[rsnblmn]

But yeah, if I lived where it snowed, I would move...er, I mean, I would probably not choose a Corvette as a daily driver. Though I did drive my '98 convertible back from Chicago in the middle of an ice storm through the midwest. That was, er, not fun.

And I can definitely confirm - cars look WAY nicer, WAY longer in California than they do in Colorado. The hot/cold swings, road gravel, and the lack of atmosphere between us and the sun does a number on the finish pretty quickly. But the mountains are pretty.

 

[FLTWS]

I'm interested in hearing Unison USB out with the new transport and into Unison USB in Yggdrasil and comparing with my present
AES. (I think the new transport will have Unison USB out?)

 

[tincanear]

I'm interested in hearing Unison USB out with the new transport and into Unison USB in Yggdrasil and comparing with my present
AES. (I think the new transport will have Unison USB out?)

yes, the Transport will have Unison USB out. That is what is causing the delay to production. Mike has said that the difficulty with Unison USB out is ensuring compatibility with other manufacturers' DAC USB receivers. The older interfaces (toslink, coax S/PDIF, AES) are all unidirectional-- the source selects a data rate & bit depth with the receiver having the responsibility of decoding whatever is sent. With USB, the source and DAC interchange information bi-directionally, and negotiate the data rate, bit depth, transfer mode, etc. which makes the firmware / software development more complicated.

 

[dajokr]

yes, the Transport will have Unison USB out. That is what is causing the delay to production. Mike has said that the difficulty with Unison USB out is ensuring compatibility with other manufacturers' DAC USB receivers. The older interfaces (toslink, coax S/PDIF, AES) are all unidirectional-- the source selects a data rate & bit depth with the receiver having the responsibility of decoding whatever is sent. With USB, the source and DAC interchange information bi-directionally, and negotiate the data rate, bit depth, transfer mode, etc. which makes the firmware / software development more complicated.

I wonder how users who want to use both the transport and USB audio from a PC will fare - I’d hate to have to swap inputs into the Bifrost to go back and forth between sources. Maybe pass through the transport?

 

[dieslemat]

My brothers shake their heads when they hear how much money I have spent on audio. But... I don't spend 100 a week at a bar or 100 a week dining out..so you calculate that over 3 years and it's 15,600. And I haven't even spent close to that.

Wow! You just gave me a good reason to justify to my wife my future audiophile gear spending! Thanks a million!

 

[FLTWS]

 

[NigelJ]

In my system, USB source is unusable due to ground noise from my laptop making its way to Vidar. Eitr is the only way to get rid of it (though I haven't tried a ground filter on the Vidar).

The Eitr is isolated – electrostatically and electromagnetically – from the USB source using ethernet transformers. The same isolation is applied in the Gen 5 USB cards and on the Unison USB cards (available for Bifrost 1&2, Gugnir & Yggdrasil); HOWEVER, the Modius Unison USB DOES NOT include the isolation transformers, due to space constraints on the board. Therefore a noisy USB source will be better isolated by Eitr than by the Unison USB on Modius. The Unison USB cards (or Gen 5 USB cards) in the more expensive DACs would be expected to offer similar isolation to Eitr.

 

[killaHz]

Hmm. Sounds like maybe there’s a need to distinguish Unison from Unison Lite in the promotional materials.

 

[Timster]

If you want to discuss Schiit's business and their business acumen then let's start another thread rather than hijacking this one.

I thinks it's fine in this thread, after all if you go back and read it from the start (or at least all the chapters from Jason) you will see it most certainly about their business and business acumen

And any way, just like the Cats, Coffee, Beer, Tacos, Bicycles and more ... this too will pass (for a while!!)

 

[433521]

I have always shot for making audio equipment that is analogous to Corvettes and Camaros. Yes, this is a conscious decision. As is the decision to spend my money where I make it. For example, if I want a fast, luxurious 4-door car, I'm buying a Tesla, not a Mercedes.



As I've said before, it's better to ask why others are so expensive, especially when a lot of them are not made in the insanely-expensive state of California.

I have been told many times by other companies and members of the press that we could charge a lot more for our products. I don't understand this--the mentality of "charging what the market will bear." We will always charge a standard (and hopefully fair) margin for our products.

Yes, we will be moving some of the smaller products to Texas at least partly for this reason, but not at the cost of staffing in California. And even that is more a decision to spread business risk--the only product we are super-lean on is Asgard 3.

We're not worthy (x3). If you need to raise the price of Asgard, adding that fancy 27mm pot might be a way to ease the pain.

 

[433521]

Not "greed" necessarily, but the philsophy of "maximizing shareholder value." It's an attitude that comes from publicly traded companies.

Exactly. Maximizing return is what people do and oue economic system is founded on it.

 

[ig88b]

The Eitr is isolated – electrostatically and electromagnetically – from the USB source using ethernet transformers. The same isolation is applied in the Gen 5 USB cards and on the Unison USB cards (available for Bifrost 1&2, Gugnir & Yggdrasil); HOWEVER, the Modius Unison USB DOES NOT include the isolation transformers, due to space constraints on the board. Therefore a noisy USB source will be better isolated by Eitr than by the Unison USB on Modius. The Unison USB cards (or Gen 5 USB cards) in the more expensive DACs would be expected to offer similar isolation to Eitr.

Yep. I knew that going into Modius and hoped balanced cables from Modius to Magnius would get rid of the noise but am not surprised it didn't. I probably ended up down $100 or so buying and flipping wyrd, plus buying balanced cables I didn't need, but that's pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of what I've spent on audio.

 

[tincanear]

Asgard 3, like its predecessor, and perhaps Asgard OG (never saw one, so I don't know for sure) has the nice 27mm Alps "blue beauty" pot (just in 2-gang version, designed for SE stereo / or single-channel Balanced applications)

 

[tincanear]

@ig88b (added) glad you were able to find a solution (with trial and error) to the noise issue.

nice DIY xlr cables. connectors look like Neutrik XX series? Markertek carries the Neutrik color coding rings & end boots in ten colors (but requires the rings and boots to be attached before soldering both ends on

Is the wire Mogami, Canare, Belden or something else?

 

[porchwizard]

If you're not maximizing your profits on the cheap gear, then clearly you're doing more than thumbing your nose at the people selling less quality gear for over 2.5x the price (ayy, ninety!) ... you're starting a revolution. I mean come on, are you telling me you think there is any justification whatsoever for selling a balanced high quality headphone amplifier that measures in the top 5% on the sites that care about measurements for a minuscle fraction of it's value ...you can charge $299 and make MORE money I would think (not that they aren't the better positioned than I to make pricing decisions)?

Never took these mad scientists for anarchists.

It is indeed a sad day when hard working honest folks providing quality and value to other honest hard working folks, are called anarchists.

As a favorite poet of mine once said

Like there was this psychotic pall
So widespread as to be assumed normal
Heavy man you know really