The Yggdrasil arrived a couple days ago and I finally got my "stuff" together today and put it in the rack. This is a key part of a series of upgrades that includes a new room.
The Yggy is replacing a Benchmark DAC1, 2008 vintage, connecting my Mac Mini to the McIntosh MC2500 preamp. The MC2500 has a very good DAC already, but a pre without a DAC is in my future. The Benchmark had been in storage for a while, and is still a fine piece of equipment, leading to the topic at hand...
The Yggy straight out of the box sounded more "full" - not putting down the Benchmark here, but the best way I can describe this is that the old DAC sounded somewhat thin by comparison. I also hear more detail, especially in the mid range. Have had it on just a couple hours, and only once has it sounded a bit edgy, which might have been more detail showing up on that track. This DAC is widely reported as needing something like a couple days' continuous running to settle in. I look forward to that.
The final test was the WAF - Boss Girl walked into the room and while I was playing the second track with the Yggy, asked "Sounds good, what changed?".
I'd like to thank Tom (W9TR) for his sage advice, and Dan posthumously for his influential review.
Here's a picture of the unit with a little something we picked up in Roskilde years ago that I found when unpacking.
