Herb Reichert, September 2018 (Vol.41 No.9):
My first CD player was a portable: a Sony Walkman. My second CD player was a sturdy black TEAC VRDS 7, which I quickly relegated to transport-only duties serving one or another DACs from Audio Note. From the start, I enjoyed playing CDs. But compared to LPs, digital sounded deficient in contrast and conspicuously artificial, in a plastic-bottles-in-the-ocean kind of way. It felt distant and mechanical. Nonetheless, my brain readily adapted to its shortcomings.
After the TEAC, I switched to a C.E.C. TL2 belt-drive CD transport, which I thought made digital sound less digital. When I began writing for Stereophile, my transport was my computer, connected to an easy-flowing Halide DAC HD. During its tenure, the Halide drove a variety of integrated amplifiers, which in turn powered my wall-mounted Rogers LS3/5a loudspeakers. Then . . .
My friend Sphere loaned me his Schiit Audio Asgard headphone amplifier and Bifrost DAC (with Multibit upgrade), and a pair of AKG K812 headphones—whereupon I got hooked on audiophile-grade headphones and the Edgar Allen Poe-tential of a company named Schiit. Schiit's Bifrost Multibit DAC ($399) had an intoxicating, natural-feeling vitality and a special kind of infectious bounce, the likes of which I'd never before experienced from digital.
When Schiit introduced their much-anticipated Yggdrasil DAC ($2399), my wait for a review sample was long—Yggys were selling like free ice cream, and Schiit's principals, Mike Moffat and Jason Stoddard, didn't have one to spare. While I waited, I reviewed Schiit's Ragnarok integrated amplifier, and listened to Yggys at every headphone show. Both Schiits seemed to sound vigorously dynamic yet calm and relaxed. At last, my own Yggdrasil arrived. Within a few days, it had become my first true reference DAC.
Analog 2 upgrade
Recently, I noticed that streamed and computer-sourced files via USB sound less flat and more engaging, like somebody turned up the Contrast knob, than I get from CDs via S/PDIF. The difference in sound between these two sources/inputs was more obvious after Schiit had installed in my Yggdrasil their Analog 2 upgrade ($550), which, per their website, will "Bring your older Yggdrasil up to full Yggdrasil Analog 2 specification." The upgrade includes two new output cards, and a firmware update for the DSP board. From Schiit's webpage for this upgrade: "Due to the need for firmware and hardware updates, this upgrade must be done by Schiit, or by an authorized service center. . . . Because of this, there is no self-install option, sorry. . . . Yggdrasil Analog 2 upgrades are covered by a 2-year warranty or the balance of the original [five-year] factory warranty, whichever is greater. For factory-installed upgrades on out-of-warranty products, this re-activates the warranty on the complete product for 2 years." My Yggdrasil was antediluvian. While it was in the shop, Schiit brought it up to 2018 specs by also installing the Gen 5 USB digital input upgrade ($150), which, per their website, features: "1. Electromagnetic and electrostatic isolation using transformer coupling. 2. Self-power by the DAC for the critical low-noise re-clocking and latching sections. 3. Precision local clocks for both 44.1 and 48k multiples." New Yggdrasils cost $2399, $100 more than old Yggdrasils, and include both upgrades.
Listening
I meant what I suggested in the conclusion of my review of BorderPatrol's DAC SE, elsewhere in this issue: to my ears and taste, the fully upgraded Yggdrasil Analog 2 sounds more natural, neutral, accurate, and transparent, more filled with light, and less exaggeratedly male or female, yin or yang, left or right brain, than the Border Patrol or Benchmark DAC3 HGC DACs. The more I listened to the Analog 2 upgrade, the more just right it sounded. My original Yggdrasil made music in a fun, highly articulate way, but its empty spaces were filled with a fine, vibrating, subliminal grain. That vibrating haze might have originated in my CD transport, my computer, or my brain—but with the Analog 2 upgrade, it was now completely gone. Was the cause the Gen 5 USB upgrade? No matter. Through the Yggdrasil Analog 2, backgrounds were now more transparent and "black" than before. Which, to my delight, allowed new sonic delicacies to emerge. As I type this, I'm listening to Vladimir Horowitz play Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in E, K.380, from Horowitz in Moscow (16-bit/44.1kHz, Deutsche Grammophon/Tidal HiFi), and I'm mesmerized by the tiniest subtleties of the master's touch. My mind follows and sees the butterfly-like tactility of every keystroke. Following Horowitz's fingers was a rare delight: No other DAC—not the BorderPatrol, not the Benchmark DAC3 HGC, not even the HoloAudio "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3—has been able to direct my attention to this aspect of Horowitz's marvelous playing.
The Analog 2 upgrade retained all of the original Yggdrasil's virtues, especially its force and drive, but with a new spiderweb delicacy, more lower-octave density, and, most important, a more complete transparency.
