Schiit Audio Yggdrasil Less is More Review

Yes, that was lucky. I had to wait to my kids were older to really hit the jazz clubs. There are was an uptick in clubs here in Philly pre Covid, but I am not ready to sit in a cramped club anytime soon. I used to his the NYC clubs are few times a month, sometimes twice a week. The Jazz Standard and the great Blue Smoke Barbecue are now gone. The rest still there. Look forward to getting back one day. NYC is really a short drive but those NY tunnels and traffic!

I finally received my LiM, upgraded from A2. I conceptually concur with the "soft" impression described above but I think I would not use that adjective.

I agree the A2/OG is more energetic, and that is what I love about it. I would say the LiM presentation is more sonically balanced and more evenly sorted per the recording. In having the good fortune to have several DACs and amps in my home over the last several months, I have been struck by how the A2's energy presents a recording in ways I'd guess are congruent with what Al M. posts above. What Al M. may or may not have heard is how certain parts of a recording are, for lack of a better concept, "masked" or "crowded out" by what I hear as the energy of the A2 in emphasizing certain things in a recording. I heard a similar (and slightly different) thing happening with the Chord Qutest.

Language fails me on this point: LiM presents more music, A2/OG presents more...action? energy? liveliness? punch? d) all of the above? Not sure how to put it, but yes...however...

I've decided I am keeping the LiM because while A2 is different and more energetic, I prefer the way music is presented via LiM, with the timbre of instruments, and perhaps with a greater view into the way the recording was made, more evenly up and down the spectrum with detail and especially nuance that the A2 does not provide. I'm not sure detail is the best word, but it certainly is more musical data, from instrumental tones to overtones, attacks and decays, the notes come through the LiM more clearly and evenly than A2.

A couple simple examples to try on your systems: At the beginning of Yes' famous choral-rock (is there such a thing?!?) song "Leave It," there is a lot of reverb and other sonic color going on at the very beginning and then there are the big bass thumps that come in before things get going. And in The Police's song "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," the chorus has something that sounds like steel drums in the background. With A2, I get the sense these elements exist. With LiM I'm hearing more of the space and reverb of the recording, plus vocal color in the voices in "Leave It." With LiM and The Police, I hear more individual steel drum notes being played, rather than a kind of "calypso blur" in the background.

So while not as much as A2, LiM presents enough PRaT and sonic detail in a way that lets all parts, or even just more parts, of the total recording to shine through. LiM may not be as sonically exhilarating all the time, but what is exciting is how it lets the music speak for itself with less "editorializing" than A2. 

One more possible downside to LiM: Others have reported LiM's top end is rolled off. While I don't hear that per se, I do hear something way up top missing in the reverb and it comes across perhaps as a bit less transparency than A2. I feel there's a kind of, well, energy that comes across with A2 that is more like I'm in or looking into the room of the recording. I don't get that so much with LiM, unfortunately.

I like them both, a lot. I'm keeping the LiM. I might opt for the A2 if it had the ability to render the nuance I described above, so that's my trade off. Finally, I'd go so far as to say the LiM is a substantially different sounding DAC than the A2. They're really two different sonic presentations to my ears.

I have both DACs so can do comparisons and I always prefer the LIM. The OG stays in the rack powered on for this purpose. The fact that others prefer the OG or even the MIL is not surprising. We all respond to the same stimuli differently. It is great to have choices, in this case flavors. I know Al is more into classical than I so I will use this observation. A friend and fellow audio group member was over the other day who has the OG and has heard my system before. He specifically asked to hear a large orchestra piece so I played the second movement of Bruckner’s 9th. No slouch in the dynamics department. What he heard summarizes why I prefer the LIM to the OG. Through the LIM he thought he was hearing an orchestra like he would live. There was no spotlighting of instruments. They were all there in front of you. You can follow each section individually if you like or listen to the whole group. Another friend commented on chords on piano jazz recordings, in being able to hear the chords cleanly, with less, shall I say it, blur. Again, both are great DACs I just prefer the LIM in my room with my speakers and amplification. In a different room with different speakers, etc. perhaps I may like the OG. Who knows? As for softer or rolled off in the highs, I do not hear that. That is why I took the LIM to another friend who has a vastly different room and speakers than me, who has quite a few DACs. We listened to the LIM and another highly regarded DAC and I did not hear a rolled off sound. Not even close. Even though Chris and I have very different rooms, I think we are hearing similar things. The fact that others prefer the OG is again not surprising. Otherwise, we would all have the same stuff. Viva la differance.

