Had an email from Schiit Audio today suggesting that this model may not be released. Thoughts and experiences please...
I hate the name of this company and probably would never buy any of their products, although they seem to provide great value for the money. Now they're possibly coming out with the CDT URD? I prefer to skip the bathroom humor while deciding on which audio component I purchase.
Hmm Schiit gets a lot of criticism for its puerile brand name, but Topping does the same thing and nobody says a word!
Urd is from Norse mythology. Urd is one of the Norns that decides the fates of people. Norse mythology is often used as a naming convention in Schiit Audio gear.
This is disappointing news. I felt like this unit would/could be a good alternative of something between the Audiolab 6000CDT and Jays Transport.
Would you be so kind as to paste the contents of the email? I’ve been curious about this product for a few years and it that would certainly be disappointing.
“topping: To sexually dominate someone, specifically a submissive partner, often by speaking harshly and causing physical pain.” Urban Dictionary: topping
The name _is_ silly - agree on that. And I thought - initially - it was a some sort of German translation screw up. They're actually an interesting company - recommend the Schiit Story to get the down low on the name an their products. I now own three pieces from Schiit - good budget stuff that is so reasonably priced it is hard to say no. Friend of mine has one of their headphone amps and he says it reminds him of the First Watt Aleph J, one of my favorite SS amps.
Maybe it was to be as interesting as the SOL turntable, which is no longer available! We need some proper reasonable priced CD transports back on the market but perhaps not such a experimental one. What we need has to have: - good build with damped case (simple to do) - regular size (not miniature gear like the Nuforce) - reliable CD-audio mechanism (with spares guaranteed for years) with a proper isolation (like the moon audio “gel” system) - AES/EBU, BNC and I2S digital outputs (this last one is missing from the majority of cd transports) - well designed power supply, isolated from the rest of the circuit boards - simple design with quality parts - good dimension display with the “dim and turn off” options from the remote
Part of what appealed to me about this unit was also the size: big enough to not feel like a toy but relatively inconspicuous on a rack. As Schiit has mentioned previously, the gungnir/ freya case form factor is very popular with users.
The problem is that you've imputed to Topping - a Chinese company with no knowledge of primarily American language memes and narrowly construed sexual deviate jargon - a definition that the company has never used or implied in any of its product marketing or product descriptions. Topping is a Chinglish product name used to denote or imply being better than competing products - rising above them or topping them. Nobody but you - in this thread or any other on SHF or anywhere else - has ever called into question the Topping name. Schiit Audio, in stark contrast, deliberately plays up its brand name that was chosen specifically to be mildly provocative and incautious and blah, blah, blah. It's no longer any of those things - it's just boring. I think the bigger problem Schiit Audio faces has nothing to do with its name, but rather too many product SKUs to maintain.
I have a small pile of Schiit on my desk. Sorry. It will never get old to me. Seriously, I think it's good stuff. Love that it's made in USA and it's relatively inexpensive. The transport would have been cool.
