IC: Yggdrasil Jason+Marv Pyrate Edition 11001B

Not at all crapping up the thread. We have good active members and moderators will help re-organize threads.

 

So let me do a quick summary. A while ago, and this was on the tail end of the AmirNAD fad (SINAD at full scale, 1kHz stimulus, 20kHz bandwidth, 100/200kHz loads for SE/BAL respectively), Jason decided to hop on board because Texas Instruments had a new DAC chip that could do up to 120db AmirNAD. It wasn't an audio chip, but the given the DSP chops of MM, Dave, and Ivana, it wouldn't be much of a problem to get audio data into the chip. The chip in question was this: https://www.ti.com/product/DAC11001A

Henceforth the Yggdrasil More is Less or MIL was born. Read about it here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...discussion-and-measurements-eventually.11932/

Basically the MIL sounded like ass. Heck, even MM said it sounded like ass. Well known people from audiophilestyle.com and audiohead.com liked the MIL the least in a three way shootout (OG/A2, LIM, MIL) at the Schittr. Jason liked it though or maybe he saw the potential.

So what gives? Do we just don't like stuff that has perfect AmirNAD? There is a good discussion about the intricacies of the MIL's measurements starting here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ue-science-and-exploration.13584/#post-411401

Turns out that while the MIL "scored" with a great AmirNAD of about 118-119db, when we looked past AmirNAD, that is past the 1kHz signal, into the higher frequencies from 8kHz and up, particularly at higher output levels, the harmonic distortion gets kind of ugly. (In hindsight, I am glad that I took and kept the the original MIL measurements)

Original MIL
THD+N vs Frequency


MIL-B
THD+N vs Frequency


NOW IN THEORY THIS SHOULD NOT MATTER!. The reason is that the 2nd harmonic of say 10kHz, is 20kHz, as we are humans cannot hear this. However, theory, or a simplistic way of looking at things won't necessarily explain everything. I suspect there is some audible transient behavior stuff reflected in those ultrasonic oddities taken with those steady state signals.

So I guess the story is that TI calls @schiit and tells him: Hey, we have this new B version that fixes the measured ultrasonic f'ery. Wanna try it out. Of course we know @schiit will not refuse, at least to try it. And thus voila, the MIL-B (or whatever it's going to be called). I asked Jason if I could borrow this because, you know, we like real science here. Actually exploring and learning new things is fun! Sticking to an old dogma is dumb (and yes, the THD+N cult has been around forever, read up on Doug Self)

I racked the MIL-B up, took some measurements to confirm the differences between the DAC11001A and DAC11001B. Took a quick listen, and I was like, hey it's pretty good. The MIL-B fixes the major issues I had with the MIL. I took a good listen to the MIL-B after two days for everything to stablize. The MIL-B retains the neutral tonality of the original and was more resolving than the LIM I was currently using. I quickly replaced the LIM with the MIL-B for gaming duties. Still, after two days, there was still a bit of grain or pricklies that could be heard in the highs (this with the Piety). Yes, I'm nitpicking. However, I communicated to Jason that the MIL-B should be considered as an offering from Schiit - because most of Schiit's DACs sound rich and creamy, like "cake" (credit: @Psalmanazar). The MIL-B would provide an counterpoint to the existing offerings. Also I know many people who work on sound in "the biz" (which is dead right now because of the strikes) prefer neutral clear sounding gear (not to be confused with lean or nasty).

So fast forward a bit, I pick up a Mjolnir 3 for myself and try out a few DACs to see which ones I preferred best, you know, the synergy thing. Turned out the DAC11001B based MIL-B was the winner. Not only that, but the MIL-B had been baking for a few weeks now. With a more resolving setup in front of me, I didn't realize how much it had changed.

My main deal was trying to get this recording, Temple of the Dog (if you guys don't know, it's early Chris Cornell with the Pearl Jam guys), to sound right. This is grunge here with a lot of overlaid guitars. While the mastering isn't bad (I think the sound is intentional), on the wrong setup, it's can be an headache with so much energy in the upper mids. The Gungnir A2, known for being upper mid-forward, was not a good match (regardless of headphone - I had RS2X, Caldera, HD600). The thing is the recording is suppose to hurt (it's supposed to be grunge in a shitty venue), that anyone who has attended such events know that the hurt shouldn't come with unnatural treble f'kery (unless the house PA system is being overdriven into clipping). The LIM sucked balls because it was too dark and not resolving enough for my taste. The MIL-B proved perfect. The final confirmation came with me using the JAR600. The JAR600 is a corrected and improved HD600, but still retains some HD600ness. Was this going to sound like nails in my ears? (FWIW, I quickly moved the MIL-B from my office to the bedroom where the Mjolnir 3 resides to avoid any downtime and need to a re-warmup).

Nope. Not only that, I realized that the MIL-B exhibited this dreamy sweet wall-o-sound or wall-o-guitars quality*. It's like being at the event with the secondhand weed smoke. WTF? This was not supposed to happen with the neutral DAC!. Wow! The MIL-B nailed it. Now more than ever, I'd really like to see the 11001B based Yggdrasil go to production. I think most people will still be pleased with whatever they are running currently (on this site it would seem to be Rockna, Holo, Schiit, the various NOS sideshows), but the MIL-B in my opinion deserves to be in the pantheon of offerings.


Panther and Pyrate are in agreement

Schiit Yggdrasil MIL-B (proto)
SBAF GONAD Panel


*YMMV. I am using the Shanling ET-3 CD transport and physical CD media as the source using the AES outputs.

 

Yeah, this one got the fairly recent new-breed 128db SINAD balanced opamps.