It's a competently measuring DAC. It's not supposed to sound different than your RME and even the Modi 3.
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New Schiit Yggdrasil with TI chip
- Thread starter GXAlan
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It's a competently measuring DAC. It's not supposed to sound different than your RME and even the Modi 3.
I just got a Yggy Less Is More. No idea how it measures but I can tell you this - its sounds very good. For years I had been using a Hegel HD12 which is a great DAC. I will give it time to decide but I can tell you I can tell these DACS apart immediately.
Stereodude
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Can your significant other also hear the difference from the kitchen?
HAHA yeah with the oven fan on especially really got her "toe tapping". ... yup I cant stand "those" peeps eitherStereodude
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What is that supposed to mean?
What is that supposed to mean?
I think it was: there’s a lot of so called experts here, and yet nobody has made a DAC that people buy.
Yamahaha is unaware that there ARE folks that have worked in DACs here.
Stereodude
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That's like saying someone isn't qualified to evaluate a car's performance unless they've built their own car from scratch that is a commercial success.
That's like saying someone isn't qualified to evaluate a car's performance unless they've built their own car from scratch that is a commercial success.
Yep. A true facepalm.
Stereodude
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Actually, it's not. Most places are probably more to your liking where the accepted performance level of gear scales linearly with price and people will be impressed by your expensive purchases.
oleg87
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Yes, some of us are paid to work on actual engineering problems instead of adding to the vast pile of interchangeable audio DACs, which ceased to be an interesting technical problem decades ago.
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It was probably designed consciously with a given distortion profile.
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That's possible, but the DAC chip was designed for medical devices and the manufacturer's spec said it was not intended to be used for audio. Go figure...
Best measuring Yggdrasil MiB gets glowing subjective review, besting the the LiM version both objectively and subjectively:
Interesting to note that the word "accurate" shows up two times in this review, possibly correlating excellent measurements with glowing subjective review to a minor extent
And Now For Some Serious Good Schiit (Skoll Yggy!)
Followers3
Audio: Listen to this article.
I think it must be quite obvious that I am a fan of what the folks are doing at Schiit. Two new products from them have piqued my interest, a new Yggdrasil+ MIB DAC and gulp, a new more advanced phonostage dubbed Skoll. I know, vinyl is not a word that shall be uttered in these here parts. I could hear Chris groaning all the way over here on the East Coast when I suggested it. However, once I assured him that I could use my audio superpowers to squeeze Atmos out of vinyl using MQA, he was all in. So, I requested some review samples and put these products through their paces. Issues do come up in the real world sometimes which have delayed this piece somewhat, but I am now ready to rumble.
YGGDRASIL+ MIB
As I am sure you will recall, after success with the original Yggdrasil and the iterations thereof such as the analog 2 board and Unison USB, Schiit released two new flavors of Yggdrasil, dubbed More is Less or MIL and Less is More or LIM. Chris was present at a blind shootout along with some other writers at the Schiiter, where they judged the three DACs. You can read about that here. I requested a review sample of the LIM to pit it against my original OG with the analog 2 board and Unison USB. You can read that review here.
As I noted in the review, despite the fact that the LIM used four 16 bit TI DAC8812 chips vs. the four 20 bit Analog Devices chips in the OG, I felt that the LIM was the superior sounding DAC. I guess quite a few folks agreed as the MIL DAC, the preferred DAC of Jason Stoddard, was discontinued. Since then, Schiit announced the Yggdrasil +, a fully modular Version of the OG and LIM, which makes upgrading the DAC far easier for the end user and makes for a nicer form factor as well. However, all good things must end, and as the OG’s Analog Devices chips were discontinued and obviously harder to come buy, the OG was discontinued as well, replaced by the More is Less or MIB which uses four TI ultra precision 20 bit DAC110018 and which costs a cool $400 more than the LIM. Are those extra four bits of resolution worth it? Read on.
