Review and Measurements of Schiit Yggdrasil V2 DAC

[amirm]

No, Schiit.

Hey! You stole the breed of our dogs for your alias!!!

 

[Samoyed]

I’ve had three over 40 years. Smart, tough and odorless. No Schiit.

 

[amirm]

Ah, we have two. And they are what you say plus super cute.

 

[rebbiputzmaker]

I've listened to 6 different schiit products.... nothing to write home about.

Why would someone buy 6 products from a company if they were not happy with them?

 

[Jimster480]

Why would someone buy 6 products from a company if they were not happy with them?

I bought 3 products, and listened to 3 other products owned by friends.

Fulla 2, Modi Multibit and Magni3 are what I purchased.
Sold the Modi Multibit and Magni3.

About to put the Fulla2 for sale as its been sitting in the box since I got it back from Amir a half a year ago now.

 

[Samoyed]

Found on the Schiit house wall: here I sit, broken hearted, ran three miles and only pharted.... Anon

 

[topazzo]

Hi,
I came across this forum looking via google if I will find some reviews that will share my thoughts with the rem adi-2 dac. I have had the rme dac a week and still have the Yggdrasil dac at home.
to make it short.
I think that measurements do not tell the whole story about dac's. they may be a hint of what will happen, nothing more.
its all about listening. its about the musical performance. if a dac gets me involved into the music...thats matters to me.

the rme measures superb but does not sound superb.on the first listening you're overwhelmed by all the information you're getting. on the second and third listening I feel the dac does not have the ability to focus on the main musical structures...after 30 minutes my ears get tired...

if you listen to vocals you will understand what I mean.
if you have for example a good dac like the Yggdrasil side by side...its gonna be clear.
I would like to assume that a good chain is present and that the room is measured and thus heard via loudspeakers.

the rme has a very nice resolution but its character is a bit cold, metallic and flat. the rme does not have the ability to render a 3d soundstage.
everything remains flat with much information happening in the left-right stereo picture. the rme does not render the main musical ingredients.
In depth there is not much happening.
i have learned, that's a smart move, to judge a dac or musical equipment, how they render vocals.
if I take the rme I must say that vocals do not sound good. they are sharp, thin and have no warmth at all and miss body.
when I translate the vocal area to instruments, I see that instruments share the same character. coldness, sharpness....


now I'm coming to the Yggdrasil.

the Yggdrasil renders vocals beautiful. Vocals have a nice full body, warmth and they are never sharp, they never bother me
in the "desser" area. Vocals remain the leading instrument in a mix. Nothing in the stereo field distracts from the voice. The focus stays on the vocals. Instruments have all their clearly defined space and this is the reason the Yggdrasil can "3D".

the overall musical presentation is engaging and involving. I can listen to music with the Yggdrasil for hours...I have been listening a week to both dacs side by side.

to me, without a doubt, the much better dac is the Yggdrasil.
finally I will say, if the rme converter would be the better one, I wouldn't wait a second to sell the Yggdrasil.
btw the remote control is nice...but....

we had a weekend with friends. we had for 5 hours fun presenting the rme and the Yggdrasil in a blind testing.
guess what? the Yggdrasil was in every musical performance preferred. we had classical music, mercedes soza, r&b...andreas Vollenweider...jazz.

..........
a strange world today ...in the analog days with vinyls turntables....measurements were in focus and purchase decisions were made on this basis?
of course not...its all about sound...
.........
Ecouton LQL200 speakers, Ragnarok Amp, Audirvana with Dirac live or math audio RoomEQ, Project Stream Box S2 ultra.

 

[SIY]

I think that measurements do not tell the whole story about dac's. they may be a hint of what will happen, nothing more.

Thinking that is fine IF you have actual evidence that there is some mysterious thing that can be heard which doesn't show up in measurements.

So far, no one seems to have come up with that mysterious factor; it remains more of a figment of marketing than something demonstrable.

