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Schiit Designed For The Real World

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  #11  
Old 12-30-2017, 10:44 PM
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More of everything...

That is the best way I can think of to describe what I heard yesterday afternoon with the comparison between the Schiit Gungnir Multi-Bit, Yggdrasil, and ModWright Oppo 105 DACs. The more of everything referring to the Yggy. It just stood out between the three, as I mentioned before.

My two local audio friends and I had a very enjoyable afternoon yesterday in our 2+ hour listening session and comparison. They both came away very impressed with the sound of my system with the new to me XRT29 speakers, and all three sources acquitted themselves very well. We all agreed that we would be very happy having any of them in our systems and they all sounded fantastic. That being said, our attention while comparing a few selected tracks kept coming back to the Yggy. I was initially worried about the Yggy being bright in my system based on some of the reviews I've read online. That concern turned out to be completely unfounded.

The Gungnir Multi-Bit sounded very similar to how I remembered it sounding in my system a week ago. Extremely smooth, with excellent microdetail, very good air and space around vocalists and instruments, and very clean in the lower registers that allows it to distinguish between the bass line and other instruments. It still sounded the warmest of the three, with less frequency extension at both the lower and higher ends. Layering and soundstage width were very good, but soundstage depth was not the equal of the other two sources. My friend's Gungnir still doesn't quite have 500 hours on it, and that combined with it being listened to with less than 30 min of warm up probably still is keeping me from having heard it at it's full potential. That being said, I think it is an absolute bargain for the price and I see why several on this forum have bought one for their stereo or headphone systems.

The Yggdrasil showed all of the positive attributes of the Gungnir MB but added several additional very noticeable improvements. The most obvious difference to all of us was the speed of attack of the leading edge of notes, especially with guitar and drum lines, as well as the ability to very precisely place and spotlight instruments in their proper location in the soundstage and easily deal with complex passages in classical music without smearing or losing detail. The Yggy was clearly the winner in terms of detail - vocalists taking a breath, echo and reverb in a concert hall or recording studio, sticks striking the drum, fingers playing and foot pedals on a piano - all very realistic and extremely impressive. All of this additional information and detail comes with no glare or etch at all - while not quite as warm or smooth as the Gumby, the Yggy was still very smooth and I would have no problem listening to it long term.

With all of the consensus the three of us had with the impressive sound of the Yggdrasil, the ModWright Oppo still sounded fantastic and held it's own in almost all cases. The owner of the Yggy even preferred it in a few cases, especially with female vocals as well as overall tonality for piano and stringed instruments, so much so that he is wanting to send his stock Oppo 105 to ModWright to have the tube modified analog stage performed to his unit. The MW Oppo does not have the same level of detail retrieval, speed/attack, and punch that the Yggy has, but it does compete very well with soundstage width and depth as well as frequency extension and a more natural decay of notes. Interestingly to me it doesn't seem quite as smooth and balanced across the frequency spectrum overall, even with a tube stage, and compared to the Yggy you are sitting further back from the performance while you are more up close and personal with the Yggy. With most of the music we listened to, I really liked that difference. More of the performers are there in the room with you with the Yggy. The bass is much faster and has more punch with the Yggy while the weight is almost the same. My overall music preferences lean to classic rock and jazz, with some classical, so the Yggy gave me a new perspective and appreciation with some familiar tracks.

The good news for me, as mentioned before, is that I have the Yggdrasil on loan from my friend until Tuesday, so more listening and comparisons with my MW Oppo are still to come. I was away for a good part of the day today so I wasn't able to do a lot of listening unfortunately. The Yggy has been plugged in non-stop now for almost 28 hours, so by tomorrow it should be completely warmed up and I'll be able to get an even better perspective on it's capabilities and sound quality.

