[warrior1975]

I'm actively looking for a dac... So confusing though. I use a portable dap for desktop, usually my AK240. I've never purchased a dac, and I'm very curious as to how much audible improvement I would hear. I have good headphones (th900) and a couple of amps,woo wa6 being my best right now. Just wondering if I will hear a noticeable difference. Is anyone using a portable dap as their source? Seems like most use some other type. I don't want to waste anymore money. I don't have "golden ears", quite the opposite.

 

[jacal01]

   
They should have called the Yggy the "Baleen".  <ba dump tss!>

 
Yeah, I already did the "Swim away!" from Finding Nemo, but nobody caught that either.

 

[wahsmoh]

   
Why have you put quotes around Theta ? I get that it's not the same company as the current Theta Digital, but I thought most here grasped that. 

I was implying what you just suggested. I'm not sure if everyone here gets that and if you look at back-to-back line of products released by Theta in the 90s it is clear that Mike was behind that undertaking(upgradeable. OMG) and when you look at Theta today they barely show their face to the world. They aren't storming CES or audio fests like during the 90s to showcase some new top notch product every year. 

 

[prot]

I'm actively looking for a dac... So confusing though. I use a portable dap for desktop, usually my AK240. I've never purchased a dac, and I'm very curious as to how much audible improvement I would hear. I have good headphones (th900) and a couple of amps,woo wa6 being my best right now. Just wondering if I will hear a noticeable difference. Is anyone using a portable dap as their source? Seems like most use some other type. I don't want to waste anymore money. I don't have "golden ears", quite the opposite.

 
Lots of people swear on night&day diffs between DACs, lots say those are barely audible ... usually I'm in the latter camp.  But noone can explain those diffs for you, just pack your AK & HPs and try some DACs in the first hifi shop you can find.
 
 
And some food for the schiit fanboys: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/04/at-last-schiit-release-multi-bit-yggdrasil-dac/ .  This part I found most interesting:

Sitting on an Analog Devices DSP processo, Yggy's digital filter runs at sampling rates of 352/384kHz and places the newly calculated samples between the original samples that (Moffat is at pains to underscore) remain intact.

 
Could that be the source for purrin's extra 'plankton' !? And if yes, is it still fair to say that the iggy 'extracts' more detail from music or we should actually say that it 'adds' (it's own brand of) detail !?

 

[gournard]

Hi all,
 
 Has anybody compared a Theta to a Bryston BDA-1/BDP-1 combo.
 
The enthusiasm on this thread for DAC's like Theta sent me searching for one but they are scarce where I come from.
I found a private seller who allowed me around for a listen yesterday and I was mightily impressed, even though it is a delta-sigma design.
 
I am well familiar with the Oppo 105 but the Bryston combo easily and beautifully outperformed it. I could have listened for hours, something that has never happened with the Oppo.  I am hoping someone who has heard both Theta and Bryston would comment.
 
After being immersed in the music the combo was making with red book CD I feel no pressing urge to concern myself with hi-res.  His asking price is about 65 percent of the yggy !

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Hi all,
 
 Has anybody compared a Theta to a Bryston BDA-1/BDP-1 combo.
 
The enthusiasm on this thread for DAC's like Theta sent me searching for one but they are scarce where I come from.
I found a private seller who allowed me around for a listen yesterday and I was mightily impressed, even though it is a delta-sigma design.
 
I am well familiar with the Oppo 105 but the Bryston combo easily and beautifully outperformed it. I could have listened for hours, something that has never happened with the Oppo.  I am hoping someone who has heard both Theta and Bryston would comment.
 
After being immersed in the music the combo was making with red book CD I feel no pressing urge to concern myself with hi-res.  His asking price is about 65 percent of the yggy !

Asking price for what? If it is for an older DAC, regardless of quality of sound I would certainly not want to pay that much. I could be being a little too pessimistic, but as things age, they get closer to the day they fail. Sure, no moving parts, but it is at least a consideration. What if it fails, are their replacement parts and qualified service personnel? Can it be serviced affordably? I acknowledge this might be much to do about nothing.

 

[Maxx134]

Actually, if you take a look back into the deep history of high-end audio, you may see that Nelson and Bruno followed Mike...Mike was an audio rebel first in the 1970s, proselytizing tubes when solid-state had taken over, then using 6DJ8 tubes for audio, rather than the commonly accepted 12AX7 (which Mike has much disdain for.)....

Thiss....
This is why I am certain that schiit can come out with the best full balanced tube amp the world has ever seeeenn(!)

If they ever decided to do it...

In meantime I must entertain myself to my own hack job of an amp..

 

[lukeap69]

Thiss....
This is why I am certain that schiit can come out with the best full balanced tube amp the world has ever seeeenn(!)

If they ever decided to do it...

In meantime I must entertain myself to my own hack job of an amp..

Not so fast... I'm still saving up for Yggy. 