Before getting to my sonic impressions I wanted to state the equipment used in formulating those impressions. My speakers are 1997 vintage Vandersteen 3A signatures being driven by a SMc Audio DNA 1 fully updated amp which in turn fed by a new build SMc Audio TLC-2 pre amp. More details about the SMc Audio products can be found here and here. I am using a MacBook Pro M1 chip laptop to feed all three DACs (the OG, LIM and MIB) via a DH Labs usb c to b cable. All cabling is vintage audioquest and all power by Essential Sound Products.
In my formal LIM review, I described the sonic differences I perceived as follows:
As for the sound differences between the LIM and the OG in my system, the LIM was the clear winner. Yes, less is apparently more. When I was a kid we used to hear about the importance of the 3 R’s, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. Well with the LIM, we have a new set of 3 R’s, resolving, relaxing and right. While the two DACs share a common sound, clear differences are heard in direct comparisons between the two. The LIM has a smoother sound. It is less edgy in the treble. The midrange is a tad warmer. The music, and I hate to use this term, seems to arise out of a blacker background, one that has less noise. Perhaps this reduction in noise results in the sonic improvements I hear.
I hear the same differences between the MIB and the LIM, but this time the MIB is clearly better, at least to these ears. I am mindful of the old adage that numbers never lie. Perhaps, but perhaps they do not always tell the full story. Despite resolution of only 16 bits vs. 20, the 16 bit DAC sounded best. Whatever TI did to modify the 20 bit chips, they made a significant improvement. I hear a much smoother sounding DAC across all frequencies. This DAC is so easy to listen to, for hours, being so natural and non fatiguing yet very detailed and dynamic. There is just more detail presented by the MIB even with very familiar recordings. There is a very open midrange with a greater sense of front to back depth. Front to back depth was never the Yggy’s strongest feature. However, the MIB improves on this yet keeps the expansive side to side soundstage. There is even greater separation between each object in the sound field. Bass is deeper yet more controlled. You hear more of the woody character of an upright bass. Pianos have a more accurate piano sound more clearly conveying the complex sound of the instrument. Guitar licks have more bite, kick drums more kick, with more accurate sounding cymbals and high hats on a drum kit.
There are a few recordings that best illustrate the improvements I am hearing with the MIB DAC.
First is An Evening at Charlie’s featuring Mel Torme and George Shearing on Concord. Mel Torme is one of my favorite jazz singers. He and George Shearing put out a series of excellent releases on Concord as a duo and with a trio. This release, recorded at an intimate club in DC, is my favorite. One track in particular, I’ll Be Tired of You, penned by Arthur Schwartz and E.Y. Harburg, was the song my wife and I picked out as our song at our wedding. My dad was a professional musician and suggested that I copy this song on a cassette so he could give it to the band that was performing at our reception. They did a decent job but at the wedding the band leader said my lord, could I have picked out a harder arrangement? Listening to this track through this DAC tells you why. George Shearing is simply playing beautiful and very sophisticated frills behind the vocal beautifully supporting Mel’s phrasing. There is clear space between the vocal and piano allowing you to clearly follow either. This is the type of experience I enjoy with this little hobby of ours.
The next recording is Scott Hamilton at Pizza Express Live London on PE records. I was fortunate enough to attend a performance by Scott and his band at this very venue in SoHo on January 2nd. This recording takes me right back to that evening. The recording wonderfully captures the big lush sound of Scott’s tenor we heard that night. Thrilling stuff.
Finally, and I could go on and on, is the Melody Gardot recording, Sunset in the Blue. In particular the first track, If You Love Me. The vocal is placed beautifully in front of the accompaniment with a string arrangement that has a lushness that the LIM can’t match, as good as it is.
To sum up, it is my opinion that the MIB DAC is the finest version of the Yggdrasil that Schiit has yet produced. It does everything that I love about high end sound right and is well worth the extra premium. The fact that it is capable of being so easily updatable with the new + form factor is icing on the cake. Very highly recommended.
Interesting to note that the word "accurate" shows up two times in this review, possibly correlating excellent measurements with glowing subjective review to a minor extent