@dlcockrum
I appreciate your kind remarks Dave. Thank you.
My desire to test the sound under cold start is born out the understanding that multibit R2R is optimized when its resistors temperature is constant. Even Schiit "highly recommends" leaving the unit on 24/7, and I may wind up doing this. I’d just like to hear (or attempt to hear) any difference with my own ears.
Benchmark engineering goes even further with regard to the criticality of resistor ladder DACs by stating (I have email correspondence from Rory Rall) "Even if the resistors are precision trimmed, they drift with temperature. This drift is not just a function of the ambient temperature. The change in resistance can even be induced by the instantaneous heating caused by the audio signal."
Imagine that. Temperature change caused by the signal itself effecting (negatively in this case?) the audio.
I’d like to hear that to believe it :) |
@gdhal Good write up, a couple of posts ago. Glad it is working out for you.
the Yggy’s usefulness increases as the “density” of the instruments increase and the overall quality of the recording is increased
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All -
I expect this post will be perceived as very interesting feedback. One that I am happy to report.
THERE IS NO AUDIBLE DIFFERENCE FROM A COLD START.
First, I compared my Oppo to ERC-3. Why, because in fairness to the Oppo, it has a digital filter setting that can be used to tweak the sound. So, giving it the benefit of the doubt, and despite the fact that I previously tested all filters and opted to stay with the default mini phase fast, I thought it worthwhile to ensure that it sounds very much like the ERC-3, and specifically with respect to the elements that are lacking in comparison to the Yggy. To reiterate, that would be a tinny top end, less "evolving" middle and not as "rich" bass. For purposes of my test, they can be considered identical.
I then compared the Yggy - at immediate start up (cold after being powered down 18+ hours) - against both ERC3 and UDP205 and the same "improvements" were evident in the Yggy as they had been when warmed up for days.
So, I take solace in *knowing* that as I listen via Yggy from a cold startup, theoretically the sound should improve *during the listening session*. Granted , that would not be audible nor will I set out to prove that, but I do know with certainty that even from a cold start up, the Yggy does sound better. And, if I had to state a one word reason why, "authenticity". |
Interesting thread. Gdhal, which is your best souce combination - the one feeding the AES/EBU?
I keep swapping between the 2 below both sourcing files from my NAS via ethernet.
1. NUC - USB in Gustard U12 - AES in Yggy
2. Oppo 103d - Optical in Yggy
I am currently enjoying the Oppo option more. Blacker background, hear more high, PRAT, separation, ...
BTW, i am hoping your Oppo UDP test means using its SE out into the amp. |
Hi @devgcl
Welcome to the forum.
To be honest, all sources that act as transport to the Yggy sound great coming out of the Yggy. I haven't A/B'd among them to compare which is "best" coming out of the Yggy.
I can tell you I primarily use the Oppo, but that is simply out of convenience. I transfer live music flac files to USB and play from the Oppo, intentionally avoiding the need to burn or acquire more CDs. I have 3500 already, so I don't need anymore. I use my cable box as "intermission music" for bio-breaks, that sort of thing. The computer when hooked in to the Yggy via USB sounds unbelievably good. So much better sounding than the USB DAC in my amp that I didn't even need to "critically listen" to compare and draw a conclusion.
From the perspective of initially A/B'ing so as to conclude/determine/verify that multibit Yggy is (far) superior to either of my delta-sigma's (to which there is no doubt in my mind), at the time I did use SE (RCA) from all devices in order to make the test that much more reliable, accurate, truthful, etc. I only have one set of XLR input on my amp anyway.
Should I choose to bypass the Yggy and go straight to the amp with my delta-sigma gear, the Oppo and ERC3 sound equally great on their own, and I can connect either via XLR or RCA.
I have since removed all connections from my amp with the exception of the Yggy's XLR out to my amps XLR in, to reduce cross talk among other RCA input channels. Sometimes I had two devices on, or in the case of the Yggy during initial testing, had both XLR and RCA to the amp. I've since removed the Yggy's RCA connection to my amp.
