Schiit Yggdrasil DAC Arrived

jdandy

jdandy

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My new Schiit Yggdrasil DAC arrived this afternoon. It didn't take long to unpack the double boxes and get the Yggdrasil installed in the living room rack. I relocated the Aurender N100H music server to the top shelf on the right side of the turntable and slipped the Yggy onto the shelf where the Aurender and W4S DAC2 had been. The silver finish looks rather charming with the black components. Marlene even commented that she thought it looked nice in silver.

The Yggdrasil is connected to the Aurender N100H with a Wireworld Platinum Starlight USB cable and is powered with a Wireworld Silver Eclipse power cord. Setup was simple and easy. In no time I had music pouring from the PMC EB1i speakers into the living room from the N100H and the Yggy through the C2300 and MC452. I have to admit the Yggdrasil sounds good right out of the box with the 72 hours of burn-in at the factory. I expected to be underwhelmed but I am pleasantly surprised. Of course I'm not overlooking all the testimony with respect to additional break-in hours and expect the quality and integrity of the Yggdrasil's sound to steadily improve. None the less, I am experiencing no problems listening to the Yggdrasil in its present state of freshness.

I plan to leave the Yggdrasil energized 24/7 for its entire life. The power switch is located on the rear panel and I see no reason to ever turn it off again. The good people at Schiit said they never turn their DAC's off. That's good enough for me. Once I have 400 to 500 hours on the Yggy I will get serious with taking notes and developing a review. For now my plan is to let the Yggdrasil play and log plenty of break-in hours. More to come.


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Congratulations Dan. I’m interested too and have been reading other reviews. Looks like a winner. Can’t wait for your updates.
 
I spent five hours listening to the Yggdrasil DAC this afternoon and evening. It is now silent, powered on and burning in. First impression aside it needs time to mature, just as everyone has stated. Although I could clearly sense the potential of its musical nature, I also picked up on some edge and glare in upper register piano notes, horns, and upper fret guitar notes. Bass seems solid and tuneful but I expect the entire frequency range will reach a more harmonious stride once several hundred hours of burn-in has passed. I will check in on the Yggdrasil from time to time over the next three to four weeks as the burn-in progresses to measure the purity of its development, keep notes on what I hear, then at approximately 500+ hours I will begin paying serious attention to its sound. Until that time I will remain patient. I'm positive there is a sleeping giant here that needs to be gently prodded awake.
 
jdandy said:
I spent five hours listening to the Yggdrasil DAC this afternoon and evening. It is now silent, powered on and burning in. First impression aside it needs time to mature, just as everyone has stated. Although I could clearly sense the potential of its musical nature, I also picked up on some edge and glare in upper register piano notes, horns, and upper fret guitar notes. Bass seems solid and tuneful but I expect the entire frequency range will reach a more harmonious stride once several hundred hours of burn-in has passed. I will check in on the Yggdrasil from time to time over the next three to four weeks as the burn-in progresses to measure the purity of its development, keep notes on what I hear, then at approximately 500+ hours I will begin paying serious attention to its sound. Until that time I will remain patient. I'm positive there is a sleeping giant here that needs to be gently prodded awake.
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Congrats Dan! The Yggdrasil has also caught my eye. Your journey so far has me even more interested. Looking forward to reading more as you get along with the new unit and as its breaking in.
 
MikeCh said:
Congrats Dan! The Yggdrasil has also caught my eye. Your journey so far has me even more interested. Looking forward to reading more as you get along with the new unit and as its breaking in.
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MikeCh.......Thank you. Although I hadn't been vocal about it, I had every intention of purchasing a new DAC to mate with the Aurender N100H music server. I was pleasantly surprised to discover Schiit Audio, even more surprised to learn about the Yggdrasil, and completely floored to discover the astonishingly reasonable price.

The more I learned as I read about Schiit Audio and its products the more impressed I became. The two owners, Mike Moffat and Jason Stoddard, are audio industry heavyweights with a long history of remarkable contributions to both digital and analog development. The fact that their company's mission is to apply that wealth of knowledge producing premium audio components at nearly unbelievable price points is one more brilliant milestone in their record books. They are causing quite a shock wave in the industry with products that outperform competitors products costing substantially higher prices. No wonder talking Schiit has become so popular.
 
So it worked out after all, congrats!


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The Yggdrasil DAC continues its burn-in. I listened to it this morning for a couple hours and it is steadily headed in the right direction. I can already sense the musically involving nature in its sound. Listening this morning was quite enjoyable. The edge I experience in the upper frequency range during the first hours on Saturday has already vanished. I have logged nearly 48 hours of burn-in plus the 72 hours Schiit puts on it at the factory. Impressive improvements are definitely being made. Even though Schiit Audio offers a 15 day return period, I have no intention of returning the Yggdrasil DAC. It isn't going anywhere.
 
