Life after Yggdrasil: Watering the Ash

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Torq, Mar 1, 2017.

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  1. Azteca

    Azteca Friend

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    The audio equivalent of a "scared straight" program.
    "I listened to strangers on Head-fi telling me this sounded good. Next thing I knew I was listening to Grados!"
     
  2. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    Maybe if you stuck a couple of actual burritos in your ears ahead of trying to listen to it you might fare better.

    Just make sure you get them jammed in there good and tight.
     
  3. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I've finally gotten around to starting to add some of the albums and classical works that I use as part of this audition process. The list is by no means complete yet, I'm just poking at it for now. That list is maintained here.
     
  4. neogeosnk

    neogeosnk Friend

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    You didn't burn it in for 1000 hours, blasphemy!
     
  5. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I did not.

    Nor did I run it with ten different flavors of unobtanium cables, feed it with a daisy-chain of overpriced USB or other interface fuckwittery, re-cable my house with heavy-gauge solid-silver wiring, suspend it on feet costing more, individually, than the DAC itself, run it in a Faraday cage, turn off the fridge, put rings of copper wire around one leg of each of my tables and chairs, coat the edges of any CDs involved* with magic green ink, burn any candles/incense, re-arrange the plants on the deck, or fiddle with specific versions/flavors of player software.

    There were also no human sacrifices, virgin or otherwise**.

    --

    *There were none.
    **However, my own aural purity has been viciously assaulted.
     
  6. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    [​IMG]

    You forgot the right dance.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yggdrasil renders the soundstage upfront. You are sitting in row five. This tends to present a greater problem to headphone listeners with some solid state amps.

    The stage can be pushed back with tubes in the chain or other gear that renders the soundsound farther back.

    The Yggdrasil / Gungnir Multibit haze is relative. Compared to Holo or PWD2 DACs, there is a bit of haze, lack of inky jet black background.

    Putting tubes on the chain does not eliminate the haze. The best solution is to bypass the FET output stage, or modify the FET output stage with selective removal of a ton parts and jumpering of some points.
     
  8. MisterRogers

    MisterRogers Ethernet Nervosa

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    So why bother if you're not evening going to try :)
     
  9. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Yep. All over attitude problem. He didn't want to listen to thing in the first place!

    (IIRC from another thread or profile post?)

    It sounded horrible before he even plugged it in. Or else... It sounded horrible before he even plugged it in. Anyway. :)
     
  10. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    Pack of bastards ... ;)
     
  11. DigitalMaven

    DigitalMaven Acquaintance

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    Wow...just read parts of your review. Do you think my bifrost 4490 (Made in america for $399) sounds much better than made in china for $800. I've seen their website and they seem to care about manufacturing at a quality standard. Could there be defective parts in your unit? It sounds like they test it before shipping out so I'm wondering if they have some deaf senile person doing the testing!
     
  12. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    Are you referring to the Singularity 19 "review"?

    I'll assume so for the following responses, though your post, and my response, should probably be moved to the Singularity 19 impressions thread.

    Bifrost 4490 crucifies the Singularity S19. But you don't need to go that far. Literally any competent DAC will, in my opinion, yield a better, more enjoyable result. A standard Modi 2 will make very short work of this particular Audio-GD unit when it comes to enjoying music through it.

    Could there be?

    Sure.

    It's also equally possible that this is the best sample they've ever produced.

    I'm inclined to think the unit is operating just fine and what we're hearing is down to either how it's tuned, or the unit being at one end of the tolerance limits (hard to say which without other units on hand to compare to - and that's really the manufacturer's problem), which makes its performance simply a product of normal sample variation and it's design. Sample variation does not indicate a defect ... it's something you either account for properly in your design or it's the design that is defective.

    And, again, this copy might be the pinnacle of their output in that regard and other units could sounds worse (I'd say "easily sound worse" but it wouldn't be that easy).

    So, no, I don't believe it's faulty.
     
  13. Dino

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    Maybe we should buy another one (or several more) for @Torq to give a thorough listen. :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2017
  14. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    My next DAC review is going to be a turntable ...
     
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  15. DigitalMaven

    DigitalMaven Acquaintance

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    I guess we have two choices...this is a state sponsored enterprise where they can only build with cheap Chinese parts or the owner of this company is committing some kind of international fraud scheme to pocket mega dollars before disappearing. Have you contacted them concerning the sound quality and do they allow returns. If they don't allow returns I vote that we have someone see if they can actually figure out a way to improve or repair the unit. If you don't want to do that I'm curious if Jason Stoddard might be interested in checking the unit out and give his synopsis of what went wrong!
     
  16. frenchbat

    frenchbat Almost "Made"

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    I'm not so sure Schiit would be happy with troubleshooting someone else's mess. I bet they have enough work on their hands already.

    Kingwa is known for being partial to his work, including making designs that can kill dacs' output stages, and I also doubt he would actually take lightly some other manufacturers' lecturing him.
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2017
  17. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    Or ... VASTLY more likely ... it's just a weak product resulting from either questionable design/implementation decisions or poorly done tuning.

    No, I haven't.

    Nor am I going to.

    This is the product they chose to ship after 100 hours of burn-in and test (according to their site). Sending it back, citing poor performance, is going to, at best, result in more of the same and, at worst, result in a cherry-picked "review sample". In either case, we don't learn anything other than that there is a huge range of potential performance variation (which would still indicate a poor product).

    To change my feelings on this unit would require, at this point, several randomly acquired units, all from regular customers, that exhibited markedly improved performance (both measure and audible). A single unit from the manufacturer ... well now we'd have one "good" unit and one "bad" unit ... so a 50/50 chance that what you'd buy would still suck.

    The unit doesn't sound broken. It just sounds lousy. It's not the first. I won't be the last. Right now it IS the worst.

    I vote that's you.

    If I was going to expend that energy, it would be to further my own goals not those of a company peddling shit like this at premium prices.

    I'm 10,000% sure that Jason, or anyone else in his position, wouldn't want anything to do with it.

    The unit is either poorly tuned, a shitty design, didn't take into account the extremes of parts-tolerance variance, or, like @Marvey suggested, they got a bad batch of parts. But even if that IS the case, it's still their problem and casts a very poor light on their 100 hours of burn-in and test.
     
  18. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Woah! The ear and brain adjust. Doesn't sound like this is something anywould would want to adjust to. Might reuslt in permanent hearing disability!:eek:
    Would you do that? As an ordinary buyer? I wouldn't. "Take this back, it's rubbish," is as far as I would go. This is not a company sharing a prototype: that would be a different thing altogether.
    He has made some good things, hasn't he? Or is it just that he has made stuff that some people like.

    But... surely time to draw a line and let @Torq move on the next one...
     
  19. frenchbat

    frenchbat Almost "Made"

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    Thad, he surely made some decent stuff at some point. Else he wouldn't be in the position he is in. But he also took some seriously fucked up decision, leading to real risk for the rest of the user's gear.

    Is he entitled to leading his business the way he intends to? Yes absolutely. But he shouldn't be surprised to see some back fire coming his way.
     
  20. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    Call yourself a reviewer? For shame! We need detail.. what sort of shit is it?
     

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