The Yggy is unbelievably good. I'm at the next stage of its integration into my system and am trying to determine if there is truly a "benefit" (either sound quality or unit longevity/health) to leaving it on 24/7. Do you have thoughts on that? I've been reading that some users need to power down and reboot at times to "clear" certain issues. |
I have owned the yggy for 2 years. I needed a Dac and it fit into the Roon/ microrendu architecture I wanted. I listen to mostly acoustic jazz, bluegrass, folk, classical, and the great bands like Led Zeppelin. It does well with this type of music. Mike Moffat the designer of this Dac and the Theta Dac prefers these genres.
Bottom line play well recorded music without consideration if it’s 16bit, 24 bit,DSD or MQA. You will have your Aha moment. Yggy can only play 16 and 24 bit pcm streams.
Buy better speakers you will have another Aha moment and you will not have to ask others if they hear it too if you are honest with yourself.
If if you bought the Dac from Amazon would you have returned it with Amazon’s best in retail return process/policy?
Personally I would like to hear Mytec’s Manhattan Dac it’s not limited to pcm. |
Thanks gdhal. My limited experience shows removing USB in the chain at times helps. Would be interested to see when you get the chance to A/B your Yggy into different input sources. |
@devgcl
You're welcome. In a sense, all sources are removed other than the one I happen to be listening to at the time. This is because I have other devices physically powered off, albeit they are connected to the Ygyy. I don't expect that I'll set out to A/B which input source sounds better. Among other reasons, because all of my source transports are different, it wouldn't be an accurate A/B in any case. I believe Mike Moffet has stated that from the Yggdrasil's perspective where sound quality is concerned, AES/EBU is the "best". They are all great, that I can tell you. :) |
My philosophy is if there is not at least a tiny bit of sound improvement ( whatever you consider an improvement) when you first use, breaking in is not going to make things better for you. I guess you can learn to like somehing over time and pretend you love the purchase. If you cant hear a difference with the oppo, then I would return. If anything, save $1200 and buy the Oppo Sonica dac if you want a dedicated one. You can spend money on new cables with the oppo as well as the Schiit. |
I have the Yggy and Wyred 4 Sound DSD DAC2 SE V2. I think the Oppo uses the same chip as the W4S The Yggy and W4S sound different as night and day just in the way you would think. the Yggy is smoother but less detailed. The Yggy sounds best on Redbook, the W4S excels on hi rez especially DSD. Over the last year I have gone back and forth about selling one or the other. I am keeping both because the are so different and depending on the digital file or my mood I make it exciting or mellow. And Hi Rez is different form Redbook. The W4S has a half dozen filters to choose from, basically choose your poison; pre ringing vs phase timing errors. The Yggy doesnt give a choice, I dont know what they did but it seems the Yggy says no to any pre ringing and at the same time they did something to reduce the timing problems more than the W4S but at the expense of some detail and being a bit rolled off on both ends.
4wiw it took the Yggy over 300 hours to break in and you wont have a clue how good the Yggy can sound without really good power conditioning and cables in and out. I could not get the COAX or Optical to sound decent, I dont have the option to use AES/EBU. I use USB with a Curious cable and have both the regen and recovery with LPS's. I recently changed to Wireworld silver eclipse 7 XLR 's from BlueJeans XLR- Initially I bought one set thinking it could be a likely waste of money, I now have a set on each DAC, cant and wont ever go back. I wont go into the power conditioning except to say it is as or more important than cabling. At the end of the day these DAC's have very different voicing in my system. |
My philosophy is if there is not at least a tiny bit of sound improvement ( whatever you consider an improvement) when you first use, breaking in is not going to make things better for you. @aberyclark I agree. However, as I've reported, I now do and have been hearing a distinct difference. I don't believe it was on account of break in. Instead, I wasn't using the optimal type of music to discern a difference and I wasn't necessarily aware of what to listen for. It's night and day. Delta-sigma from my Oppo and Emotiva sound great, but the multibit from the Yggy makes then sound digital by comparison. @anzaanimalclinic The Yggy can do PCM up to 24/192 for all inputs, and 24/192 is certainly hi rez. I do not believe the Yggy "rolls" off on any end. Also, the Wyred 4 sound is using an older ESS 9018 chip and my Oppo has the latest ESS 9038. I'm no longer interested to listening to the Sabre chip as I prefer the Yggy, however, I agree that preference and not merely better or worse can guide that decision. |
I heard the Oppo UDP 205 yesterday and in no way does it sound like the Yggdrasil. In fact I would prefer my Marantz SA15s2 I had to it in sound every way being a different purpose piece. I don't care for ESS chips configurations. The Oppo is a great machine for what it is. Mostly for Home Theater applications which I'm not into or use at all. All are personal decisions on what you would like to hear and where you use it. All these micro descriptions between equipment gets tiresome, don't like don't buy it.
