Yggdrasil Refined - New Schiit Yggdrasil Analog 2 (Yggdrasil A2) Sound Impressions

I'll take a look, thanks for the recommendation. Convert-2 is the fastest, cleanest DAC I have ever heard. Every other DAC I've compared against just sounds muddy, slower and groggy. There's no going back man LOL. I guess, as Psalm says, I like a more "Hi-Fi" sterilizing (i.e. cleaner) sound that gives me the clarity I crave. I bought some new monitors recently so I can upgrade from my Playskool piano sound as atomicbob posted.

 

Having listened with the setup Digigram VX222HR->AES->Yggdrasil the whole evening yesterday I come to understand what you guys meant with muddiness. Like this the Yggdrasil sounds so much clearer compared to SPDIF coax or USB but the sound is definately not harsh. It simply sounds more lifelike or alive. MJs "Don't stop till you get enough" made me want to dance.
If you want to experience a real muddy DAC try the iFi iDAC2. I had this one for 4 years before I bought the Yggdrasil. I kept it for so long because German Hifi Forum members made me believe that all DACs sound the same :/
The sound was bothering me as it was completely lifeless. These Burr Brown DAC chips have a good reputation but the iFi only suits people who like a sound endlessly smooth.

 

Ouch. iFi themselves claim iDAC2 is their best DAC in line before the iDSD Pro.

 

There are even people on Headfi who claim that the iDAC2 sounds harsh. I did not get anything like that in my system. I got ultra-smooth and boring sound. Btw. it's only input is USB and it is USB powered too. No external power supply. That might cause different sound in different systems, not sure.

 

If Schiit does a new revision to their analog boards, I hope they ditch the summing stage as the single ended takes a nosedive in clarity and covers the entire audio range in a hazy blanket. Much greyer background compared to the blacker Modi Mulitibit.

 

They either don't have resolving enough downstream components or shitty recordings or ain't critical listeners or deaf or just repeating hearsay (most likely). It's clear as day how different the Multibit stuff sounds vs delta sigma with my HD650. Even the Multibit DACs themselves all sound different from each other. Good way to filter out people you can't trust.

 

The tone isn’t that hifi. Hifi usually means unclean midranges, v shaped, one note bass, and other stuff like that. The Yggdrasil is more tonally hifi. The Convert 2 is sound goodizer hifi and has better imaging than the Yggdrasil probably due to its clock and beefy analog design wit the op2134 And that buffers that also make it a sound goodizer.

Other dacs are “sheen” hifi like Apogee, which does stuff to the air more like the actual Soundgoodizer plugin but way more subtle. Apogee is also soft.

I gotta say the Dangerous dacs are the only “mud cleaners” that sound BEEFY. Lynx also takes away some mud but not as much, is still somewhat punchy, and is less detailed.

A lot of highly praised and well regarded (by idiots, deaf people people who don’t care, and people recording stuff like shitty modern pop, shitty modern classical, etc) converters will strip out the mud, make the sound wimpy, and make it 2d. They suck and are sound baddizers. I am always surprised by how bad RME and UAD are. I’ve heard files run through the hyped Merging and Crane Song ADCs and wasn’t too impressed. I’d rather drop $$$$ on something I feel sounds good or that does something cool like the Lavry, Burl, or JCF stuff. It’s not like you have to use it for everything. To hell with vegetarian converters.

 

Vegetarian and vegan converters are like going to an expensive restaurant to pay forty bucks for a salad. Yes, it will taste worse than a bag of spinach with some dressing on it.

 

I was hoping you'd point out which DAC is a soy converter and maybe throw in a food pyramid of DACs.

I like my beef rare with a zing from cracked pepper. It's probably unlikely I'll see an aged well marbled ribeye steak Convert-2 that's under $3k. Wagyu beef DACs are simply out of my price range.

 

I've picked up on that trait. In Filter's "Hey Man Nice Shot" right at the chorus the loud guitars get boosted up, when on other DACs it's on the same plane as everything else. This loudness boost on guitars is just killer for rock music.

purr1n, do delta sigma DACs slam more than any R2R stuff you've heard? I'm curious why that is, if so.

 

What you describe woud be the effect of an expander in pro audio. An upward expander makes louder parts louder and leaves the softer sounds as they are and a downward expander makes softer sounds even softer and leaves the louder ones as they are. Basically it is the opposite of a compressor, which brings the amplitudes of softer and louder sounds closer to each other. I frequently read that music nowdays tends to be over-compressed in the mastering process. A little bit of expansion in the audio chain could help to get some of the original dynamics back but mostly it comes with a loss of fine details. That might be the case with the Convert 2.

 

This. I like my dac1541 at work with dynamically mild music that helps me concentrate (minimalism FTW). When my Yggdrasil went to Schiit for A2 I used the dac1541 for my then speaker system and it was less engaging for exactly that reason.

