Schiit Yggdrasil GEN 5 / Unison USB Upgrade Instructions

If you're in the Seattle area (or willing to stop by), I'm happy to install boards in various Schiit DAC's for you, if you don't want to deal with sending your unit to California or are uncomfortable/ill-equipped to be doing it yourself.

If it's a Gungnir, however, you'll almost certainly want to buy me a Scotch before hand (there are several very convenient, up-market, interesting/fun/outright-weird drinking establishments in very short walking distance from my abode), as it will pre-empt and/or entirely avoid copious bitching about LED alignment. If you're okay with my eminently English, protracted, profanity, this is 100% optional.

Helping you, help yourself; this is what the "Like" button is for.

In the spirit of SNR Month.

 

@Scott Kramer : when will you have a hacked USB to I2S solution based on the Gen5? I'm sure you already bought a board...

 

That's a lot screws to unscrew to upgrade a card.

 

Which is precisely why you can just buy an Eitr instead and save yourself all the trouble and risk. No one's forcing you to do the upgrade yourself; in fact, Schiit discourages it and explicitly says that the best method is to send it in for them to install it.

 

Not sure why 2 people dislike me saying there are lots of screws to unscrew. Isn't that the reality?

 

A) You've added nothing to the conversation

B) So what?

C) Caring about dislikes is not cool. Two people disagreed with you. Big deal.

 

TBH not sure what is your problem. What you said apply to you as well.

I am only making a comment why someone design a chassis that need so many screws to hold it in place and not user friendly to upgrade.

I dont like nor dislike Schitt. People needs to chill out.

 

Hmm... Eitr is making some sense... as in easy! And it would just replace my Wyrd.

Bit of a segue but... I have actually found the Wyrd to have an unexpected benefit. I leave my DAC/amp on all the time (and the switches are not easily at hand). Shutting off Wyrd on my desktop is a fast way to disconnect my computer from my sound system without unplugging cables. Especially at night, I don't need squawking from QQ, Skype, VPN failing to reconnect etc. running through my KEFs. I assume that the Eitr also has a handy on/off switch.

And I won't have to ground myself and otherwise not f**k up.

 

I will soon have the Gen 5 USB for my Gungnir and was wondering if anybody has any suggestions for realigning the LEDs with the case when reassembling the unit. Everything else seems straight forward thanks to the excellent step by step installation instructions on the Yggdrasil GEN 5 USB Board upgrade by Marvey! Many thanks!

 

For some who doesn't mod but fairly handy, is the process pretty straight forward on Bifrost Multibit?

 

http://imgur.com/a/8JEGc

 

Found one specifically for the GEN 5 upgrade, no major difference compared to the other USB upgrades. It seems like the hardest part about doing this yourself is still aligning the LEDs.

http://imgur.com/a/PLKf6

 

Many times now, I've heard people complain about how hard it is to line up the LED's. I wonder why doesn't Schiit just use some LED light pipes, or if there's some sort of physical restriction that I'm not seeing. They don't have to be directly connected. Flush mount the LEDs, have a small angled pipe glued or taped to the case. As long as the light emitted is roughly pointed at the pipe, that should do it. It looks like it would be a fairly standard size across the various dacs as well, so even if it were a custom job, making them in the tens of thousands would make it not crazy expensive methinks...

But hey, I'm just an armchair engineer who pretends he knows what he's talking about and hasn't actually taken Schiit apart before, so I know nothing.

 

Or even LED standoffs, just different lengths for different products. All these significantly increase SKU complexity over just having 1 LED though. which may be why Schiit doesn't use them.

 

Use 3 hands

 

I was thinking just a piece of plastic with an elbow bend, inserted into the front face with the elbow pointing down. Shape/flare the bottom of the elbow to account for potential board/spacing differences and it could be the same piece for all the gear. There might be potential bleed from neighbouring leds depending on spacing/brighness/dispersion/etc. Again, just armchair engineering here...