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All are personal decisions on what you would like to hear and where you use it. All these micro descriptions between equipment gets tiresome, don't like don't buy it. @bacobits1 I agree in principal with what you are stating. However, often is the case that one must purchase (or commit something) in order to make a decision as to whether or not you like a product or not. Further, and perhaps more importantly, the micro differences in this hobby (between equipment), although subtle and not without diminishing returns at the higher levels, are sought after nevertheless. |
If you don’t hear any difference returned it back !
It happened to me in the past and I returned the dac to my dealer with no regrets and didn’t use dac anymore , however 3 years ago I bought the McIntosh d100 and wowwwww the effect was huge the dynamics are vicious, many new details that couldn’t hear before appeared suddenly, huge soundstage, great seperation between instruments and everything is more natural really remarkable dac.
I strongly recommend you try other dacs till you find what you are looking for.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of synergy between components maybe this the Yggdrasil is not what your system need .Or maybe your system is fine as it is and you don't need a dac at all . |
or maybe the Oppo is really, really good
- could you list a couple of the best recorded/mastered source recordings you used in the test? |
or maybe the Oppo is really, really good
- could you list a couple of the best recorded/mastered source recordings you used in the test?
Hi @randy-11 Not sure/clear if your post/question is directed at me specifically, but in any case, I’m reasonably certain you already know - via first hand experience or second hand reading of scores of threads/posts - that the Oppo, and specifically the UDP-205, is *definitely* - not maybe - really, really good. :) |
I did not make it clear that I upgraded my DAC-2 DSD SE to the V2V with the newer ESS 9038. It was worth every penny. Part of the reason I got the Yggy was I knew the W4S was a little off and glary at times. The 9038 is soooo much better. I think the filters are a weakness for the V2V but they are a lot lot better than what they replaced and it has been educational to be able to read about each filter and then hear them and how everything changes for good and bad.
The V2V does Hi Rez better in my system. And Redbook or Hi Rez there are instrumentals where it is clear that parts of the notes are missing with the Yggy, I think it is an effect of the Yggy's filter and done to keep the harmonics more natural and why it sounds overall more relaxed. The digital filters in both DAC's are a compromise between two un-natural sound effects, pre-ringing and phasing effects. To me the pre-ringing is way more fatiguing but the notes are richer, the notes with a minimum phase filter are much clearer but sometimes sound like part of the note is missing.
I like both DACs because they do what they do really well and because they are so very different in how they do it and how they sound. Of the two I think the W4S is better but is also twice the price. I really love the way it does DSD. If I didn't play DSD or a lot of Hi Res the Yggy is a no brainer.
Also fwiw I play digital files from a music server with a SSD. I have A/B compared listening to a CD thru the DAC right after ripping it to a music server and the CD player's |
@gdhal,
Agreed, that the Oppo UDP-205 is really really good. For me, I can hear it extend the low end and upper end of the sound spectrum, compared to my older players. The bass is also fleshed out and not muddled. I only have about 100 hours on it, but I like it. I had the option to go with a Esoteric and a cheaper loudspeaker OR with the Oppo and a more expensive loudspeaker. Guess, I made the right decision :-)
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I meant to delete the music serve stuff, I was going to make an observation that in my system the music server is better than the CD Player but it does not help you.
