Dan,....well, what can I say? You've done it again. Hit a home run out of the park with your thoughtful, informed, insightful and thorough review of Yggy. You and Serge make a for a team of "heavy hitters" when it comes to audio reviewing. Your Yggy review and Serge's Gumby review are the best reviews I've read of these remarkable components, bar none. Robert Harley's review in TAS is "thin" by comparison.
Its been a while since i've heard Yggy; Gumby is more familiar to me as I own one, but I think I can safely say that your findings and conclusions are 100% accurate with my own experiences, and speak to the somewhat magical way that Mssrs. Moffat and Stoddard produce remarkably musical components that get to the essence and truth of music
itself. This is the overarching attribute that I experience with their Muiltibit DACS...they sound less digital, less "sampled" or "contrived" than any digital components I've heard. They simply sound like MUSIC. IIRC, Serge, in his reviews, has said the same exact thing, verbatim. Here's one small example: you refer to the "edginess" in the sound of the Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 D/S DAC by comparison. This is the "glare" that owners of Muitlbit and R2R ladder DACs refer to regarding D/S DACs. It's hard to hear that glare until you hear a component that doesn't do it, and then all of a sudden, you can't "not hear it" anymore in those D/S components. What this means is that these fine Multibit DAC
imbue the musical reproduction with qualities and attributes that create more engaging and beguiling listening experiences. Your comment about being able to hear the rosin flying off the bow particularly struck me. I've had similar experiences listening to Jonas Starker playing cello in a small church, where the recording was made. With Gumby, you can clearly hear his breathing and the reverberations of his bow work on the strings reverberate off the walls and the notes decay into space. It's astonishing, and its these kinds of attributes that create these engaging and beguiling listening experiences. It's all these "little" things that you start hearing that you realize you've never heard before that embellishes the musical experience in a completely natural and lifelike way.
Your comment about the price vs performance ratio is spot-on, too. This is one of the great ironies (and quite honestly, its laughable when you think about it) of high-end audio: that there are a not inconsiderable number of folks out there that would not even think about or consider getting an Yggy for their system
simply because it does not cost enough. How could a $2300 component
possibly sound better than my
gold-plated Special Edition Bricasti M1?
it tells me that high-end audio in many respects has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, and many high-end components have become "vleben goods", where the perceived value is directly correlated with the price. Mike, Jason, and their legions of fans and satisfied customers all know better and are "laughing all the way to the bank", in terms of the value we are getting for our dollar. You humorously mention that Mike and Jason should come to their senses, and triple the price of Yggy; I know for a fact that will never happen, and I've read in Jason's blog on Head Fi that they are commited to, and working even harder, to drive costs DOWN.
On a parting note, in Jason's latest chapter of "Schiit Happened" on Head Fi, he talked about goals and objectives for 2018, as would any good exec of a successful company. One of the things that Jason referred to was creating design/product embodiments utilizing new analog amplfication circuit topologies and methodologies that he's developed over the last couple years. My guess is the new "Analog 2" circuitry is the first example of this. And you're right, they did this on the "QT" because I hadn't even heard about it until you mentioned it in a previous post. This is classic "Schiit-y" behavior, working quietly behind the scenes, making their products better and better, and not blowing their own horns about it, just getting on the with the job.
The great irony about a company named "Schiit" is that they
execute like nobody's business and are thoroughly "No Bull-Schiit" when it comes to product development, quality and value.
Well done!
