"Channel imbalance"? (Note : I am only using this expression cautiously, for lack of a more accurate designation of the problem I seem to be having).
This has been a long standing issue I have been having with my system, but after a process of elimination, it seems as if it is located in the Yggy, although this is one problem I would normally and typically associate with an amp. Please read on :
I wonder whether anyone has ever felt this somewhat irksome, "now off now on," feeling that something (an invisible weightiness) is missing from one side of the channel balance (in my case the right side is the usual culprit) in the sound-field one is getting?
It is particularly annoying because all individual notes seem to sound equally strong on both sides of the divide, and yet there is often this vague sense, that a sense of fullness is present on one side (the left in my case), which is absent on the other side. Occasionally, it takes the form of a shift in the "center of gravity" of the music itself shifting slightly to left side, although I continue to hear most notes on the right side as strongly as I do those on the left. I am tempted to think that this particular sense of imbalance affects particularly bass or lower end notes, but how might that be possible with a DAC? What function or "malfunction" of a DAC might lead to the exhibition of this kind of behavior"? I do not know, but read on.
This is something I might under some circumstances dismiss as instances of my "mind" or "ears" playing tricks on me. But I have ruled this possibility out by taking an actual hearing test, which determined that there was nothing wrong with my hearing, either on the left or the right side.
With that said, I do see one piece of very compelling evidence that I cannot ignore or dismiss. My Yggy feeds two Emotiva XPA-1 monoblocks, both of which have led meters. The signal strength of the led-meter readings on the left-side monoblock look much stronger, most of the time, than the readings on the right-side monoblock. Because my first impulse was to associate such problems of imbalance with amps rather than DACs, I sent back the right-side Monoblock amp to Emotiva for warranty servicing about a year or two ago, and, to my dismay (or my relief, depending on how one looks at it), they returned it without discovering any problems with it, after performing all kinds of tests on that amp.
Not too long ago, I started detecting the same, "now on, now off" vague sense of imbalance in my Violectric V281 headamp as well. Again, suspecting that the amp was beginning to have channel imbalance issues, I sent it to Power Holdings for a thorough service check, which it passed with flying colors (Sigh).
I have sold the V281 in order to upgrade to a Niimbus US4, which arrived yesterday. When the Niimbus arrived, I first paired it with my Sonnet Morpheus DAC, and drove my Susvara with this particular pairing for several hours of listening bliss until the wee hours of this morning.
Around noon today I paired the Niimbus with my Yggy, and guess the very first thing that struck me? Yes, you guessed right: it was my dear old friend, the vague friggin sense of imbalance which I had sort of completely forgotten, because I have been doing most of my recent headphone listening on a different rig (Sonnet Morpheus/Pathos InPol Ear), which shows none of those vague imbalance symptoms.
You know what is even more annoying? After listening to the Yggy/Niimbus pairing for about an hour, i do not hear that sense of imbalance anymore. Right at this moment, as I type these words, the Susvara is sounding great on the Niimbus/Yggy pairing as if there is nothing wrong with the Yggy or the sound, or the sense of balance
If you're wondering why I have never complained about this problem to Schiit Audio, it is because of this "Now on, now off" character of this particular symptom I have been describing. What if they're unable to reproduce the problem when I send the Yggy back?
Still, I feel if they were to hook the Yggy to some kind of meter, they might be able to see the imbalance I see in the led-meter readings on my two monoblock amps. In the light of these considerations, I feel compelled to send the Yggy back for warranty servicing one of these days, so that they might do a thorough investigation of this problem, and solve it if it is indeed a problem. The most important reason is that the three year warranty extension that i got when I sent my Yggy in for the Analog 2 upgrade will expire in September, so I might as well take advantage of the warranty servicing opportunity now.
The other reason is that I have purchased the Unison USB module with the intention of doing a self-install, which I have never mustered the courage to do. So I could ask them to do the Unison USB install for me during the service check.
I have documented this issue on this thread now in order to solicit the input of those who are more familiar with DAC technology than I am... First of all, does it make sense at all to speak of a "channel imbalance" in DACs, and is the problem I am describing ringing any familiar bells anyone can think of?
Thanks for your input.
