“Schiit Urd”. Say it out loud and also you’ll assume that the Californian/Texan audio producer has reached the pure conclusion of its branding joke however these higher clued into the corporate’s pondering will know in any other case: that the Urd follows Schiit’s Norse mythological product naming scheme. Urd is the goddess of destiny who additionally represents the previous. And Schiit’s Urd (US$1299) is probably essentially the most rearward-looking product in its line-up; now that the Sol has gone bye-bye. It’s a CD participant. Besides it isn’t. The Urd incorporates no inside DAC — its digital-only connectivity makes it a CD transport.
Within the age of convergence the place many built-in amplifiers or headphone amplifiers ship with an inside DAC, why double up? We are able to join the Urd to any product with an AES/EBU or coaxial enter. However what in case your solely out there digital enter is USB? Now comes Urd’s first get together trick: co-founder Mike Moffatt has moved his Unison pondering from enter to output to render the Urd UAC2-compliant. The upshot is a CD transport that may inject ones and zeroes into any UAC-2 USB DAC.
Now comes one other wrinkle. With the Urd occupying your DAC’s single USB enter, how do you hook up your PC, Mac or Raspberry Pi-based streamer? The Urd covers that use case with two Unison USB inputs. We then use the enter selector button on the entrance to inform the Urd which enter to suck on: USB1, USB2 or CD. A neighbouring output selector button tells the Urd whether or not to output through USB or S/PDIF (which prompts each the AES and coaxial sockets). Now the Urd is a USB-S/PDIF converter.
For the Urd’s disc tray mechanism, Schiit related with StreamUnlimited. The Austrian producer’s optical storage ‘SUOS’ side-gig (headed up by ex-Philips engineers) affords the JPL-2800 tray loading mechanism and while I’ve not had that mannequin quantity confirmed instantly by Schiit, the Urd’s aluminium CD tray, “vibration damping” ABS plastic underside and side-mounted metal guiding rods level to no different mannequin (that I can discover).
As proven within the video above, Cambridge Audio’s EVO CD – one other Future-Fi-rigged CD transport – makes use of the exact same tray load mechanism. Very similar to the Cambridge unit, Schiit is aware of of its CD transport’s area of interest enchantment. It gained’t be for everybody. Simply because the EVO CD is meant for EVO 75 and EVO 150 homeowners solely, the Urd is geared toward individuals who need USB hook-ups, the USB hub performance and, possibly, a product that’s assembled within the USA.
🎥 Digicam: Olaf von Voss / John Darko
🎬 Editor: John Darko
🌈 Shade: Olaf von Voss
🕺🏻 Movement GFX: John Darko
💰 Advert section: Jana Dagdagan
🎵 Tune IDs? Playlists of all music heard on this video – and different movies – might be discovered on PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/johndarko
Additional data: Schiit
👉 As talked about on this video…
Schiit Phrases
📖 https://darko.audio/2023/07/schiits-urd-shreds-the-cd-player-rulebook/
Podcast: Jason Stoddard talks Urd / Syn
🎧 https://darko.audio/2023/07/podcast-schiit-urd-syn-w-jason-stoddard/
Cambridge Audio EVO CD
📺 https://darko.audio/2023/07/cambridge-audio-evo-cd-video-review/
Rotel CD 11 Tribute
🛒 https://howl.me/chXS7SQVV5W
FiiO KA2
🛒 https://amzn.to/46oZp0i
iFi 4.4mm to XLR cable
🛒 https://amzn.to/46jyLpK
The Future Sound of London – Thoughts Maps
📖 https://fsol.bandcamp.com/album/mind-maps-4
Pale Saints – In Ribbons (2023 Remaster)
🛒 https://amzn.to/468YFNq
Spiritualized – Let It Stream
📖 https://www.discogs.com/grasp/30290-Spiritualized-Electrical-Mainline-Let-It-Stream
Streaming platform by Roon
🛒 https://roon.hyperlink/affiliate/darko
Cables and energy merchandise by AudioQuest
🛒 https://howl.me/ckbW8ZBoZAg
Hello-fi furnishings and speaker stands by Strong Metal
🛒 https://howl.me/ckbW9947Hdi
Room remedy by Vicoustic
📖 https://vicoustic.com/
Darko.Audio could earn a small fee from gadgets bought through affiliate hyperlinks, that are indicated with a ‘🛒’.
