Article: New Schiit Yggdrasil Blind Listening Comparison

[PeterG]

Great write up on a fascinating development!  I share your appreciation for reducing the flagship price, and I hope these leads them to lots more unit sales.

 

Alas, from a personal perspective, how can I possibly "trade up" to a less expensive product?  That wouldn't be very audiophile of me 😉

[PeterG]

4 hours ago, R1200CL said:

Did you read the other reviews ?

Yes--I saw that Chris's view was not unanimous.   It would be a bummer to drop $450 plus shipping and time, and end up slightly less happy.  But remember that it is easy for us to calibrate Chris's writing and taste because we have a huge data set.  Chris's original review on the Yggy (best DAC unless you can spend 10X) was the driver in my buying Yggy Gen 1, and I was later psyched to upgrade to Gen 2.  I do not know the other listeners.

 

Bigger issue for me--I have had it on my to-do list to audition a couple of the newer much more expensive DACs.  I expect to do that in October.  If they leave me cold, I will think about LiM then

[PeterG]

2 minutes ago, hopkins said:

 

Imagine you had the choice of buying two different washing machines from a manufacturer, at different price points, and the only differences provided were "technical" without explaining in any way how they translate in terms of performance or functionality? That makes no sense. 

Washing machine is not a good example (But BTW, how do you measure the cleanliness of clothes?)

 

Much better example would be a car.  If you were choosing between Toyota and Honda, or BMW and Mercedes, or Porsche and Jaguar, would you do it on specs or on a test drive?

[PeterG]

23 minutes ago, hopkins said:

 

I don't think you understand my point, and your example is not relevant here. 

 

I find Schitt's approach suspect, and a bit of a scam, to be honest. I expect a DAC manufacturer committing to offering the best product at a given price point. But whatever. 

I do not think it's a scam--they are not scam-type guys.  Pretty much the opposite.

 

But I take your point in general.  If they had a traditional marketing department, the guys there would be going bonkers because it is kind of confusing to have 3 to choose from without an apparent hierarchy

[PeterG]

1 hour ago, Superdad said:

Then there is the original AD5791 version of the Yggy, the "OG." That part is now completely unavailable anywhere, and when it was it ran from $61 to $100+ per piece(!)--again at 1K/pc. pricing. I suspect that Schiit had made some big buys of that part over the past few years and those are what are being used in the OG version.  I bet when their supply is gone that model will go away.

 

 

THANKS!  This explains--from a knowledgeable expert, not some hack at home (like me)--the whole thing.  This is not a long term strategic plan to offer three flavors.  The Schiits realize the OG's days are numbered (it's probably sold more than they hoped), and they're smart, so they do not want to be beholden to one chip set again.  They are positioning themselves to maintain the marque.  We are now in a transition period with 3 excellent mid priced DACs.  We'll be down to one or two as the long term plan.

[PeterG]

These Michelin star critiques are kind of nit picky to the extent of missing the point, in a way similar to others that challenge our ability to rank art.  No doubt that stars are awarded for more that food's taste alone.  No doubt that each of us could find a chef a zero stars that we would prefer to a starred restaurant.

 

But if any one of us who enjoyed fine dining visited 10 starred places and 10 randomly chosen other restaurants at similar price points, and then ranked them all, it's a good bet that the top 5 or 10 would be disproportionately starred.

 

Rankings may not be perfect, but that does not mean they do not exist at all

[PeterG]

On 9/9/2021 at 8:34 AM, manisandher said:

Hats off to Schiit for doing this. But if they'd have included one of their cheaper non-multibit DACs, that really would have been something.

 

Mani.

I have a Bifrost on a second system.  It's a good DAC for the money, but the Yggy crushes it.  They aren't really comparable products

[PeterG]

1 hour ago, skikirkwood said:

Would love to know if I could hear a significant improvement in my main sound system with one of these new Yggy's, but I don't want to spend the time and possible expense of a restocking fee to find out.

Agreed.  I readily upgraded to the Gen 2 for about the same price as this swap, but they pushed that as an unambiguous improvement.  Plus, I am the kind of guy they are warning not to try the board swap at home, haha