depends on the other equipment. a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link...

I'm pretty happy with mine too.

I use a custom built computer running ROON as a source, with an external battery power source, and selectable internal or external femtosecond re-clocking. I set it to external, and have it connected to the Gustard via a Carbon Black USB cable, and the Gustard to the Schiit with a high-end digital-optimized XLR. The Schiit feeds into my Manley Jumbo Shrimp pre-amp, via Silnote RCA interconnects, and the same from the Manley to my Conrad-Johnson Premier 140 (running 8 Tungsol KT-120s, and some very nice NoS Telefunken input and driver tubes). The CJ is powering a pair of custom built tower speakers, incorporating 4 Purifi 6.5" woofers each, with the top 2 in each speaker in an MTM alignment with a high-end ScanSpeak tweeter with a custom waveguide I ordered from Joe in Australia (it you know him, you know him), all recessed. I'm using the new $1500 Silnote speaker cables (I don't recall the model). I've got a pair of the SVS SB-4000s for when I use the system for TV and movies., with each sub in LFE mode, which functions like mono, but each sub gets the left or right channel directly from the second RCA out from the Manley. I haven't been able to find anything that sounds better than the Yggy via the Gustard. It's...magnificent!

Two Dacs?

Can you explain this more?

@@jon4715 he means to use one pair of cables for the right and another cable for the left. So an RCA cable for each side. So 4 cables into 4 inputs in totall. 2x left and 2x Right Unsure if this would work though as it would only use lme input at a time presumably.

John Ratcliffe because it's really expensive

FrostyP Everyone's finances are different and I am making no assumptions, but in audiophile terms, the Yggdrasil is cheap for such a high performance item.

I concur; it was a stretch for me to get a Schiit Yggdrasil for $2300, a lot of money. It turned out to be one of the best bang for the buck purchases ever.

There isn’t a huge audience of people willing to spend this kind of money on a standalone DAC. In fact, many will be turned off by someone trying to fairly review such a high end niche product.

Vinyl doesn't necessarily sound better than digital

It was like that on Head-Fi with a couple of the extremely popular products. I think that there has been so much discussion online that it was unnecessary. AFAIK Schiit only sent out a couple of units to magazine reviewers. Everyone else just bought one.

Thanks for taking the time to reply - it's appreciated.

Out of curiosity, do you still rate the Yggdrasil? Trying to decide between it and the new Metrum Onyx and it's not an easy choice...

Maybe because it cost $2,400! I don't have that kind of money to spend on a DAC, and I'm sure most people don't either.

So would I, with speakers and Utopia headphones.

i see the adam's artist series nearfields there..aren't near fields pretty great...you don't have to worry as much about room treatment as you do as with reg hi fi speakers (i'm not a mixer so don't care about room treatments)...i'm using my Focal Alpha 50 nearfields and love them. www.cnet.com/news/leave-it-to-the-french-to-kick-the-sound-of-desktopcomputer-speakers-up-a-notch/ ..is hard for me to actually go back to headphones, now that 've mostly listening at my desktop on my nearfields setup (focals, roon, microrendu, lps power supply, ifi micro idsd, tidal)...something about that wider sound of speakers that trumps headphones (at least to me).

If you read SBAF, you can see something similar, but end of the day it still comes down to one person's subjective impressions. The original Hugo was slammed by a horde of people who hadnt even heard it on the basis of a single Head-Fiers opinion : I'm all for contrasting opinions but not when they're taken as gospel by people who are convinced that anything over $500 *must* be overpriced and overhyped. Forget the hours Rob Watts and the team at Chord put into the design .....

Mustn’t forget the Denafrips Terminator, too!

Buying a great DAC for very heavily distorted music indeed I reckon is a waste of money, so I reckon it would depend on the quality of the individual album. For example, I remember some recent Metallica is very heavily compressed to the point of distortion, so that wouldn't be so fun. Some very old-school metal is available as a high-quality master, so with a good DAC (and amp and headphones) you can get the most out the guitar playing.

I'm planning to, yes.

I'll save you 3 minutes. It's well above what you can actually afford.

@@Microwave414 Stop wasting time man.

The DAVE was a distinct step up, but I had the best results with it when I was listening with the HD800 direct, and lost a bit of that through the Studio Six. The DAVE would give me a physical reaction, as if the music had gotten into my blood, much like you feel at a live performance. It was something else altogether. The problem with the DAVE is that you'd want only the best gear to go with it, and if headphones, the Utopias didn't drive from it as well as from my Studio Six (or a couple of other amps I've tried) so, amazing as it was, I don't believe it would be easy to get the most out of it.

I'm sorry but I don't understand... are you saying that Utopias are not good enough for DAVE or vice versa?

Adam Dabrowski Yep, Stax is better

Black Hole, that's not what I asked...

Schiit Audio's Yggdrasil is it better then Hugo tt and hugo 2?

No. Would be indeed be interesting though.

The newest version of Gumby is said to sound similar to the original version of Yggy

The rambling is appreciated! I was thinking the other day about the number of words I've read online for years but have never heard, so my pronunciation of may be wrong. I have only heard Quad 57s briefly in a second-hand store here, and the set-up wouldn't have been ideal. I hope one day to hear them in a proper set-up. There was a pair of Apogee ribbons in a second-hand store here for over a year, but I had no space for them and my wife would have been displeased to say the least if I had bought them, let alone an amp strong enough to power them. Now I actually have space for speakers I have been scratching my head about what I might get.

Martin D A Depend on what you need.

