Just got the uDAC... this was perhaps my fastest shipment ever, it took less than 24 hours for it to get here. Granted, it's only from Ottawa to Toronto, but I'm still impressed. Kudos to themacgroup... if any Canadians here wants to get the uDAC, they're definitely the people to look to.
Out of the box... yup, as everyone said, it's much smaller than what I anticipated. Yet the build quality is top notch... it's built very solidly. No problems with the volume pot being overly stiff or anything. Love that little intro in the manual about "beginner's guide to good audio" by the way.
I haven't had the chance for it to replace the Pico DAC on my main rig yet, but I've hooked it up to my secondary desktop rig (which is what I'll be using it for mainly, on its own), and I can already tell this is one fantastic piece of audio equipment. Three things that jumped out at me is 1) soundstage (huge), 2) detail (very detailed; mids are definitely on the upfront side), and 3) warmness. I first tried my lower end gear on it first, such as KSC75 (excellent, and warmness complimented its cold nature well), AD700 (again, the extra warmness was good, and it brought its recessed mids more forward), and ES7 (only one that didn't sound that great; it got overly warm and boomy)... then for fun, I tried it out with my higher end gear, and was surprised at how much power these little beasts can pack. They power the K701 to exceptional levels, with the warmness and added midbass complimenting it exceptionally well (now, they don't hold a candle to my main rig of course, but if I hadn't heard my main rig I'd be more than happy with this combo). HD650 was easily powered to ear-splitting volumes as well, but I felt that the warmness and bottom end made it too boomy for my liking. RS1 with flats sounded very good through it as well, just missing the organicness that my WA6 usually provides (and perhaps bit too much midbass boost) but great otherwise. For now, the only real "flaw" I can see with this is that it's not totally neutral (mid/bass oriented; some may find upper mids too peaky, and top end treble seems a bit rolled off), but if you match it well I see real potential in it. The soundstage and midrange detail this DAC/amp provides is simply amazing. Funny, I'm floored by this so far, and I haven't even used it as a DAC yet! I'll try to hook it up to my main rig as soon as I can, but I have no doubts that it'll stand toe-to-toe with my Pico DAC.
Yes, at $99 USD, this is a steal. Wow.