thoughts on this DAC

Jhayman
Jhayman Posts: 1,548
edited May 2014 in Going Digital
http://www.teac.com/product/ud-501/

My audio store guy says this DAC is Awesome..
I would like to know if any of you have heard it or know anything about it..
He compares it to DAC's costing 2K
ATC SCM40's,VTL TL 2.5 Preamp,PSB Stratus Goldi's,McCormack DNA 500,McCormack MAP-1 Preamp,Pro-Ject Xtension 10 TT,Ortofon Cadenza Red/Nordost RedDawn LS Speaker cables, Bryston BDP-2, Bryston BDA-2,PS Audio AC-3 power cables
Post edited by Jhayman on
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  • AsSiMiLaTeD
    AsSiMiLaTeD Posts: 11,728
    edited January 2014
    I've had that and another TEAC here and they both sounded very similar, very accurate but cold and not very musical at all. I still think the Sabre and AKM DACs are my favorite, great mix of accuracy and detail but still very musical and organic. Wolfson I find too farm on the other end, nice and warm sounding but lacking detail and a tad too laid back for me.
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  • bobsauto49
    bobsauto49 Posts: 973
    edited January 2014
    I tried that Dac, and thought it was lifeless! Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus was twice the Dac at a lot less $
    That was my experience.
    "Everything I ever did in my life worthwhile I caught hell for"
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  • 4xoddic
    4xoddic Posts: 372
    edited January 2014
    I have the TEAC ud-501; but am not yet ready to give my review, which would only be based upon hearing the TEAC. There are 4 filters for DSD use; less for PCM. Some of these have been described by owners as less than X (musicality adj) , others as > X (musicality adj).

    I used a 256 kbps file of Dylan's "Cross The Green Mountain" for burn-in of my TEAC. I listened several times with ATH-M50S cans; & liked what I heard. I purchased Audirvana + last night; have installed a SSD in my late 2009 MBP, 8 GB RAM & OS Mavericks. Went with 400 Firewire as a backup mode after reading:

    "My deep dive into media storage interfaces: Musical differences heard between chipsets, Firewire 400/800, USB, SATA, flash drives, SD cards, and network shares (Warning: may cause seizures in the DBT crowd and flat earth naysayers)."

    http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/my-deep-dive-media-storage-interfaces-musical-differences-heard-between-chipsets-firewire-400-800-universal-serial-bus-industry-standard-cables-connectors-and-communications-protocols-between-computers-and-electronic-devices-sata-flash-drives-sd-cards-and-network-shares-warning-may-cause-seizures-dbt-crowd-and-flat-earth-naysayers-18108/

    I've read several owners' opinions thatthe ud-501's balanced XLR outputs were superior-sounding to unbalanced RCA. I will be hooking the TEAC up to my new Yamaha A-S2000's balanced inputs.

    I've seen comments on the Sabre DACs posing problems with Macs. I believe any "review" should state what OS is being used; as well as software. The link above has several posters who've gone to putting their OS on flashdrive cards to eliminate "noise."

    Here's a reviewer who states "Also on hand and in use during the Teac UD-501 review: iFi iDAC, Mytek Stereo 192-DSD DAC, Emotiva XDA-2 Differential Reference DAC, Parasound Zdac, HRT Stream HD, Meridian Explorer."

    http://www.audiostream.com/content/teac-ud-501-dual-monarual-pcmdsd-usb-digital-analog-converter

    Among the commenters, owner Archimago has several links of his total evaluation of the TEAC; as well as comparing it to the Oppo 105. He presents, ew "graphs," of his findings; rather than the RS "musicality meter" readings favored on this forum.

    I've gone to see the KSU Program Director, Communication Sciences and Disorders, the last 2 years. I'm borderline on needing hearing aids. IF I go with them, I'd be glad to post before/after test scales (I'm lacking in the area of female, specifically wife's, voices).

    I've read where an owner replaced some caps in the ud-501's output stage & brought his to another level. I would rec computeraudiophile.com for other owner reviews.
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  • Christo
    Christo Posts: 30
    edited May 2014
    I had this Teac DAC and found it a bit sterile. Odd, since their CD1000 SACD player is excellent (though not quite as nice as my Marantz sa8004).
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  • pearsall001
    pearsall001 Posts: 5,091
    edited May 2014
    I can't say enough about the TEAC UD-501 DAC! Extremely musical with no digital edge what so ever. TEAC left no stone unturned in it's development of the UD-501. They nailed it & especially at it's price point much more expensive DAC's should be ashamed of themselves. You can certainly pay a lot more & get a lot less but why bother. This puppy rocks!!!! And I haven't even scratched the surface playing around with it's Hi-Rez & DSD playback. So far I'm just in awe at how well it's PCM playback is.
    "2 Channel & 11.2 HT "Two Channel:Magnepan LRSSchiit Audio Freya S - SS preConsonance Ref 50 - Tube preParasound HALO A21+ 2 channel ampBluesound NODE 2i streameriFi NEO iDSD DAC Oppo BDP-93KEF KC62 sub Home Theater:Full blown 11.2 set up.
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