A few months ago a friend brought over his PS Audio DirectStream DAC and a Schitt Yggdrasil. I run an old Peachtree DAC-iT, which I paid $500 for some years ago. The follow-on model is now available from Peachtree for $250. You can find my unit on EBay for about $125 these days.
There were a number of local audiophiles present and we came away with a variety of opinions, though there was one thing we all agreed upon. The Schitt Yggdrasil was edgy and nothing any of us wanted to listen to, let alone worth its price tag in excess of $2000.
I liked the PS machine better than my Peachtree, as you might expect. But the Peachtree actually sounded very, very good. More than half of those present liked the Peachtree best of all!
The Peachtree just sounds good. I thought there was a hair more detail and accuracy with the PS, but certainly not $4000+ worth. I'd be willing to pay something like $800 for it, but nothing at all like the money that is asked. I have NO complaints about my Peachtree.
It only does up to 96/24, so if you have a need for 192/24, you'll want the newer Peachtree DAC iTx. I have no interest in high rez streaming services and therefore do not have that requirement.
And as an FYI, here are the details of my system that we used to listen to these DACs.
VTA SP13 tube preamp
B&K AV1260 12 channel MOSFET power amp
Linkwitz Orion v3.3 loudspeaker system - active crossover calls for 4 amp channels per side, so 8 channels total needed.
Digital Source: HP laptop running Ubuntu Linux, Banshee music player
There were a number of local audiophiles present and we came away with a variety of opinions, though there was one thing we all agreed upon. The Schitt Yggdrasil was edgy and nothing any of us wanted to listen to, let alone worth its price tag in excess of $2000.
I liked the PS machine better than my Peachtree, as you might expect. But the Peachtree actually sounded very, very good. More than half of those present liked the Peachtree best of all!
The Peachtree just sounds good. I thought there was a hair more detail and accuracy with the PS, but certainly not $4000+ worth. I'd be willing to pay something like $800 for it, but nothing at all like the money that is asked. I have NO complaints about my Peachtree.
It only does up to 96/24, so if you have a need for 192/24, you'll want the newer Peachtree DAC iTx. I have no interest in high rez streaming services and therefore do not have that requirement.
And as an FYI, here are the details of my system that we used to listen to these DACs.
VTA SP13 tube preamp
B&K AV1260 12 channel MOSFET power amp
Linkwitz Orion v3.3 loudspeaker system - active crossover calls for 4 amp channels per side, so 8 channels total needed.
Digital Source: HP laptop running Ubuntu Linux, Banshee music player