Schiit Yggdrasil MIL discussion (and measurements eventually)

x4 oversampling, not x8. This could be related to the sample and hold to eliminate glitch. At too high sampling rates, may not be possible to do a good sample and hold.

 

With a full scale signal, we get rising THD+N toward as go up in frequency past 8kHz. Could this be the cause of the "spitty" highs? In theory it shouldn't. The distortion is still too low and I'm betting much of this distortion is higher order past the range of human hearing. This concern is somewhat alleviated when we look at slightly less than full scale signals -5db and -10db. Here we see distortion in the highs become more even with the best of the band.

Let's take a look at what happens on the analyzer for 8kHz, 14kHz, and 19kHz for a full scale signals

8kHz


14kHz


19kHz


In theory, can't hear any of this. Too far up in frequency and in most instances too low in level.

 

I'd assume do. Of course they've got the megacomboburrito filter, and then custom code to send data to the chip (it's not an audio). Datasheets says voltage out, so going to be not much after it.

In theory yes. How the AP measures stuff is via FFTs (a fast compute algorithm for DCTs) which are used to create the nice spectrum analyzer visualizations. In order to calculate these presentations, we must take a certain amount of data points, 32k to 1M. By data points, we mean samples. In addition to this, to eliminate noise, we take another 3 to 10 or so averages of this.

The limitation is spectrum analysis is that they don't tell us about transient performance. In fact, distortion is transient performance would likely be buried in all that averaging and and those samples. From the attack and decay burst envelope measurements that I've been doing (headphones for now), we know that initial attacks and decays can look substantial more distorted than after signal achieves a steady-state.

So yes, in theory... Sometimes I wonder if little oddities, even if in theory we cannot hear them, may give us a slight hint of grosser errors in transient performance.

The scientific approach is to only take things at face value. That is understand that what we are seeing is reflective only of steady state sine waves.

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IN A NUTSHELL:

The Schiit Yggdrasil More is Less performs spectacularly in AmirSINAD, or more precisely in THD+N when using a 1kHz steady state sine wave at full scale into a load of 200-ohms (balanced). If you believe this measurement to be the primary determinant of state-of-the-artness, performance, sound quality, then by all means, the Schiit Yggdrasil MiL must be be considered and would be highly recommended.

From a subjective point of view, the Yggdrasil MiL is in my opinion, the worst of the Yggdrasils in that it lacks the emotion, lacks the resolution, and imparts an odd spittyness to the highs (which attempts to component match with laid-back amps and headphones could not resolved). It does have the most neutral tonal balance however. Many have asked me if the MiL should be considered if one wanted a neutral sounding R2R DAC (instead of LIM which is slightly dark or OG/A2 which is slightly V-shaped). Perhaps, but I feel the MiL is a poor value for its subjective technical performance. I'd say consider the Soekris DAC2541 (be aware of complaints that it lacks extension at the extremes or kick in the lows - I did not have any issue with it however) or even delta-sigma DACs such as the ECP Audio Walnut X.3. Alternatively, if one could opt for an Yggdrasil GS/A1 (not to be confused with the new OG/A1).

 

Yes. 10 cycles for means 10 bursts at x set of frequencies

1 cycle for longer = 1 cycle at lower frequencies.

The trick with the bursts I've been doing is the transducers have gross errors. DACs and amps have errors several magnitudes below that of transducers for steady-state signals, and then magnitudes below that for transient signals. I'll have to work on better visualizations.

 

Yup. It's basically a research assignment. I've laid a lot of groundwork, ideas, etc. Next step is for some grad student who has some time and funding to do the step next. (For example, I'm glad oratory on reddit nows includes an Optimum HiFi Target which is far better target IMO than Sean Olive's consumer target).

@baldr and have discussed these ideas over the phone. We think that the errors are in the transients, and that we would look to a transient HD.equivalent of 50-70db (which isn't that high but also not that low either). The problem as I've mentioned in the past, we can't exactly do an FFT on a transient that consists of a handful of points.

 

LOL @Grattle! Misinformation. I love it!

 

LiM is 8x. Mil is 4x. This means using HQ player should completely override the built-in filter when feeding the MiL 176/192 signals. As for "warm-up", in my experience, it's more time left on, rather than actual temperature. Some folks in Schiit feel that the DACs sound better without the chassis. (I'm not sure I can tell the difference).

 

The chassis shields against one's ability to impact the quantum performance of the DAC through telekineses.