Schiit Audio Releases its Unison USB Upgrade

[jonmrife]

I found the Oppo method to be fine, but a workaround.

 

I love my Gungnir, Yggy owners swear their choice is superior. I have only heard the Gungnir, though I have had 4-5 dacs in my system at different times.

 

Couldn't justify the Yggy $$. I found a used Gungnir MB, sent it in for the upgrade and the two year warranty extension. This, I think, is my last dac.

 

That said, if I had the money, I'd have the Yggy. And a bigger house, faster car, etc. 

[jonmrife]

On 3/3/2020 at 3:39 PM, Jeff_N said:

I placed the order to upgrade my Yggy on January 29th, and got the email to send it in on March 2nd.

 

Jeff -- just out of curiosity, when your Yggy was delivered in California, did Schiit send you the promised email stating they had it?

 

My Gungnir was in their hands yesterday am, but I know that only because UPS tracking tells me so. It is no big deal, but with the upgrade order came their claim to maintain an accurate queue (IMO did not happen) and inform me when they received the unit (did not happen).

 

Again, I am being picky I guess, but I would prefer Schiit not make promises they don't follow through on.

 

Oh, well.

[JoeWhip]

Don’t worry. If UPS says they delivered it, they did. I am sure Schiit received quite a few DACs that day and it may take them a couple of days to log them into the system. You will get an email when it is shipped for sure.

[Jeff_N]

Hi Jon, they did send me an email yesterday to tell me my Yggy had arrived.

 

I agree with Joe, they're probably just backed up. However if I was in your shoes I might send them an email to put my mind at ease.

[Superdad]

55 minutes ago, Jeff_N said:

I agree with Joe, they're probably just backed up.

Schiit backed up? 
Perhaps you ought to have packed a small carton of prunes in with DAC sent for upgrade. 

[jonmrife]

On 3/7/2020 at 8:48 AM, Jeff_N said:

Hi Jon, they did send me an email yesterday to tell me my Yggy had arrived.

 

I agree with Joe, they're probably just backed up. However if I was in your shoes I might send them an email to put my mind at ease.

 

I am not concerned since UPS said it was delivered Friday. I have never had any worries about this process except that I wish Schiit and other companies would not make an offering of waiting queue, delivery email, etc. and then fail to follow through. It is still true that "under promise and over deliver" is the best idea, not the other way 'round.

[jiminlogansquare]

OK, after a month with the Unison in place in my Yggy with ISO Regen/LPS-1 in place and finding the sound very nice indeed, I recently removed the Uptone equipment.

 

My conclusion is that the sound was somewhat improved by removing the Regen and LPS-1. Not in areas like detail or musicality, but dynamics were enhanced. This was noticeable at all playback levels, not just in low-volume settings, so not precisely the "lower noise floor" effect. 
 

Now, it should be noted that since the last time I tried this experiment, when I still had the Gen 5 board and reached the opposite conclusion, I have significantly upgraded my USB cable from a $10 Belkin Gold to a $650 Synergistic Research Atmosphere X. It is possible the Regen improved the sound of the Belkin USB cable, the Gen 5 board, or both. I have not tested sufficient combinations to say so definitively. 

 

Specifically, because I have no intention of going back to the Belkin cable, I have not experimented with the Unison+Regen+Belkin combo. So there are confounders aplenty in my limited scope experiment that probably mean it would be inconclusive for anyone not using the same equipment and in the same (limited) combinations I tested. 
 

Bottom line for me, however, is that I have heard enough improvement from using the Unison+SR Atmosphere X USB cable combo - without Regen/LPS-1 - that I am going to take the Regen/LPS-1 out of the system indefinitely.

 

Others can take from my results the conclusion that they *possibly could* find improvements from *not* utilizing the Uptone equipment with the Unison board. It is at least worth the experiment for those who already own the Uptone pieces.

[Currawong]

I put a Unison board in my Yggy not too long ago, and so far, between a 2012 Mac Mini direct to the Unison input and a Soundaware D300REF sending AES, I haven't been able to tell the difference. That's a good thing I reckon.

[JoeWhip]

Before the Unison upgrade, I was contemplating adding the whole Sonore system. Now,  the sound I am getting straight out of the laptop is outstanding. Maybe later in the year I will revisit this. 

[davide256]

Ok, finally bit. Looks like queue has gotten shorter, I was 10th of 10 in line

[jonmrife]

43 minutes ago, davide256 said:

Ok, finally bit. Looks like queue has gotten shorter, I was 10th of 10 in line

 

Mine arrived yesterday; put it back in my system. Letting it warm back up before really testing, but a quick check says it works.Turn around was really quick.

 

Good luck David #10.

[beajuju]

 

Today I received my email telling me that I can ship my Schiit Gungir for the upgrade. Already looking forward to receiving my upgrade : )

 

 

[thotdoc]

I put the Unison modded Yiggi back in. Well, the magic is back in spades:

Definitely smoother and more relaxed...brought a smile to my face.

Greater separation front to back, especially.

More low level detail..a bit.

Timbers and more full.

A little more realistic sounding.

 

Not as different as putting in the oRendu or the eRegen...( I did not expect that kind of change) but it adds to what those components did to the system.

 

Well worth the cost...a no brainer if you are wondering if it's worth it.

 

 

 

 

[GeneZ]

On 2/8/2020 at 11:57 PM, thotdoc said:

Interesting theoretical discussion: How does it change the sound?

