Please Recommend Transport + DAC for $5K total

gdhal: I’ve encountered a variety of opinions re: Yggdrasil. One common observation is that 15 days is an inadequate trial period, due to a very long burn-in time. What was your experience in this regard?

@stuartk

I’ll preface this reply by stating that I’d typically be considered a rebel in most everything and that includes audio/video. That said, you’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head. I too have encountered a variety of opinions regarding the burn-in time and whether or not to keep it on 24/7. And that may not just be a result of this forum, but other forums as well as feedback from electronics repair guys. PM me if you want the number to some outstanding electronics repair people in the Long Island and Manhattan NY area who can speak to burn-in and pluses/minus of leaving equipment on/off. Each scenario has advantages/disadvantages.

My experience in the 18 days or so that I’ve had the Yggy is that (a) it does NOT need to be kept on 24/7 to sound its best, (b) sounds amazing from a cold start, (c) is worthwhile breaking-in once when new and it achieves said break-in within a week, (d) 15 day trial is plenty and it probably wouldn’t take you that long to realize how incredible it is and (e) the 15 day trial is "generous" only in-so-far as the clock starts from when you sign that its been received from fedex, not when it ships.

EDIT:

Don't just take my word for it, if you're seriously interested in the Yggy, it behooves you to do two other things. (1) Email Nick at their support email address and ask questions and (2) read and or post here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-yggdrasil-impressions-thread.766347/ . The grand high exalted mystic ruler himself posts on occasion.  

rhljazz: I'm concerned about longevity, so anything described as "old" concerns me.  

stereo5: Yes; which is why I said "North America", not USA! 

auxinput: I've heard of LKS. Will look into it. This may be a stupid question, but where do I get info re: whether a given transport has "good digital clocks and linear power supply"? Reviews? 

whart: The Sim you mention is a top contender for me as a transport, too.
Never heard of Border Patrol. Will look into it. 

shadorne: I recognize, rationally, the sense of what you're saying about playback. However, the thought of scanning all my CDs sounds very unappealing. While I may have no choice in the end, I'm keeping my head in the sand for awhile longer.  

gdhal: Thanks for taking the time to provide the detailed response re: Yggy warmup, etc. I can't tell you how many times I've come across forums where Yggy owners insist the unit must be kept on all the time. 

auxinput: I meant to say I'd never heard of LKS.  

Sony x77es manufactued around 1992 still going strong.  It is used daily as a transport.  The Sony was built at a time when quality really mattered.  
So for something newer as a transport, the Cambridge CXC has received positive recognition in the U.K. Press.  The Chord Hugo and now the Hugo 2 is the go to Dac in most equipment evaluation.  The Cyrus transport is also a favorite.

On the LKS:

https://www.shenzhenaudio.com/l-k-s-audio-mh-da004-dual-es9038pro-flagship-dac-dsd-input-coaxial-bnc-aes-ebu-for-dop-usb-i2s-optical-audio-decoder.html

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/l-k-s-audio-mh-da004-dual-es9038pro-dac-van-dammes-double-impact.840938/

On the digital clock of the transport. I have tested the Jolida as a transport and it sounded very good. I would assume it has a good crystal clock for the 44.1khz sampling rate because it will only play CDs. The Cambridge CXC also has a good clock for CD, because it is designed from the ground up as a transport for ONLY CDs.

For other transports, it depends. Sometimes you can gather/assume information. For example, looking at a picture of the PS Audio Perfectwave Transport board:

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/psaudio7/board1_small.jpg

In the middle you can see what looks like two TCXO clocks (TXCO is temperature controlled). These are the yellow rectangles. Having two of them is an excellent design to support the two different sampling rate multipels. First multiple being 44.1 / 88.2 / 176.4 for CD and PCM/SACD rates. The second multiple being 48 / 96 / 192 for other PCM hi-res.

The Bryston BDP-3 is a computer motherboard that runs Linux operating system. I’m cannot be sure what clocks it runs, but I would assume it is just running the main computer CPU clock, so any SPDIF digital output has to be based on integer math compared against the computer CPU. But at least it has a full linear power supply (instead of switching power supply).

In my opinion, the Oppo players do not make a good transport for PCM audio. It uses two low grade clocks (25mhz and 27mhz I think). One is for CPU and the other is for HDMI interface. They are not good crystal clocks and are not even close to the native audio sampling rates. The CPU has to do integer math based on 27mhz to generate the 44.1khz or 48khz or whatever sampling rate output. This is okay, but not as good as a dedicated audio clock. Also, the digital board uses switching power supply so it’s double detrimental. This is okay for movie formats (dolby digital / dts) because the data is decoded and then clocked in the processor, but the Oppo just cannot play PCM as well as a really good transport. If you want to use Oppo, at least upgrade the power supply to a LPS from OPPOMOD.