Schiit Yggdrasil DAC, why did they change it ?


Back in 2017 Schiit Audio introduced a DAC they called a Yggdrasil. It was well received to say the least and The Absolute Sound said after a break in period it sounded as good as any DAC. Some time ago they changed it and right now there are 3 versions available on their website. They are Less is More, More is Better, and GS2 (Garage Sale 2). The prices are $2299, $2699, $1699 respectively after the recent price increase. The difference is the first 2 use gen 2 cards and GS2 uses gen1 cards. Each DAC has 4 of these cards and the gen 1 cards cost a lot more ( Schiit says Uber expensive ). The GS2 uses cards they got when people upgraded to the new DACs and they kept the gen 1 cards. Mike Moffat said in an interview he did not want to have a product that cost more than $2500. I think the original just became too expensive to build and that’s why they went with much cheaper TI cards. They claim the new DACs sound better after they did complicated math and engineering. I think the original sounded better and the GS2 is at least as good as the new ones. I’ve seen "want to buy" ads for the original. Having said all of the above I want to say I’m a big fan of Schiit Audio and use their Freya+ preamp and the GS2 DAC. The rest of my system is a PSAudio S300 Amp and Herbeth 30.2 XD speakers.

carl292

BTW2 - let me further my cable conspiracy theories. I recently bought a used Magnepan Mini system to replace my sold LRS+ system. I have a smaller office now. The LIM DAC is also hooked up to this pathway.

I was reading where the Maggies may not need fancy speaker cable and that a 10 AWG Blue Jean cable (2 sets for around $200) could be as good as fancy cables.

Well, I did have a fancy Audience FrontRow speaker cable (around $5k) on the old LRS+ system and still have this cable. I got the Blue Jean cable and set it up on my Sanders Magtech amp (connected to the Benchmark HPA4 preamp). This was the same setup as the LRS+. The sound was a bit better than the LRS+ system. Now I attribute this to the fact that the Mini is likely better than the LRS+ (in the appropriate space). Main point was that the cheap Blue Jean cable seemed to be as good as the FrontRow on the LRS+. I was not able to try the FrontRow on the Mini due to length and termination on the cable.

I put the Audience FrontRow up for sale. I have a second Audience FrontRow on my Yamaha NS5000 speakers, the Blue Jean was a real fun listen on that too, but the FrontRow is the keeper on that speaker.

 

 

As I recall -

Prior, during Covid, and coming out of the pandemic I recall the same as others about parts availability issues, boards, along with some price hiking going on with processors - they were not too happy about. That’s how I ended up with a different Schiit DAC to try, wanted to try another unit with the new TI processors just to check it out. Resold it in six months. Was clean, detailed, yet lacked some of the lushness for me. During all of this, Jason made a video of what he used on his desk at the time, and he had also commented about them making the new DACs a little smaller for better fitment for the mass market. Seems like they were hyped up at the time about the new stuff [because maybe that’s what they could offer at the time] but as I recall some diehard customers kept bringing up Yggy and older versions too. As i’ve learned with my current DAC, keep it if you really like it.

I still have one of the brand new [still in wrapper] remote controls from one of those Schiit DACs that I should probably go list for someone who needs it or wants a backup. 

I have a OG with the V.2 analog cards and Unison USB I upgraded myself, when I found out about the upgrade program I thought cool, I'll get the latest and greatest chips in my unit. 

When I took it into the Schittr they guys there said that mine is the best sounding, better than the new versions, and no need to upgrade the DAC chip, so I just paid for the chassis upgrade which was well worth it since it's smaller, I changed from silver to black, and I have the remote control now which really helps.

Robert Harley and Herb Reichert reviews almost made me want to upgrade from my gungnir to yagdrassil.

@yyzsantabarbara  Hi, is Yggi+ OG equivalent to Yggi+ / A1 analog board / Unison USB or Yggi+ / A2 analog board / Unison or none above.  If none above, what is it?  Thx.