minimus67

Chris, I really enjoyed reading this review, which is obviously groundbreaking. I have never before read a professional review of an affordable audio component that compares it another component costing 6 times and does not pull punches or glosses over the actual comparison. Writers on some online audio forums were pretty condescending about the Yggrasil, dismissing the positive word-of-mouth as the product of ignorance and hype from the "great unwashed" who were exalting a mid-fi DAC because they cannot afford or refuse to pay for a truly excellent DAC. Your review greatly undermines that condescending viewpoint. Kudos to you!

That's an interesting possibility. At one point, I considered the Sonore Signature Rendu, given the fantastic reviews it has received, and was briefly in contact with Sonore about a possible demo. At the time, I hadn't bought a computer source yet, so a demo would have been pointless. I will let them know about my current setup and see whether they think the SSR would be a good possible solution.

I will certainly heed that advice -- I have bought a few audio components new over the years with no return privilege and regretted it. But here is my thinking: My CD transport, a Bel Canto CD3t, was not particularly expensive ($1300) yet it sounds great through the SPDIF input on the Behold. My assumption/hope is that I can get the Mac mini to sound almost as good as the Bel Canto CD3t by adding a converter (or maybe an Ethernet renderer) to the mix. This hope is derived from various CA threads, including the epic "15 USB-SPDIF converters shootout" thread by Elberoth from a few years ago. He seemed to get great sound quality from some of the converters he tried, which roughly matched the sound quality of his CD transport, which is much more expensive than mine. Is this wishful thinking? (I know he was using a CAPS server, which is more optimized for audio playback than the Mac mini is.)

Esldude, I guess I should have known more about how the Behold integrated actually works. Thanks for the explanation. I guess the only way a USB DAC could possibly sound better than a USB-SPDIF converter is if the analog inputs of the Behold integrated somehow introduce less jitter than its SPDIF digital inputs. That seems unlikely, so I guess I will start shopping for a USB-SPDIF converter.

I am a lurker on CA and am looking for some advice. My system consists of a recently purchased 2014 Mac mini music server connected by Toslink to an integrated amp/DAC, the Behold Gentle G192. My speakers are Behold Tanara. Because these speakers' crossovers are in the amp, not the speakers themselves, I need to keep the Behold Gentle in the system.) The Behold Gentle G192 DAC only has Toslink and SPDIF digital inputs, not USB. It also has analog inputs. Currently, the sound quality of the Mac mini is not nearly as good as my Bel Canto CD3t transport. (I am using BitPerfect with iTunes.) Relative to my CD transport, the mini is lacking in dynamics and detail, while the frequency extremes, particularly bass, seem "truncated", for lack of a better word. I love the convenience of the mini, so am trying to figure out what I should do next to improve its sound quality. The first path I am considering is to buy a USB-SPDIF converter, such as the Berkeley Alpha USB, Off-Ramp 5 + Dynamo, AP1 + PurePower, or AR-T Legato (if still available). My understanding from reading CA is that these improve sound quality relative to a direct optical connection between mini and DAC. The all-in cost of some of these converters, once cables are included, would approach or exceed $3K. The second option is to buy a newer DAC with good asynch USB implementation and connect it to the analog inputs of the Behold integrated amp. I would consider DACs costing up to about $10K, but would prefer to stay below that threshold. The ones on my radar are the Schiit Yggdrasil, La Scala Acqua, Overdrive SE, Bricasti M1, or Totaldac (d1 single). I know that, at least for some converters and DACs, I can take advantage of return privileges. But given the large number of permutations that are potentially involved, I was wondering if anyone can offer some guidance on which direction is likely to offer better sound quality: a USB-SPDIF converter or a new USB DAC? If anyone has any experience comparing these two options, I would love to hear about it! Thanks.