I think its safe to say that because the experience of listening to music is perceptual, not an absolute (nor usually "measurable"),as a result, it will be highly subjective, and always will be. Some folks love gear that will literally drive me out of the room, other folks' sensibilities are more aligned with mine. How does one account for one person liking the sound of a Stradivarius more than a Guanerius, or the playing of Glenn Gould vs. Vladimir Ashkenazy? You can't, but you know what you like when you hear it...

I'm very much aligned with John Darko's sensibiities about all this. At the end of the day, it only matters what YOU like, in your room with your specific musical content, preferences, and sensbilities.

Personally, with companies now offering in-home evaluations and the ability to return products that just may not "work" for our respective tastes or sensibilities, I've taken to doing in-home evaluations to find out where I want to end up.

We live in a time where we have an "embarassment of riches"; its "all good", just good in different ways for different folks...

Sorry for your loss Ron. Had a close call with my wife last year (29 years married) and I can’t imagine the grief. I hope you find a great new system and create great new memories.
Wes

Folks that like to measure “things” can’t help but to be biased if something looks out of the norm. It’s human nature. No amount of listening can convince otherwise nor dispel the seed that has been planted. :no: If one was to simply listen and forget about the slightly odd measurement or two, one would realize that Yggy sounds extremely organic and natural without ever stepping out into harsh or sterile side of things. Can all DACs make that claim? I think not. :smoking:

Bill, did you know that the guy behind Audio Science won an Emmy Award for his work in TV and audio... back in 2006/7 I just read it on another forum full of people trashing him. I suspect he's pretty legit!

New Yggy or Primaluna DAC?
 

Like any review, a positive or negative from Amir at ASR shouldn’t overly influence your buying decision. It should be used only as one of many inputs to the selection process.

I have no reason to doubt the efficacy of Amir’s measurements. My only beef is that he uses a standard ASIO driver for all his DAC measurements instead of the manufacturer recommended drivers. What this does to the sound quality I don’t know.

What I have found by owning two products Amir has reviewed extensively is that I prefer the sound of the DAC that measures poorly, (Yggdrasil) over the DAC with impeccable measurements, (Topping D50).

I agree After reading through several hundred angry posts someone finally posted this


https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-majidimehr-0014a75/

The issue(s) I have with Amir's approach is that he does things like a University-trained scientist: only doing OFAT when, instead, he should be doing DOE. He reminds me of the biochem professor in a graduate Protein Biochemistry I audited who unequivocally stated that only proteins could catalyze a biochemical reaction; he was indignant when I asked if RNAs could catalyze biochemical reactions.

6 years later, Thomas Cech won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of...catalytic RNAs.

"There is more in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than is dreamt of in your philosophy."- William Shakespeare, Hamlet

That's a great accomplishment, but in my opinion he's far too objectively obsessed with his evaluations. High end audio is very subjective by nature, and even as an EE myself I realize that measurements alone do not entirely define the ultimate sound quality of a component under test.

Hard to go wrong with a Yggy. Great sound at a great price.

I think as of now, I lean towards the Yggdrasil for the R-2R approach. Would be great to hear the PL though... I’m checking the dealer network for PL to see what kind of drive I’d be in for.