Article: New Schiit Yggdrasil Blind Listening Comparison

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Amazing write up! Thank you. I can't wait to listen to the less is more in my own system.

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For those curious, the upgrade boards ARE indeed available here:

https://www.schiit.com/products/yggdrasil-upgrades

 

Happy to report I have already placed my order for LIM 😎.

 

Cheers,

-Rob

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The LIM has arrived! Unfortunately I will not be able to listen today but I do hope to install it and get some listening in tomorrow.

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Installed and listening at very low volumes (my daughter is sleeping). Will leave the playlist on repeat overnight and report back tomorrow. So far it does sound good! 

 

Cheers,

-Rob

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I've listed to LIM all day today and it sounds absolutely stunning. A bit subdued at first but it woke up very nicely after a few hours of listening. Wondering if things will get even better with time... very happy though. OG sounded wonderful, LIM sounds wonderful in a different way. 

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4 hours ago, matthias said:

 

Which one do you prefer?

Thanks

 

Matt

Still unsure. I really like both, in different ways. The staging hasn't change. Let me give it several weeks and then I'll switch back to OG. One summary mentioned the top end being more muted on LIM, this is true in my system. This is not necessarily a bad thing for me, but a change nonetheless. Will report back with a consensus at some point in the next few weeks. The LIM is noticeably smoother but not TOO smooth.

 

Thanks,

-Rob

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Yeah, at this point I'm REALLY happy with the LIM. I had some initial reservations about loss of microdetails and expressiveness in the higher frequencies (I don't find OG/A2 to be harsh in my system) but after two days I feel that LIM is most definitely a keeper and a step in the right direction for my system. The higher frequencies are smoother than before but It puts me at ease, but, totally slams when it needs to. I don't think I will be trying MIL any time soon. The actual work of switching out the analog boards and firmware was also very straightforward. Very good job Schiit. I now officially choose LIM as a better fit than OG in my system.

 

Edit: Editing to include that my initial fears of loss in detail no longer exist after two days. Much of those details appear to be back. Yeah, perhaps the OG is a tad bit more resolving of microdetails but the LIM is better with bass and other areas I can't quite put my fingers on yet.

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4 minutes ago, austinpop said:

So…

 

Less is More, more or less? 🙂

Yes! I would say less is most certainly more in this case. thrilled with what i'm hearing..

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The Pi2AES presents a tremendous price to performance ratio. I have had one for over a year and tried many OSes and configurations. I settled on GentooPlayer OS because it sounded better than Volumio and Moode at the time. 

 

My first build surpassed it fairly early on in my journey but was much more costly to put together (at least 4x the price). This is with no network optimizations and a fairly decent for the price Audioquest Forest USB cable.

 

I will revisit this test for those curious. I'll use my Schiit Pyst USB cable to compare to the standard Mogami AED cable I used with Pi2AES. I have a 5V LPS i can use with the Pi2AES now (diy MPAudio ALS-HPULN) but would need to build a cable that fits and search for the guide to getting it to work with 5V input (i only used the included smps).

 

It has been a while since I conducted this test, but, I remember one major difference between the two sources. The fairly basic PC based build sounded bigger and had more authority. Pi2AES sounded very good as well but smaller and somewhat leaner. 

 

I have since come a long way with my computer source. Go ahead, rip me to shreds 😁,just sharing my experience. Pi2AES is a tremendously good sounding low cost option that can and should be endgame for many!

 

Edit: Forgot to mention this comparison is with the Yggdrasil A2/OG.

 

Cheers,

-Rob