johnwmclean

Kevin in the same sentence you claim you’ve never listened to a Yggdrasil yet you know other products that outperform it

There would very few companies that pass scrutiny dished out here. Regardless of the valid issues raised by Don and Chief Cook my Yggdrasil is sounding amazing.

I’ve had Pure Music and Amarra in the past and kind of struggled to hear any differences from iTunes, so I kind of stuck with iTunes for quite a while. Whilst the Yggy was being upgraded I completely re-stored my music server iMac (2012) back to factory settings, and I’m just in the process of evaluating Pure Music and Amarra again but limited to Mountain Lion (10.8). I’ve got a demo of Pure Music running at the moment and there’s quite a few differences since I last used it, and I can now hear a difference. iTunes seems a bit muddier in comparison. Do you think these playback software companies purposely shape the sound a little...? I have suspicions, but am liking what I’m hearing.

To put this into some context, I have been using a cheap USB cable (from before and after the installation of the Gen 5 board), it's been consistant in my setup, there are no other devices between the iMac and the Yggdrasil. With further listening I'm quite surprised how well the DAC is sounding, a layer of grime seems to have been removed. I wasn't expecting such a significant improvement from the original Gen 3 board, frankly I thought all this USB interface talk was a load of hype but this has me re thinking the whole front end thing.

^Agree. I recieved my Yggy back with the Gen 5 upgrade and was pleasantly surprised to hear a not too shabby level of improvement.

Oh that’s sad news! RIP Glen

RIP Betty Cuthbert 79 Four time Olympic gold medallist

True. Who knows...

Unfortunately Stax doesn't tier their product line-up with third party amps in mind. Even though the 007s do scale brilliantly with Kevin's amps and compete with the 009s, Stax is mute on the subject and for obvious reasons.

A cultured yankee! Who’d have thought...

I thought the ESS 32 bit volume solution pure win back in the day. NADs M51s volume was also a great implementation.

4’33”

FYI some jargon from Schiits webpage... Linear, Low-Noise Power Supply—Built In You won't need any "linear supplies" or other "add-ons" to improve Eitr—like all of our stackable products, we've built in a linear supply with multiple stages of ultra-low-noise voltage regulators. From the included 1.5A, 6VAC wall-wart to the output, there are no switching supplies in Eitr.

Have a great Birthday!

Where’s the best place to buy 009 replacement pads? I have a feeling I’m this is going to hurt.... a lot.