I think every one hears music differently just like music tastes are different. I will say that before the W4S V2V upgrade it was a no brainer I preferred the Yggy. It wasn't until after investing a lot in interconnects and power regeneration and conditioning that I could appreciate what I was hearing. But I could hear they were very different before all the ancillary stuff and I preferred the Yggy to the older W4S DAC. Now it is really close. I think they both sound digital but in different ways and I like them both.
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Makes me wonder how many who said they couldn't hear a difference didn't get good advice on investing in a good quality digital front end. One of the reasons I seldom frequent Agon is because its so far behind the digital frontier. Names like Lumin, Aurender, Sonore and SoTM should be familiar to you if you are in the US and are current on high quality digital sources.
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I think they both sound digital but in different ways and I like them both. @ anzaanimalclinic And which DAC have you personally heard or have you no familiarity with what-so-ever that you beleive sounds analog? Makes me wonder how many who said they couldn’t hear a difference didn’t get good advice on investing in a good quality digital front end. One of the reasons I seldom frequent Agon is because its so far behind the digital frontier. Names like Lumin, Aurender, Sonore and SoTM should be familiar to you if you are in the US and are current on high quality digital sources.
@davide256 And what is your point? If you read the thread in its entirety you can discover that *initially* I couldn’t hear a difference, but subsequently was able to easily discern the quality improvement. And, this is "normal" given that (a) what I had/have prior to Yggy is very good to begin with and digital differences are not necessarily easily discerned, (b) wasn’t exactly sure precisely what to listen for in order to detect a difference and (c) the Yggy was brand new, not broken in, and at the same time I was under ill advised and self-imposed "pressure to audition" the unit within a narrow 15 day time frame. In my particular case, I had terrific advise which included my own do diligence, irrespective of any third-party advice. Of the brands you mention, only SOTM I haven’t heard or read about. The others, Lumin, Aurender, Sonore, *were* on my radar at the time I was in the market for a DAC. In my opinion, Lumin is WAY too expensive for what it is. And, even their flagship S1 uses Sabre ESS DACs which I’m more than well aware of, as I already have the latest, most advanced chip in my Oppo UDP-205. Please spare me the implementation rigmarole. Sonore I’m just not interested in and frankly don’t even care to mention why. The Aurender A10 may have been fine, but the Yggdrasil at half its price I imagine is a *MUCH BETTER VALUE* (yes I know the Aurender is also a server, but I have no need for that). |
I tested an Oppo 105 vs. my ancient Cal Audio (w/PowerBoss) and there was little or no difference (a rel. short test as I had to return it).
So, that was a real question - tho I'd expect the 205 to be better (and it plays SACDs). |
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The W4S and Yggy are the only DAC's I have owned and listened to critically. I upgraded the W4S to the newest 9038 Sabre chip that is also in the Oppo. I was just piping in that the 9038 chip in the W4S and the Yggy sound very diifferent. I have not heard a DAC that I think sounds like analog.
No doubt bad analog is better than bad digital in general, and great analog is better than great digital in my experience. I think the newer Sabre chip and the Yggy and probably other DACs mentioned that I have not heard are eliminating a lot of the really objectionable problems with digital playback.
I think analog has a lot of problems, the biggest is that to make it sound wonderful is really expensive and involves reel to reel. I think LP's suck- but that doesnt stop me from listening to them.
I like both the DAC's I own, they make digital sound less bad than what I have heard in the past to the point I think digital can sound really good. I have similiarly invested in my turntable and record cleaning and tube phono amp and tube amp to make my analog sound less bad, and sometimes it sounds really good. |
@ anzaanimalclinic
That's a fair response on your part and I have no disagreement.