 

[Sal1950]

I think that measurements do not tell the whole story about dac's. they may be a hint of what will happen, nothing more.
its all about listening. its about the musical performance. if a dac gets me involved into the music...thats matters to me.

Thinking that is fine IF you have actual evidence that there is some mysterious thing that can be heard which doesn't show up in measurements.
So far, no one seems to have come up with that mysterious factor; it remains more of a figment of marketing than something demonstrable.

It's the magic dust SIY, no one can measure that.
But the real serious problem lies at the feet of the DBT.
These claimed differences all seem to disappear once the eyes get closed. Either that or the claimee's refuse to take the blinded tests with more claims of magic ears that don't function correctly under blinded conditions. Too fast or too slow or too stressful yada yada yada.

 

[daftcombo]

i have learned, that's a smart move, to judge a dac or musical equipment, how they render vocals.
if I take the rme I must say that vocals do not sound good. they are sharp, thin and have no warmth at all and miss body.
when I translate the vocal area to instruments, I see that instruments share the same character. coldness, sharpness....

What you call "sharp", "cold", etc. must be the absence of distortion or a different frequency reponse or phase.

Anyway when testing a DAC by side-by-side listening comparison as you do, you should first make sure that the frequency response and phase of both are the same. If not, you have to correct them. Otherwise you'll compare 2 versions of your whole system instead of 2 DACs.

If RME frequency response is flat and Yggdrasil RF has a roll off, no wonder you find the latter easier to listen to. Do some EQ on the RME and try again.

 

[flipflop]

But the real serious problem lies at the feet of the DBT.
These claimed differences all seem to disappear once the eyes get closed. Either that or the claimee's refuse to take the blinded tests with more claims of magic ears that don't function correctly under blinded conditions. Too fast or too slow or too stressful yada yada yada.

Doesn't sound like you read his post. He did mention performing a blind test:

we had a weekend with friends. we had for 5 hours fun presenting the rme and the Yggdrasil in a blind testing.
guess what? the Yggdrasil was in every musical performance preferred. we had classical music, mercedes soza, r&b...andreas Vollenweider...jazz.

Most likely messed up something with the setup, though.

 

[gvl]

Thinking that is fine IF you have actual evidence that there is some mysterious thing that can be heard which doesn't show up in measurements.

The Higgs boson only existed in people's heads for quite some time

 

[daftcombo]

The problem is not to find what is the mysterious thing that we can't measure. The problem is to explain how the Yggdrasil could be "hi-fi" with all measurements giving bad resultats, showing distorsion etc. whereas the RME ones are clean.

Maybe the Yggdrasil sound better on his system, but what he is hearing is definitely not what the sound engineer put in the recordings.

 

[gvl]

The Yggdrasil is "hi-fi" enough for CD quality material.

 

[pkane]

The Higgs boson only existed in people's heads for quite some time

I don't recall anyone saying they could hear the Higgs boson, prior to it being detected

 

[andreasmaaan]

The Higgs boson only existed in people's heads for quite some time

There was plenty of circumstantial evidence for the Higgs Boson's existence prior to the discovery of direct evidence.

Moreover, assuming this blind test @topazzo conducted was properly controlled, their ability to discern between the two DACs is entirely explicable by the measurements: the Yggdrasil adds enough distortion to pass experimentally derived audibility thresholds. So I don't see the great mystery here.

 

[daftcombo]

The problem with the boson was that it appeared and disappeared too fast to be caught red-handed. But scientists knew what kind of measurement had to be done to prove it was there. It was just technically impossible until a few years ago.

Here, you don't even know where to start.

 

[SIY]

Moreover, assuming this blind test @topazzo conducted was properly controlled...

I’ll make some bets here.

 

[gvl]

Cmon folks, the boson was just for laughs.

 

[Sal1950]

Doesn't sound like you read his post. He did mention performing a blind test:

With no mention of the circumstances, the setup, how the levels were matched, nothing. Nor any mention of the identification statistics.