Schiit Audio Releases its Unison USB Upgrade

[SuperRoo]

I hope they included something in addition to USB. My Yggy USB port has been spoken for.

[Samuel T Cogley]

16 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

USB host mode is exactly what Schiit plan to do.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/what-a-long-strange-trip-its-been-robert-hunter.784471/page-649#post-14700297

 

Matt

 

Thanks for the link.  That post is over a year old.  This will be very interesting if it ever sees the light of day.  And hypothetically, this transport would work with any DAC that takes USB input.

 

The only fly in the ointment that I can see is consumer demand for CD transports vs. development costs.  Based on the current dearth of quality CD transports at reasonable prices, I'm a little skeptical.  But don't misunderstand: if this is real one day I would likely purchase one.

[matthias]

18 minutes ago, Samuel T Cogley said:

 

Thanks for the link.  That post is over a year old.  This will be very interesting if it ever sees the light of day.  And hypothetically, this transport would work with any DAC that takes USB input.

 

The only fly in the ointment that I can see is consumer demand for CD transports vs. development costs.  Based on the current dearth of quality CD transports at reasonable prices, I'm a little skeptical.  But don't misunderstand: if this is real one day I would likely purchase one.

 

This is a quote of Jason Stoddard from last December:

 

"Direction 1: it’ll be a heavy digital year. It’s time to shake things up again. Bifrost 2 was one of our most significant product introduction in a long, long time—debuting Unison USB and the Autonomy platform, making both hardware and firmware upgradability easy for any owner, significantly improving performance, introducing our first DAC remote control, and literally redefining what you can expect as its price point—but Bifrost 2 is only the start.

So what might you expect?

• Well, directionally, you should ask yourself what happened to the Gadget technology.
• At the same time, you should look to the past, of physical digital media, but also know that we’ll be looking to the future…at the same time.
• You might be surprised at the kind of performance we are moving towards in the True Multibit realm.
• And at the same time, the delta-sigma wins haven’t been lost of us either.
• However, those of you expecting a Gungnir 2 and Yggdrasil 2 in the mold of Bifrost 2 may be in for a shock. Linear extrapolation doesn’t always work."

 

I can imagine what he meant with physical digital media.

The price should be less than 1k.

 

Matt

 

 

 

[Miska]

48 minutes ago, mansr said:

A PC with an optical drive?

 

Or even just RaspberryPi or other small SBC. I do that same with HQPlayer, and get upsampled CD data out of the USB to the DAC. In fact the early versions of HQPlayer were for my DIY upsampling CD player which could also play MP3 internet radio. But that was way over 10 years ago... To me, CD is pretty much dead these days...

 

[mansr]

9 minutes ago, Miska said:

Or even just RaspberryPi or other small SBC. I do that same with HQPlayer, and get upsampled CD data out of the USB to the DAC.

Yes, I wrote a program capable of doing that nearly 20 years ago, though it wasn't the primary purpose.

 

16 minutes ago, Miska said:

To me, CD is pretty much dead these days...

Yeah, I don't see much point in making a fancy CD player today. It's much simpler to rip the discs and play files.

[matthias]

9 hours ago, mansr said:

Yeah, I don't see much point in making a fancy CD player today. It's much simpler to rip the discs and play files.

 

I have zero interests to rip CDs.

 

Matt

[jiminlogansquare]

A query to any Schiit DAC owners who decide to install the new Unison USB input upgrade. Could you relate here how that affects the sound in conjunction with an Uptone Audio ISO Regen. On the Yggy in particular, but with other DACs, as well. Thanks 

[davide256]

3 hours ago, jiminlogansquare said:

A query to any Schiit DAC owners who decide to install the new Unison USB input upgrade. Could you relate here how that affects the sound in conjunction with an Uptone Audio ISO Regen. On the Yggy in particular, but with other DACs, as well. Thanks 

IME upgrading the source is what renders an ISO Regen no longer helpful. However I have found that the Gen5 in a Gumby is USB 5v source dependent for SQ, something an ISO Regen does support for substitution. Would be nice if the Unison freed up my LPS 1.2 from USB 5v duty, spaghetti simplification always welcome

[The Computer Audiophile]

It’s here :~)

 

[SuperRoo]

Congrats, curious to see what you think. My install went smoothly after referring to this thread.

