New! Unison USB

[W9TR]

I've been listening to the new Unison USB card for 4 days. I've been running digits through it the entire time, even when I'm not listening. Here are my impressions:

On installation, Win10 recognized the interface immediately and downloaded the correct driver:
Schiit Yggdrasil Unison USB (WASAPI)

It also loaded a direct sound driver which I have not tried.
Schiit Yggdrasil Unison USB (Direct Sound)

No fiddling about - it just worked and on next startup all the Gen 5 drivers disappeared. Nice.

Also I had not turned on the unit yet when all this driver goodness went down, so the server powers at least part of the USB interface. The Unison card has a number of isolation transformers and circuits on it for true galvanic isolation.

I used a WW Platinum Starlight V7 USB cable for most of the testing. My server is a SurfacePro3 i7 running JRiver 25 and optimized for audio. I run it on battery to keep some of the AC crud out.

The first thing I noticed is that the lock-up time is very fast. I use a set of standard tunes of various bit depths and sampling rates and the new card switches resolutions very quickly.

I used the following tunes for my audition. I listened to a lot of other music as well but this is a representative sample.

Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 76 Telarc CD-80051
The Art of the Balalaika Nonesuch CD
Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat CD
Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East SACD
Beck Sea Change 24/192

All the 44.1 kHz stuff was upsampled and interpolated 4x because that's where I find the Yggy shines. The DSD files were converted to 176 kHz 24 bit PCM by JRiver because the Yggy doesn't do DSD.

So what's the Unison USB like? It is not a night and day change. It keeps the overall sonic signature of the Yggy, which is a very good thing. It is just a bit better and clearer with improved pace and rhythm. Very smooth, with more definition and better hall ambiance retrieval.

It is like going from a cheapo USB cable to a really nice one like the WW Platinum Starlight.

I did try a cheapo USB cable out of the parts drawer and everything collapsed so if you are thinking of this card as a replacement for a great cable think again.

For the DIY install price of $150 and 30 minutes of my time, this upgrade was well worth it.

Highly recommended if you are using a USB interface with your Schiit Yggy.

Tom