The grey background is not noise you would hear when no music is playing. It’s hard to describe and I never noticed it until I put the DirectStream in my 2 channel setup. It’s almost like there is a slight haze behind the music when it is playing. My Yggdrasil had Gen 5 USB so that didn’t affect it. I haven’t heard an Yggdrasil with new analog boards so I can’t comment on that.
This seems to be a function of "noise." Tubes generate noise, as does equipment that is vibrating internally. In fact, today, I changed my EAT tube to an older Amperex 6922, and it
seemed that the Amperex generated less "noise," so that I could more easily hear the people sitting perfectly still in the orchestra.
I also use Shakti online stabilizers on my Nordost interconnects, and I can unquestionably hear when one has fallen off (I need more Blu-Tack) by just looking over to where the interconnects are. Even on the Nordost, it reduces noise, which, for all I know, could be RFI that the Shakti are cleaning up. But grayness = noise floor: how "distinct" are all the instruments from each other during a crescendo, which can also be related to how well the system holds together without blurring, which is often a function of the pieces of equipment itself.
However, I also read this thread today:
https://positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm
I had purchased a Transparent S/PDIF cable to go from my Arcam to my Yggdrasil. One meter. I kept thinking the sound was just slightly less "distinct" than when I just had the Arcam (which of course, I deemed
impossible, given that the Yggy is a newer technology) And then I read this article, by the founder of Empirical Audio, who states that, using S/PDIF, you probably want at least 1 1/2 meters of cable due to the "reflection time" going back and forth between the transport and the DAC. Ugh. I think I understand why, when I'm listening to nearly all of my CDS, that, although the Yggdrasil is superior is so many ways, that there could still be a more
coherent presentation when using the Arcam. I wonder why my dealer just sold me the one meter length of the S/PDIF cable, but I suspect he just didn't know about this. No matter: I'm going back to his store Tuesday and politely asking him to take it back and order me a 1 1/2 meter length. I don't think there'll be an issue.
Has anyone else experimented with the longer S/PDIF cable length as suggested by Steve Nugent, the CEO and chief designer of Empirical. The article is pretty clear on what happens with shorter cable and I trust his assessment - but I'm not having to guess about it (I'm not big on speculating: I'd rather carry out experiments on my own) , since I'm getting a longer length of the Transparent and it should become apparently rather quickly if what he says applies to my setup.