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/schiit-yggdrasil-gen-5-usb-upgrade-instructions.4842/

[JoeWhip]

It is a clear upgrade over the gen 5 board. 

[mansr]

12 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

It’s here :~)

 

Could you please take a photo showing the markings on the chips? Or just write down the numbers if that's easier. Some of us are curious.

[JoeWhip]

Mansr, the photo of the card on the Schiit website shows this information.

[audio.bill]

2 hours ago, JoeWhip said:

Mansr, the photo of the card on the Schiit website shows this information.

Here's a direct link to the page, and you can click on the photo to enlarge it: https://www.schiit.com/products/unison-usb

[matthias]

11 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

It’s here :~)

 

 

I am very curious about your listening impressions:-)

 

Matt

[mansr]

10 hours ago, audio.bill said:

Here's a direct link to the page, and you can click on the photo to enlarge it: https://www.schiit.com/products/unison-usb

Thanks. So there's a PIC32 microcontroller handling USB communication, hardly surprising. Then there's an SI8640 4-channel isolator, also no surprise. I do wonder what the two Ethernet transformers are for, though.

[JoeWhip]

Signal isolation perhaps?

[matthias]

8 minutes ago, JoeWhip said:

Signal isolation perhaps?

 

"Complete electromagnetic and electrostatic Isolation"

 

Whatever this means.

 

Matt

[mansr]

41 minutes ago, JoeWhip said:

Signal isolation perhaps?

Obviously. What I'm curious about is why they chose transformers for some signals and an IC for others.

[Miska]

58 minutes ago, mansr said:

Obviously. What I'm curious about is why they chose transformers for some signals and an IC for others.

 

For correct isolation, clocks should be at the DAC side, not at the interface side (I2S over HDMI/LVDS screws this up completely). So clocks flow to the opposite direction...

 

Transformers are good for high frequency constant signal like master clock. But perform poorly for low frequency things like word clock on I2S. While isolation IC's tend to be slow, so not necessarily good for things like master clock, but good for word clock for example (esp. optical ones). So I suspect they chose transformers for higher frequency time-invariant signals and isolation IC's for varying low frequency signals.

 

[mansr]

25 minutes ago, Miska said:

For correct isolation, clocks should be at the DAC side, not at the interface side (I2S over HDMI/LVDS screws this up completely). So clocks flow to the opposite direction...

Yes, obviously. That alone doesn't mean anything for the choice of isolation technique.

 

25 minutes ago, Miska said:

Transformers are good for high frequency constant signal like master clock. But perform poorly for low frequency things like word clock on I2S. While isolation IC's tend to be slow, so not necessarily good for things like master clock, but good for word clock for example (esp. optical ones). So I suspect they chose transformers for higher frequency time-invariant signals and isolation IC's for varying low frequency signals.

The IC used here is good up to 150 Mbps. Judging by the placement of the parts, you're probably right about a transformer being used for the clocks.

[thotdoc]

Interesting theoretical discussion: How does it change the sound?

[mansr]

6 hours ago, thotdoc said:

Interesting theoretical discussion: How does it change the sound?

That depends on how it differs from the previous version.

[JoeWhip]

Not sure how it does it but it does.

[thotdoc]

4 hours ago, JoeWhip said:

Not sure how it does it but it does.

 

6 hours ago, mansr said:

That depends on how it differs from the previous version.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear.

 

What I was asking is 'In what ways is the SQ effected'? For example: Better separation? Punchier base? Tones closer to real instruments? ????

 

I was not asking, 'What is the mechanism by which SQ is effected'? That is interesting, but I need to decide if I want to get the upgrade and want to get some feedback first.

 

Thank you

 

G