Review and Measurements of Schiit Yggdrasil V2 DAC

[Shazb0t]

What a shame.

 

[Matias]

More is Less measurements.

Schiit Yggdrasil 'More is Less' Measurements - GoldenSound

The Schiit Yggdrasil 'More is Less' is a new DAC from Schiit, which at first look, seems to offer quite incredible performance for an R2R DAC

goldensound.audio

 

[gvl]

Looks like the dude has no idea what harmonics really are based on his comments for the 17.5 and 18kHz plots.

 

[gvl]

These spikes look a bit disconcerting, hopefully they are much lower with real world high-frequency content levels which is much less than 0dB.

 

[ElNino]

These spikes look a bit disconcerting, hopefully they are much lower with real world high-frequency content levels which is much less than 0dB.

What gets me is that this measurement is taken at 44.1kHz, so this grotesque level of foldback IMD isn't a result of the choice to use 4x oversampling.

 

[gvl]

What gets me is that this measurement is taken at 44.1kHz, so this grotesque level of foldback IMD isn't a result of the choice to use 4x oversampling.

You think it’s IMD? Given the regularity to me this looks like some kind of byproduct of the chip deglitcher or some kind of fault interfacing the DSP with the DAC chip. Regardless this appears like a lot of junk that is not related to the fundamental frequency so it’s worse than harmonic distortion. And if it stays at the same level if the stimulus is reduced it’s pretty bad.

THD shoots ups with frequency pretty bad , if it happens due to these spikes below the fundamental and not harmonic content it is going to be a drama.

 

[archerious]

These spikes look a bit disconcerting, hopefully they are much lower with real world high-frequency content levels which is much less than 0dB.

Is this from the new more is less Yggdrasil or the OG? As that is a terrible SINAD. My smsl Sanskrit mk2 measures better and was $130 when I bought it.

 

[ElNino]

Is this from the new more is less Yggdrasil or the OG? As that is a terrible SINAD. My smsl Sanskrit mk2 measures better and was $130 when I bought it.

That's from the new "More is Less" Yggdrasil.

 

[gvl]

Is this from the new more is less Yggdrasil or the OG? As that is a terrible SINAD. My smsl Sanskrit mk2 measures better and was $130 when I bought it.

It’s at 18kHz 0db and while it points to issues can also be red herring if those artifacts disappear at lower more realistic levels for HF music content. More study is needed before it can be qualified as junk.

 

[rkt31]

may be r2r is overrated tech. schiit newer ds design measure better than r2r dacs.

 

[rkt31]

Are you sure it's all about you? The reality is the measurements vs. subjective debate has been going on for a while. The Audio Critic was doing battle in this territory decades before you. Regarding ASR prompting Schiit to design better I have wondered if the same isn't true for forum favorite Topping. It's seems they release an amp or dac measured here every other month with higher and higher Sinad using ASR's measurements as their guide. Topping has clued into the fact that it does seem to be all about Sinad here, despite a protest to the contrary in another thread. I don't blame them for exploiting that segment of the market just as Schiit did with the Heresy, but it's ok if Schiit has a different perspective from you with their other products. Topping's focus appears to be to tap into the faith here and has managed to cultivate a band of eager defenders who will pile on dissenters. When I joined, ASR seemed like a breath of fresh air, about as objective as I could have hoped. Now it seems like a cult. This is audio, you're not saving lives here.

that's the beauty of objective approach. if it's bad it is bad. there is no scope of cult thing if you depend on objective approach. i don't think asr has favored any brand out of the way. anybody is free to send their equipment for test. topping have confidence about their measured performance so they send their product to ASR. schiit and other don't follow this, it's their choice.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

Basically same (average to poor) results as the review in the OP. I can never wrap my ears around why audio fans love this level of performance.

Schiit Yggdrasil 'OG' Measurements (One month warmup test) - GoldenSound

Measurements of the Schiit Yggdrasil A2 DAC and testing if there are any differences with the infamous warmup of this DAC.

goldensound.audio

 

[ousi]

I actually had the MIL version for 2 days. Couldn't get past the fact that it annoys my ears especially at higher registers. It's not because of constant hi-hat but more so it makes my inner ear feels uncomfortable. This kinda mirror what was found in the measurement. I just wonder why they even bother making this available... were they just trying to troll the measurement crowd?

 

[Veri]

This kinda mirror what was found in the measurement. I just wonder why they even bother making this available... were they just trying to troll the measurement crowd?

Perhaps it suffers from aliasing?

 

[Jimbob54]

Perhaps it suffers from aliasing?

Yes, it must be hard pretending to be a proper dac all the time.

 

[antcollinet]

Yes, it must be hard pretending to be a proper dac all the time.

Badoom - followed by Tish

 

[trl]

More is Less measurements.

Schiit Yggdrasil 'More is Less' Measurements - GoldenSound

The Schiit Yggdrasil 'More is Less' is a new DAC from Schiit, which at first look, seems to offer quite incredible performance for an R2R DAC

goldensound.audio

For a multibit DAC a SINAD of 118.5 dB is quite impressive.

 

[Matias]

By the way the original (OG) was also measure now.

Schiit Yggdrasil 'OG' Measurements (One month warmup test) - GoldenSound

Measurements of the Schiit Yggdrasil A2 DAC and testing if there are any differences with the infamous warmup of this DAC.

goldensound.audio

 

[ElNino]

For a multibit DAC a SINAD of 118.5 dB is quite impressive.

In this case, SINAD measured at 1kHz is very misleading though. SINAD measured at 17.5k is 88 dB. The device's performance falls apart in the upper octave.

If you look at the full set of measurements, in terms of worst case behavior the "More is Less" Yggdrasil measures worse overall than any of the other Yggdrasils. I think Schiit's marketing rhetoric here is borderline dishonest. They acknowledge it sounds worse than the others, but claim it measures better, implying the measurement crowd is wrong. But it just doesn't measure well. Looking at the measurements, I'd rather have either one of the other Yggdrasils. (Well, I'd prefer zero Yggdrasils, but if it was the only option....)

 

[trl]

In this case, SINAD measured at 1kHz is very misleading though. SINAD measured at 17.5k is 88 dB. The device's performance falls apart in the upper octave.

It's not correct to measure the SINAD at 17.5 kHz within a 20...20.000 Hz bandwidth, so let's stick to similar measurements that Amir, Wolf and AtomicBob are doing to such DACs. You may also check the multitone test as well and compare it with other multibit DACs; also Schit's own measurements can be checked as well.

Schiit guys are one of the few manufacturers that are publishing a full set of measurements about their audio devices and this started recently, after Amir started to publish measurements and reviews about some of their worse-measuring DACs and amps. I consider that this is a great step-up in marketing.

In the end, the SINAD of 118.5 dB measured @ 1kHz is still one of the best achieved by a multibit DAC, so for those looking for such a DAC this one might be an option.