The fit and finish of the Schiit Yggdrasil is very good. It is obvious the overall design concept and execution eschews exotic fancy CNC milled face plates and enclosures or other unnecessary shiny bling that would certainly drive cost up. I prefer the serious attention and true value be inside the box. That being said, the curved anodized aluminum enclosure is attractive, as is the contrasting painted surfaces on the sides and rear apron. I also like the manner in which Schiit chose to identify the incoming sample rate using small white LED's to identify 44.1kHz or 48kHz and then indicate with other LED's whether those sampling rates are x1, x2, x4, or x8. This simplifies the front panel and eliminates the noisy digital circuit required to support an alpha/numeric digital display. It is clean, simple, attractive, and cost conscious. The entire design concept of the Yggdrasil demonstrates where their priorities are. It is not about expensive rarefied visual impact. It is about the purity of music reproduction.


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Thank you for the update Dan, looks great and already sounding great is awesome.
 
Hi Dan,

Thanks for sharing more info so far.

Would you mind explaining how you're burning in the new Yggdrasil? Are you running a stream thru the Aurender and into the Yggdrasil 24/7? Or, are you doing something else to clock hours?
 
MikeCh said:
Hi Dan,

Thanks for sharing more info so far.

Would you mind explaining how you're burning in the new Yggdrasil? Are you running a stream thru the Aurender and into the Yggdrasil 24/7? Or, are you doing something else to clock hours?
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Mike.......Yes, I am breaking in the Yggdrasil and the Aurender N100H at the same time. I play various 16/44.1, 24/88, 24/96, and 24/192 music files on repeat 24 hours a day. It began the moment I energized the Yggdrasil at 3:00 PM last Saturday. I do not plan to ever turn the DAC off. The USB data stream from the Aurender N100H will continue uninterrupted for at least 500 hours. I have been told by other Yggdrasil and Gungnir Gumby DAC owners that these DAC's do not require a signal for break-in, just be turned on. I prefer to have electron flow through all the circuit paths including the analog output stages so I am sending a digital music stream via USB from the N100H to the Yggy. In the mornings when I enjoy my pastry and coffee I turn on the C2300 and MC452 for a listen. The remainder of the time it is just the N100H and the Yggdrasil left energized and playing. There is no magical way to perform break-in. The hours have to be logged. Whether or not the Yggdrasil can be effectively broken-in without a digital signal being fed to it is irrelevant to me. I break in gear in the manner for which I plan to use it, and that generally means with a signal passing through it.
 
no offense, but 500 hours break-in seems over the top for a dac, particularly this one without fancy parts. if it doesn't sound good after 100 hours, it would be going back for me. in fact, more like 48 hours.

that said, i've heard very good things about this one - pay particular attention to big orchestra and scaled dynamics/clarity over your break-in.
 
Keith.......I would agree that anything beyond a couple of hundred hours of break-in might seem excessive. On the other hand, I would be listening to it anyway, so perhaps I should rephrase my comment. I will be listening to the Yggdrasil well beyond 500 hours for any improvements that may develop after 200 hours. I already know this DAC is not going back.
 
jdandy said:
Mike.......Yes, I am breaking in the Yggdrasil and the Aurender N100H at the same time. I play various 16/44.1, 24/88, 24/96, and 24/192 music files on repeat 24 hours a day.
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Dan, thanks for confirming what seemed like the logical method for breaking in the new DAC. Sending PM.
 
Mike.......Signals through all paths is the only way to fully break-in a component. I have the Yggdrasil connected USB to my Aurender N100H, coaxial connected to a Denon transport, and Toslink optical connected to the Sonos zone player, so those three different inputs are getting their time in the sun so to speak. Not counting the 72 hours of passive burn-in at the Schiit Audio factory, I have 73 hours of active break-in on the USB input. I will switch to the coaxial input at 100 hours, then to the optical for about 50 hours, then back to the USB at 250 hours. The BNC and AES/EBU inputs will remain unused. I don't listen to the Sonos much except for Internet radio, so no extended time on the optical input will be necessary for my purposes.

The Yggdrasil DAC is gradually opening up. I listened to the Yggy and Aurender N100H this morning for a couple of hours, some new age, some blues, and some jazz. It was enjoyable and I found myself smiling. I take that as a good sign.
 
KeithR said:
no offense, but 500 hours break-in seems over the top for a dac, particularly this one without fancy parts. if it doesn't sound good after 100 hours, it would be going back for me. in fact, more like 48 hours.

that said, i've heard very good things about this one - pay particular attention to big orchestra and scaled dynamics/clarity over your break-in.
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The North Star Design Venti takes several hundred hours to really settle in to its sound. Off the bat you can tell it will be special, but it takes much more time to become what it was designed to be. I don't find it particularly unsettling for a DAC to take that much time to really blossom, though it can be a bit intimidating.
 
Dan, when you sit for a listen do you go back and listen to some of the same tracks you began with? I'm thinking to compare differences due to break in using a few go to tracks each time would help.
 
To get an as good or better Dac you would have to spend many thousands more so in my view it’s worth every hour of the breakin period. Not that it sounds bad from the get go even at that. I have seen many many skeptics do a 180 degree turn about when this puppy is broken in.
 
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