New Yggdrasil - First (and second) Impressions

I have the Yggy and Wyred 4 Sound DSD DAC2 SE V2.  I think the Oppo uses the same chip as the W4S  The Yggy and W4S sound different as night and day just in the way you would think.  the Yggy is smoother but less detailed.  The Yggy sounds best on Redbook, the W4S excels on hi rez especially DSD.  Over the last year I have gone back and forth about selling one or the other.  I am keeping both because the are so different and depending on the digital file or my mood I make it exciting or mellow.  And Hi Rez is different form Redbook.  The W4S has a half dozen filters to choose from, basically choose your poison; pre ringing vs phase timing errors.  The Yggy doesnt give a choice, I dont know what they did but it seems the Yggy says no to any pre ringing and at the same time they did something to reduce the timing problems more than the W4S but at the expense of some detail and being a bit rolled off on both ends.
4wiw  it took the Yggy over 300 hours to break in and you wont have a clue how good the Yggy can sound without really good power conditioning and cables in and out.  I could not get the COAX or Optical to sound decent, I dont have the option to use AES/EBU.  I use USB with a Curious cable and have both the regen and recovery with LPS's.  I recently changed to Wireworld silver eclipse 7 XLR 's from BlueJeans XLR-  Initially I bought one set thinking it could be a likely waste of money, I now have a set on each DAC, cant and wont ever go back.  I wont go into the power conditioning except to say it is as or more important than cabling.  At the end of the day these DAC's have very different voicing in my system.

My philosophy is if there is not at least a tiny bit of sound improvement ( whatever you consider an improvement) when you first use, breaking in is not going to make things better for you.

@aberyclark

I agree. However, as I've reported, I now do and have been hearing a distinct difference. I don't believe it was on account of break in. Instead, I wasn't using the optimal type of music to discern a difference and I wasn't necessarily aware of what to listen for. It's night and day. Delta-sigma from my Oppo and Emotiva sound great, but the multibit from the Yggy makes then sound digital by comparison.


@anzaanimalclinic

The Yggy can do PCM up to 24/192 for all inputs, and 24/192 is certainly hi rez. I do not believe the Yggy "rolls" off on any end. Also, the Wyred 4 sound is using an older ESS 9018 chip and my Oppo has the latest ESS 9038. I'm no longer interested to listening to the Sabre chip as I prefer the Yggy, however, I agree that preference and not merely better or worse can guide that decision.

I heard the Oppo UDP 205 yesterday and in no way does it sound like the Yggdrasil. In fact I would prefer my Marantz SA15s2 I had to it in sound every way being a different purpose piece. I don't care for ESS chips configurations. The Oppo is a great machine for what it is. Mostly for Home Theater applications which I'm not into or use at all. All are personal decisions on what you would like to hear and where you use it. All these micro descriptions between equipment gets tiresome, don't like don't buy it.

All are personal decisions on what you would like to hear and where you use it. All these micro descriptions between equipment gets tiresome, don't like don't buy it.

@bacobits1 

I agree in principal with what you are stating. However, often is the case that one must purchase (or commit something) in order to make a decision as to whether or not you like a product or not. Further, and perhaps more importantly, the micro differences in this hobby (between equipment), although subtle and not without diminishing returns at the higher levels, are sought after nevertheless.

If you don’t hear any difference returned it back !
It happened to me in the past and I returned the dac to my dealer with no regrets and didn’t use dac anymore , however 3 years ago I bought the McIntosh d100 and wowwwww the effect was huge the dynamics are vicious, many new details that couldn’t hear before appeared suddenly, huge soundstage, great seperation between instruments and everything is more natural really remarkable dac.
I strongly recommend you try other dacs till you find what you are looking for.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of synergy between components maybe this the Yggdrasil is not what your system need .Or maybe your system is fine as it is and you don't need a dac at all .