[tincanear]

@alpovs This response of mine is likely to draw the ire of some folks in this thread, so apologies in advance. Nevertheless, your question (to me anyway) is yet another example where measurement data can and should be used. One *possible* explanation as to why the yggdrasil doesn't *appear to* excel at 24bit as it does with 16bit is that the dac chips in the yggdrasil are not rated to 24bit. Yes, I get/have seen the math that has been applied to the two chips (which memory serves are rated to 19 or 21 bit each) where both in combination can produce 24bit. Still....

EDIT: Schiit says that Yggdrasil is a 21 bit DAC. But the DAC chips that they put in the device ( Analog Devices AD5791BRUZ, 2 per channel) are 20 bit with the error of plus-minus 0.5 LSB.

This is the math I'm referring to :

2^20 = 1048576
2* (2^20) = 2* 1048576
2097152 = 2097152
2^21 = 2097152

by using 2 chips per each channel, each one fed from the DSP differently (e.g. one gets a 'zero' value, and the other chip an 1.0LSB value), there are 21 effective bits.

 

[earnmyturns]

It's contrary to what I've been exposed to. I prefer to get more concrete detail. For instance "subtle detail not captured by standard average measurements" is too vague for me. What about it is not captured? What part of the frequency range/time domain is an AP machine not able to do?

It's not the AP machine by itself, it's the summarization of a complex system's behavior in just a few numbers. But you have to do the hard work of reading the relevant literature, starting from what I shared, to get the level of detail you are looking for. That's where I'll leave it.

 

[garbulky]

It's not the AP machine by itself, it's the summarization of a complex system's behavior in just a few numbers. But you have to do the hard work of reading the relevant literature, starting from what I shared, to get the level of detail you are looking for. That's where I'll leave it.

Where I'm coming from, there is a lot of information to be found in measurements. Imo (so far), those measurements are going a long way in describing the electrical signal of what's coming out of the device. It also has the ability to describe things like impedance of the output and can measure how well it holds up over a changing load, so a lot of information mirrors how well the device can reproduce the signal given. I will read your link and hope to gain some more concrete evidence. Appreciate you sharing. Knowledge is power.

 

[Currawong]

Don't forget that this is the IMPRESSIONS thread everyone.

I put in the Unison board, I had thought after having issues with Gen 5, but it turns out Roon doesn't like grouped zones always, so my pre-swap Gen 5 vs. D300REF/AES comparison was rather invalid, due to obvious pops in the music.

Once I rectified that, I can't tell a difference between the Unison and D300REF/AES at all.

 

[Lucky87]

Don't forget that this is the IMPRESSIONS thread everyone.

I put in the Unison board, I had thought after having issues with Gen 5, but it turns out Roon doesn't like grouped zones always, so my pre-swap Gen 5 vs. D300REF/AES comparison was rather invalid, due to obvious pops in the music.

Once I rectified that, I can't tell a difference between the Unison and D300REF/AES at all.

I can concur with this as well Singxer SU-1 KTE via AES or UNISON sounds the same to me.

 

[ToTo Man]

Are any of the Unison USB upgraders Mac users? I play locally stored redbook content via Audirvana+/iTunes on a Mac Mini through Yggy's USB5 input and am wondering how much of an upgrade in sound quality Unison will be compared with USB5? I have cerebral palsy so will be carefully talking my dad through the upgrade rather than doing it myself, so want to be sure it's worth the effort as it will probably take us a few hours to complete (speed isn't his forte!).

 

[JoeWhip]

I feed the Yggy with a Macbook and was happy with the Gen 5 which was way better than the original Gen 3 board. The Unison USB board is sensational. I am loving what I am hearing out of this DAC. Well worth it.

 

[Astral Abyss]

I feed the Yggy with a Macbook and was happy with the Gen 5 which was way better than the original Gen 3 board. The Unison USB board is sensational. I am loving what I am hearing out of this DAC. Well worth it.

I concur. I'm using an Intel NUC straight into USB and the Unison was an immediate and apparent upgrade to the Gen 5.

 

[sahmen]

So where are all the replaced Gen 5 USB modules going to go? I wish there was some trade-in or recycling program somewhere to make them useful. I already have two replaced USB modules (from Audiogd and Metrum Acoustics DACs idling and wasting away unused on a shelf). The Gen 5 USB will be the 3rd once I replace it.

