Before you start throwing money around, what did you specifically not like about the Yggy? Your description is vague, so I can’t tell if you liked it but it isn’t “enough” for you and you were expecting more, or if there’s something that you didn’t like from a sound signature standpoint.
What’s your chain and it’s not a night and day difference but the Yggy does sound better via balanced XLR out in case you tried it single ended.
From a performance standpoint, it isn’t going to tear the world up but it is a good DAC a a great value bang for the buck. To the point that it’s one of the few DACs I’d consider it being a good value at the full retail price compared to other dacs in it’s price range.
The Wavelight should be in the same neighborhood from a grouping standpoint. I’d also recommend something in the Mojo line, a V3 or a entry EVO.
But don’t just give up on the Yggy if you’ve been waiting for it a long time. Try to understand what you don’t like or why it’s underwhelming. It should be easy to flip and worst case scenario you get some learning experience if you take the time to figure out why you didn’t like it.
Well, coming from the Gustard A26 I would say the Yggy is softer sounding (slower transient response and attack/decay), warmer, less bright/incisive(positive, less fatiguing and harsh), less detail forward, more I don’t want to say ‘organic’ but maybe more ‘analog’? It’s like vinyl vs digital (A26) I think I do like the warmer, less fatiguing, more analog, richer sound of the Yggy but I want the faster attack, transient response and more forwardness like the A26 provides. Also, the A26 perhaps edges out the Yggy in slam/macro dynamics to my ears as well.
Additionally, the A26 has a streamer built in and plays much nicer with my audio interface. The Yggy has problems with lag and artefacts/glitches that I haven’t been able to overcome so far. So the A26 is definitely more useable and versatile to me so far. Also, the Yggy is a giant and needs to be kept on because of the mysterious ‘warm-up’ period I’ve read so much about…
Also my chain is PC > USB > Yggdrasil > XLR > Violectric V550 Pro > 1266TC/Empyrean/HD600/Fostex TH900 Mk2
I’m sorry you don’t like it. There’s nothing worse than finally getting something after a long wait and discovering you don’t like it.
I loved my Yggy because it hit all my preferences, and when I upgraded, I replaced it with a Mojo Mystique, which I thought had many of the same qualities. It might just be that you prefer the Gustard.
But the one thing that sticks out from your impressions is the lag and glitching. I never suffered from either of those, so it makes me wonder if your DAC or even your cable had an issue. For instance, I got lag with a borrowed TT2 and MScaler, but when I put my Yggy back in the chain, the lag disappeared.
What was your chain with the Gustard? Did you also use USB or Ethernet cable?
Try the yggy with Aes before you give up on it. Almost everybody prefers that over the usb and its going to the direction you are explaining. I’m waiting on my SU6 to arrive to try it.
Okay, better description and as @PaisleyUnderground said the Mojo Mystique V3 or preferably the entry Evo will be a GOOD fit for what you describe.
Also… not going to like what I’m about to say BUT. Sounds like you’re streaming into the Gustard via Ethernet as opposed to going into the Yggy via USB from your PC.
If that’s the case, then it’s not a fair comparison. The PC out is just plain noisy and as far as the USB in on the Yggy, it’s good but it’s not great and yes AES into it is best but it’s also the fact that to get that USB in you’re going to be putting a DDC in between your PC out and the DAC.
THAT… will make a huge impact on the sound, transform what you’re getting from the Yggy. Read up on DDCs. Ther’s a great article on our front page. but you can probably find a half dozen used of them for sale out there for under $500 for pretty good stuff. The Matrix 2 is pretty popular but again I’m curious to see if your comparison between the Gustard and the Yggy are streaming vs. USB in. A DDC will give your Yggy precisely what you’re saying it’s lacking.
I should clarify I use the Gustard and the Yggdrasil with USB input on the same PC. Yes, using the built-in streamer on the A26 definitely sounds noticeably better than USB but not night-and-day better.
I was looking at getting a Holo Red at some point as well, so maybe I will do that and use AES with the Yggy before swapping it out completely.
I should also clarify that I’m not that down on it, it definitely sounds really good. It just was not as good as I was imagining it might be and probably speaks more to how good the Gustard DACs are for their price and not that the Yggdrasil is that bad or anything…
Oh, no need to worry about that man. Feel free to shit on anything you don’t like the sound of even.