Your statement is not even remotely "annoying." ANYONE with a pair of Quad 57s is light years ahead of ANY headphones. Besides which, setup is critical, and people who are stacking components on top of each other are NOT hearing the Yggdrasil at its best. (Actually, they're not even hearing their OWN system at its best). ALL components vibrate (although some less than others), so putting one on top of another is increasing vibration - and LOSING information. I wrote audio reviews for years, and knew that components needed to be situated on footers/platforms or whatever rack could kill off vibrations. I still experiment with MDF board, versus 1/2" thick steel. I appreciate this review, but what I appreciate most of all is that this gentleman knows what an actual piano sounds like. So many people do not know what a bassoon, or glockenspiel, or a Steinway sound like, so all they can do is compare components. I wish more people heard live instruments for a REAL comparison, but I don't know that that will ever happen. It's too "inconvenient" to go listen to actual live, unamplified music. The Quad is a killer speaker: it'll show anything's flaws immediately! Thanks for the comment.

Depends what DAC. There are models ranging from

Thank You man for your honest objective response I do listen lots of acoustical music so it will be beneficial for me. ( I've always felt more advanced DAC reveal it's superiority on actual musical instruments which performed live in studio recordings ( electronic music edm rap - hip hop pop music most modern music less affected by this because this type of music already produced & made in computers digitally by software so with they origin no matter is your DAC always sound more with digital emphasis ) Most of DSD SACD releases actually Jazz, folk, classical, or old rock music in which you could perceive difference because instruments played live actually by humans not synthetic as most of modern music.

See my review of the R28, which contains an R1 DAC: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/orlyd5SEnsq8qnk.html

I'm overdue to do it, indeed.

I haven't tried all the USB converters, but my impressions and it seems the impressions of others suggest that better results can be had using the S/PDIF or AES input from one of the more recent high-quality converters or network streamers.

We have Gungnir Multibit and we are using an Ideon Reclocker MKII - incredible improvement!!!

Thanks for the suggestion. It's mostly a search for the best set-up for everything, and deciding at what point that things are "good enough".

Can you share specifically how you go from your computer USB to the Yggdrasil? which actual input you use, and the devices in between?

I guess I'm specifically curious about the WaveIO as I am not finding obvious links online for building one... perhaps I'm not deep into the digital audio forums enough!

You just buy one, find a box that fits it, and hook it up. Best results from these converters will be if you have a good power supply. Something like this: iFi iUSB 3.0 > WaveIO > DAC. However now the Yggy comes with the Gen 5 USB, you don't need anything like this any more from the tests I've done.

Both Mike and Jason do not like toroidal transformers for a variety of reasons. See: www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up.701900/page-1017#post-13105367 www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up.701900/page-1025#post-13110876

Bullshit just manufacturers want to get as much profit as possible. Chord for example have great dac design, but power and usb implementations is below average. This chip least important thing, but Chord bullshit anyone that Fgpa chip is only thing needed in dac...

The Wyrd has no effect with these DACs. The Eitr on the other hand... that's something I reckon I need to get.

If I recall what Jason said, it has to do with routing of the power lines to the front causing issues he didn't want to deal with in the components.

Currawong strange that they don’t use any remote triggers then, would be perfect for their dacs/amps/etc

Thanks. When I was going to buy the chair, I saw someone had made a headrest for it. As I was replacing a full-sized chair which I wanted to relax in, I definitely wanted the headrest.

Second-hand Mojo.

It has some pretty serious processing power in it, with software based on 30 years of development work. But between the three ~$2.5k DACs I have here it's a pretty close call. The Yggy has had some silent upgrades apparently, alongside the better USB.

If I were to get a DAC, I'd save up for the Chord Blu2/DAVE combo, and a good speaker rig. But for most people the $2k DACs are going to be better than the rest of the gear they are using.

Currawong What is the best dac? (to price of 2000 dollars).

@@Currawong Is the Schiit Ragnarok 1 comparable to the Audio GD Master 9 in terms of performance (with headphone- for example Focal Clear)? Thank you

I also have the Wadia di322...funny, i don't find many people who has one :-)

I owned the Chord Mojo before with the Ether C 1.1s and while that was great, the Mjolnir 2 is a pretty good amp under 1k which I'm running now. Good synergy. The Eddie Current Black Widow might be even better but would have to find one used to get it under 1k.

I can only say that the last integrated I heard was a Denon and I really didn't like it.

Thanks...Did you notice a difference in balanced and non balanced?

I haven't tried with the same amp, but no, I haven't.

I probably wont be reviewing any Questyle gear, at least for now. I have a considerable list of stuff I want or need to review first. Thanks for the suggestion though.

It's a 6.3mm to 4-pin XLR adaptor.

It varies, but www.headphone-earphone.reviews/about/ is mostly up-to-date.

Have you seen my Hugo 2 review? However the Yggdrasil has been updated by Schiit, so if I get the upgrades, I'll do a second review.

Probably it was the Singxer F1. It's redundant now with the new Gen 5 USB.

@@Currawong Thank you for the info!

No, there was a specific reason Jason posted online, to do with the positioning of the components and added problems and expense of setting it up on the front. It does sound best left on all the time though.

It's designed to be on 24/7, so just don't shut it off. 40w is minimal power draw.

No cheap rubbish that has a high failure rate, thanks. :)

what are you referring to? did you have a unit that broke did you?

People I know have. Also, it's well-known that companies in China will deliberately design products to measure well with standard measurements. We don't listen to sweeps and tones though.

I tried reading your comment, but couldn't understand with all the misspellings.

ADAM ARTist 3s. I really need a subwoofer to go with them.

Thank you!

joker mixedabitRepubpower45 I am considering it . Are you happy with it ?

I did. Try watching one of my recent reviews.

What specifically don't you understand?

your English accent is clear to me, however, it may be that you speak rather fast

Steve Jones his English is just fine. Ever tried talking to a Scot?