FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Nuforce uDAC USB DAC AMP with line out and S/PDIF out - Page 60

The specs of the HDP are too general to tell anything. I'm also very curious about it.

My friend, you leave this forum super unattractive. Not want to defend anyone but you could only write useful things for us? I have audio equipments from Wadia, Esoteric, Apple, Dell, Dynaudio, Thorens, etc.. And I do not work for any of these companies. You're already paranoid. This forum is for technical discussion and not senseless aggression.

Just because someone likes a certain equipment, not to say that work for this company.
Are two different things.

I have visited this forum this early in 2009 and never saw so many unnecessary posts like yours. Putting his personal opinions about the credibility of others. Who are you my friend? How many post you have? How many really useful information you gave us?

You with your attitude is that it seems to work for some company.

I want to apologize to our colleagues in the forum, but I think this topic is very polluted by Mr. userland.

Well, that's your opinion, mr. 6 posts. There's nothing wrong with asking if a person who is touting and recommending a product has a financial stake or other connection with a company. It's just common sense, actually, and common courtesy to make that known. It doesn't have to mean the person is consciously shilling for the company, but in the interests of full disclosure it's usually proper to state those connections (or lack of them) so that people are aware.

As for how much "useful" information I've given, with the exception of the OP I've probably written more on this DAC alone, both its positive and negative attributes, than anyone one else on this forum. I'm sorry if you want a forum where people only say "positive" things about a product, but I prefer one where people are honest about their impressions, good and bad. My overall reviews were much more positive than many others, which called the uDAC boomy, grainy, and distorted, so you are way out of line even on that count.

I'll ignore your rude post and personal attacks this time because you are so new to posting here, but I hope in the future you will refrain from using insulting words like "paranoid" and "polluting" when addressing other members here. I certainly don't really appreciate it in the least.

Upgrading the PC sound system

I don't really have room for a big power amp in my computer room so I went with some Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 pros (active powered).

Does anyone else have any experience with PC > uDAC > Active speakers ?

Part of me is wondering if I should have waited for the HDP to release but $399 is currently too steep for my limited budget.

I'm running mine with a set of KRK Rokit speakers, they sound good to me except I get the odd pop sounds every few minutes. And my left channel cuts out once in a while, and I have to unplug/re-plug the USB cable to make it work again.

I don't think there's anything wrong with asking, but I don't ever think there was a time when HPA held back from criticizing an audio component.

Double Post. Sorry.

actually i find the majority of userlander's posts here quite helpful. It's good to have multiple opinions on a product esp one that is so highly regarded by the OP at such a price. He's told us his opinions on them with both the positives and negatives so he has a good amount of useful posts here.

And in regards to his question..it could be a valid one but I don't believe HPA's relationship (whatever it is if its just a reviewer or something more) would affect his reviews and say only positive things about them.

I'm getting some clipping too. Especially with the volume on the uDAC up to max.

Clipping seems to go away by reducing volume on the uDAC to the 12 - 2 range. Oddly enough, setting the volume on my amp (HeadRoom Micro on low gain) and the uDAC at about the same position seems to work best.

I agree with Larry, at least the light isn't some HAL.

I wondered too about the big USB. Is there some technical reason to prefer the full size to the mini USB?

Thanks, rawrster. I try to be as honest and objective as possible. Apparently some people had a problem with some of the terminology I used, so after considering all the feedback I received, I tried to modify what I said according to the list of guidelines donunus provided, along with an entire post dedicated to describing the strong positive attributes of the uDAC. I hope now there is no doubt that I am saying this is generally a very good DAC, performs quite well, is a great value, but there is no escaping that it has a slight midrange emphasis and voicing that -- for me at least -- would incline me to steer away from it for classical music and with certain warmer phones, like HD650 that Larry also mentioned. I also have said a number of times that I think it "kicks ass" for rock and that it synergizes with Grados especially well.

In reading the very strong trend in favor and praise of the uDAC (and why not, it's a good DAC), I also thought some of that might have been a tad uncritical, and that it might be unfair to some people who were looking for a different sound (e.g., more neutral for classical) and as a result they might have been slightly misled and then ultimately disappointed with it *for those applications.* So I thought I would try to address that aspect more than I felt had been brought up.

But then again, someone said they really liked it with classical. So in the end it's all very individualistic and subjective anyway. None of us are perfect, and everyone is coming from having different gear, different audio experience, and so on. So I would hope that everyone takes what *anyone* says with a grain of salt, understands that we're all just doing the best we can to give a fair and balanced view of the product, and make their best decision based on that.

