valiant66
Headphoneus Supremus
Which begs another question... Has anyone tried putting two dac cards into the Ragnarok?
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Schiit Happened: The Story of the World's Most Improbable Start-Up
- Thread starter Jason Stoddard
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Which begs another question... Has anyone tried putting two dac cards into the Ragnarok?
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ipeverywhere
New Head-Fier
RE: Digital pre-amp
I don't know who started this discussion but they are right that nothing like what they are envisioning exists. However, very slight variations do exist.
If you look at any AV Pre/Receiver you'll find plenty of digital inputs which can be switched. You can even switch them back to digital and/or pre-out (line level) if you want to bypass the attenuation completely. At that point you've got 2 solutions in one box: A digital switcher / converter and a DAC with multiple inputs.
Now, a "pre" generally means it provides attenuation which means it has "volume control". This can be done on the digital or the analog side. Without attenuation it is just a switcher; like an HDMI switcher. This isn't a popular thing which is why there is limited options.
What, I believe, someone is asking for is a switcher which has multiple USB, Coax, optical, etc. etc. in. But how many? How many USB IN are needed? How many coax? Then, is this simply a switcher / format changer? What is the output and what format is it? Unison USB?
Do you want / need analog out? Does it need attenuation? If yes, now we're back to an AV pre/receiver with multiple digital inputs. I just don't know of anything that provides more than 1 USB input. Again, plenty provide multiple coax and optical inputs.
Anyway, I think such a product lives in a niche market within an already niche market. Certainly not something I'd expect to sell at scale. I, personally, just don't have enough digital sources because my "switching" is occurring within software at that point (swapping Spotify for Tidal as example not MacBook 1 with MacBook 2). I'm not trying to feed a DAC with multiple USB cables. I'm feeding a network connected USB thing from multiple network connected sources; no USB cable swap needed.
I don't know who started this discussion but they are right that nothing like what they are envisioning exists. However, very slight variations do exist.
If you look at any AV Pre/Receiver you'll find plenty of digital inputs which can be switched. You can even switch them back to digital and/or pre-out (line level) if you want to bypass the attenuation completely. At that point you've got 2 solutions in one box: A digital switcher / converter and a DAC with multiple inputs.
Now, a "pre" generally means it provides attenuation which means it has "volume control". This can be done on the digital or the analog side. Without attenuation it is just a switcher; like an HDMI switcher. This isn't a popular thing which is why there is limited options.
What, I believe, someone is asking for is a switcher which has multiple USB, Coax, optical, etc. etc. in. But how many? How many USB IN are needed? How many coax? Then, is this simply a switcher / format changer? What is the output and what format is it? Unison USB?
Do you want / need analog out? Does it need attenuation? If yes, now we're back to an AV pre/receiver with multiple digital inputs. I just don't know of anything that provides more than 1 USB input. Again, plenty provide multiple coax and optical inputs.
Anyway, I think such a product lives in a niche market within an already niche market. Certainly not something I'd expect to sell at scale. I, personally, just don't have enough digital sources because my "switching" is occurring within software at that point (swapping Spotify for Tidal as example not MacBook 1 with MacBook 2). I'm not trying to feed a DAC with multiple USB cables. I'm feeding a network connected USB thing from multiple network connected sources; no USB cable swap needed.
TS0711
100+ Head-Fier
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No, but I remember him... Steve or Stu? Andy!
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JohnnyCanuck
Headphoneus Supremus
Don't know. I was never there, just "knew" them through their ads in TAS back in the day.
JC
tincanear
Headphoneus Supremus
You need two for stereo.
not sure that Ragnarok 2 can accommodate two multibit DAC modules, but maybe could fit one Multibit and one D/S 4490 dual DAC module. the multibit modules sit horizontally, IIRC.
myquealer
Head-Fier
I think the idea is once the Schiit transport is released people will have multiple USB devices they want to hook up, your MacBook and your Schiit transport, so they are hoping either the transport has a USB passthrough or there's a good digital switcher they can connect both to.
tincanear
Headphoneus Supremus
And my model is
And it still sound like ass.
there are many semiconductor companies making the usb switching/ multiplexing chipsets, some not so good. there might be a reason that one was so low cost. try one from a reputable brand maker, one that supports USB3.x speeds.
earnmyturns
Headphoneus Supremus
Digital in, digital out.
Well, I blurted something out which immediately regretted. Mike's been talking about clocks, and reclocking, and coming out with something that will make use of the single USB input in his DACs, while many folks here have USB out solutions, why wouldn't he want to accommodate such systems? If a person with a high end USB out streamer doesn't mind changing the cable between sources, understandable. But if he can indulge what I think isn't an insignificant market by passing through, or making better whatever comes out of our computers or lower end USB streamers, and in the process not make us change cables, I'd be for it. But of course, I'm merely musing/wishful thinking. Also, don't know if a DAC will be needed to recheck and/or pass through signal, I'm technically illiterate. Again, already regret writing that.
Ok, so I believe I've determined the cause of this. I was finally paying enough attention to notice one of the tracks. After some checking it's just the DAC resetting because it's switching between sample rates.
valiant66
Headphoneus Supremus
Well, home theatre is not exactly a niche market, but you've described my confusion. There are many HT preamps out there, most of them costing north of $3000 (except the emotive basx). But I've never seen one that only does audio. And of course Jason is adamant they're not going to do home theatre, other than that anyone can buy lots of their power amps if they want.
But none I have seen have more than one USB input, so that part is right - there don't seem to be any preamps set up for more than one USB source.
I agree the market for that will be super small - limited almost exclusively to Schiit customers with a USB-source-to-Unison DAC who also want a USB transport. (None of which exist, afaik, and only one of which has been implied (note -- Schiit has not announced the transport yet)).
So based on that thought, putting a USB passthrough on the transport suddenly makes sense. You can plug your music source into the transport, then use the transport remote to choose which source to feed to your Unison DAC. And really only Schiit customers would need that, since only one of their products could have two USB ins, and even that is an unconfirmed rumour.
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valiant66
Headphoneus Supremus
That could give those with audio nervosa a way to easily compare which DAC sounds better to them...
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