Finally, I want to mention how much fun I had yesterday! It is always terrific to have like-minded audiophile friends over to your place to share listening impressions as well as sharing new music with each other. We all had very similar impressions and thoughts regarding what we heard, and it's always nice to have others confirm what you are hearing. Having audio friends over works much better than when I have my wife come listen to changes I've made or what I think are clear differences and she just tells me that it all sounds good...

I hope my thoughts and impressions are interesting and useful for everyone. I still need to write up my final impressions of my new speakers as well, however I've definitely enjoyed this diversion toward hearing and comparing the Gumby and Yggy.
More to come in the next couple of days with my additional impressions of the Yggy in my system!
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Denon AVR-A100 HT Receiver
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Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DAC (Analog 2 + Unison USB)
Sonore Ultrarendu with Uptone Audio LPS-1.2
Uptone Audio EtherREGEN network switch with LPS-1.2
Oppo UDP-205 with ModWright Signature Truth Tube Modifications
Clearaudio Performance SE TT with Hana ML MC cartridge
ModWright PH 9.0x Phono Stage
ASC & RealTraps Panels; APS PurePower 2000; Daedalus Audio DiDs
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Last edited by JJinID; 12-30-2017 at 10:51 PM.
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  #12  
Old 12-30-2017, 11:06 PM
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Jeff.......Good write up. Very interesting to hear your impressions comparing the Gumby and the Yggdrasil. Despite the ModWright tube modifications to your BDP-105, it remains a delta sigma DAC with on chip filtering being compared to Schiit Audio's ladder DAC's and discreet external filtering for bit-perfect reconstruction of the original data. For me, that is the essence of the musical allure present in the Yggdrasil and Gumby that is ever so slightly missing from the Oppo. In my opinion, the warmth added by the tube stages in the Oppo cannot compensate for the true bi-perfect output of the Schiit Audio DAC's, particularly the Yggdrasil.
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  #13  
Old 12-30-2017, 11:50 PM
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Nice write up Jeff and thanks for sharing your findings. Glad to hear you were impressed by both Schiit DACs and were able to clearly appreciate the difference between all three DACs. Sounds like YGGY fit well with your system which makes your choice that much clearer.
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  #14  
Old 12-31-2017, 07:46 AM
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Jeff, thank you so much for taking the time to post your findings.
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  #15  
Old 12-31-2017, 02:10 PM
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Thanks for the great write-up Jeff, very interesting.
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  #16  
Old 01-04-2018, 02:43 PM
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I really enjoyed the extra few days with the Yggdrasil in my system, and it was tough returning it to its owner on Tuesday evening. I really appreciate my friend letting me borrow it for a few days to really hear its full potential. The sound continued to improve as it became fully warmed up - more extended bass, more coherent, and smoother and more balanced top to bottom. I really enjoyed hearing the additional detail, speed, and focused soundstage placement of vocalists and instruments with the Yggy. All of this without being bright or etched - truly remarkable!

As mentioned before, there were a couple of instances in direct comparison where my MW Oppo 105 has slightly better tonality and decay, and perhaps better dynamics. It is a machine that I still like very well and enjoy listening to, but I have to say that overall I like the presentation of the Yggy better, and I already miss not having it in my system! I agree with Dan's comment that the multi-bit DAC and bit perfect output is the main reason for the excellent sound I am hearing with the Yggy. I've always believed from previous experience that the type of DAC, while important, is secondary to the build out and quality of the analog stage and power supply in a player and/or DAC. This is where the ModWright tube based analog stage and power supply modifications really shine IMO. However, the Gungnir Multi-Bit and Yggdrasil DACs have changed my thinking about that importance, and the analog stages of those two DACs are also very well done.

