Schiit Yggdrasil Less is More, is it a quality dac ?

i would concur with what is covered in the last couple posts, given my own experience with schiit and denafrips dacs

in the schitt line, i also felt the gumby was the sweet spot, just as i felt the pontus was that in the denafrips line

yggy and terminator brought the treble forward significantly, sounded more hifi, more robotic, less natural to my ears -- of course, overall the terminator is better than the yggy (og i tried) all around, just as the pontus is somwhat better sounding overall than the gumby

for the schiit dacs, the clicking of the internal relay when the streaming sample rate was changed between songs drove me crazy, compelled me to sell them off

similarly, for the denafrips, i was using a bluesound node 2i at the time as the streamer, and with its rca digital output, there was a major compatibility issue with the pontus/pontus 2 input receiver card, that was a total pain the butt

in the end, i moved through these makers, and then sonnet/metrum, ayre, musical paradise, ps audio ... towards chord, mhdt, audio mirror, audio note, bricasti ... then eventually to the msb and weiss units which i currently have (along with the chord m scaler/hugo tt2 stack, among a few others)

The Yggy can’t be matched at twice the price, IMO.

based on my own experience with the yggy and numerous others (roughly 40 dacs since early 2021), i don’t agree with this statement

three dacs come to mind readily that to my ear, in my system, outperform the yggy in overall musicality, prat, imaging, and top to bottom cohesiveness

mhdt orchid (esp, w grannyring mods), but also in stock form ($1600 modded)

denafrips pontus ($1700)

cambridge cxn v2, with dan wright’s brilliant tube output stage mods ($2400 modded)

to be sure, different systems benefit from dacs with different sonic presentations, but based on my own listening and owning various dacs, i wanted to offer this contrasting point of view to the bold statement set forth above

i personally liked the pontus more than the gumby and yggy... pontus has a warmer tone, more solid bass, with equal air and imaging ... other excellent option in the lower/middle dac segment is one of grannyring's modded mhdt tube buffered dacs (orchid, etc.)

just shows that one really needs to try these in their own system to determine what works best given individual room, system and preferences

yes the yggy does not embarrass itself in its price class in terms of sound and build quality - it does have a certain sound signature and some ergonomic foibles