New Yggdrasil - First (and second) Impressions

Hi @elizabeth 

I wouldn't have suspected you listen to grungy rock music :) 

Seriously though, if you're in the market for a DAC and giving the Yggdrasil consideration, I would recommend it. Particularly if redbook PCM is your sole or primary source. Compared to other DACs I consider it good value (price/quality/performance), but of course there are plenty of other alternatives in the $2400 range. Schiit does allow a 15 day return policy. And while I'm not a big fan of their "support" model, I have had enough dialog with them and positive outcome to give them a thumbs up even in this regard. 

Here are some other sites you might find helpful

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/schiit-yggdrasil-impressions-thread.766347/

http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/yggdrasil-refined-new-schiit-yggdrasil-analog...

If there is something more specific you would like me to answer, by all means, ask away.

Gdhal in less than 24hrs, I will listen to four denafrips, and yaggy , border patrol, and Metrum onyx....can’t better than this...they will all be in Axpona....2018

@jayctoy 

I know :) I've read your post(s) in David's Denafrips owners thread. I look forward to reading your (and other) impressions, take away, etc.  I've had a look at the exhibitors, http://www.axpona.com/exhibitors.asp and this is obviously a rather worthwhile and comprehensive event. And the price for the three day pass ($50 if bought online) is also very reasonable. I can only extend the proverbial "have a nice time" :)

I hve been thinking about buying a Ygg..
Some comments about this thread.
I had, years back bought a $2,400 DAC, highly praised by both Stereophile and TAS.
I returned it as it sounded no better than my old (bought for $250) Adcom DA700.
Up to now, I still use the Adcom.
But I had a chance to try a Marantz SA10 ($7000) for a few day at home.
The Marantz converrts CD data to DSD and decodes it as DSD.
I used another CD player via Toslink and found with this Marantz I could readily hear a difference, mainly in the treble. which with the Marantz is clean and lacking any digital haze. Grungy Rock music vocals are more distinct
I wish I had a chance to compare the Ygg with the Marantz!
(One could buy two or three Ygg with the cash the Marantz costs.

@elizabeth I own both the Marantz NA-11S1 and the original Yggy.  Marantz's digital reference series equipment is very underrated from my experience.  Too further that thought, I find it interesting that the NA-11S1 still sells new for exactly the same price it did when I bought it 5 years ago, and I don't believe they've updated it hardware-wise, and mine has the same software updates which it receives fairly regularly.  The used prices have remained constant at $2200 for years (just below a new Yggy).  I've had 2 to 3 quality issues with my Marantz, and it currently doesn't seem to have an effective USB input, which I'm not going to bother sending in for a 3rd time at this point (I'm out of warranty I think).  Ironically, my Iggy had issues on all inputs as well (all inputs aside from USB didn't work when it arrived day-1), and also made a round trip for repairs--twice.  I want to be sure to point that out, as I don't consider myself a "fanboy" of either brand at this point, even though I love the sound of both of their "top" DACs.

I replaced the Marantz with the Yggy, and moved the Marantz to my second system, where right now I don't feed it directly via USB (since it's again not working), but rather wireless as a Roon endpoint (which all still works).  It still sounds fantastic.  The Yggy, however, is a little stronger...most notably in the soundstage and "air" and general "big sound."  I always found the Marantz gear to be a little more reserved (I had their now-discontinued reference pre-amp for a while which I felt was very musical as you would want, but a tad "reserved").  I would rate almost all other qualities as equal, aside from soundstage, which I found a tad bigger on the Yggy regularly.

The Yggy definitely takes 300-400 hours to sound it's best, per previous posts on this thread.  Rather than wait in line for an upgrade and then be without it for awhile, I've ordered a new V2 with the new analog output...not looking forward to those weeks of new burn in, but they will certainly be required.  They were required with my last 2 USB board changes alone.

In short, if you like the Marantz sound (which i think anyone who heard it would), you will like the Yggy sound at least as well...but because of the required burn-in you won't hear the best of it in the 2 week review period unfortunately.  Sonically it is a slightly more capable DAC by my 1-person assessment, if you don't care as much about DSD and Airplay/Roon endpoint features that the Marantz can do, which the Yggy obviously cannot.

BTW, I've demo'd a well-reviewed $15K DAC recently (wanting VERY much to love it), and while there were things about it that were better than the Yggy, all else equal, there were some things I liked less (not withstanding the 5x cost).  Since then, I've instead made about $5K of improvements in front of the Yggy, and the Yggy continues to rise to the level of the equipment before and after it.  Most of my equipment is $15-20K pieces, and yet the Yggy is still holding its own amongst gear that good and that expensive (which is not the same thing).  I know others on this forum have similarly researched and expensed systems which also still have the Yggy as one of the least expensive pieces in the chain.  It will take a lot of $ to handily beat it, so far anyway.  How much will be system- and preference-dependent.

I should add, I have not heard the SA-10...I'm only presuming it has a similar DAC/analog stage to the NA-11S1 with the added transport in the same box, and added cost.  I neither assume it to sound better as a stand-alone DAC, nor worse.  That's 100% speculation.