I only asked Larry about his connection not because I doubted the objectivity of his review and opinions, but because he seems very upfront about his support of the uDAC and I was merely curious about his relationship with the company. Again, not because I doubt his review, but merely because I think it's better for everyone to have full disclosure.

For the record, I'm just an end-user audio enthusiast/consumer. I have no financial or other interests with any audio company at all, no axes to grind, or anything like that. I'm certainly not trying to hurt anyone's business, I'm only interested in people getting as complete a picture as possible so they can decide for themselves. Sometimes in the short run it might help a business to make a sale, but if the person is disappointed b/c what they got wasn't what they expected, it could actually hurt the business more in the future. So managing expectations can be important. So I just thought I would mention that since "pcfranco" questioned me on it.

is it recommended to keep the uDAC at max volume when running speakers? i was thinking about just setting my wharfedales to about 60-65% of their max and then using the uDAC as my main controller.

I think it was recommended earlier in the thread to keep the µDac at 85% (around the 2 position?)

Agreed. I think everyone is pretty much in agreement on how the general sound quality of it is like. It's mainly because of use of terminologies that there's been bit of a disagreement, and it seems like by now we've all come to an understanding of where everybody stands on that issue, anyway.

I haven't checked this thread for some time and wow, it grew so fast!
I will be the best person to clarify our relationship with Larry.
I have no idea who Larry is until Casey, our VP of Product Development told me that we have a fast growing thread on head-fi.org very shortly after we released NE-7M.
Larry posted a balanced and well written review for NE-7M. We got curious and start digging around. I found out that Larry has been our customer and he PURCHASED Icon and NE-7M at retail price from the online store.

As a manufacturer, we need early feedback from critical audiophiles so it is in our interest to find people who can be fair and very knowledgeable about a particular range of products related to what we are doing. We found that Larry is not shy of being critical! We asked Larry to evaluate a prototype UF-30 and he didn't have many good words to say . That help us to improve the production version of UF-30.

We know what we are doing obviously, but sometimes it is good to have a few early beta testers to help catch problems. Larry has a deep memory of many headphones and amps etc and he can give very good and detail feedback. We DON'T WANT him or anyone else to give only positive feedback. What's the point? We know we are very good at making high performance stuff and our own Casey has critical ears. What we need is people who can tell us what's wrong!

So, basically we started sending pre-production products to Larry (uDAC is only the 2nd such product) for evaluation before we commit to pilot production. Larry and other headfiers are pretty passionate about products they liked. Larry did receive the production uDAC later for free.

X2 on paragraph 1.

On the issue of reviewing on HF, speaking from very limited experience and skill (esp compared to HPA), when you get gear gratis from a vendor, it's very, very hard to be brutally frank about a product if you don't care for it. So you try to be as fair as possible, point out the good and the bad. It's a little different when you pay for it out of pocket, or work as a professional reviewer for a money-making site or magazine, no? In those cases, if you really dislike something, it's much easier to be brutally honest (but of course you should still try and be balanced). After all, you put out your hard-earned money for it.

When a company is going to start funneling products to a member gratis on a regular basis, in my humble opinion, they really don't expect to be blasted in a review. It's human nature on the vendor's part. And likewise, when you are on the receiving end, again, it's human nature to give the vendor every benefit of the doubt. Otherwise, the free merchandise will certainly come to a grinding halt in short order, and more importantly, your credibility as a reviewer will be kaput.

The only way to discern any bias in favor of a vendor who supplies free samples is to match reviews with known "review samples" of gear over time, and see if the reviews/reports are mostly favorable by a large percentage. If that happens over the course of say 50 products, then pro-vendor bias would make the reviewer suspect. Using 1-2 reviews is not a good sample.

In my view it is critical, on this forum, that anyone reviewing a product that was given, not loaned, but given by a vendor say so up front. It's just common sense that that be the case, so members can adjust their perception of the review accordingly.

No doubt the hardest thing about being an amateur reviewer on HF is getting something free and then really liking it, because no matter how much you might try to deny it/defend yourself, some members are going to say you can't possibly be objective. And they could be right, depending on your relationship with the vendor, etc.

So no reason to attack userlander, for sure. His question is valid. And HPA is well aware of the thin line an amateur HF reviewer walks when the benefit from free gear. It ain't easy.