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harrinj said:

I like the UDH-100 very much and it is much much better than the Icon HDP. with my AKG K702's using the UDH-100's amp 75% on the volume knob suffices 80% being loud, same with DT990. I have not used my Schiit Valhalla for a long time but they are about the same but not really any better no. the Schiit Valhalla and UDH-100 are completely silent and work just as great. 

The USB on the UDH-100 is SUPERB. there is just driver issues that Nuforce is fixing. yes the UDH-100 is very much better than the HDP. as for power well... I always have my UDH-100's analog out hooked into the AUX of a vintage Kenwood KR-7400 and that drives headphones like crazy it really makes the drivers move, the UDH/valhalla does not even come close in that regard. 

UDH-100 is worth it. 

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Thanks for your answer. I'm kind of skeptical now to be honest. Having to turn the knob to 80% to get headphones loud is never a good sign about the amp. I would not like to pay so much money for it and then to find out some music thats not recorded very loud is too silent and I cant get enough volume out of my headphones.  In terms of pure headphone output power, is the UDH weaker than HDP? Because I've read somewhere that HDP even runs HD800's or HE-5's properly, and has plenty of power for K702, thats why I'm surprised to hear about UDH's amp... do you ever feel like its lacking power to get the K702's really singing very loud?
How is the sound signature of HDP and UDH?  I heard HDP is pretty cold and analytical, is UDH any warmer?

Quote:

derbigpr said:

 
Thanks for your answer. I'm kind of skeptical now to be honest. Having to turn the knob to 80% to get headphones loud is never a good sign about the amp. I would not like to pay so much money for it and then to find out some music thats not recorded very loud is too silent and I cant get enough volume out of my headphones.  In terms of pure headphone output power, is the UDH weaker than HDP? Because I've read somewhere that HDP even runs HD800's or HE-5's properly, and has plenty of power for K702, thats why I'm surprised to hear about UDH's amp... do you ever feel like its lacking power to get the K702's really singing very loud?
How is the sound signature of HDP and UDH?  I heard HDP is pretty cold and analytical, is UDH any warmer?

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well it does not make the drivers in the headphones really move like my Kenwood KR-7400 or Harman Kardon 430 does but I am happy with the amp in the UDH-100 if you want a completely silent background unlike the vintage receivers, the UDH-100 is great! I would say that the UDH-100's amp is better than the HDP's amp. yes UDH-100 sounds better and warmer than the HDP. 

The amp goes plenty loud enough for me.
My HE-4's are very inefficient and I have reached 100% on some previous amps, but there is still plenty more to spare with the UDH100 at more like 60%.
It is also worth noting that the volume control is digital and so not as front loaded as some analogue controls.

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0rangutan said:

The amp goes plenty loud enough for me.
My HE-4's are very inefficient and I have reached 100% on some previous amps, but there is still plenty more to spare with the UDH100 at more like 60%.
It is also worth noting that the volume control is digital and so not as front loaded as some analogue controls.

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How loud are we talking about here? I mean, loudness is subjective in this case.  Are we talking "loud" as in nice volume to listen at,  or loud as in I can leave my headphones on the table, go outside the room, close the door, and still hear the headphones? 
 
I'm getting two totally different pictures here. One is that it has plenty of power even for HE-4's and other it lacks power for K702's. Hm...not sure why that is.  Is it possible to control gain in other way than just trough the volume knob? Maybe the two devices are set up differently.
I mean, the amp outputs 500 mW into 32 Ohms, thats what it says in specifications, so into 62 Ohms that K702's have it should output above 300 mW's, which is plenty of power for them. HDP does 150mW into same load. So UDH is almost twice as powerful, and I've read in every review of HDP so far that it goes well really good with K701/2.
 
What I want from a 800-900$ DAC/amp is the ability to power my headphones flawlessly, at least in terms of power.  If a <200$  Asus soundcard can run the K702's to close-to-melting-point loudness that I could not stand to listen to for more than a few moments, and without any distortion, then there's no excuse for a close to $1K device.
 
I think I might take the Musical Fidelity M1HPA route instead of the UDH-100. Even though the DAC inside the M1HPA is just a basic 24/48 chip, and very inferior to the one in UDH-100, at least I can be sure It will properly run my headphones with plenty of power reserves.

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derbigpr said:

How loud are we talking about here? I mean, loudness is subjective in this case.  Are we talking "loud" as in nice volume to listen at,  or loud as in I can leave my headphones on the table, go outside the room, close the door, and still hear the headphones?

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Definitely the latter
 
My Bel Canto DAC1.5 plays the HE-4's pleasantly loud at 100%, but the UDH-100 is into painfully loud territory well before then.

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0rangutan said:

 
Definitely the latter
 
My Bel Canto DAC1.5 plays the HE-4's pleasantly loud at 100%, but the UDH-100 is into painfully loud territory well before then.

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Oh thats more to my liking then.

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derbigpr said:

 
 
How loud are we talking about here? I mean, loudness is subjective in this case.  Are we talking "loud" as in nice volume to listen at,  or loud as in I can leave my headphones on the table, go outside the room, close the door, and still hear the headphones? 
 
