Comparison: Schiit Yggdrasil DAC vs. Berkeley Alpha DAC 2
- Thread starter Al M.
- Start date
Peter, your impressions about a slightly dull and heavy sound of the Yggy at the beginning of the thread are from a time the DAC was not yet broken in, when there were problems with my room acoustics in terms of high frequency extension that are now solved, and it was with my current amps that are less extended in treble also than the Octave amp that you liked very much and which I will purchase shortly. The new sound of my system completely changes the game and fully reveals the Yggy as being tonally true and complete, as well as extremely resolving (with the new speakers). I am confident that in a comparison under the new circumstances the Yggy still will win over the Berkeley, and am happy to do the shootout again when the new Octave amp is in place.
As for the Yggy upgrade l am in no hurry. I may buy a second unit as a backup, in case the first one ever breaks (it's cheap enough) or to have a unit at hand in case I send the other one in for another upgrade in the future. The second unit would be with the analog stage upgrade anyway (and with the new USB Gen 5 module that I don't use).
Really, does the Yggy compete / equal your Vivaldi Stack? I find that hard to believe. I have heard the Yggy and it is good, but not high end IMO. I haven't heard the Vivalidi but seeing that stacks against the MSB Select II or other top flight DACs.
My impression of the Yggy was it still sounded digital to me. It is an R-2R NOS DAC I believe, but having heard quite a few NOS DACs (mostly with tubes) the Yggy didn't blow my socks off. I would say it is a great under 5K DAC, but there are better DACs around beyond that sector. It is / was a game changer when it came out, mainly I imagine on price v performance. Since then we have had a flurry of 3K-ish R-2R DACs out from Audio GD, Kitsune audio and others. Maybe the Lampi Atlantic would be a good fight as well? But I don't buy into the Yggy hype train, check out head-fi, it is on full throttle .....
Yggy's DAC chip is partly R2R (the bottom 14bits are), the top 6 bits are 63 individual resistors. Its definitely not NOS - the designer Mike Moffat isn't a NOS fan himself and he's implemented an oversampling filter (8X or 16X I can't quite remember) in an ADI DSP chip.
My three favorite sounding DAC chips to date are the BB PCM63-K, the Ultra Analog D20400 and the AD-1865N. Honorable mention to the AD1862. These are chips that give lie to the statement that early digital was harsh and unnatural. I have heard a few of the newer discrete implementations and frankly do not think they sound better. I also don't think that a DAC has to be NOS R2R to be really good as I have heard very good implementations with 8x oversampling (like with DF1704). Upsampling never seems to sound good to me. NOS can be really good but not always...sometimes it can sound a bit rolled off in the highs.
Thanks Al. I look forward to that. Yes, conditions have changed. Yet, you and others still preferred the Yggy at that time to the Berkeley. Have you heard the Berkeley in your system since you have made all of the changes? It too might sound much better, or not. It will be interesting to hear.
Really, does the Yggy compete / equal your Vivaldi Stack? I find that hard to believe. I have heard the Yggy and it is good, but not high end IMO. I haven't heard the Vivalidi but seeing that stacks against the MSB Select II or other top flight DACs.
My impression of the Yggy was it still sounded digital to me. It is an R-2R NOS DAC I believe, but having heard quite a few NOS DACs (mostly with tubes) the Yggy didn't blow my socks off. I would say it is a great under 5K DAC, but there are better DACs around beyond that sector. It is / was a game changer when it came out, mainly I imagine on price v performance. Since then we have had a flurry of 3K-ish R-2R DACs out from Audio GD, Kitsune audio and others. Maybe the Lampi Atlantic would be a good fight as well? But I don't buy into the Yggy hype train, check out head-fi, it is on full throttle .....
I have briefly heard both the Vivaldi and Yggy in Ian's system a while ago. The Yggy has the new Analog 2 upgrade. I preferred the Vivaldi at that time, but it was not a formal, controlled comparison. They sound different, and it may simply be personal preference. They both sounded excellent, and the fact that they are both in the same system says an awful lot about the sound quality of the Yggy.
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fwiw, my friend with identical speakers at the time (Zu Definition IV) had the Yggy in his system and has heard my MSB Analog Dac (both ladder dacs) and much preferred the Analog. That said, it wasn't apples to apples in the same room although he's been to my house 100 times.
his issue with the Yggy was that it didn't scale dynamics right, but he thought it was a fine piece at its price point.
his issue with the Yggy was that it didn't scale dynamics right, but he thought it was a fine piece at its price point.
Yup, a comment that leaves me puzzled as well. The Yggy does dynamics and dynamic shadings extremely well. The only circumstance where I could envision a problem is if you choke it off with bad power conditioning. Many power conditioners have problems.
it means it loses clarity in dynamic passages.
i knew i would offend the Yggy parade by posting this, but oh well.
On the contrary. What impressed me the most with orchestral on Ian's system was how climaxes just kept building, harmonically complex layer upon harmonically complex layer, without the Yggy ever losing composure. There was never the slightest hint of congestion, remarkable especially for digital.
Your friend must have had other problems. And by the way, the above was with CD transport.
...that immense clarity and separation was achieved with the transport feeding the Yggy via AES/EBU input through a high grade MIT digital cable.
Al- I get that you really like the Yggy, but his experience was different. why can't that be the case? why is there automatically a problem when he believed MSB (which starts at $6995) to be quite a bit better. He also uses a cd transport from time to time, unlike me. He was very complementary of the Yggy, just didn't think it excelled in that area vs other good dacs.
MIT anything isn't a plus to me. ymmv.
And a quick search yielded this, which sure enough has some similar (and detailed) conclusions:
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/msb-analog.20847/reviews
note- the new version of the Yggy might make a big difference of course
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/msb-analog.20847/reviews
note- the new version of the Yggy might make a big difference of course
Your friend has heard what he heard, no reason to doubt it, so obviously his experience must have been different. Yet it is clear to me that for some reason the circumstances must not have been optimal, otherwise he would have heard the same clarity and separation under dynamically challenging circumstances that I heard, as did Ian. So yes, I have to work under the assumption that there was some problem that did not allow the full capabilities of the Yggy to shine through in that area (this does not say anything about the overall sound quality of your friend's system, it might have been a trivial issue).
Great to hear your friend was otherwise very complementary of the Yggy.
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