 

[Jones Bob]

Thiss....
This is why I am certain that schiit can come out with the best full balanced tube amp the world has ever seeeenn(!)

If they ever decided to do it...

In meantime I must entertain myself to my own hack job of an amp..

Mike most certainly knows how to build great sounding tube amps!

I had one of his Moffat modified Citation II amps in the early 1990s. It was in the stock chassis and used only the stock transformers. The circuit was a 6SL7 input/phase splitter using a solid state CCS on the tail. Then cap coupled to triode strapped PP EL-34s. It was magic on my VOTT Altecs and Reference 3As. Even more when I swapped the EL-34s for NOS WE-350Bs.

I'd love to buy a new Moffat Schiitation II.

 

[purrin]

 
And some food for the schiit fanboys: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/04/at-last-schiit-release-multi-bit-yggdrasil-dac/ .  This part I found most interesting:
 
Could that be the source for purrin's extra 'plankton' !? And if yes, is it still fair to say that the iggy 'extracts' more detail from music or we should actually say that it 'adds' (it's own brand of) detail !?

 
Going back to the Thetas, what appeared to be the most responsible for plankton was the quality of the D to A chip, the number of them, the quality of the power supply, the digital receiver, the i/v converter and rest of the analog out circuits. The DSP which was the constant among these DACs seemed most responsible for the holographic staging qualities. The Theta Cobalt I had didn't have the DSP.

 

[7ryder]

  I was implying what you just suggested. I'm not sure if everyone here gets that and if you look at back-to-back line of products released by Theta in the 90s it is clear that Mike was behind that undertaking(upgradeable. OMG) and when you look at Theta today they barely show their face to the world. They aren't storming CES or audio fests like during the 90s to showcase some new top notch product every year. 

Theta went through some tough times...I think the company almost folded. ATI bought them back in 2007 and they've started to roll some new products out, like the Casablanca IV and some new amps.  Now that they have some new stuff out, you might see them at some of the audio shows.
 
As for CES, I'm not sure what the value is of attending for these small, boutique brands; I'd think that RMAF and shows like that are prolly a better place to show off their wares.
 
The other thing to remember about these small companies is that they don't necessarily bring entirely new products to market every year; it doesn't make any sense given the cost of bringing a product to market and number of units they sell each year.  That said, Theta has kept the tradition started by Mr Moffat of designing their products so they can be upgraded to latest spec which is cool, especially given the price of their products.  
 
I have a combined HT/2-channel system (BTW, that's where Yggy is going) and was tempted to ditch my Classe SSP-800 and Linn Klimax Kontrol preamp and go entirely with a Casablanca IV a while back, but at 19" wide, it wouldn't fit in my Middle Atlantic rack. Damn First World problems...

 

[bmichels]

I'm actively looking for a dac... So confusing though. I use a portable dap for desktop, usually my AK240. I've never purchased a dac, and I'm very curious as to how much audible improvement I would hear. I have good headphones (th900) and a couple of amps,woo wa6 being my best right now. Just wondering if I will hear a noticeable difference. Is anyone using a portable dap as their source? Seems like most use some other type. I don't want to waste anymore money. I don't have "golden ears", quite the opposite.

 
You are not alone...

 
I am myself trying very hard to find a TOL Desktop DAC to replace my HUGO that is used today with my desktop AMP, and so far... I have not found a desktop DAC with enough audible improvement worth buying a second DAC to replace my HUGO !  

 

[Maxx134]

You are not alone...

I am myself trying very hard to find a TOL Desktop DAC to replace my HUGO that is used today with my desktop AMP, and so far... I have not found a desktop DAC with enough audible improvement worth buying a second DAC to replace my HUGO !  

Did U hear a Geek out?

Did U order a yggy?

 

[Argo Duck]

FWIW, both. The differences are barely audible and they are night and day. Once you hear a difference between two DACs, it's hard to un-hear it. It then seems large and one might - if unlucky - be forced to pay a lot for that difference! Yet, in real terms, it might only matter for 0.1% of your material...

Completely agree with prot's excellent advice btw. Listen for yourself.

Btw, until I sat down and did a series of A/Bs (level-matched, conducted with careful attention to psychometric principles and with good awareness of cognition and memory-based principles bla bla), I thought "all dacs sounded the same". Or rather, I thought there were differences but too subtle for me to hear. I was wrong...

Lots of people swear on night&day diffs between DACs, lots say those are barely audible ... usually I'm in the latter camp.  But noone can explain those diffs for you, just pack your AK & HPs and try some DACs in the first hifi shop you can find.

 

[AustinValentine]

FWIW, both. The differences are barely audible and they are night and day. Once you hear a difference between two DACs, it's hard to un-hear it. 

 
This.
 
The closest analogue I can think of is Kerning in typography. The difference in distance between letters in a well-kerned font versus an un-kerned font (or, god helps us, a poorly-kerned font) are extremely minimal. But, for someone who knows what to look for and/or is sensitive to it, that small delta makes a huge difference.