I'm getting two totally different pictures here. One is that it has plenty of power even for HE-4's and other it lacks power for K702's. Hm...not sure why that is.  Is it possible to control gain in other way than just trough the volume knob? Maybe the two devices are set up differently.
I mean, the amp outputs 500 mW into 32 Ohms, thats what it says in specifications, so into 62 Ohms that K702's have it should output above 300 mW's, which is plenty of power for them. HDP does 150mW into same load. So UDH is almost twice as powerful, and I've read in every review of HDP so far that it goes well really good with K701/2.
 
What I want from a 800-900$ DAC/amp is the ability to power my headphones flawlessly, at least in terms of power.  If a <200$  Asus soundcard can run the K702's to close-to-melting-point loudness that I could not stand to listen to for more than a few moments, and without any distortion, then there's no excuse for a close to $1K device.
 
I think I might take the Musical Fidelity M1HPA route instead of the UDH-100. Even though the DAC inside the M1HPA is just a basic 24/48 chip, and very inferior to the one in UDH-100, at least I can be sure It will properly run my headphones with plenty of power reserves.

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it powers the K702 just fine. I think you would actually be very happy with it. the analog out on the UDH-100 is exceptional. 60-80% when I use the UDH-100's amp is where I usually keep it. I will try and make a better reply tomorrow, both times I have replied to you I have been extremely tired. 

Quote:

harrinj said:

it powers the K702 just fine. I think you would actually be very happy with it. the analog out on the UDH-100 is exceptional. 60-80% when I use the UDH-100's amp is where I usually keep it. I will try and make a better reply tomorrow, both times I have replied to you I have been extremely tired. 

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The thing is, I want a device which will not power my headphones just fine, but will power them so well I wont have to worry about getting a different amp. In other words. I want the UDH-100 to be the "all in one" device, plug it into the USB,  plug in the headphones,  and get exceptional sound and plenty of power to run my headphones with a decent amount of headroom in the volume, so that I can use properly with some more silently recorded music.  
I mean, I've seen lots of people saying that HDP is a great combo for K701, and if UDH-100 is so much better than HDP, then it cant be bad. Still, for $200 less I can get a Musical Fidelity M1HPA amp which I believe would outclass the headphone output on the UDH-100... damn choices.

I will test it tonight with the K702 and DT990 when I get home and reply to you. I've actually not used the udh-100s amp for a long time. I know it is DEAD SILENT background with sennehiser HD598, k702 and DT990 600ohm.

UDH-100 using Beyerdynamic DT990 600ohm and listening to a WAV CD copy of Roger Waters Amused to Death, most songs I can listen to with the volume knob as far as it will go and be somewhat happy. AKG K702 almost exactly the same. Sennheiser HD598 75% is LOUD. Eagles Hotel California 24/96 vinyl rip all three exactly the same. HDTracks Fleetwood Mac Tango in The Night 24/192 DT990 75% K702 60% HD598 60% the amp sounds warm but I always use it with a vintage receiver much better volume control. 

I´m thinking of upgrading my Nuforce HDP (mostly using the DAC and PRE option/function), and have been trying to figure out the differences of the UDH-100, DAC-80 and DAC-100. Not the input/output options but the hardware used inside. The DAC/amp board and even the USB board inside the UDH-100 looks quite different from the DAC-80/100. Is it a completely different beast with another DAC/USB chip than the other two?
 
UDH-100

 
DAC-80

 
DAC-100

Quote:

calypso said:

I´m thinking of upgrading my Nuforce HDP (mostly using the DAC and PRE option/function), and have been trying to figure out the differences of the UDH-100, DAC-80 and DAC-100. Not the input/output options but the hardware used inside. The DAC/amp board and even the USB board inside the UDH-100 looks quite different from the DAC-80/100. Is it a completely different beast with another DAC/USB chip than the other two?
 
UDH-100

 
DAC-80

 
DAC-100

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Apparently, DAC100 and DAC80 are totally identical in everything, except that DAC80 doesn't have a headphone amplifier. Everything else should be the same, so as a DAC they should perform identically.
 
UDH-100 is definitely a lower end device compared to the DAC100 and DAC80. At least where I live DAC100 costs twice as much and DAC80 costs a bit more than UDH, so its safe to assume it doesn't have components that can compete with the other two.  But all should be better than HDP, since its hard to do any worse than HDP.

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derbigpr said:

UDH-100 is definitely a lower end device compared to the DAC100 and DAC80. At least where I live DAC100 costs twice as much and DAC80 costs a bit more than UDH, so its safe to assume it doesn't have components that can compete with the other two.  But all should be better than HDP, since its hard to do any worse than HDP.

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Yep, that´s what I figured. The lower price of the UDH-100 is interesting, but for the price of the DAC-80 there are other options (Audiolab M-DAC?) out there. At least here in Europe.

Not sure about the 80 or 100, but the UDH100 has perhaps the worst volume knob in the world. Ever.
It feels cheap, loose and vague in a way that I struggle to get my head around.
It sounds fantastic and looks great but is made nearly unusable by this poor design choice.

I kind of expected that the stripped down barebones USB-only UDH-100 would offer better results given its focus on keeping it simple. Don't get me wrong, seems like a good DAC/Amp combo, but maybe not as good as people expect for the price after reading through this thread, and given its limited hardware.
 
Speaking of prices...according to their website the 

MSRP for the UDH-100 is $649. The DAC-80 MSRP is $795

. The DAC-9 is their flagship, running up to ~$2K according to distributors willing to list a price.