 

I agree with you on the Dangerous convert transients. Them switching to a less to a less murky chip (TI/BB and ancient AD chips are murky) and getting a sick clock kinda revealed the limits of the analog design. The Convert 2 has a bit of a 33609 type transient slammer effect where it lets the transients though, increasing punch, but clamps down on everything after but no distortion. Think a transient maximizer thing like SPL Transient Designer but with a clean compressor with no makeup gain after. It sounds good. You'd have to imprint the DA onto the mix though and the treble detail just isn't there even compared to the workman like MOTU AVB Sabres.

yeah unfortunately nobody is making an AD1955 or ESS 9038 Pro with those parts, a beefy power supply, and a great clock. Apogee makes the most detailed Sabre implementation right now in the upgrade card for the Symphony II but it's only a 9028 Pro with OPA1642 opamp output stages and a really good implementation of everything else. The output stage leads to the warmth and softness while the Apogee filter and clocking, the detail. The Apogee Sabres (Duet ,Quartet, etc) older than the most recent stuff (Symphonies, Elements, the current Ensemble) have some digititus compared to the current ones and Apogee pre Apple Store BS. The current one doesn't have as soft treble but keeps the low end warmth and apogee air sheen. Kinda like a Prism but not brit-fi dry and the low end is deep warm instead of punchy, compressed phat warmth. I kinda want to try the new Symphony desktop if the USB drivers are good.

MOTU AVB Sabres beat down all the Apogee for tone and all but the new Symphony for detail with ESS 9016S and LME49724 used for everything DA. It's probably the closest analogly to what you want in the last paragraph. The bass and treble are far better but the Apogee has a less soft midrange. Probably due to clocking but the overall tone of the MOTU is more accurate while still being warm.

I don't know about mixing into the Solaris. It seems to be an awesome DAC for finding problems (the thin tone ,wide staging, clean treble) but for mixing into, I don't know. You might overemphasize transients and not use compression where it's necessary. Mixing into a Convert 2, you might misjudge compression. My MOTU was easily an upgrade from the Source. If I used Macs, I would just go Apogee or maybe Metric Halo when they get the 3d drivers in order no questions. Best pres in any interfaces by far. Prism might be cleaner tonally but it is BRITISH and their filters have the cleanest and clearest treble ever but the bass is PHAT and treble DRY and the level of presented detail can't compete with the Sabres and the cohesion isn't there like the AD1955 based DACs and the pres only have a normal amount of gain. America f**k yeah! To hell with chi-fi.

 

I remember ... was it Marv ... mentioning they thought the soekris did best with headphones but didn't equal the schiit offerings on 2ch.

Having tried B2 and 1421 against one another I agree, I'm very happy with the 1421 feeding the Makoyi at work, but it's strengths don't translate to 2ch.

 

I'm trying to decide which Yggdrasil to choose and have seen conflicting impressions about the detail of A1 Vs A2.
I think marv says A2 has more microdetail overall but Xecuter says the opposite: Yggdrasil v2 - slightly above mid-fi - but lacks v1 special sauce resolution

What's your guys opinion ?

 

I haven't compared the two directly (upgraded from Analog 1 to Analog 2 a couple years ago), but see:

• https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ssions-measurements.11391/page-5#post-358923; and
  
• https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ssions-measurements.11391/page-14#post-360712

Thread might be worth a read as there are more nuanced comparisons as well.

 

So I wasn't really sure where to put this post, as there as multiple various yggdrasil threads nowadays with all the various versions. The one I have here is a "OG"/A2 with Unison USB, so I figured this was the best thread for it.

Its been turned on for about 4 hours in total, and only had about 45 mins worth of music play through it, so please take that into account. These are just my very first impressions, and of course, will likely change over the next few days or weeks as it warms up etc...

I'm using it currently with my Boulder 866 as the amp, and my Abyss 1266TC's. I don't have any electrostats with me currently but I am waiting for a pair of Shangri-la Jr's so will be able to report back with other headphones in the future.

My primary comparison is the 866's built in DAC option, which iirc is a AD1855 based DAC. I think it's a very good DAC for a built in option, which usually suck to be honest. Has always struck me as a very neutral dac.

The first thing that struck me was there was more bass energy, in terms of level. I was surprised how much actually. Soundstage seems a bit more spacious also. The very top end is a bit more airy, and there is a bit more sparkle. The Boulders built in DAC seems more neutral, less bass, but a bit more impact and also slightly more detailed. So maybe so far it sounds a bit more V shaped than the built in DAC, but I'm also not sure I'd say its a V shaped DAC, if that makes sense. I dont think it goes as far as being v shaped. More "HIFI" sounding perhaps? Not sure.

I'll keep listening over the next while and do some more back and forths.

 

Compare today's results after a week. Some say that the Yggdrasil OG sounds best after 2 weeks burn in, but YMMV.

Does the Boulder have balanced inputs, btw?