ROFL Mr. Moffat taking shots at uptone audio!

Of course, there is a reply from UpTone

Let's put a rest to this please...
Submitted by UpTone Audio on August 13, 2015 - 11:20am
[Gentlemen: I composed the below in a word processor in-between other tasks this morning. Now going to post it I see that others have chimed in with regards to Schiit’s comments concerning the REGEN. While it is worth setting the record straight, “crapping up” the Wyrd’s review with further comments about this would be distasteful. So although I appreciate the support from REGEN fans, I am going to post the below and ask that this be the last word on the matter.
Thanks.]

Mike Moffat and Jason Stoddard are audio pioneers and engineers whom I have long respected, and I admire the straight-shooting, value-oriented company they have built. (As a serial audio entrepreneur myself, I laughed and cried through Jason’s entire blog/book, “Schitt Happened…”, because I so identified with many of their travails.) I fact, I have been considering picking up the intriguing Schiit Yggdrasil for my own system.

Thus I was somewhat saddened to see that Mr. Moffat used his Manufacturer’s Comment to accuse us of blatantly copying the Wyrd in our design of the UpTone USB REGEN. Such a charge would be of serious concern if true, but both public and private records show this is not the case at all.

My engineering partner, John Swenson, had been studying and writing about (see the series of Q&A interviews right here on AudioStream dated August 2013) issues of USB signal integrity for some time, and the first prototypes of our REGEN pre-date Schiit’s March 2014 announcement of Wyrd (and what appears to be June 2014 first shipments) by several months. Believe me, I felt a big lump in my stomach when I read about the hub-chip-Wyrd as we were readying first production of the REGEN.

So while it is true that both the REGEN and Wyrd use the same model of USB2.0 hub chip, that’s an easy coincidence because of our common desire to pick an older device with less “crap” going on it, and for that there just are not very many. I think the similarities between our product designs and their goals pretty much end there. The REGEN focuses on optimized signal integrity and ideal impedance match—best when positioned right at the DAC’s input jack—while the Wyrd appears to concentrate most of its circuitry on providing very clean 5VBUS for DACs that need it. Their own marketing seems to indicate that inclusion of the hub chip is to help in instances where computer/DAC combos “make weird noises or have glitches.”

Again, with much respect to Mike Moffat and his team, I can promise that UpTone Audio products never have and never will copy other’s work (life is too short and I’m too old for unoriginality). The REGEN/Wyrd overlap is simply a case of great minds thinking alike.

Sincerely,
Alex Crespi
UpTone Audio LLC


Read more at http://www.audiostream.com/content/manufacturers-comment-26#QMxmgTIdjfuXm2Lp.99

honestly i think it's all a buncha whooha, if your concerned, I'd grab a wyrd and be done with it. Won't touch any of the other products, too snake oiley and overpriced.

If USB sucks so bad and these devices magically improve the sound, why not just buy a cheap dap and use the coax out? be done with USB all together.

Ps. Im a wyrd owner. Does it make a differnce? with dacs powered via usb yes, not powered via usb ehhh maybe a little. The point is its 99 bux and schiit makes no bombastic claims about it. These other companies are just ridiculous with there claims.

I thought the audioquest jitterbug was neat for $50 but then I went on there site and saw they recommend adding a second one in "passive mode" they just had to throw some snake oil in there, classic audioquest

http://www.audioquest.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/JiterBug_2-e1433980223537.jpg

 

I have tried a cheap DAP (Ibasso DX90) to connect to the Yggdrasil. The sound quality was not even close(inferior) to Yggdrasil USB(ASIO).

Using the dx90's coax out was completely inferior to the USB gen 2 on my gungnir. Not even close.

Same result as thegunner100 for me except with the Bifrost Uber. I was using an Optical connection and also tried coax, however in my opinion I get better sound quality with the USB Gen 2 upgrade on the Bifrost Uber.

I cannot say if the Schiit Wyrd in my case would improve the USB sound quality, but I really cannot hear any "noise" from using the Bifrost's USB. Maybe if I had an opportunity to try the Bifrost with the Wyrd I could then compare the sound quality and maybe notice something I hadn't before.