The American company Schiit has released another “not quite normal” component, the Urd CD transport. The Urd is arranged in a well-known proprietary form factor and with a similar remote control, like the Freya preamplifier . Color can be black or silver.
Urd uses the mechanism from StreamUnlimited with a metal CD tray. There are two linear power supplies on board, one of which provides the drive only. And for Urd to work, of course, you need to connect to a DAC.
Quite expectedly, there are S/DPIF digital outputs on the rear panel in coaxial or AES/EBU versions. We do not quite expect a USB-C output in this situation, to which any USB DAC can be connected, for which Unison USB proprietary technology is used.
The developers themselves describe this as follows: “Urd’s unique USB output for reliable performance and wide compatibility has been the focus of several man-years of development at Schiit. Urd works with all UAC2 compatible sources and DACs that have been tested by Schiit; UAC2 is a globally accepted USB audio standard supported by all modern operating systems.
Another feature is a pair of USB-C inputs. You can connect, for example, a network streamer to them and switch between it and a CD. Urd can also be used as a USB-C / SDIF converter, or, say, a USB-C to USB-C “signal cleaner”. For all this, the novelty is equipped with four 32-bit microprocessors.
In the US, the Schiit Urd CD transport in black was $1,300, with a silver finish for another $50.