I use ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax's Southern Journey anthologies as tools to estimate how effectively a DAC can dig into a recording's bitstream. Lomax made these 1959 field recordings with a stereo microphone and an Ampex open-reel tape recorder. The remasterings released by Rounder Records are renowned for their vividness and spatial acuity. The Yggdrasil Analog 2 let me count the singers in the Belleville A Capella Choir singing "John the Revelator," from Southern Journey, Volume 8: Velvet Voices—Eastern Shores Choirs, Quartets, and Colonial Era Music (CD, Rounder Select 1708). The Analog 2 let me do this counting with more certainty than any DAC of my experience except the HoloAudio Spring, which images with equal precision but places its images on a darker soundstage. I could "see" the singers better through the Yggdrasil Analog 2 because its aural lens was more sharply focused, wider angled, and let through more "light" than the Spring's.
I spent nearly a week listening to the 13 volumes of Southern Journey while alternating between the HoloAudio Spring and the Yggdrasil Analog 2. Each artist's high sentiment and rural American spirituality were communicated extremely well through both DACs. So were the tones of their acoustic guitars, banjos, pianos, and voices. Best of all . . .
Summing Up
The Schiit DAC combined its signature insightfulness with a most perfect sort of transparency—not a presentation that sounded hollow or switched off, like a mute switch, but one that was alive and scintillating with energy, yet perfectly hear-through and see-through. For me, transparency implies a feeling of being there—right in front of the microphones. The Schiit enabled that extremely well. Schiit Audio's Yggdrasil Analog 2 made music that did not feel reformed or reconstituted. Compared to the original Yggdrasil, the Analog 2's sound was quieter, more refined, more transparent, more silky, more tactile. If you liked the Yggdrasil, you'll love the Analog 2. I promise.—Herb Reichert
Recently, I noticed that streamed and computer-sourced files via USB sound less flat and more engaging, like somebody turned up the Contrast knob, than I get from CDs via S/PDIF. The difference in sound between these two sources/inputs was more obvious after Schiit had installed in my Yggdrasil their Analog 2 upgrade ($550), which, per their website, will "Bring your older Yggdrasil up to full Yggdrasil Analog 2 specification." The upgrade includes two new output cards, and a firmware update for the DSP board. From Schiit's webpage for this upgrade: "Due to the need for firmware and hardware updates, this upgrade must be done by Schiit, or by an authorized service center. . . . Because of this, there is no self-install option, sorry. . . . Yggdrasil Analog 2 upgrades are covered by a 2-year warranty or the balance of the original [five-year] factory warranty, whichever is greater. For factory-installed upgrades on out-of-warranty products, this re-activates the warranty on the complete product for 2 years." My Yggdrasil was antediluvian. While it was in the shop, Schiit brought it up to 2018 specs by also installing the Gen 5 USB digital input upgrade ($150), which, per their website, features: "1. Electromagnetic and electrostatic isolation using transformer coupling. 2. Self-power by the DAC for the critical low-noise re-clocking and latching sections. 3. Precision local clocks for both 44.1 and 48k multiples." New Yggdrasils cost $2399, $100 more than old Yggdrasils, and include both upgrades.
I meant what I suggested in the conclusion of my review of BorderPatrol's DAC SE, elsewhere in this issue: to my ears and taste, the fully upgraded Yggdrasil Analog 2 sounds more natural, neutral, accurate, and transparent, more filled with light, and less exaggeratedly male or female, yin or yang, left or right brain, than the Border Patrol or Benchmark DAC3 HGC DACs. The more I listened to the Analog 2 upgrade, the more just right it sounded. My original Yggdrasil made music in a fun, highly articulate way, but its empty spaces were filled with a fine, vibrating, subliminal grain. That vibrating haze might have originated in my CD transport, my computer, or my brain—but with the Analog 2 upgrade, it was now completely gone. Was the cause the Gen 5 USB upgrade? No matter. Through the Yggdrasil Analog 2, backgrounds were now more transparent and "black" than before. Which, to my delight, allowed new sonic delicacies to emerge. As I type this, I'm listening to Vladimir Horowitz play Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in E, K.380, from Horowitz in Moscow (16-bit/44.1kHz, Deutsche Grammophon/Tidal HiFi), and I'm mesmerized by the tiniest subtleties of the master's touch. My mind follows and sees the butterfly-like tactility of every keystroke. Following Horowitz's fingers was a rare delight: No other DAC—not the BorderPatrol, not the Benchmark DAC3 HGC, not even the HoloAudio "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3—has been able to direct my attention to this aspect of Horowitz's marvelous playing.
The Schiit DAC combined its signature insightfulness with a most perfect sort of transparency—not a presentation that sounded hollow or switched off, like a mute switch, but one that was alive and scintillating with energy, yet perfectly hear-through and see-through. For me, transparency implies a feeling of being there—right in front of the microphones. The Schiit enabled that extremely well. Schiit Audio's Yggdrasil Analog 2 made music that did not feel reformed or reconstituted. Compared to the original Yggdrasil, the Analog 2's sound was quieter, more refined, more transparent, more silky, more tactile. If you liked the Yggdrasil, you'll love the Analog 2. I promise.—Herb Reichert
