Experience with Simaudio Moon North amps

YYZ, did you side by side compare the 791 with Schitt and Holo or basing that off personal inference?

At the risk of derailing this amplifier thread to talk digital for a minute:

The 791 has more digital technology than just an ESS chip. There is a custom FPGA that handles clocking and other DSP functions. I don’t think it’s a fair call to assess any DAC by calling out the engineering choices on conversion technology (aka the DAC chip itself) a company makes. There are many factors to the final sound quality. Analog output stage, power supply design, layout topology, etc.

For what it’s worth on an internet forum, I have owned many high end dacs, one of which was a Bricasti M21 (for over a year). The M21 has the best implementation in the Bricasti lineup for the analog volume control. So it’s a 16K streamer, DAC, and preamp in one. The 791 is also a 16K streamer, DAC, phono stage, and preamp. It’s my opinion that both the 791 and M21 are top flight DACs and preamps and can be compared and contrasted fairly. I like them both a lot. There is system synergy b/t the amp and the 791 front end I think the only way to exceed its performance would be to add the external 820S power supply or move to the top tier 891 piece. Just one small opinion from a happy camper. Peace to all and enjoy the music!

I did not compare my gear hooked up to a 761 against the 791. However, I have compared RJ45 streaming DACs against fibre optical and always preferred fibre. So, my preference there is based on prejudice for fibre. The dealer was not impressed by my view on this, but I am going by my ears.

I get what you are saying about the 791. It is an excellent overall unit. I just feel that a better volume control can be found in the super quiet Serene preamp (or Benchmark LA4/HPA4).

I did get a bit of fatigue on the Parasound Persona 9H system I heard the 761 and 791 on. Now I do not think it was the Moon gear, but it made me focus on the top end more than I expected. I think I get more detail out of the Yggi+.

With regards to the Yggi+ OG. I just have a huge appreciation of how great this thing is. It is much better than the $15k DAC that it replaced. It is super detailed without being fatiguing. It maybe is not the deepest soundstage but I do not care about that. I would love to connect the Yggi+ OG into the 791 via XLR and use fibre and do a head-to-head.  Fibre has never lost for my ears.

Sounds good, thanks for the response. I’ve always wanted to hear a Yggi. I have a lot of respect for Mike Moffat. I remember years ago saving money to get the Theta Pro Prime DAC and used that baby for years. Moved up the Theta chain and always loved how dynamic and interesting they sounded. I’ve heard from others as well that the Yggis are a really great value and sound excellent. 

I just bought the Simaudio 861 amplifier upgrading from a SIM audio w8, The difference is unbelievable the amplifier is phenomenal It's about 25% better than the 761 and I have no doubt that this amplifier will go up against amplifiers in the 40 to $60,000 range from other companies and beat them, this is the first amplifier in the world that I know of that has no local or global feedback in the amplifier no other amplifier has that and there's no way I can go back to my w8 again even as good as it is.

FWIW I spent some time with the 791/761 combo at a dealer and my impression was similar to @yyzsantabarbara - 761 is stellar, 791 is very good but the DAC is a limiting factor. When I first heard the system I thought it was very good, but something was a little off and I suspected it was the DAC in the 791 - it had the slight forwardness, sibilance and uneven tonality that have bothered me in the past with 90% of DACs using ESS Sabre chips. Sure enough, switching to a DCS Lina with the external clock greatly improved things and I could really hear what the 761 was capable of. Given that the 791 preamp section was still being used with the DCS, obviously it is also excellent and the internal DAC is really the weak link. Obviously the Lina alone costs almost as much as the 791, and much more with the clock, so it's not a fair comparison at all. But it might be nice if you could get the 791 for a bit less money without the DAC.