[johnjen]

And while in your underware?
 
JJ

 

 

[estreeter]

Tom Cruise in a pair of tidy whities has never particularly done it for me - not that there's anything wrong with that. As for my own air guitar heroics, I prefer to go commando. If you cant lose yourself completely to 'Aint talkin bout love', what's the point ? 
 

 

[Music Alchemist]

Estreeter,
I am more than willing to learn about DACs, since I have never used them.
Please tell me why HDMI is not good for audio. Also I do not know much about Yggy. But I have heard good things about Schitt. I want to replace my current SACD player which is getting a bit long in the tooth. My preamplifier is a dual mono TVC, which has only one XLR input. I feel that XLRs provide the best gain in my system. Hence I want to use a DAC with XLR, and then connect the transport to the DAC.
Please do tell me more about Schitt's bit perfect approach. I want to make sure that I understand all this before I spend $$$ on a nice DAC. My problem is, I support SACDs and will definitely download DSDs whenever possible. I don't want to loose the ability to play my SACDs, at he expense of a DAC that can play DSD, but cannot accept inputs from a DSD disc. A best of both worlds for me would be a new Marantz SA-11S4 that could play SACDs, and also accept DSD files.

 
For what it's worth, the Smyth Realiser A8 (which is a virtual surround sound processor that very effectively emulates the sound of any speaker system you are able to take measurements of) only has an HDMI input for digital connections, though it has analog RCA inputs as well. Although it has a built-in DAC, I still want to try the Yggdrasil.
 
Yggdrasil only supports PCM. For DSD, you will need another DAC such as the Loki. Or you could just convert your high-res files to lossless 16-bit / 44.1 kHz and they will sound exactly the same. (SACDs need SACD players to play the SACD layer.)

 

[milpai]

Hmm, if Yggy does not do DSD, I will have to look elsewhere.
I have already booked tickets for AXPONA 2015 and looking forward to checkout the new DACs and players coming out during that time frame. I probably need a high end SACD player that can accept DSD files via USB.

 

[Music Alchemist]

  Hmm, if Yggy does not do DSD, I will have to look elsewhere.
I have already booked tickets for AXPONA 2015 and looking forward to checkout the new DACs and players coming out during that time frame. I probably need a high end SACD player that can accept DSD files via USB.

 
Like I said, you don't actually need to play back your DSD files as DSD to reap the benefits of the recording. The only thing that matters is the master they were derived from. The Schiit Loki DSD DAC is $149, supports DSD64, and can integrate with any other DAC, though. SACDs are another story since there's only one way I know of to rip the SACD layer to digital format.

 

[Sonic Defender]

  Hmm, if Yggy does not do DSD, I will have to look elsewhere.
I have already booked tickets for AXPONA 2015 and looking forward to checkout the new DACs and players coming out during that time frame. I probably need a high end SACD player that can accept DSD files via USB.

What is it about DSD that you know that so many don't get? I know that seems a tad strong, but really, what is it about DSD?

 

[jacal01]

F.  None of the above.  I'm convinced enough of its technology (new gen R2R DAC) and pedigree (M. Moffat closed form filter), but I'm sufficiently content with the current level of performance of my gear so that I think I'll wait a bit to see if/when the Yggy becomes a more mature product before purchase, maybe increased inputs capability (I2S, BNC), improved analog output stage (tubes?), critical components upgrade, etc.
 
Maybe if you'd said forerunner instead of frontrunner in E... 

 

[mulder01]

 
What is it about DSD that you know that so many don't get? I know that seems a tad strong, but really, what is it about DSD?

 
Hmm, I guess if you believe that from an objective point of view, there is no benefit going to DSD, then would you also believe that from that same objective point of view, there's no reason to get an expensive DAC like the Yggy?  Aren't the Yggy's measurable improvements theoretically just as inaudible as the measurable improvements provided by DSD?

 

[estreeter]

  F.  None of the above.  I'm convinced enough of its technology (new gen R2R DAC) and pedigree (M. Moffat closed form filter), but I'm sufficiently content with the current level of performance of my gear so that I think I'll wait a bit to see if/when the Yggy becomes a more mature product before purchase, maybe increased inputs capability (I2S, BNC), improved analog output stage (tubes?), critical components upgrade, etc.
 
Maybe if you'd said forerunner instead of frontrunner in E... 

 
Er, this version is supposed to have a BNC input, unless you know something I dont. 

 

[jk47]

i have a first generation gungnir which has served me well, but i'm thinking about an upgrade.  i have my eye on yggdrasil, but i've also been reading a lot about 2 somewhat more expensive dac's: the auralic vega and the metrum hex.  the metrum i assume is more directly comparable to the yggdrasil in that it's non-oversampling.  the auralic goes to the other extreme, with a very high rate of oversampling.
 
i'd be interested if anyone here has heard those other 2, and even more so if that person has heard a pre-production yggdrasil.  along with sound reproduction per se, i'm especially curious about soundstage.

 

[estreeter]

@jk47 : I cant recall if purrin mentioned the Hex in this thread, but he meets your other criteria  Important to note that some of his impressions clash wildly with those of a large section of this hobby both here on Head-Fi and in the broader audiophile universe, but he's probably had as much time with Yggdrasil as anyone outside Schiit HQ. I tend to assume that everyone has seen this thread at some stage, but from your post it would appear that my assumption may be incorrect. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/693798/thoughts-on-a-bunch-of-dacs-and-why-i-hate-chocolate-ice-cream

 

[jk47]

You're right, I haven't seen it. I'll go take a look. Thanks.

 

[manbear]

Hmm, I guess if you believe that from an objective point of view, there is no benefit going to DSD, then would you also believe that from that same objective point of view, there's no reason to get an expensive DAC like the Yggy?  Aren't the Yggy's measurable improvements theoretically just as inaudible as the measurable improvements provided by DSD?

No.

Read up on the difference between sigma delta oversampling and r2r.

Different point from the typical redbook vs high res can you even hear the difference debate.

http://mother-of-tone.com/conversion.htm

 

[jk47]

No.

Read up on the difference between sigma delta oversampling and r2r.

Different point from the typical redbook vs high res can you even hear the difference debate.

http://mother-of-tone.com/conversion.htm

how about yggdrasil's benefit versus the gungnir, which is also described as bitperfect?

 

[Music Alchemist]

  how about yggdrasil's benefit versus the gungnir, which is also described as bitperfect?

 
Just a thought: pretty much all the music player programs are bit-perfect, yet some of them sound quite different from each other. Some even have "engines" you can choose to tweak the sound, which do not apply any equalization and are all bit-perfect, but alter the timing of data and how your computer processes and so on function.
 
Also, I thought Schiit actually described the Yggdrasil as the world's first truly bit-perfect DAC or something to that effect.