…and then I realized I could plug the computer into the Urd and compare from Qobuz. Let’s face it, the 80s loved their supadry recordings, so maybe that was it… Now, these are ancient CDs from the dawn of CD time-I was too lazy to go downstairs to the big racks that have a much larger selection-and I wondered about de-emphasis, etc…but none of them were marked as de-emphasis. Like it was always meant to be.īut, as I’m listening, I’m thinking, “Hmm, these CDs seem to be a bit brighter than I remember them.” Not necessarily bright in a bad way, not etchy nasty chrome-stripping bright, but brighter. I figured there might be something weird about a CD transport outputting USB, but it’s totally normal. Sounds good! But even more surprising is the fact it just works. And right there I stop, because it just dawned on me: I’m plugging a CD player into a USB-only DAC. I plug it in, turn it on, and plug it into my Jotunheim 2’s ES9028 card via USB. So I bring Urd home, grumbling about having to do a big complex manual. Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those single uses, but let me talk about my conversion. I mean, we’ve had a ton of people excited about simply using it for USB switching, to the point of asking if they could get one without the CD mechanism. Or you can use it as just a USB-SPDIF converter. Heck, you could use it just as a transport. When you’re talking about this kind of device-with a real metal CD mechanism from StreamUnlimited, used in megadollar products, 4 32-bit microprocessors, 100% custom tiny chassis, solid warranty from a company that’s been around for a while and built millions of products, and made in the USA-Urd is insanely cheap. Doesn’t seem so in the context of cheaper transports? Remember, those are just transports. Urd is 2” high, 16” wide, and 8” deep-the same size as Freya. Why does size matter? Because most CD transports are huge unwieldy things, despite being filled with little but air since the late 1980s. In short, it’s a Unison USB digital hub that also does SPDIF conversion and is also a CD transport. As in, those two inputs can also be converted to coax and AES as well. Why would a CD transport need USB inputs? Because you can plug in a streamer and a computer, or a phone and a tablet, or any combo of those, and switch those USB sources to the USB output mentioned above. Urd also has two USB inputs, which takes it into total wackyland. It’s the only standalone non-computer device that you can stick a CD in and then plug a USB output into your USB DAC. There are plenty of products that do this. It’ll output SPDIF digital audio from its coax and AES jacks. And a preamp and amp or integrated amp and speakers to make a whole system.īut maybe it would be best to talk about what Urd is, just a bit. You still need to add the DAC of your choice to get analog. Because Urd is, among other things, a CD transport, which means it only has digital output. As in, if you expect it to output an analog signal like a typical CD player, you’re gonna be disappointed. “What do you mean? You put a CD in, and it plays it.” No kidding, Urd is the most complex and ambitious product we’ve made to date. Partly because we didn’t fully understand the complexity of the product when we started, partly due to some dead ends, partly due to supply chain disruptions, partly due to the difficulty of bringing it all together. You might be interested in the entire story of how this extremely improbable product got conceived, developed, debugged, designed and ordered, planned and supply-chained, and, finally, produced.īecause it’s a long road. Pry it from my cold dead hands and all that.īut I’m getting ahead of myself. How late? As in, after years of development, during which I watched in mild interest as Mike and Dave and Ivana overcame problem after problem, shook my head as Elvis and the production team wrestled with the production challenges, and wondered at the rabid questions from our fans-asking, “when Urd? How’s it going? Got an estimate? Want Urd now!”, I finally took an Urd home so I could write the manual for it, and in an evening, went to a stark raving Urd aficionado. I recently wanted to play some games on my laptop while also watching a youtube video on my phone at 3 A.M., so to not disturb my family I would need to use a pair of earbuds, but then I only had the option to get the gamesounds or the youtube sounds, so I went online to see if there was an easy software solution for this, which there was not (multi device wireless audio mixing is apparently quite a niche market).I’ll admit it: I was a late convert to the Urd. Alright guys, gals and overall people who are smarter than me,
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