Well, that's all fascinating. Luckily for me, I can still try the Yggy LIM in my own system as well for little money. I just have to send my original Yggy 1, which I also still have, to Schiit for modification, and the upgrade is only 450 bucks (I confirmed with them). Long live a company that actually takes their own claims of upgradeability seriously, unlike some others in the past.

Almost a year ago I reported my first impressions on the Yggy LIM DAC in this comment section, after hearing it in a friend’s system. This is a follow-up, now in contrast to the earlier report with a fully broken-in unit, with a report on my impressions from a comparison of Yggdrasil LIM vs. Yggdrasil OG in my system. The unit came from another friend who bought my first generation Yggy and installed the LIM board. The two DACs were tested at the same position in the rack, standing on Herbie’s footers, with both of them powered on all the time (except at the brief moments of switching). 

System:

Simaudio Moon 260 DT CD transport

Empirical Audio reclocking system

Yggdrasil DAC

Octave HP 700 preamp

Octave RE320 power amp

Reference 3A Reflector monitors

JL Audio Fathom 112v2 subwoofer (2 x)

ZenWave Audio D4/SMSG signal cables

6-way Furutech e-609 power distributor

Two isolation transformers for all digital components

ZenWave power cables for all components

(the Yggy DAC is powered through a ZenWave PL-11 cable from its dedicated 1000 W isolation transformer)

Impressions:

Mabel Millan playing solo acoustic guitar, 1^st recording (Gran Recital, on Ad Lib Music): less warm than the second recording on Naxos (The Devil’s Caprice), and as such it is more on the edge of the listener recognizing the nylon character of the guitar strings. With the LIM the nylon strings are still very much obvious, and the timbre is very convincing. With the Yggy OG the character gets a metallic tinge, and lands in the nowhere land between nylon and steel strings (on the second, warmer recording by Mabel Millan the nylon character is preserved on the OG). The difference between LIM and OG is dramatic on this recording.

Yet also on recordings of solo flute (Stockhausen, works for flute, CD 28, Stockhausen-Verlag) and solo violin (Rachel Barton Pine, Bach violin partitas and sonatas) a metallic character of the respective instrument becomes very much evident when switching from LIM to OG; without that direct comparison it is not easily evident. The experience is kind of shocking, I did not think the Yggy OG sounded metallic in my tube-based system, but there you have it. Further switching back and forth between OG and LIM blunted the experience of stark difference somewhat, but a difference was always there. The difference on the guitar of Mabel Millan always remained very immediate. 

Stravinsky Sacre de Printemps (Rite of Spring; Boulez, CSO on DGG, 1992 recording): spatial depth on this recording is huge, and it is just as excellent on the LIM as it always had been on the OG (fortunately my system set-up allows for great portrayal of spatial depth, with speaker driver units being 7 feet from the front wall). Relative positions of instruments in the soundstage are similar as well. Yet I was shocked by how clean this recording sounded with the LIM. It didn’t sound as shouty as I had been used to, and it didn't sound grating either. While fortissimo brass attacks in the last section (muted trumpets often together with high-pitched woodwinds) sounded sharp and fierce as they should, they also sounded remarkably free of distortion, certainly compared to what my ears are used to. I play this music loudly, with peaks around 100 dB, and it is remarkable how little the mid-woofers on these Reference 3A Reflector speakers, coupled directly to the amplifier, break up even without crossover into the tweeter, once you feed them a really clean signal as from the LIM. Going back to the OG confirmed the usual more shouty, more distorted presentation, with also some exaggerated emphasis of high frequencies on those loud brass/woodwind attacks. Resolution at those loud peaks also suffered from the hardness and congestion. With the Yggy LIM on the other hand I heard, because of the clean presentation, some things in the many very dense orchestral passages in this music that I had never heard before.

On Scheherazade (Reiner CSO, XRCD) the greater lack of distortion was also welcome. The textures of this old recording from 1960 are a bit harder to begin with, but a lot of the hardness was smoothed out, leading to a more refined presentation on the LIM.