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I moved from analog to digital from practical reasons but I always preferred analog till I bought the Macintosh D100 pre/dac which also includes Sabre chips and I couldn’t believe my ears it sounds to me completely analog it was the first time that I didn’t miss my turntable and vinyl collection anymore. |
My suspicion on your probable end result
a) the Emotiva and the Oppo are physical transport solutions and as such cannot give you the highest resolution with either their built in DAC or the Yggdrassil. Think of them as equivalent to a basic Rega turntable for transport section. The Oppo also includes a streaming option, its nice sounding but not that much better than the CD transport.
b) Samsung cable box- no experience with it but these devices rarely have good electrical isolation and aren't "hardened" to prevent output jitter.
c) Gateway NV79 laptop, appears to be 2010 vintage. PC laptops suffer the same issues as the cable boxes.
So net of all this is if you kept the Yggdrassil, hopefully you concluded a made to purpose music server or streamer was lacking to get you the fullest enjoyment of your purchase. Else I suspect the Oppo ended up being your solution of preference.
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....So net of all this is if you kept the Yggdrassil, hopefully you concluded a made to purpose music server or streamer was lacking to get you the fullest enjoyment of your purchase. Else I suspect the Oppo ended up being your solution of preference. Yes, I kept the Yggdrasil. And, I am using the Oppo UDP-205 as the transport solution of preference. |
can you compare the sound of the Yggy to that of the DAC in the 205? |
can you compare the sound of the Yggy to that of the DAC in the 205? Yes. Already covered/addressed previously in this thread. Succinctly, the Yggy is more authentic, analog sounding and preferable to listen to than the Oppo. |
I appreciate you are looking for an “incremental” upgrade. I guess that’s why you wouldn’t be interested in experimenting with an Equitech ( 2Q ) who’s users read like a who’s who in extreme tech and engineering circles (NASA comes to mind). The improvement would fall outside the scope of ‘ incremental ‘. I get it. Best wishes. |
I appreciate you are looking for an “incremental” upgrade. I guess that’s why you wouldn’t be interested in experimenting with an Equitech ( 2Q ) who’s users read like a who’s who in extreme tech and engineering circles (NASA comes to mind). The improvement would fall outside the scope of ‘ incremental ‘. I get it. Best wishes. |
Including also the innumerable recording and finishing studios that wouldn’t start a session without Equitech. Oh well, what do pros, who rely on their sound for their sound and reputation know ? |
I’ve come to think you’d simply prefer to talk about Schitt. |
I’ve come to think you’d simply prefer to talk about Schitt.
Bit hard there ptss, if you read his first post, he couldn't get a better sound from it than the Oppo UDP-205 for quite a while. Cheers George |
@ptss As I previously stated I’m not using balanced power, but I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t provide an “immediate” and “significant” improvement to the sound I already have. If I’m wrong, oh well. Suffice it to say that for now and at this point in my life I'm rather satisfied with the sound my system is capable of. I do appreciate your recommendation(s), however. @georgehifi Bit hard there ptss, if you read his first post, he couldn’t get a better sound from it than the Oppo UDP-205 for quite a while.
Actually George, as you read the thread further you could/should deduce your statement is not true. In fact, there was/is better sound right from the get-go. I simply wasn’t able to readily detect it on account of not realizing what specific characteristics to listen for, nor did I play the source music material to reveal the difference(s). I primarily listen to the Grateful Dead. Trust me, they sound grate on any system. Even their recordings that are less than "exactly perfect" recording quality wise are overshadowed by the music itself. Further, my sound prior to Yggy was/is very good to begin with. |
Actually George, as you read the thread further you could/should deduce your statement is not true. No, if you read my last post, what I was getting at, is that, no one would start a thread with these posts if they were "shilling for Schiit", as was inferred you could be doing, the way I read ptss’s last post. Cheers George |
georgehifi,
Your consideration was well intentioned;I got it.
Perhaps I was just 'choked' from the charbroiled 'chicken feet'.
