Schiit Audio Releases its Unison USB Upgrade

[The Computer Audiophile]

Press release:

 

 

 

 

USB, ELEVATED: INTRODUCING UNISON USB™

 

Unison USB™ Upgrades Now Available for All Schiit Upgradable DACs

 

January 28, 2020, Valencia, CA. Schiit Audio announced the immediate availability of its Unison USB™ input for all of its upgradable DACs (Bifrost, Gungnir, and Yggdrasil.) Unison USB is Schiit's unique, proprietary USB input that is the result of 2 person-years of development. Running on a general-purpose Microchip microprocessor (rather than a typical XMOS or C-Media solution), Unison USB provides superior UAC2 performance at very low current draw from the host, as well as complete electromagnetic and electrostatic isolation.

 

"Unison USB is designed to do a single thing, and to do it better than anything else: deliver exceptional PCM audio performance," said Mike Moffat, Schiit's Co-Founder and head of digital development. "As a result, Unison USB is now our preferred input over SPDIF. It's not 'just as good,' or 'close.' It's really better than SPDIF. And yes, that's me saying this, not an alien pod person."

 

Unison USB debuted in Schiit's all-new Bifrost 2 DAC last year. Now, Schiit is bringing Unison USB to all of its upgradable DACs: Bifrost, Gungnir, and Yggdrasil.

 

All models of these DACs, regardless of age can be upgraded to Unison USB. Gungnir requires a motherboard firmware re-flash, which means it needs to come back to Schiit for the upgrade. Bifrost and Yggdrasil can be upgraded by any competent technician, or can be sent back to the factory, at the owner's choice. If a customer chooses to have Schiit do the upgrade, they can continue to enjoy their DAC until it is ready to be upgraded, thanks to Schiit's upgrade queuing system.

 

All new Gungnir and Yggdrasil models will now include the Unison USB input standard. Gungnir cost increases to $899 for the delta-sigma model, and $1299 for the Multibit version. Yggdrasil increases to $2449.

 

The Unison USB upgrade is available for purchase today at Schiit.com, for $150, or for $200 including installation by Schiit. 

About Schiit Audio

 

Founded in June 2010 by Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat, Schiit has grown into a leader in affordable high-end audio, with a wide range of products spanning DACs, amplifiers and preamplifiers, and headphone amplifiers, from $49 to $2449. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Yes, go all in on the Yggy. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

My request for a Unison USB upgrade to my Yggy is in. Can't wait. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I cleaned up some intentional thread crapping and debunked measurements. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

9 minutes ago, Miska said:

Are there changes in supported playback formats? Anything higher res than 192/24 now?

 

Don’t believe so. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, plissken said:

"Forget decrapifiers, regenerators, isolators, and all the USB dongles and boxes you’ve been told you need for USB sound. Our all-new Gen 5 USB input doesn’t require any of that stuff. It’s this simple: Gen 5 is USB, solved."
- Mike Moffat, 2017
 

Been down this road already in this thread. Engineers can improve upon solutions they once deemed perfect. Done. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

It’s here :~)

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just got the Unison USB card into my Yggdrasil. One word. NICE!

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

I have a question about the Yggdrasil and its DAC/USB input.

 

Schitt says the DAC has 21 bits of resolution...  SO, what happens when you send it a 24 bit file?

Same thing that happens if you send your DAC a 32 bit file. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, AudioDoctor said:

Perhaps I am not asking my question clearly enough...

 

what happens to the last 3 bits when I send a 24 bit file to a 21 bit DAC?

 

Other than, sound comes out.

The DAC shows up as a 24 bit DAC but internally it’s better than many DACs because it has 21 bits of resolution. Playing a 24 bit recording is the same as playing it on any other DAC. Given there is probably less than 20 bits of info available on a recording, nothing is different when playing through the Yggy. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Good info in this article. Look at the quantization section. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, matthias said:

 

Ten days ago Mike Moffat posted on SBAF:

 

"We lost John Prine this week. The next day Ivana shows up and before the sun went down the Unison USB Out worked. Fuck-ton of bugs but good enough to compare to S/PDIF out." 

 

Matt

I don't speak @baldr. Perhaps he can provide an explanation :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, Jeff_N said:

Hi All,

 

I've had an unhappy experience from "upgrading" my Yggdrasil to the Unison USB interface. It may just be due to my stupidity, but in case anyone else is as stupid as me I thought I'd memorialize it here so people might find it if they Google it.

