New Yggdrasil - First (and second) Impressions

@david_ten

Thank you!

One more comment on burn-in, then I'll stop...but I was just reminded of it when I dropped my new SOTM "trifecta" stack into my system last night.

Aside from the soundstage effects you can sometimes hear that I previously mentioned...

One clear side-effect I very often hear when dropping in a factory-new source into a system (like a DAC, streamer, Roon endpoint, etc.)...the resulting PACE gives the impression of just the slightest, but very noticeable, perception of "slowing down" of a song that you know very well.  It needs to be a song that you have listened to for years to really notice it.  Often the tonal qualities, detail, and even soundstage are there as you would hope for, but something about it still doesn't sound "right"...and when you really listen, you can realize that the timing of piano strikes, drum strikes, guitar string plucks, etc...will sometime sound just the slightest bit delayed from what you are used to.  LIke it's just slightly dragging the whole song.

It's a very strange effect, and I cannot explain why I find this to be true.  And it almost always goes away after the first 24 hours of continuous play for me...it's rarely a day 3 or 4 or beyond thing.

I also noticed this same effect with new cross-overs (twice).  I've never heard this with burning in carts for turntables or tubes (although I hear other tonal and soundstage changes there).

Maybe this is a caps thing?

Just wanted to mention that as something else you might try to listen for on a new piece.

Also, my new Yggy arrived yesterday, but I'm not going to set it up for a little bit as I want to get the SOTM gear situated before I make an Yggy comparison between non analog 2 and analog 2.

I will also be sure to do some critical listening right out of the box to see if I hear anything change over the first couple of weeks and beyond and report back.

@parsons +1 Great points.

the resulting PACE gives the impression of just the slightest, but very noticeable, perception of "slowing down" of a song that you know very well..... Often the tonal qualities, detail, and even soundstage are there as you would hope for, but something about it still doesn't sound "right"...will sometime sound just the slightest bit delayed from what you are used to. LIke it's just slightly dragging the whole song.

I find it apparent irrespective of "It needs to be a song that you have listened to for years to really notice it."

parsons - ....the resulting PACE gives the impression of just the slightest, but very noticeable, perception of "slowing down" of a song that you know very well....

I heard (or believe I did) the subtlest of timing difference once in a Rolling Stones song when I first compared my Oppo to Yggy.  That would be the timing between the Oppo vs Yggy, and it was during a vocal passage. At that time the Yggy wasn't broken-in by the standard of days/hours many state is required to sound optimum. My point is I understand what you're referring to regarding perception of timing (slow or fast) which is likely milliseconds and can only be perceived from tunes that your mind is accustomed to hearing many times throughout the years.

It seems reasonable to me that these types of tunes that one is accustomed to hearing for years would be studio recordings. In my case I listen to new (I haven't heard it even once) live recordings, which makes it impossible to detect the type timing anomalies that could result from break-in or DAC to DAC comparison.