 

I believe Schiit may be doing a disservice by not saying about there is a burn in period. Nothing was noted when they shipped me the card.   I installed my Unison card just under a month ago. I heard an immediate difference, but nothing startling. It was better in certain subtle ways.  Then..  just a few days ago the sound surprisingly blossomed in a manner like I never heard any DAC I have owned.  There is now an element of richness and aliveness that has me intrigued with certain files I had no idea could sound so good.

[beajuju]

I sent, last week, my Gungir to Schiit and they recognized the burn in period: 

 

" We’ve received your product for upgrade! Now, give us a couple of days to do the work, test the result, and burn it in. Then it will be on its way back to you! We’ll send another email when it’s been shipped, with a tracking number"

 

[GeneZ]

2 hours ago, beajuju said:

I sent, last week, my Gungir to Schiit and they recognized the burn in period: 

 

" We’ve received your product for upgrade! Now, give us a couple of days to do the work, test the result, and burn it in. Then it will be on its way back to you! We’ll send another email when it’s been shipped, with a tracking number"

 

 That is a manufacturer burn-in that many manufacturers do after assembly.  It means they will run the unit for a time to make sure it will not malfunction.  Its not the same as the burn process process that can take weeks to bring a component to sounding its best.

 

Here is a part of an older review that reveals what burning in entails.

 

Listening
Although Moffatt warned me that the Yggy wouldn’t sound good right out of the box, I gave it a quick listen anyway after an hour of warm-up. He was right; the Yggy was hard, bright, forward, and flat. I checked in with it a couple of times over the next week and heard it improving somewhat, but it was still disappointing. I decided to let it sit in my rack, powered up, for a full month before revisiting it.  

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/schiit-audio-yggdrasil-dac/?page=2

[thotdoc]

What is interesting is that all of these changes continue to make the SQ improve...and that I always think better SQ is out there. I'm satisfied...even amazed...but more is out there and I'm going find it. :-)

 

But...if this was it, I'd be OK.  

[davide256]

Received the Gumby back last week after an initial delay from not getting the email saying to send it in. The sound does seem to have improved, still auditioning. However I was forced to dust off my Linn Genki CD player during the Gumbys absence; its doing far better on dynamics, resolution,and low bass pressure wave

from its internal DAC than fed through the Gumby BNC connection, same is true comparing NUC USB streaming for same CD recording. Waiting on delivery of a better BNC cable to see if that improves anything.

 

[GeneZ]

1 hour ago, davide256 said:

Received the Gumby back last week after an initial delay from not getting the email saying to send it in. The sound does seem to have improved, still auditioning. However I was forced to dust off my Linn Genki CD player during the Gumbys absence; its doing far better on dynamics, resolution,and low bass pressure wave

from its internal DAC than fed through the Gumby BNC connection, same is true comparing NUC USB streaming for same CD recording. Waiting on delivery of a better BNC cable to see if that improves anything.

 

Could be the BNC cable you are using.  Yesterday I swapped out my go-to USB cable for one recommended by Schiit.  It became dull sounding in comparison. Might not be the Gumby. 

Besides, the Linn has a superb reputation for sound on its own.   Its designed as a dedicated unit internally.  It does not have a cheap DAC inside. Why go external?

[davide256]

14 minutes ago, GeneZ said:

Could be the BNC cable you are using.  Yesterday I swapped out my go-to USB cable for one recommended by Schiit.  It became dull sounding in comparison. Might not be the Gumby. 

Besides, the Linn has a superb reputation for sound on its own.   Its designed as a dedicated unit internally.  It does not have a cheap DAC inside. Why go external?

The Genki  internal DAC is excellent. But it has some subliminal nasties that cause listening fatigue over an extended listening period, pretty common in older DAC's and

better addressed in newer DAC designs... I don't get any listening fatigue from the Gumby.

[GeneZ]

43 minutes ago, davide256 said:

The Genki  internal DAC is excellent. But it has some subliminal nasties that cause listening fatigue over an extended listening period, pretty common in older DAC's and

better addressed in newer DAC designs... I don't get any listening fatigue from the Gumby.

 I noticed the same thing with my Yggy.  No more listening fatigue. No more need to compensate for the typical frazzly upper midrange and  treble that I got from other DACs .  With that in mind,  I believe some cable manufacturers make their cables to try to blunt the effect that causes fatigue.  When listening with a DAC that does not cause fatigue a new more transparent cable will be needed. IMHO.

[AudioDoctor]

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?

[JoeWhip]

It plays it perfectly. No issues.

[GeneZ]

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?

  From what I understand...   When its a 24 bit file?   With a typical DAC you will not be getting a true 24 bit playback.  They can not do it with the technology they use.  Typical DAC designers need to tune their sound due to technology limitations.   They need to guess how their DAC should respond to the 24 bit input and tune it. 

 

So, though it may say 24 bit playback... Its a "created response" that requires the designer to guess how its DAC will convert.  Its why we end up with a sound that does not sound quite like real live music.  The Yiggy does not use a designer response to the signal.   So, we end up with a true 21 bit playback, rather than a pseudo 24 bit designed response.

 

I believe its why we end up with listening fatigue.  Its like when wearing the wrong strength glasses (or needing glasses) and we become fatigued during watching or reading. Likewise, typical DAC fatigue is hearing an unfocused audio signal and the brain gets tired trying to compensate. 

 

The Yiggy with its configuration gives a true 21 bit playback.   An audio focus is there without the guesswork artifacts from being guessed and designed.   

 

That's how I understand it.   Maybe, someone with better understanding of what takes place with the Yiggy can correct me, and benefit the those reading this. 

[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.