[JanMc]

I thank *YOU* for bringing Jesse Cook to my attention. I started with Montreal (Live) because I tend to enjoy those kinds of recordings, and it's a tremendously enjoyable performance.

Make sure that you listen to Jesse's older albums. They are a little less rowdy in some senses and are actually my favorites. Also try Ottmar Liebert if you like Jesse Cook.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

One of the most amazing things that happened this year is our black powder coat becoming unavailable, with no future stocking date. We had to do a custom match.

The second most amazing thing was the meeting with the metal vendors who "closely control" the gray screen color we use. Some were mixing metallic in to the spec'd color, some were going by "drops of black," and doing a visual match. Now we're speccing UV printing for some parts, and everything has a specified color mix with specified ink vendors. After that meeting, I expect we may finally see some consistency. Maybe.

The rare day I'm actually happy to be creating software and not consumer hardware…

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

Today is a Little Hurricane kind of day for me.
(Absolutely no pun intended in regard to typhoon Nanmadol. Stay safe, Japan!)

Boy, did I once crush hard on C.C.

Also: Feel free to ignore that weirdo host, if you can. No idea what that guy was smoking that day, seriously creepy serial killer vibes if you ask me…

 

[OptionTrader]

What an awesome little band! C.C. is admittedly hard to resist....

I'm sure I may have seen a picture of that weirdo host on one of my trips to the post office.

 

[dstrimbu]

"Yeah, that's stupid," we both said in unison.

"Yeah, that's stupid," we both said in unison Unison™.

Always respect your trademarks...

[and yeah I know that the trademarked phrase is "Unison USB™" but I couldn't help myself]

 

[corndog71]

No pics, but here's a line drawing. Note inputs and outputs. You can switch USB sources to USB, or use it as a USB-SPDIF converter. Please don't call it a DDC, I hate the term. Someday I hope we'll blow that term up. We'll see.

I'm still to blame for all the industrial design. You should always include the opportunity for growth (and for better understanding what we can do with stamping, etc.). There are several fields I would never have been able to do anything credible with in pre-internet, pre-computer before-fore times. Design, marketing, advertising, branding, hell, direct sales--none of this would have ever been in my wheelhouse before. We live in incredible times. Take advantage of it!

That said, on the industrial design side...you ain't seen nothing yet. A number of upcoming prototypes have produced remarks like "I'd buy it just for the looks," and "looks like a product that's 2x more expensive than the previous one." We're gonna be pushing what we can do with metal fab in the USA in the very near term.

I hate to complain but it would’ve been nice to have the power inlet on the same side as your other components.

 

[tincanear]

I hate to complain but it would’ve been nice to have the power inlet on the same side as your other components.

That would have been too easy.

Just leave the unit on. Its probably not 450W as listed on the line drawing that @Jason Stoddard posted.

 

[corndog71]

It’s more about routing power cables consistently. I don’t care that the power switch is on the back.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I hate to complain but it would’ve been nice to have the power inlet on the same side as your other components.

You're not wrong.

But…

Having the power socket on the same side as usual would either mean that you have to move the transformer to the same side the drive is on, which is probably not possible due to space constraints, or that you would have to route some relatively long power wires across the rear for pretty much the whole width of the chassis — big no-no if you want to avoid unnecessary induction noise in your circuit without extra shielding, which would of course in turn increase complexity and cost. Some companies out there might go the latter route, but that's just not Schitt's style. We can argue whether that's good or not until the cows come home, of course, and each side would have perfectly valid arguments. But for what it's worth; I'm squarely on Schiit's side on this one. I prefer my Schiit "cheap," rather than over-engineered.

Moving the drive assembly from the left to the right would be an option, but that would mean that the display would have to move to the left, and the buttons from the center-right to the center-left. Both would break with Schiit's usual button and control placement, which would look odd and out of place in a Schiit stack.

Short story shorter:
The power socket on the "wrong" side isn't fantastic, but by far the least "evil" of the alternatives — and something I'm sure most people can easily live with.

Counter argument:
With Urd's power socket on the right side (when seen from the front of your stack) you end up with a power cord dangling right past your interconnects. Not great. But these still tend to be shielded considerably better than what things would be if you ran your (then entirely unshielded) power wires past the back of your (by default unshielded) Urd PCB on the inside of the chassis.

 

[Odin412]

Did you listen to it? And.......

I listened to it today and it sounded very nice. Interestingly, the setup used USB out from Urd to Yggdrasil OG via Folkvangr to HD 800S. BTW the CD tray looks and feels very sturdy and has a nice solid motion.

 

[Bonehead7171]

I'd expect end Q1 2023 and still $1299 for now. But everything can change. No guarantees.

CAN I PREPAY TO LOCK IN THAT PRICE?!?!?!?!?!! TAKE! MY! MONEY!!!!

 

[Jason Stoddard]

I hate to complain but it would’ve been nice to have the power inlet on the same side as your other components.

It wouldn't fit on that side. That's where the drive is.

Urd is TINY compared to most CD transports, which appear to have been designed around 1985 or so. It's the same footprint as Freya.

Everything has tradeoffs. This is the tradeoff we chose.

 

[HK_sends]

CAN I PREPAY TO LOCK IN THAT PRICE?!?!?!?!?!! TAKE! MY! MONEY!!!!

Me too! Me too!
Cheers!
-HK sends

 

[GenEricOne]

If you don't plan on ever using CDs, what does Urd do?

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

If you don't plan on ever using CDs, what does Urd do?

A purchase of Urd for non-CD users would accomplish the following:
- looks good in your Schiit stack
- bragging rights among fellow self-proclaimed top-tier audiophiles for owning a piece of bling that comes with a four digit price tag but you'll never actually use
- the undying appreciation from Schiit's chief financial dude/dudette
- switching between two different USB sources via a fancy five-dollar remote control