 

Chris, feel free to move this to the Aurender thread if you think it should be over there.

 

Okay here goes: My Aurender N100C worked fine using USB into the Yggdrasil for a couple years. The N100C has USB and Coax outputs, but I've always preferred the sound using USB. Then when I saw all the hype about the Unison I decided to send the Ygg to Schiit to have it installed.

 

I got the Ygg back with the Unison installed. Now every time I fast forward from one track to the next on the N100C, a loud half-second buzz is generated. The buzz occurs with both locally stored and streamed content, and even when skipping from one internet radio station to another. It was driving me nuts.

 

I swapped out the Yggdrasil for a Peachtree DAC iTx. No buzz!

 

I contacted Schiit, and their support guy told me Unison only works with Windows 10, Mac OSX, iOS, or Android. "It will most likely not work with a regular Linux system."

 

I went back and looked at the email Schiit sent out announcing the Unison, looked on their website, etc., and I may have missed it, but I don't see anywhere where they said anything like "No support for Linux" or "Only works with Windows and Mac OS" or something similar.

 

I understand hardware manufacturers can't be expected to know the compatibility of every single component out there, but IMO Aurender isn't an obscure brand, and Linux isn't an exotic OS these days. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

 

So anyway now I've spent four hundred bucks on the upgrade, shipping, and insurance, and I have a DAC that has gone from working perfectly in my system to not doing so, and I'm pretty ticked off. I guess I'm mad at a combination of Schiit and myself, and I should probably take most of the blame, which just makes it worse. When I checked the Aurender website just now the only Schiit DAC it shows to be compatible is the Bifrost.

 

The Aurender sounds too damned good to get rid of. I don't know what I'll do now. I may think about selling the Yggdrasil and getting another DAC. Right now I'm too bummed to think about it.

 

Jeff

 

 

Hi Jeff, thanks for the information. All is not lost. This can be fixed, but will take some work.

 

Let's pull in @AriMargolis from Aurender to see if the company has experienced this issue or can duplicated it. Perhaps, an update to the Aurender Linux OS can fix this for every Schiit owner.

 

I'll connect my Yggy (with Unison update) to my Aurender now to see if I can help.

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I confirm the issue here with my Yggdrasil and W20SE. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I have one of these on order as a gift and I am wondering if anyone with a Sonore device is using a Yggdrasil with the Unison USB upgrade. If so, and it isn't working, I would like to know ahead of time.

 

Maybe @The Computer Audiophile can test that too?

Been busy working on something cool all day and missed this one.

 

Does anyone still need anything tested?

[The Computer Audiophile]

23 minutes ago, Doktor Avalanche said:

I’m using an ultraRendu into an Yggdrasil with the Unison upgrade. No issues whatsoever - not a single hiccup since the day I installed. Definitely an increase in sound quality with the upgrade to my ear.
 

Strongly considering an opticalRendu and guessing there would be no difference there.

This is indicative of all the work the Sonore team does behind the scenes to get its devices working with as many DACs as possible.

[The Computer Audiophile]

12 minutes ago, AriMargolis said:

@vortecjr Aurender‘s platform is based on the standard USB audio drivers and MPD player software but it’s not just an “off the shelf” / “plug-and-play” implementation. Inevitably, some DACs do things a little differently. As you know, many DACs were not engineered explicitly for use with Linux sources, so Aurender’s SW team installs certain tweaks to achieve full compatibility when necessary. I don’t know how much if any of it is proprietary, but it is custom engineered/bespoke implementation for Aurender.

Are you guys obligated to make those tweaks available to the greater Linux community?

[The Computer Audiophile]

13 minutes ago, baldr said:

So I can’t believe I have been building digital audio stuff for Schiit up on 10 years. The worst of it for me at the beginning was building the USB inputs which I always thought sounded like ass; kinda worse than an old cassette tape or 8 track – insufferable. Like listening to Herbert von Karajan. So there has been a quote attributed to me that the Gen V was USB solved. This was a couple of years ago and I just cannot recall the context. At the risk of sounding like I attempt to change my historical opinion, this is what I thought at the time: the Gen V USB was the first USB where I could play USB and stay in the same room with it. It by no means made want to skip into the audio room to listen to it. Since I was quoted as that was USB solved, than it was like a baloney sandwich “solves” lunch – at least I would’ve probably not thrown it up. The Gen (various) USBs were all based on a C-Media USB decoder chip, there are many other chips which decode digital audio, the most popular of which is various XMOS (sic – maybe a hyphen) ones used by our competitors. As far as I know, all of our competition uses somebody’s OEM chip.