However,fwiw, I agreed with your comments. Cheers. Pete
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@georgehifi and @ptss
Perhaps I've misunderstood your posts. All good as far as I'm concerned and I remain appreciative of your input. |
I wouldn’t bet the farm on that observation, bc.
I’ve had many components that did not display their true character until nearly a month. Nordost’s interconnects typically take several weeks to mature into their full sound. I well remember the Frey 2 sounding GREAT out of the box, although it certainly had a pronounced treble. I, nonetheless, commanded the presence of 3 friends who attend symphonies regularly. They were dumbfounded, and this was only 10 days into my ownership. We all heard the brightness, but the separation of instruments - even on a Moody Blues album - was phenomenal, and I’m used to components of the highest quality. I remember the exact day, when a friend of mine, who is a conductor, came over and marveled at the amount of harmonic information he heard in my system. Ironically, that was the very day that I heard the change in the system and was initially nonplussed: the brightness had diminished somewhat and this was exactly 30 days of continuous play 24/7. It wasn’t that the sound wasn’t fantastic in the way that it had been up to that point, but it was less ’bright’. There was actually, LESS "excitement" in the music, but later on, after my conductor friend left, I realized it sounded more the way music sounds in a good concert hall. Sometimes, the "exciting" phase is not actually the sound truest to the live musical experience, meaning the sense of not hearing "reproduced" music, but hearing something pretty close to flat-out LIVE. And I was less overwhelmed when that brightness subsided, but then I recognized that I could hear more of the inner detail: the keys on clarinets "clacking," the "jitter" that occurs when you hear music close up, which is not an artifact, but the actual artistry of the musician’s playing (and different than the term "micro-dynamics"). THAT came much more into existence when the break-in period was winding down, although if you had TOLD me that the sound was going to improve in that particular way, I would have found that hard to imagine. It was just more "real," and I hear "real" every week.
We tend to make guesses about components without actually knowing. When the WATTS first came out in 1986, people were outraged that Wilson charged $4400 for a "mini-monitor" speaker. Time has changed that particular attitude. I had them back then, and kept hearing people who hadn’t heard them make sounds of disapproval. And I thought: well, I have it. And you don’t. So how can you - with any authority - tell me that I was gypped. Nobody says that now, of course. But they did back then.
Shunyata INSISTS that the sound of their power cords stabilizes after 125 hours. I don’t know how THEY get that result, but I - and many, MANY other owners - have observed the sound to blossom fully around 400 hours. The Nordost Frey interconnects CLEARLY changed on the 30th day, which means 168/week for 4 weeks and 2 days, which is over 700 hours. And if you read Roy Gregory’s reviews (and he is among the most careful of ALL reviewers in detailing the time factor involved, particularly with Nordost), he found the same thing, give or take a few days. Perhaps running the interconnects thru the CD player wasn’t enough "power" to fully break them in, but however it was that he did it, the break-in time was a month. It may be true also of this Yggdrasil, but only time will tell.
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@gbmcleod
Kindly posts your impressions of the Yggdrasil when and if you feel appropriate to do so. I look forward to reading it. |
Gdhal- Good that you recognize that the balanced output of the Yggy might be better than the SE. I understand your desire for an apples to apples comparison with the Oppo, but I think an equally valid comparison is "best" to "best". Certainly, if you are keeping the Yggy, you will want the best sound out of it. Here is where I first heard of the difference: http://tweakaudio.com/EVS-2/Schiit_mod.html "2. If you are using the coax (single ended rca's) outputs then you need to take the single ended signal from the xlr connectors for much better sound. There is a summing circuit after the balanced circuits that is not super transparent. This mod eliminates this circuit. You can get or make adapters to use (you use just pins 1 and 2 and you leave 3 unterminated....important!). Another way would be to put xlrs on your cables that use just pins 1 and 2. Another even more transparent way is to hardwired (more on this later). This mod will make the DAC way more transparent and clear.....mucho better." Enjoy!! |
I would suspect that if you had a lower jitter source to the Shiit DAC to start with, there would be an obvious difference between the OPPO and the Shiit DAC.
