the digital harshness that is so hard to escape when playing digital files. Vinyl just sounds more musical and real in most situations.

Yggdrasil has a bit of a grey background to it and has just a bit of that digital harshness to it. I didn’t really notice it until compared Yggdrasil to the PS Audio DirectStream running Red Cloud. That’s why I sold my Yggdrasil and replaced it with the DirectStream. I couldn’t be happier as I got killer deal on near new DirectStream with full warranty.

 

[LarryMagoo]

Scott,

I am glad you like your new DAC!! I think the two major aspects of determining SQ are the DAC (hopefully a R2R style) being used in conjunction with excellent Room Correction...(something better than Audessey) they have made my digital system sound better than vinyl to me... when convenience & instant choice is thrown in there, playing records does not stand a chance... for me anyway...

 

[Snowpuppy77]

This is just my point with Vinyl...I simply do not understand the worship there when digital has so much more signal to noise ratio...to say nothing of the black silence between to notes... my HP cable is a custom made 20 footer so the extra juice in the balanced mode does help there...Thanks for the link!

That is because there is so much more to the story than signal to noise ratio or noise floor. Things like natural timbre, tone, often uncompressed dynamics, PRAT, and dimensionality. Most digital rigs I listen to sound flat compared to vinyl. I read a post from some one who loved his Yggy and then later got a Rega RP8 turntable and confessed that on comparable recordings the Rega sounded better. I could easily demonstrate to anybody the better sound of my more modest Pro-ject turntable vs my Bimby DAC. Not only does vinyl often sound as good or better than digital overall, despite its weaknesses, its lots of fun to hunt down and own the physical media. The full size physical format with artwork really enhances the experience. For the most part I would call it enthusiasm not worship. Sometimes where there is a lot of enthusiasm it is for a good reason. I do understand as I was negative toward vinyl until I started hearing it done right and got my own rig and got some good recordings. I did not want to like vinyl because I thought is was such a pain in the ass and I did not want to spend the money. But now that I have done it right it is the most fun I have had with music since I can remember. At this point I want to upgrade my Bimby to a Yggy so I can close the gap between digital and my vinyl rig. I have a ton of music I love on digital that I will never have on vinyl. I would be thrilled if I found my Yggy sounded as good or better than my vinyl rig. But would still play my vinyl. I will enjoy both.

 

[AxelCloris]

We've cleaned up some of the recent discussion in the thread. Let's please keep it on topic. Thanks everyone.

 

[5genez]

nothing said...

 

[winders]

I know this was from a year old post....

I am confused about something. When it comes to the warranty problem that Schiit speaks of? Is this based upon national law? Or, California law?

Let it go......

 

[Swiftfalcon]

When is schiit gonna release a new DAC...been a while...

 

[5genez]

Let it go......

Sorry... this is actually a new development. There is an answer to this that I seek that will clarify something that has someone else confused... not just myself. That is why I am asking.

 

[5genez]

Gone with the wind..

 

[Vangelis]

I appreciate the comments regarding my post on running Yggdrasil single ended. Anyone else have success or compared Yggdrasil’s single ended (RCA) to it’s balanced (XLR) outputs?

 

[sheldaze]

I am considering the Yggdrasil to mate up with my very high quality single ended (RCA plugs only) integrated amplifier. I’m aware that Yggdrasil is a truly balanced design and its single ended outputs are summed. My concern is that my single ended system will not fully exploit or reveal the total performance of Yggdrasil being a fully balanced DAC. Obviously balanced can have some benefits regarding grounding noise and long runs etc. using I’ve seen reviews on a number of DACs that we’re supposed to sound as good though their single ended output. Some times it’s difficult to properly compare balanced to single ended, if your amplifier was designed to sound better in balanced, but that doesn’t apply here. This topic has likely been covered somewhere in one of the hundreds of posts. I would appreciate any thoughts from Yggdrasil owners connected single ended and what success or sonic compromise there might be.

I appreciate the comments regarding my post on running Yggdrasil single ended. Anyone else have success or compared Yggdrasil’s single ended (RCA) to it’s balanced (XLR) outputs?

Probably not the exact response you want:

• I initially ran Yggy > Gold via balanced.
• Next I added Yggy > ZDS via RCA, while keeping the Gold connected. I did not feel any sonic loss via the unbalanced.
• I went through another step replacing the Gold with a GS-X mk2, and last replacing the balanced GS-X mk2 with an unbalanced BW. So today I am running Yggy unbalanced into two amplifiers. At no point during my amplifier changes did I feel the XLR or RCA was an issue. I just picked the best amplifiers, for the sonic qualities I wanted.

Yggy via RCA and XLR are both excellent.

 

[winders]

Yggdrasil does sound better via XLR than it does RCA. There is no doubt about that, But, Yggdrasil sounds great via RCA. If you can run Yggdrasil using XLR, do so.

 

[gdhal]

Yggdrasil does sound better via XLR than it does RCA. There is no doubt about that, But, Yggdrasil sounds great via RCA. If you can run Yggdrasil using XLR, do so.

I use XLR to my Musical Fidelity M6si. My amp is not truly balanced though (i.e. the xlr is converted internally to single ended). I find xlr preferable from yggy because of its increased gain, but not because it sounds better than se. It doesn't sound any worse mind you. I'd say xlr and se sound the same "quality" wise. Isn't that the ideal and how it sound be?

 

[Vangelis]

Probably not the exact response you want:

• I initially ran Yggy > Gold via balanced.
• Next I added Yggy > ZDS via RCA, while keeping the Gold connected. I did not feel any sonic loss via the unbalanced.
• I went through another step replacing the Gold with a GS-X mk2, and last replacing the balanced GS-X mk2 with an unbalanced BW. So today I am running Yggy unbalanced into two amplifiers. At no point during my amplifier changes did I feel the XLR or RCA was an issue. I just picked the best amplifiers, for the sonic qualities I wanted.

Yggy via RCA and XLR are both excellent.

Your thoughts were right on target and were helpful. Schiit support did reply back to the same question and their opinion was Yggdrasil’s summed single ended output retains most of the magic. So, apparently Yggdrasil is valid via its single ended output and clearly a better choice than a different DAC that’s only optimisizeed for XLR

 

[puffmtd]

I was wondering if I could get a little advice....the USB input on my Yggy has quit working for some reason. I've changed cables and sources and it's still not showing up even though it's worked fine for almost a year.
All the other inputs are working fine.
All my other dac's show up and work just fine.
Is there anything I can try before I contact Schiit?
Thanks for any help.