I had OG Yggy twice (A1 and A2) - both great DACs, but I moved on. Later I kinda missed it and bought a Gungnir Multibit (a.k.a. Gumby), encouraged by reports that someone at Schiit actually prefers Gumby over Yggy. Welp, not here - I thought the Gumby sucked (relatively)! Yggy is WAY better in my book. Still might pick one up again, or may check out the Singular.
Reconfirming the known: DAC hierarchy
I have used separate DACs since the late 1980’s. I have had many and understand the hierarchy well. But recently just had a reconfirmation. As always hearing the differences is always more striking than just thinking about them.
About five years ago I was helping introduce a friend to the high end and ultimately build a system. He wanted to start inexpensively so I suggested a Schiit Yggdrasil DAC and since I needed to upgrade my office system I bought a Schiit Gundgnir multibit ($1.3K) for him to check out and he ultimately bought the Yggdrasil (A2) $2.5K. Not long after he bought ARC equipment with a Linn front end with Majik DAC... a very notable upgrade... then a couple years later upgraded the DAC to Exakt... for a surprising improvement... he was shocked. He experienced the multiple surprising improvements Gundgnir --> Yggdrasil--> Majik --> Exakt.
My office system was pleasing until a month ago or so my Gundgnir bit the dust. I asked to borrow his unused Yggdrasil. I was shocked (this is what keeps you in this pursuit for a lifetime) how much better the Yggy sounded... I knew it should and I could describe the difference before putting it in... but when I did I am always surprised at how obvious and substantial it is. My friend was kind enough to sell me the Yggy so I didn’t have to buy a new one.
I had lazily used my M4 Mac Studio as a streaming source when I had gotten rid of the last of my Microsoft / Intel stuff ( big tower for the desktop computing). So since I had to pull out the audio rack I decided to use the Bluesound stream I had gotten for breaking in cables and stuff. Wow, a big improvement... I mean, I knew it was coming... but it's alway surprising when you hear it an it sure was a reconfirmation of how a really low level budget streamer is better than a PC. Which I have proven to my self many times... but that still, when I hear it is just really obvious
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Umm any high pc will beat the crap out of the most expensive streamer. I went from a smsl sux to a topping Centaurus and I’m using a gustard u-18 to convert it the signal to i2s and the Centaurus has more clarity than the sux just not as loud but it does sound a little more clear I am using the nos so essentially its an r2r dac which came out first should be cheaper but they do sound better than delta sigma dacs. |
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@muvluv "Umm any high pc will beat the crap out of the most expensive streamer."
Curious, which highend streamers have you done this comparison with to have reached this conclusion? Please identify the specific bands/models and how each specifically fell short so your point provides meaningful information |
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