 

[Les Strat]

So where are all the replaced Gen 5 USB modules going to go? I wish there was some trade-in or recycling program somewhere to make them useful. I already have two replaced USB modules (from Audiogd and Metrum Acoustics DACs idling and wasting away unused on a shelf). The Gen 5 USB will be the 3rd once I replace it.

I upgraded to Gen 5 USB when I had the A2 upgrade done, but have never used it, so my module sits on a shelf inside the Yggy A2.

 

[mwr2700]

Last week I installed a Unison card in place of the Gen 5 card.

It's a pretty straight forward installation process. There are a bunch of screws to open the case and one of those suckers was unbelievably hard to remove. This was probably unique to this unit, but I was close drilling off the head and just not bothering to reinstall a new screw.

Using a computer>Yggdrasil>DNA Stratus>Utopia or the same train with a Jotunheim instead of the Stratus.

The sound quality changes I noticed were consistent in the tube amp and the solid state amp.

The sound is less aggressive in treble. For example when listening to Lindsey Stirling, on the Gen 5 card I found myself wanting to turn
the volume down ever so slightly to enjoy her violin. On the Unison the treble blends in much more to my liking.

The bass is more present than before. Especially noticeable with a Utopia.

No changes in the background or the sound stage.

 

[SuperRoo]

one of those suckers was unbelievably hard to remove. This was probably unique to this unit, but I was close drilling off the head and just not bothering to reinstall a new screw.

I had one like that too. Just take your time, downward pressure is your friend.

 

[Currawong]

Are any of the Unison USB upgraders Mac users? I play locally stored redbook content via Audirvana+/iTunes on a Mac Mini through Yggy's USB5 input and am wondering how much of an upgrade in sound quality Unison will be compared with USB5? I have cerebral palsy so will be carefully talking my dad through the upgrade rather than doing it myself, so want to be sure it's worth the effort as it will probably take us a few hours to complete (speed isn't his forte!).

I was pretty happy with the Gen 5 USB. I didn't notice so much of a change, but it might have been from using a separate Mac Mini for audio, resulting in less USB processing, and subsequently less noise generated by the C-Media chip in the Gen 5 unit. I'm sure one of the reasons for creating a custom USB implementation was to reduce internal noise which can result in what seems like brightness or hardness to the sound, so if you're connecting directly to your main computer, I would guess it would be more of an improvement.

 

[Les Strat]

I was pretty happy with the Gen 5 USB. I didn't notice so much of a change, but it might have been from using a separate Mac Mini for audio, resulting in less USB processing, and subsequently less noise generated by the C-Media chip in the Gen 5 unit. I'm sure one of the reasons for creating a custom USB implementation was to reduce internal noise which can result in what seems like brightness or hardness to the sound, so if you're connecting directly to your main computer, I would guess it would be more of an improvement.

Interesting findings.
It seems like the Unison USB can make quite a difference in some systems.
I do not use a main computer as music source, and have absolutely no brightness or hardness using BNC S/PDIF input for my Yggy.
It sounds great!
If I was using USB with my Yggy, I would have already ordered a Unison USB upgrade, as I have great faith in Mike's designs.

 

[ToTo Man]

I was pretty happy with the Gen 5 USB. I didn't notice so much of a change, but it might have been from using a separate Mac Mini for audio, resulting in less USB processing, and subsequently less noise generated by the C-Media chip in the Gen 5 unit. I'm sure one of the reasons for creating a custom USB implementation was to reduce internal noise which can result in what seems like brightness or hardness to the sound, so if you're connecting directly to your main computer, I would guess it would be more of an improvement.

My Mac Mini is my only source and is used for music only. I have to admit I've always struggled to hear any difference between the inputs of my Schiit DACs (previously Bifrost, Bifrost Uber, Bifrost 4490, and now Yggy A2 USB5).

When I first got my Bifrost it came with Gen1 USB which made random 'screeching' noises during replay, so I had to use the toslink input to avoid this. ElectromodUK replaced the Gen1 USB with Gen2 USB and it was fine after that. I preferred USB to toslink because the Mac Mini's toslink output is capped at 96kHz, and playback between Audirvana+ and Bifrost was generally more clunky with toslink than with USB (sample rate switches took longer and sometimes 'handshake' errors would occur).

Following upgrades to Uber and then 4490, I bought an Eitr but struggled to hear a significant difference between it and the Bifrost's Gen2 USB, if there was an improvement it was very subtle.

My Yggy purchase was perfectly timed as it was among the first to secretly contain both the Analog2 and USB5 boards. The USB5 board sounds great to me, but I haven't heard Yggy's previous USB iterations so don't really have a frame of reference.