DENAFRIPS Terminator and Schiit Yggdrasil Evaluation and Comparison

David_ten
Thanks for your well written and carefully thought out comparison
of these two great DACs. FWIW I had the good fortune to hear
the Terminator in Singapore in an absolutely fantastic system
comprised of Shindo amps and old Pioneer horns that was unfortunately so different than my set up I couldn’t really determine
what was contributing what to the great sound I was hearing. 
I bought an Yggy because it cost half of what the Terminator cost. I was fortunate to receive one of the first
units with the Gen V USB and the new analog board. I’m very
happy with the Yggy as it’s clearly better IMO than the Ayre QB9 DSD it replaced. It is not as good as my friend’s Nagra Classic which
retails for roughly 6 times more, and I can’t speak to the effect of the new analog output stage.  Even though I’ve heard both DACs,
I haven’t heard the Terminator in my system. (CJ GAT PR 12s B&W
Sig 30s ultraRendu)  PM me or email me at robicek747@aol.com if you’d like to chat further. 
Enjoy the Music 
R

Hi David.

Terrific review. And thank you!

Question. You mention "....with respect to the Yggdrasil. One very surprising aspect was a light haziness or grayness that I had not picked up nor realized prior to having the Terminator in system."

For clarification, I suspect your Yggdrasil is the analog "A" serial number (version), correct? Reason I ask is that by all user accounts thus far, the analog "B" serial number (version) is known/believed to rid the Yggdrasil of this "grayness" and replace it with "blackness".

Admittedly though, given your overwhelming praise for the Terminator, I wouldn’t think that even if you have the Yggy analog B your conclusion would be any different.

As mentioned before that was a great review and only confirmed my suspicions.. One only need look at the hefty power supplies underneath the main boards staring from the pontus and up to realize these are quality units...

Being an Yggdrasil owner myself I’d like to see some direct comparison between yggy and pontus or Venus as they are more in my price range...

The Denafrips DACs for there complexity  are priced very reasonably no doubt taking full advantage of cheap Chinese labour...

Again thanks for the review...

@cjlover   @gdhal  @zoophaugus   Thank you for your kind words!  Also nice to hear that you liked reading it and that it may have been helpful. 

As stated upfront in the comparison, I have the A board in the Yggy. I cannot imagine Mike and Jason implementing the B board if it didn't perform better than the previous one. I'm waiting for more owner feedback before going forward with it because it is a ~$600 (including shipping) cost to me. Once I get it installed and in system, I will post an update. [@ Hal : I'm hopeful that the finding you pointed to, in your post, will be a non issue or much less of one.]

I've had the DENAFRIPS Terminator feeding the T+A PA 3100 HV (on loan) for a number of days now and one standout finding with this pairing within my system, for lack of a better descriptor (and understanding) at this point in time, is "The Absence of a Black Background." The best way to describe it is that the space is Completely Clear, which to me is a major difference in perception than 'Black.' With the Pass Separates I still perceive the background as black. Just another twist in findings due to components and system synergy.

Update on the AXPONA Denafrips demo.  The Venus is in the house (thank you Alvin) and I was able to set it up to play in parallel with the Terminator.
I can do real-time switching between the two for comparison so the demo will work.  Having all four models in the chain will take a little more coordination but it should work fine.
I am expecting the Pontus and Ares soon.
Vinh Vu
Gingko Audio and Danacable