Making a comparison using the OPPO as a CD transport is okay, but only if you are comparing two DACs driven by the OPPO S/PDIF digital output signal. Even then , I would argue that you need a lower jitter signal to tell what the DAC’s can actually do. Using the OPPO as a DAC only and driving the OPPO DAC and the Shiit DAC from a low jitter S/PDIF source is a valid comparison betweenthe OPPO DAC and the Shiit DAC. Trying to compare the OPPO analog outputs to the Shiit DAC analog outputs, driven by the OPPO digital output (and coax cable) is inconclusive. The jitter inside the OPPO is probably lower than the OPPO S/PDIF jitter, so even though the DAC in the OPPO is maybe not as good as the Shiit, the lower jitter will cause it to sound better or at least different. The S/PDIF cable alone could easily skew the results, depending on the jitter that it adds. The point is that the selection of the source (and S/PDIF cable) is critical when comparing two DACs. The lower the jitter, the better. Steve N. Empirical Audio
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I would suspect that if you had a lower jitter source to the Shiit DAC to start with, there would be an obvious difference between the OPPO and the Shiit DAC. Perhaps. Logically what you are stating does makes sense. I've read a quite a bit of information about transports here on Agon, and like much of everything else there is some disagreement, however, in this regard. In my particular case, besides the level of contentment I already have with the sound of my system, I am (for now) electing to side with the camp that would argue that any high-end DAC that purportedly has jitter control, reclocking and so forth will employ those functions regardless of how "clean" or "dirty" the incoming signal is to begin with. So, I'm "relying" on the Yggdrasil to essentially "do its job" and what I believe I paid for, which is to correct the jitter, irrespective of how low or high it is to begin with. |
I’m "relying" on the Yggdrasil to essentially "do its job" and what I believe I paid for, which is to correct the jitter, irrespective of how low or high it is to begin with. A simple test to determine whether its doing the job is to try 2 different coax cables, a cheap one and a good one and see if there is any sonic difference. If there is, then the DAC will benefit from lower jitter S/PDIF signal. You could also compare 2 sources, like a Sonos, Transport, computer etc.. Most DACs fail this test. Steve N. Empirical Audio |
A simple test to determine whether its doing the job is to try 2 different coax cables, a cheap one and a good one and see if there is any sonic difference. If there is, then the DAC will benefit from lower jitter S/PDIF signal.
You could also compare 2 sources, like a Sonos, Transport, computer etc..
Most DACs fail this test. Good point. This is a very fair and reasonable reply. Note that at the time I A/B'd my Yggy to Oppo UDP205, I also A/B'd it against my Emotiva ERC-3, which is connected via AES/EBU (and not coax like the Oppo). The improvement I found with the Yggy was the same vs both the Oppo and Emotiva. In fact the Oppo and Emotiva have the same "tinny" treble, one dimension and less authentic sound in comparison to the Yggy. Point is, the difference wasn't just because of one input type like S/PDIF. I hear improvement in the USB input as well, relative to the USB input of my M6si amp. So I am using multiple sources. I remain open minded to better cabling, but this isn't something I feel a need to investigate further at this time. I have (as do others) a degree of confidence that any cable supplied by blue jeans is going to be "more than good enough". Maybe not the best, but certainly good enough. Given the responses on this forum it wouldn't matter what cabling I purchased or how much it costs because someone will always point to something "better". Ditto for any other piece of equipment. |
I wish I could A/B a Yggdrasil Vs. a Dave. It would be fun to see what kind of an audible difference US$10000 buys you... |
A good comparison indeed, though the difference is closer to 5K than 10. |
So I am using multiple sources. But did you drive only the Shiit DAC from 2 different S/PDIF sources or use 2 different S/PDIF cables? This will tell you whether it is jitter immune or not. Steve N. Empirical Audio
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