A very dramatic example of reduction of distortion is offered by listening to Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Helene Grimeaux on piano, Esa Pekka-Salonen conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, with the Swedish Radio Choir singing (on DGG). That recording has an extremely wide dynamic range, and in order for the softer passages to also have an impact for me I prefer to listen at a level where the last few minutes, in which joint choir and orchestra are performing, intermittently sound at a volume considerably greater than 100 dB, even louder than the aforementioned Stravinsky (the loudest I ever listen to music at home). I could not believe the lack of grain and distortion with the LIM even at that volume level, cosiderably exceeding the OG performance. Dynamics are just as fantastic with the LIM as with the OG, but they are more impressive. The reason is the greater cleanness of sound through all the brutal, powerful dynamic outbursts of joint choir and orchestra.

The emotional impact of this music through the LIM is gripping. Hall atmosphere in this recording is marvelous, just as good as on the Yggy OG. Also on music for choir and orchestra that is recorded in churches the LIM reproduces just as strong and atmospheric acoustics as the OG does, drawing you effortlessly into a “you are there” setting. 

The brighter timbres of the period instruments on the Eybler Quartet playing Haydn’s op. 33 string quartets are a bit difficult to reproduce, and some passages with the Yggy OG were somewhat strident. The LIM again provided some welcome relief, mitigating what can become grating sounds. 

In this and another string quartet recording, as well as the Bach solo violin recording mentioned, the micro-detail of sound resulting from the friction of the bow over the strings and from wooden resonances is just as good with the LIM as it is with the OG. The solo violin sounded purer as well, especially in the treble.

Caroline Shaw’s ‘Is a Rose’, composed in 2016 and a most beautiful song cycle, features acclaimed mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. The warm sound of her voice is just gorgeous, but with the OG there was always distortion on one particular passage in part 3 where there is a dynamic surge of the voice towards fortissimo (I listen rather loudly to this music as well). It had become better with recent improvements in power delivery to my system, but some distortion remained. As I had hoped for, the LIM provided relief here as well. The distortion now is almost gone. This is in line with what I heard with reduction of distortion on the Rite of Spring and other music. 

I re-checked with the Yggy OG. On the OG it's a nasty metallic distortion in this particular passage of the mezzo-soprano singing (a timbral swing out of nowhere really). I had thought it was my speakers clipping, but it was the OG ‘clipping’ -- or the speakers reacting badly to what the OG does.

Other than that though the OG sounds natural and very human on the voice, without obvious metallic coloration. It's just that the LIM sounds even more inviting. It is just a tad warmer still on the voice, and perhaps a tad more present. On the OG the voice is gorgeous, yet on the LIM even more so!

I tested the bass on a few rock/pop recordings:

Pink Floyd ‘The Wall’ 

Porcupine Tree ‘Closure/Continuation’

Billie Eilish ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’

There is no less mid-bass and deep bass than on the Yggy, but it is more controlled. Very nice.

***

Finally, a summary of areas where the Yggy LIM excels just as much as the Yggy OG, contrary to reports elsewhere (including my own initial impressions reported above):

-- spatial depth, low-level resolution

-- micro-detail

-- dynamics, micro- and macro

-- rhythm & timing (on both DACs it is among the best I have heard)

-- amount of bass

-- energy of presentation (if you adjust for the frequency anomalies of the OG)

Thus, the Yggy LIM has all the strengths of the Yggy OG, but without some of the weaknesses. There are no compromises to be made when switching to the LIM. I would therefore say that the LIM is the superior DAC, hands down.

I also heard the comparison in a friend’s very advanced system with CH Precision amplification (L10 preamp and M1.1 monoblocks) and Magico M Project speakers. This was where I had heard the LIM first, but with a unit that had not been fully broken in yet. Now we both heard that the LIM was superior, with a number of things standing out in his system that were also standing out in mine. 

Over the past few years the Yggy OG has given me immense listening pleasure, and in my friend’s system I have experienced it beating DACs that are multiples the price (including one costing more than 10 times the Yggy). Yet now it is time to move on to the Yggy LIM. I have ordered the LIM board, and my friend has already received his LIM board and installed it.

Thanks again for your review, Joe, which has helped in keeping me being interested.