[Music Alchemist]

From the red corner, weighing in at 4,750 dollars, we have the 009 paired with a 353X amp and a cheap DAC. And in the blue corner, the challenger, at 4,649 greenbacks, is the L700 armed with the same amp and upgraded to the Yggdrasil DAC.
 
Which do you think would be higher fidelity? You can vote on the poll.
 
Feel free to share your reasoning in a subsequent post. It would be best if you have experience listening to both combos, in which case your impressions are especially appreciated.

 

[Chinoloco078]

I'm certainly curious....anyone?

 

[wink]

Whichever floats your boat the highest above the briny deep.......

Any system with a YGGY DAC has a magnetic attraction and hard tug on my heartstrings.
Bite the bullet and get the SR-009 and the YGGY, ditch the amp for a KG Carbon.

 

[Shure or bust]

L700 combo

 

[axle_69]

I guess any system ends up being limited by the worst component. The 353X would be limiting the performance of the 009 so the 009 apparent advantage over the L700 would be diminished. I have the L700+353X combo and the Yggdrasil made a big difference compared with other DACs that are relatively good. The Gungnir Multibit would probably be the most sensible option (maybe 80-90 % of the Ygggrasil at almost half-the price) for the L700 combo and like the Yggdrasil is a balanced DAC which makes sense considering the inherently balanced design of the Stax. The 009 combo seems too limited by the DAC so the winner would be the L700 combo. This of course if there isn't some kind of upgrade plan.

 

[wink]

You don't really know how good Stax earspeakers or the YGGY can sound until you've heard them through a KG designed amp......

 

[axle_69]

You don't really know how good Stax earspeakers or the YGGY can sound until you've heard them through a KG designed amp......

Which would ramp the price by 3000, therefore he would have to give up on the Yggdrasil and go with the cheap DAC... Everything has a price.
The L700 or even better, the L500 + 353X + Gungnir MB is a combo very hard to beat at that price point. The 009 + KGSSHV Carbon + Yggdrasil is better but it is also 4x the price.
On the L700 + 353X + Yggdrasil combo the 353x is obviously the weak element but you can't improve it without increasing the price significantly and the L700 isn't very demanding especially listening to low/moderate volumes.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Which would ramp the price by 3000, therefore he would have to give up on the Yggdrasil and go with the cheap DAC... Everything has a price.

This thread was started a year ago. Replies only started coming in last week. I wasn't saying that I had no intention of eventually spending more than $5K; I was merely seeking opinions on the two combos. I received an inheritance this year and could have bought nearly any headphone out there. I did end up getting five figures worth of headphones and other gear. However, I've moved on to speakers for the most part and am not sure whether I'll get back into ultra-high-end headphones. It does seem likely, but I'm focusing on speakers for the time being since I like them even more than the four STAX systems I had. Once I've gotten the speaker system closer to endgame territory, I'd be more inclined to add high-end STAX as a supplement. Perhaps by that time, the SR-009 and SRM-T2 successors will be out.

 

[wink]

People should realise that their wallet doesn't own the contents contained therein.
They are only a receptacle that needs to be cleaned out periodically so that worthwhile commodities may be procured. Zimple....

 

[CaveManta]

Whoa, Music Alchemist, you like your Klipsch that much?! Awesome! I love my Klipsch speakers, too^^. Anyway, I've been pondering getting an SR-L700 + SRM-353X + Yggy combo, as well. But I think that, like you, I'll just upgrade my speaker setup instead...for now...maybe until Schiit releases an electrostatic energizer. I'm kind of addicted to Schiit...

 

[336881]

From the red corner, weighing in at 4,750 dollars, we have the 009 paired with a 353X amp and a cheap DAC. And in the blue corner, the challenger, at 4,649 greenbacks, is the L700 armed with the same amp and upgraded to the Yggdrasil DAC.

Which do you think would be higher fidelity? You can vote on the poll.

Feel free to share your reasoning in a subsequent post. It would be best if you have experience listening to both combos, in which case your impressions are especially appreciated.

Foget the dac period and get a totl vintage japan cd player and some mfsl gold cd's. CD players are one of the few components where I think you can forget about going the Hifido/YahooJP/step down transformer route. Lots of 120v models right here in the good ol USA.

If you have the space I recommend the Sony scd-1/scd-777es. Sony made tons of these and with any mfsl gold cd will walk all over a yggy, or any dac for that matter. Sony cdp-x707es or my own xa7es if you do not quite have the space for the monstrosity that is the scd-1.

My one big warning is that you need to build it ass backwards like a TT setup. In the way you want to match the cart to the arm to the phono pre then the TT you want to secure a laser and remote before you get the cd player. Get the record player or cd player first and you are asking for a world of hurt imo.

 

[Music Alchemist]

Foget the dac period and get a totl vintage japan cd player and some mfsl gold cd's. CD players are one of the few components where I think you can forget about going the Hifido/YahooJP/step down transformer route. Lots of 120v models right here in the good ol USA.

If you have the space I recommend the Sony scd-1/scd-777es. Sony made tons of these and with any mfsl gold cd will walk all over a yggy, or any dac for that matter. Sony cdp-x707es or my own xa7es if you do not quite have the space for the monstrosity that is the scd-1.

My one big warning is that you need to build it ass backwards like a TT setup. In the way you want to match the cart to the arm to the phono pre then the TT you want to secure a laser and remote before you get the cd player. Get the record player or cd player first and you are asking for a world of hurt imo.

Actually, the Chord DAVE & Blu MkII are my endgame, since by most accounts it outperforms everything else regardless of price, and the measurements and technical aspects (like the advanced interpolation filter with over a million taps, giving the highest timing accuracy in history) support that. There's no way a conventional CD transport could beat that.

 

[mulveling]

I owned an SCD-1 years ago, and found its Redbook CD performance to be very mediocre, even compared to a Meridian G08. A Yggy with any decent digital transport (44.1/16 lossless PCM files) would absolutely crush it; no comparison. However the old Sony sounded excellent with SACD -- and I haven't yet found satisfaction on the Yggy with DSD files. Also it looks like junk compared to an SCD-1, G08, Chord (especially), whatever -- lol.

The Chord gear looks awesome, but it's a very large investment, and how long will it remain in the top echelon? Things are still moving very fast in digital.

 

[336881]

I owned an SCD-1 years ago, and found its Redbook CD performance to be very mediocre, even compared to a Meridian G08. A Yggy with any decent digital transport (44.1/16 lossless PCM files) would absolutely crush it; no comparison. However the old Sony sounded excellent with SACD -- and I haven't yet found satisfaction on the Yggy with DSD files. Also it looks like junk compared to an SCD-1, G08, Chord (especially), whatever -- lol.

The Chord gear looks awesome, but it's a very large investment, and how long will it remain in the top echelon? Things are still moving very fast in digital.

I just have an cdp-xa7es. The scd-1 was too large for my setup. I know comparing the cdp-xa7es with mfsl gold cd's to my ecp walnut V dac with tidal (highest resolution) and there is no comparing. I also liked the ecp walnut V over the yggy with usb. I do not see the tidal or walnut V going anywhere but for true hifi headphone listening experience I turn to my mfsl gold cd's which I see no where mentioned in your post.

 

[Music Alchemist]

For future reference, I don't care about esoteric CD formats and the like; I only want to reproduce my existing music collection in the highest quality.