DENAFRIPS Terminator and Schiit Yggdrasil Evaluation and Comparison

You may want to add the Ifi DSD Pro Dac at $2,500.00 to your shootout, Herb Richert from Stereophile was blown away by this little dac and felt if was in the same league as three of his reference dacs and Herb also uses the Yaggy.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/ifi-audio-pro-idsd-da-processorheadphone-amplifier-page-2

Bottom line: iFi Audio's Pro iDSD lived up to the hyperbole of its owner's manual. It did actually play music like "a 'state of the art' reference digital to analog converter." It did indeed sound like "an all-out assault" on what is possible in DACs today . . . and it did both of those good things at a ridiculously low price. Highly recommended.

Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/ifi-audio-pro-idsd-da-processorheadphone-amplifier-page-2#atGeRi...


We have never heard one but the reviews are praising this little dac as a true giant killer and no we have never heard one but are a fan of Thorsten Loesch.


The reviews out of Europe as stellar as well.

If this little $2,500 dac can stand up to $7k dacs and a few other well lauded dacs it may be even better deal then the Denfrips of the Yaggy.


Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

and for the Audio Doctor haters we are not currently selling Ifi but after reading this review we will be bringing in a sample. 

Currently I have the Ares https://www.denafrips.com/specs-ares, but digital inputs are only Coax x 2 , TOSLink x 2, and USB Combo384 Amanero which I believe was an upgrade over the old Ares which had XMOS implemented a year and a half ago. So it cannot be fed with AES /EBU, (the 2nd model up in the Denafrips departmen Pontus has AES /EBU).

As much as I like the Ares sound signature and I am enjoying it, I will be looking to seriously purchase either the Schitt Gunir or Yggydrasil depending on how my music tastes match up since the detail retrieval is substantially more revealing. 

So if I am to use my gaming laptop as a transport (Razer Blade 2017) it is a question if I am really gaining something by using the 2020 USB implementation Schitt freshly installed on new DAC or if as you say something like you have would be worth it.

The company rings a bell but they’re latest model I have not come across in any reviews when I searched modestly last year. Of course my budget was sub $1500 so perhaps that is why. However, for him to say "at a ridiculously low price of $2500" is typical audiophile writer hogwash to be taken with a grain of salt. $2500 is NOT ridiculously cheap it is reasonable though. If it matches Chord Dave’s performance than I can see how that comparison works.

Like when Absolute Sound in their testimony on the Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Series 2, mentioned "The Berkeley Audio Design Alpha DAC Series 2 would have received my highest recommendation had it cost $15,000. Yes, it sounds that good. That it sells for $4995 qualifies as a minor miracle." That is just typical salesman downplay of price phycology.

Taking an aside, I will definitely take your recommendation up and do some research on the ifi DSD Pro Dac though. $2500 is probably the most I would ever spend on a DAC even if I became a millionaire as I think that seems to be the sweet spot on the price to performance curve for anyone really serious about audio in a positive way for sound alone and not fancy appearance or exotic parts.


Does can it compare to Schitt’s Closed-Form Digital Filter solution though and how can it not be less accurate?

More importantly than ever in this evolving market does it utilize off the shelf DAC chips?

But thanks for the reply @zoophaugus. Let me know if you can answer my previous questions as I would like to know that part of the chain as I think I could gain a better understanding on the DAC upriver side of things. 

Thanks.

RE, Reggy,

The Matrix only accepts a USB input.... although I wish it also accepted an spdif signal so I could feed my CD transport into it as well...

My transport to the Matrix is a windows based laptop via a Usb cable.. My high res and standard flac files run through Jriver media and I also subscribe to Tidal. 
After trying all the various outputs of the matrix to the yggy, it is the AES/EBU  that I stay with...
Is it the best output final word? I dunno, but it works for me ...and its definitely better than usb but digital coax is close to it..

One only need look at the really high end streamers and dacs to see that they sport not 1, but 2 AES/EBU input/outputs... YES 2 , one for each channel L and R..
Being the cheapskate I am I decided to build my own streamer...as you can see those streamers can get quite expensive really fast... but they have built into them what I have as external components, a linear power supply, reclocking and delivery of a very clean signal to the DAC so that it may function at its full potential ..
How does mine compare to a high end Auralic streamer .. I dunno to be honest...but I'd like to think it should be at the very least close ...

I use a custom made AES/EBU cable (7ft long-to eliminate reflections)  from the matrix to the yggy, the yggy feeds an LS26 via balanced cables, the LS26 feeds Bryston 7B3 monoblocks via balanced cables, which power Elac speakers...