 

The Unison solution is Schiit proprietary decoding fitted in a Microchip 32 bit pic part. This allows us complete freedom in all design params, both hardware and software, optimized for best sound and factors which will please the measurebators as well. So we worked for over three man(one woman) years to get the part to Beta level. Then we sent out beta Unisons to users. This would verify how the Unison fared with various USB sources. Somehow our group of beta users missed the Aurender. Fortunately, we were able to work that out by sending them a unit and life goes on happily. So why do we want to go to the trouble of three man years to develop our own USB technology?

 

1. It is OUR technology, impossible in a chipmaker’s device.

2. We are now USB licensees with our own unique USB ID and unmatched USB support.

3. Sonic bragging rights.

 

So is this USB solved? In the sense that it is however, USB which I prefer to S/Pdif, which gets even better with a Unison host (USB encoder, so to speak). Is it likely to improve? Probably. Is it perfect? No, but I like it. A lot, and I have been doing this a long time.

More on the Unison host is that it is now in alpha, still with the very occasional glitch but magnificent when paired with a Unison receiver. The best USB connectivity I have ever heard, and superior to any AES or S/Pdif in my experience. It is getting close to Beta but I still need to get it going with a common variety of OP’s (other people’s) USB chips before I send them out in the wild to see what else lurks there.

 

Is it solved? I dunno. In 35 years of digital audio engineering, I experienced maybe 4 or 5 true audio major events. Two of them were Unison. The only time I ever thought I solved something was when I finished my first DSP D/A converter in 1985. I got it to market in just ahead of the Wadia which made it first on the market. Here I set dozens of D/A converters later and the meaning of “solved” is yet more numinous. Sure enjoyed all of those years, though.

 

Mike

So much fresh meat in that post Mike, I don't know where to start :~)

 

Thanks for all the information. After interviewing Ed Meitner about why he designs custom DAC chips and seeing your post here, I can conclude the two of you guys certainly like your freedom. When it's your own design, you can do what you want and aren't at the will of anyone else. I like it. 

 

I'm listening to the Yggdrasil (analog 2 & Unison USB) going into a Jot-R and SR1a headphones as I type this. It's hard to beat what I'm hearing for less money, and even a whole bunch more money :~)

 

I can't wait to see the Unison digital output. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, AudioDoctor said:

SO is this device going to be a CD player? A Server? What exactly?

Oh how the options open up when it's one's own tech :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

50 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

If I am wrong, I am sure everyone will correct me.

That's not the internet I know and love :~)

[The Computer Audiophile]

I think the transport idea is really cool, but I have zero interest in ever spinning a plastic disc again. I guess I’m off @baldr’s Christmas card list this year :~)

 

I look forward to @JoeWhip reviewing it for AS. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

36 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

 

inre client user interface, you mention jriver as separate than DLNA...does jriver have a network protocol different than DLNA?

DLNA has issues, and I have always wondered if there were any other windows based players that supported enet that wasn't DLNA?  I know roon and hqplayer have their own proprietary, but curious if there any other windows mainstream network players besides DLNA?

 

It sure would be nice if you could just operate a music player from a web browser that didn't have the misgivings of DLNA?

Aurender can stream to its own zones using an Aurender ACS and Aurender servers. This uses robust file sharing protocol CIFS behind the scenes. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

43 minutes ago, beerandmusic said:

PS- did you like the interface?  Roon sounds like good concept, but sounds bloated and doesn't allow file browsing, and requires subscription.....

I love Aurender and use it every day. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just now, beerandmusic said:

Is it your main method for critical listening?

I would have thought roon w/hqplayer engine would have been?

 

I don’t have a main method. I need to use everything. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

smile...before you answered, i edited my previous post above....(wink)

figured it would be a political answer.

 

surely you have a favorite...

I don’t beat around the bush. Life is too short to sell out. I use everything so I can help people like you.