Tiny DAC, Big Sound – Impression of Stoner Acoustics UD100 vs. ODAC - Page 12

Ordered. Going to pair with my TTVJ Slim! What do you guys reckon? I can only afford keeping two of the TTVJ and the 2stepdance

 

Or stick with the good e17 and sell everything esle haha

 

I agree. The UD100 looks great straight out of the envelope. (Not a penny is wasted on packaging). I have had mine for a going on two months now and it still sounds and looks great. A fine purchase and incredible value.

One thing I can say is this DAC is loud. I'm using it as the DAC instead of the Aune T1's internal DAC. Swapping DAC I immediately noticed improvements. Comparison with the Aune's DAC, this is my first impression, I think I'll be doing some serious comparison letter. But for now I can say that they sound more engaging, the bass quality and quantity has vastly improved, the distortion in loud volumes is virtually nonexistent, but the highs I think is a bit more pronounced but not sure whether in a good or bad way.

This is without any serious comparisons, I don't have such musical or critical ears, but even I can hear the differences and improvements. I'm not sure losing the 24 bit for 16 bit is a downgrade, don't notice any changes playing through my 24 bit albums.

Siboh Kitak Nangis by Zee Avi sounds so beautiful.

I'm seriously interested in something like the ud100 or hifimediy sabre USB dac to pair with my X-can v2 and Senn HD580 at home and, perhaps, in future, a portable amp for office use - something like a cmoy/fiioE etc

That said, a 'one box' solution like the E10 is also tempting at a similar price range.

Can those with experience of both comment of the DAC performance (primarily) and also how these little Sabre DACs pair with the portable amps out there?

Many thanks,

O.

 

I have an E10 but haven't touched it since I started using my UD100/ Objective2 rig. I use a HD580 as well. Now, I'm not a believer in "NIGHT AND DAY!!!" differences between DACs and amps, but the UD100 feels slightly more realistic and holographic compared to the E10. This really depends on the recording though, on heavily compressed tracks I can't hear a difference between the two. If you're looking for a one-box solution I'd just get an ODAC+Objective2 box and be done forever. :) 

Thanks Negakinu,

Much appreciated and from what I've read I am fairly sure, purely as a DAC comparison, either of the options I mentioned may outperform the E10 DAC but it is always good to hear first hand experience.

The O2/ODAC (sold by Epiphany acoustics here in the UK) would set me back nearly £200GBP which, given I have always been very happy with the X-Can V2 (in which I have some 'upgraded' tubes) is more than I would like to spend - in short, the amp section is of less importance to me at this time and 'one box vs. two' is not an issue.

The portable amp mentioned above would be for occasional work trips/office use etc but by far the biggest consideration for me is to have a 'nice' DAC to feed my existing amp from my (not heavily compressed) PC/NAS.

Of course, if that turns out not to be a good match then I will probably look to offload the x-canv2 and go with an O2/ODAC option or similar as you suggest but I'd like to try other options first (the lure of a bargain is strong )

O.

Pathway if you are willing to DIY then I reckon you can get the O2 + ODAC setup for about £110 -£130 not including soldering iron etc in the UK.

 

But then again ~£35 for the UD100 and ~£50 for all bits needed for O2 is also very tempting.

 

Yeah, the O2/ODAC are a little overpriced.  I don't know, how about Hifimediy + a Yamaha receiver from amazon.co.uk for the same price?  They usually include nice headphone amplifiers, and DAC's are about speakers too, not only IEM's / headphones.

Hi guys ! Plan to buy a Pico slim to couple with my Iphone 4s. Would the ud100 improve the sound restitution when connected to the Pico ? Would this configuration be better than the one box Pico headamp + DAC ? Thanks in advance.

Been eyeing an ODAC+O2 and probably would have pulled the trigger a long time ago if he already had a desktop version made, but this is looking like a nice chunk of money saved from the ODAC and can just add an O2 for almost the same combo and $100 less. Thanks a lot for the review :)

Hi aamefford !

Can your confirm that the ud100 can be connected to the iPhone 4s without any problem ? What kind of cable do you use ? Some people say the only way to get the digital input out of the iPhone to be transmitted to the dac (I don't speak of the Apple compatible devices such as the Fostex hp-p1 or the CLAS) is to use the Camera Connection Kit made for the iPad, along with the camera connector tweak (if the iPhone is a jailbroken one).

I actually ended up buying Hifimediy's version. Hopefully it arrives soon!

I wonder if I can manage to shoehorn this dac into my cmoy....hmmm. Ill keep you guys posted.

Would love to see some pics on UD100 going together with the Cmoys!

 

How did you guys set them up in 'portable' sense?

 

Can the UD100 be kept inside the Cmoy case with the 9v battery? Im thinking along the lines of carrying and taking them out

 

I want to get them both as a birthday present for a good friend soon! Thanks!