Good comments Gdhal,
Many of us here will agree with you on how important speakers are!!!
But after that, I too believe the source of the music is super important!!!!
And many feel the ladder type DAC to be the way to go.
So, we will look forward to hearing how that works out for you? Schiit is a well respected name in the industry these days.
Let us know, please,
Happy listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

WayneWilmeth wrote: Good comments Gdhal,
Many of us here will agree with you on how important speakers are!!!
But after that, I too believe the source of the music is super important!!!!
And many feel the ladder type DAC to be the way to go.
So, we will look forward to hearing how that works out for you? Schiit is a well respected name in the industry these days.
Let us know, please,
Happy listening,
God Bless,
Wayne

Thank you, Wayne. Sure, I'll report back once I have it hooked in, broken it and auditioned for a while. That could be two months or so as the current status is Schiit isn't shipping until after 9/14 (and their dates only move further out, not in )

Something else I'd like to add regarding my rationale for buying the Yggdrasil is that the focus of the unit is LPCM. I couldn't care less for DSD or MQA, nor does the Yggy. So many other DACs try/need to do it all (and is part of the reason they can be more expensive). Also, I like the appearance of the Yggy. I despise the look of the Chord Dave, albeit I wouldn't mind having one

GDHAL wrote:
One last thing which bears repeating. Multibit, multibit, multibit. I have three delta sigma DACS and have "subscribed to" and otherwise "bought into" Mike Moffat's (and others) claim that digital "perfection"can only be achieved via multibit R2R ladder DACS. I shall see/hear

Now you've got me reading and learning more about DACs. My Vega is a Delta-Sigma, but they do some very interesting filtering ahead of that (if I understand correctly). Personally, I think the filtering can be very important because of unnatural "pre-ringing" from linear phase filters. The Vega allows you to choose among 4 types of filters (6 for DSD streams). I don't stream DSD at the moment.

At least, if you don't like it, Shiit has a return policy...

While I am drooling over some of the setups in signatures here, I wanted to post initial impressions of the TRefs using my 'reverse entry-level’ approach - whereby you blow your budget on the reference speakers based on demoing, and then figure out afterwards how to affordably power them (while also taking into consideration having some video switching and a zone 2). My TRrefs arrived, and for now to get things up and running and satisfy those considerations, I bought a Yamaha RX-A1070 to try out…after many hours of research, I went with what I knew best and checked enough of the near-term wish list boxes.

The lowest of Yamaha’s ‘true’ Aventage line (10XX/20XX/30XX/C5100), this receiver retails at $1200. I owned an RX-A1000 seven years ago, and up until a year ago it was my main receiver (until replacing with a RX-A3060 for a year). I have the unit set as ‘audiophile’ as one can get for now (on an AV receiver admittedly) – no special audio processing, Pure Direct mode, 2 channel stereo setting, etc. I have not done the YPAO setup with mic yet, just told it I had 2 large speakers and no sub and started to play music. Out of the box I wanted to get the speakers playing some music to start the break-in process. So, without having a CD player or my FLAC NAS files hooked up (still moving into this new house!), I have been streaming audio with the connectivity built into the RX-A1070. Tidal (flac) and Spotify’s 320kbps product (PCM) honestly both sound great through the speakers. I know this is far lower quality than some on the forum would listen to (and the Tidal is normal FLAC, not their MQA), but I want to emphasize that the quality in the TRefs is evident even with this source material. Hardwired with ethernet to our network, the receiver is performing DAC duties with its 'ESS Sabre 9006A Premier Audio' DAC chip – so just the RX-A1070 and the TRefs.

I am familiar with the volume levels on this receiver from years of usage (in its -A1000 form), and I have to say it is remarkable just how efficient the Goldenears are, because the Yamaha is driving these TRefs to fill the room at a lower level on the volume knob than I have ever needed before. As in, in this large room (18x20, x 10-24’ high), I achieve ‘full’ listening volume at -25 to -20db, when the receiver can go from -80db to +16.5db. Before, with the same RXA-1000 receiver driving my Paradigm Monitor 11 v6 towers for years, I know I could easily do 0.0db or +5.0db as a ‘high’ volume without having to worry about my eardrums or the speakers..receiver 'Max db' was default +16.5 db which I quickly lowered to -5.0 to protect these speakers, (and might even do -10, worried about ‘fat finger’ accidents in the volume sliders of the iOS apps I use to control this all!) Reveling in the sound, I am probably already listening to them louder than I normally would.

I got the dual-zone working on the receiver (hooray), and earlier had it linked playing same audio inside and out at same time. Moving from patio zone 2 to inside with the Goldenears is like night and day (as it should be) Outside is flat sound, background music, while inside there is separation and depth. The patio sounds nice enough when you are sitting outside for a while, but then you come in and it is like someone lifted a blanket off the speaker (or took earmuffs off), and all of a sudden you hear levels of detail that you didn’t even realize you were missing. I can't get over how good these are even without break-in and fancier gear for source/amp etc. Played the Eagles’ Hotel California earlier and I could hear some kind of washboard type percussion that I’ve never heard before. Played some Queen and could pick out the ‘tinking’ of stray drum brushes hitting other pieces of the kit. And this is through the streaming products, so it’s only going to get better as I upgrade the DAC/pre-amp/amp in various forms. For a start, I might get a separate power amp to supplement the RX-A1070, which has pre-outs for the fronts. Or figure out a switching option where I can use this RX-A1070 to handle the video connections (and audio zone 2) but have a separate pre/pro for 2 channel. For now, this sounds good enough and the zone 2 works to get music out to the patio with ease (while still sounding good in the main room). Haven't tried classical music through the TRefs yet, as was in a classic rock mood, but everything I've thrown at it has been great so far.

I am saving the Johnny Hartman / John Coltrane test run until later tonight, after 12 hours of break-in, with lights suitably dimmed and a scotch in-hand...

I use an Esoteric SACD player which uses the burr brown pcm1704 r to r ladder dac. It sounds better than any single bit (ESS9018Pro) dac I have heard. I find the single bit players and dacs more forward sounding.

Interesting stuff here guys!!!!
Gdhal, that DAC sounds great except for me, the lack of DSD would be a deal breaker. But if you don't go for any DSD music, then you should be good to go with it.
hot_rod, you have quite an amazing audio journey going on, glad you got something you like for now, AND zone 2 to boot, enjoy!!!
stereo5, I would love to hear that Esoteric SACD player with your new TRefs, must sound awesome!!!! That SACD player is quite expensive, but, as I said, the source is likely the most important part of a system, if it doesn't get things right, the signal can never be made better from there on out.
Charlie, looking for more updates as your TRefs get more playing time.
Happy listening all, God bless,
Wayne