Life after Yggdrasil: Watering the Ash

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Torq, Mar 1, 2017.

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  1. Buff Hamster

    Buff Hamster New

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    Is the Gen 5 and Unison USB the same or different boards? Local dealer listed Gen 5 as standard but on Schiit website it states Unison as standard so i'm a bit confused here.
     
  2. bengo

    bengo Friend

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    Unison would be like gen 6 or 7.
     
  3. sheldaze

    sheldaze Friend

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  4. JeremiahS

    JeremiahS Almost "Made"

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    I'm not sure if this is the right thread but is anyone here familiar with the Ayre QB-9 DAC? I did some searching and it seemed that @Torq has reviewed it before but I'm unclear which version he listened to.
     
  5. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    While I have heard it dozens and dozens of time in both brand dac chip iterations, I haven't heard it in my system or in comparison with another dac. My friends aforementioned system sounds very good. One here seems to vehemently disagree with this opinion, so much as to dislike a post I made where I noted it was a very good sounding dac. LOL.
     
  6. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    Sigh, my Yggdrasil died yesterday. Well I think it's the motherboard. So I had moved my Yggdrasil, Aegir, Wyrd onto a new power strip and hooked up to its own circuit (trying to keep the audio gear off the same circuit shared with my window AC unit and other electronics).

    Everything was plugged in, turned on the Yggdrasil, did the usual startup sequence and everything seemed normal then all of a sudden the lights on the front panel went out. Tried turning it off and then back on, didn't start. Moved the Yggdrasil back to another AC outlet, still didn't turn on.

    Ok maybe if I remove the XLR and USB cables it might fix.

    Well as soon as I remove the USB cable from the back, I get a nice fireworks show with sparks flying. Scared me half to death.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    And as soon as that happened my PC instantly shut down and won't reboot. Looks like it took out my PC's motherboard as well.

    I'm really upset about this as it means another month without the Yggdrasil so it can be repaired and whatever the cost is, as this is a second-hand unit I bought from a friend here. And now I don't have a working PC.

    Posting for sympathy during my distress.:(
     
  7. SSL

    SSL Friend

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    Ouch. Reminds me of when my replacement Vidar died, along with the speakers connected to it.
     
  8. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    Oh no that's horrible. What happened?
     
  9. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Holy shit, that really, really sucks Rob. What the hell happened? Geezus
     
  10. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    Yeah I don't get how a USB can output that much current? Not an electrical expert so I dunno. Going to have an electrician come take a look at the wiring at my place so I can feel more at ease.
     
  11. SSL

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    Like you, I rearranged some components. Loud pop and magic smoke when I turned the amp back on.

    It's bad enough when something dies, worse when it takes other stuff with it. I feel your pain.
     
  12. dark_energy

    dark_energy Friend

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    Maybe there isnt any proper over voltage protection where.you got the power. If you have modern power distribution it shouldnt be a problem.
     
  13. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    That makes sense. I thought maybe the over voltage protection circuit in the power supply in my PC gave out and sent a voltage spike to the USB cable. But I ran a diagnostic with the PSU and it's fine.

    Had an Emotiva DC-1 explode on me when I plugged in a USB cable last year. Different PC. It sounded like a bomb went off after I plugged it in and smoke rose from the chassis. I assumed my PC's PSU was the culprit but looks like I was wrong. Something must be going on with this AC outlet, I need to verify.
     
  14. dark_energy

    dark_energy Friend

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    There might be some old distribution system maybe or some.error. For example some problematic ungrounded systems can rise voltage in one phase of your auxillaries when the other phase is under a big load. All kinda of.possibilities. There are a.lot of.questioable substation designs that are not favorable anymore. If only you have these problems then your wiring or devices are bad or missing.
     
  15. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    I just bought a Modi 2 Uber from Schiit to hold me over. It ain't a Yggdrasil but I can't go without music for a month, hell even a day.
     
  16. dark_energy

    dark_energy Friend

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    PC psus are suposed to have good protection when sourced from reliable companies. So then you have usb 5 volt which is likely voltage regulator. ( Edit. Voltage regulators only limit their output voltage and current, if you go over the rated ~40 volt DC input you are going to fry it) Sounds kinda strange. Maybe some voltage transient goes through the chain and manages to kill it still. Interesting problem..


    Edit. 2 . I am currently trying to figure out how often surge protection and over voltage protection is used in the distribution systems. It is probably not in all of them, espescially older ones which only has high voltage protection on the substation side, where it cuts the connection incase of HV.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2020
  17. robot zombie

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    Man! That's rough... and also pretty unheard of! I don't really know, honestly. Wish I did!

    I would think if this was something further upstream, it would go differently. Why the USB and seemingly nothing else? Most PSUs these days split all of their rails off of a transformer, don't they? So if something icky went through it, it wouldn't just hit the USB. Yanno? Further, pretty much all of them will simply trip or die when hit with power they don't like. This is a huge design consideration. Nobody making PSUs wants to have to answer to people with fried machines full of dead expensive components!

    Maybe it's not voltage at all? The 5v rail on your average PSU can supply upwards of 15A unrestrained. There's nothing in there saying 15A is a fault. But if there's a fault in the port... failing part, bad connection, what have you, it could potentially wind up pumping all of that current down the line, which would definitely fry things. But probably no light show... just lots of heat and magic smoke.

    But then, it might not even be related to the machine at all. If that much power went through those traces, it would probably cook them. I think it's actually more likely to be a fault with the Yggdrasil or the power going into that than anything to do with the USB itself.
     
  18. bixby

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    now is when homeowners insurance is important, maybe it could fall under a short circuit type claim if covered.
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2020
  19. RobS

    RobS RobS? More like RobDiarrhea.

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    ^ yup filed a claim with my insurance. Still need to talk with my agent on Monday to see what my policy covers. There's a section for personal property but it's not clear what's covered.

    @robot zombie dude no kidding, I have googled as much as I can looking if anyone has experienced a similar situation but nothing has turned up yet. Posted this half for sympathy but also to see if anyone with electrical knowledge might be able to explain what happened.

    I don't get why USB only either. You would think with carrying that much current down a USB line it would just fry the internal wiring before it ever reaches the output connector. I just assumed USB couldn't handle that much to be considered dangerous.

    Or like you said the possible unregulated power feeding the Yggdrasil may have something to do with the USB sparking like that.

    Maybe there's an elevated ground at the AC outlet? I have an receptacle outlet tester but the problem with that is it doesn't check how much current its carrying.
     
  20. Jay

    Jay Facebook Friend

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    This sounds like the culprit to me. I wonder if you have a bad ground and some over voltage. If the ground is bad, the electricity will search for somewhere to go, and a usb connection is one such path. Iā€™m sorry to hear of this carnage. Hopefully your insurance helps you out.
     

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