Gumby v Yggy Analog 2

[kubla36]

Gumby (early November 2017, starts with B) vs Yggy Analog 2 (late August 2018)

Its Yggy for me at this point. YMMV. I can see people preferring Gumby. I am not experienced with lots of DACs and have definitely lost hearing.

On Yggy break-in. I’m at about 375 hours this morning-- the pressure/fatigue is receding and the teenager falsettos are gone. Various people say 500-800 hours to reach stable performance, and I believe it will get there now and am not as concerned about passing the return window. This is similar to my experience with Gumby. Why post now before reaching at least 500? Well, I exhaust all my patience at work. As impressive as the first few notes were, it would have gone back if it hadn’t begun to smooth (or burned a few more db off my hearing). I left it playing the whole time so far, only listening on the weekends. It certainly doesn't have the delta sigma haze. I might have to reconsider if it doesn't keep mellowing in its highs. I'm still being careful with the volume (not cranking as high as with Gumby); the dog hasn't been spending as much time in the room with me.

Differences:
Additional detail, clarity and depth. Its just a little more, but that little seems to be enough shadowing to add more dimension to the painting. 3D like everyone says.

Bass has more. (Tubas on Prokofiev’s Dance of the Knights have deeper umph and slight tingling)

Stage: my room got longer/deeper, maybe a smidge wider or not. The instruments/singers moved back a bit from each other (more air), and there seemed to be more height differences (soft guitar seemed to move higher to the right on Bowie’s Somebody Up There). Think of a cone. The first two thirds from the listener seemed equivalent between the two. But the last third was deeper with the Yggy, I heard further into the room.

Singers seemed more alive. You heard just a little more of them and sounds they make—like a little more of a quiver in their voice that you may not have noticed as clearly on Gumby (Nina Simone I put a spell on you, or Andy Gibb Desire). The Gumby has more soul (Zapp and Roger, Heard it through the Grapevine), I don’t know if this will change as more hours accrue, I hope it does (I can't smell the sweat just yet).

Music that has more dynamics suffer in comparison once hearing on Yggy you dont want to go back (Prince, Erotic City).

Clarity really helps everything from understanding lyrics to guitar plucks, even bass guitars seem more to have more decay on notes (Angelo Badalamenti, The Nightingale).

Definitely a quieter background (Depeche Mode, Personal Jesus 7”). I can almost see a different smoothing curve as I listen between the two.
The Gumby is softer as it smooths things with a little less detail and punch and likely better for harsher recordings and some styles of music as others note. I haven't compared them with the MC275 yet.

Reviewers say the Yggy demands more attention. The detail can be distracting. I suspect I will get use to that (is it a soft music in the background kind of DAC). I had a spacey walk at the dog park after listening all day (my brain getting reprogrammed).