I will be working toward saving up funds and recovering from my XRT29, CR-1, and Furutech Flux filter purchases the past few months, and once I do that it's almost a certainty that the Yggdrasil will find it's way into my system this year!
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McIntosh MC501s, XRT29s, XR27, WS350s
ModWright LS 300 Preamplifier
Denon AVR-A100 HT Receiver
JL Audio F113 subs with CR-1 Crossover
Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DAC (Analog 2 + Unison USB)
Sonore Ultrarendu with Uptone Audio LPS-1.2
Uptone Audio EtherREGEN network switch with LPS-1.2
Oppo UDP-205 with ModWright Signature Truth Tube Modifications
Clearaudio Performance SE TT with Hana ML MC cartridge
ModWright PH 9.0x Phono Stage
ASC & RealTraps Panels; APS PurePower 2000; Daedalus Audio DiDs
LAT International, Shunyata, Wireworld, WyWires Cables
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  #17  
Old 01-04-2018, 07:12 PM
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Wow .... not many Schiit haters once the product is given a "real world" audition with time for warm-up (and break in if new). I sure do enjoy my Gumby!

One thing I've noticed now that I've had my Gumby for a few weeks. Files that are overly bright and previously unlistenable, are not so overly bright and definitely not unlistenable through the Gumby. A few that come to mind are rips made from CD's of Don Henley (End of the innocence album), an rip from an older CD of Boston and a rip from an old Kansas CD. Other DACS I've had in my system just sounded so hard and edgy that I didn't like to listen to those CD's - even though I like the music. With Gumby ... they are listenable. This has me scratching my head. Maybe its that super digital filter doing its magic??? Whatever it is - its almost like magic.
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Old 01-07-2018, 04:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Soundmig View Post
Wow .... not many Schiit haters once the product is given a "real world" audition with time for warm-up (and break in if new). I sure do enjoy my Gumby!

One thing I've noticed now that I've had my Gumby for a few weeks. Files that are overly bright and previously unlistenable, are not so overly bright and definitely not unlistenable through the Gumby. A few that come to mind are rips made from CD's of Don Henley (End of the innocence album), an rip from an older CD of Boston and a rip from an old Kansas CD. Other DACS I've had in my system just sounded so hard and edgy that I didn't like to listen to those CD's - even though I like the music. With Gumby ... they are listenable. This has me scratching my head. Maybe its that super digital filter doing its magic??? Whatever it is - its almost like magic.
I think it's multibit nature of Gumby. It is the most analog-sounding digital device I've ever heard (haven't heard the new Yggy with the Gen 5 USB).
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  #19  
Old 01-07-2018, 05:29 PM
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Yep, filters have much to do with the final sound of the D to A conversion and every manufacturer has their recipe for what they think it should sound like. Of course the fact that the original sample is not thrown out as it is with delta-sigma conversion is a good foundation to build the rest of the process on and tweak the end result with a good sounding filter when it comes to Schiit multibit dacs. That's not to say that an outstanding result can not be achieved with a good delta-sigma dac as well.

I do find the naturalness and outstanding resolution without ever breaking out into overly artificial or digital edginess of Schiit dacs rather addicting.
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  #20  
Old 03-20-2018, 01:50 PM
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Well, I couldn't manage to wait any longer - I ordered a Yggdrasil last week and it is being delivered later today. The Yggy I borrowed from my friend was about a year old, thus it was before the new Analog 2 update, so I'll be interested to hear how it sounds once it's warmed up and progresses to full burn in.

Impressions and pictures to follow soon!
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McIntosh MC501s, XRT29s, XR27, WS350s
ModWright LS 300 Preamplifier
Denon AVR-A100 HT Receiver
JL Audio F113 subs with CR-1 Crossover
Schiit Audio Yggdrasil DAC (Analog 2 + Unison USB)
Sonore Ultrarendu with Uptone Audio LPS-1.2
Uptone Audio EtherREGEN network switch with LPS-1.2
Oppo UDP-205 with ModWright Signature Truth Tube Modifications
Clearaudio Performance SE TT with Hana ML MC cartridge
ModWright PH 9.0x Phono Stage
ASC & RealTraps Panels; APS PurePower 2000; Daedalus Audio DiDs
LAT International, Shunyata, Wireworld, WyWires Cables
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