I will say, I’m not entierly convinced that getting a red for a yggy is the right move though. It will certainly help and be easy to sell if you dint like it, but I kinda feel that extra money would be better put into moving a bit up in the dac tiers tbh.
As for your issues with the yggy, it sounds like the sound just isn’t what you are after. I will recomend however to give the yggy a few weeks to let your brain adjust before getting rid of it. Going from a classical ds sound to something like yggy can take some adjustment time
Oh, I should also clarify that the glitching is when playing/recording guitar using a DAW or Amp sim. There are no issues when listening to music or videos.
Great people of Sonus, my question for the day, Do you power down your streamers at the end of a musical listening session?
Does it help prolong their life to completely shut down and power up again when needed or not?
I have always viewed them like computers and i was taught to not power down my computer unless i was doing a routine update I simply never thought of this before, I disconnect power when i leave my home for a trip but otherwise very seldom power down my streamers.
In addition to tube amps, I also turn off any solid state class A, because I was under the impression that they use up a huge amount of electricity whether they’re in use or not. I think someone told me that and I never bothered to research it, so I might be wrong.
Personally I just leave most all solid state line level components on, along with any digital stuff, and most solid state amps. Only things I turn off are things with tubes (although some mfg do argue they should still be left on, but would rather not burn tube life for no reason), and really large class A amps (I’m talking amps with power draw easily above 500 or so). That being said a decent amount of higher power ss class a stuff have standby modes which may keep them somewhat hot/on in specific parts to keep them warmed up or energized.
Yes it’s wasteful from a power perspective, but honestly I don’t really worry about that too much, it’s noticeable on the bill if you calculate but perhaps a few extra bucks a month in the end unless you’re running insanely high power stuff. I’d really be more worried about potential heat that’s generated from leaving some of the higher power stuff on, for both comfort and potential fire hazard reasons before I cared about the extra electricity usage. For me the convenience of having something sound it’s best whenever I want to use it outweighs the small added cost per month onto my bill, wouldn’t even notice if I wasn’t looking for it anyways
Just as a quick example, was messing around with the parasound jc1+, which is a fairly beefy class a/b (25 watts high bias, 850 into 4 and 1300 into 2), and I notice that for both of them, when idling on they draw about 600, when in use that’s more around 800-900. But in standby it’s basically no power draw. For just being amps alone, if you left them in normal idle, that is a decent amount of power for something you’re not using and will add up. But for most other things like sources, dacs, line level components use basically negligible power in comparison where I wouldn’t personally worry about it (although things with tubes might complicate things, but you likely aren’t leaving those on). Really only things I’d worry about for being expensive to leave on would be some of those massive class a/b or higher power class a
This seems like a common practice now with modern a/b amps.
My PCs suck up a lot more power when not in use than my audio equipment does. In general though I’m probably throwing $15 a month to keep everything on
Also of note is that the new REL subs have done away with the standby option. They’re either on or off and they suck up the most power of all my gear.
Genuinely wouldn’t worry about headphone amps, they basically use nothing in comparison to some more inefficient and/or powerful speaker amps. Only time they really tend to be hogs are with tube designs, and again you likely aren’t going to be leaving those on
They use the same ammount either way, but unless it’s very powerful. It’s not a huge ammount of electricity and in the US generally electricity is cheap.
I used to turn off my Cavalli Liquid Gold, but it got insanely hot.
Like most others, I just turn off tubes, and try and limit cycling the, to once a day.
I used to leave my computer on 24/7 too, but once about 10 years ago an install was taking forever, it was late at night, and I finally said “fuck it” and went to bed, leaving it to do its thing and complete.
Well, the install hung, and burned in the image on the screen of an iMac.
After that fiasco, I always turn off my computer at night. It hasn’t had any downside so far
but you can probably find a half dozen used of them for sale out there for under $500 for pretty good stuff. The Matrix 2 is pretty popular but again I’m curious to see if your comparison between the Gustard and the Yggy are streaming vs. USB in. A DDC will give your Yggy precisely what you’re saying it’s lacking.
I simply never thought of this before, I disconnect power when i leave my home for a trip but otherwise very seldom power down my streamers.
