[kite7]

It will be a good jump, but what headphones do you have?

 

[129207]

I just received my red uDac in the mail. Hooked it up to my laptop and listened to some FLAC's through the HO. It sounds good, but it doesn't sound better than my Tascam dac. It does sound better than the onboard and is about 1/8 of the size of the Tascam so I'm happy.

 

[feverfive]

Man, I wish my Macbook Pro had more than 2 USB ports (I use one for connecting to a hub and the other for when syncing my iPhone/iPod)... Can the uDac be connected via a hub, or does it have to be connected directly to a onboard USB port? Makes me wish I didn't sell my Apogee Duet 18 months ago...loved that it was firewire.

 

[Bill St. Clair]

"System Profiler" on my Mac says that the port can provide 500 mA, and the µDAC requires 250 mA. An unpowered hub has to split that 500 mA between its outputs. That may mean that it promises only 100 mA per connection, so won't work. A powered hub won't have that limitation. It will be able to provide 500 mA to each connection.

If your hub is unpowered (powered only by its input USB connection), which one is it (manufacturer and model)? We may be able to discover whether it can distribute that 500 mA unevenly, allowing you to have a 100 mA connection in addition to the 250 mA for the µDAC. But that would be the maximum, one connection in addition to the µDAC. See this Wikipedia article.

Of course, the only way to know for sure with your particular USB hub and computer is to try it.

 

[feverfive]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill St. Clair /img/forum/go_quote.gif "System Profiler" on my Mac says that the port can provide 500 mA, and the µDAC requires 250 mA. An unpowered hub has to split that 500 mA between its outputs. That may mean that it promises only 100 mA per connection, so won't work. A powered hub won't have that limitation. It will be able to provide 500 mA to each connection. If your hub is unpowered (powered only by its input USB connection), which one is it (manufacturer and model)? We may be able to discover whether it can distribute that 500 mA unevenly, allowing you to have a 100 mA connection in addition to the 250 mA for the µDAC. But that would be the maximum, one connection in addition to the µDAC. See this Wikipedia article. Of course, the only way to know for sure with your particular USB hub and computer is to try it.

O.k. Thanks... it is a powered hub; cheap one I've had for several years. It's this one Amazon.com: Cyberpower CP-H420P USB Hub, 4-Port, USB 2.0, 480Mbps, 1.1/2.0 Compatible, PC/MAC PlugNPlay: Electronics

 

[Bill St. Clair]

Looks like that one can take power from its AC adapter OR bus power. As long as you're using the AC adapter, it should work fine with the µDAC. No guarantees, of course, until you try it.

 

[Bonzo]

Hey guys I just ordered a udac, and was thinking about what do I have to do to output the audio via USB and not the speakers or the headphone output in my laptop? Thanks in advance!

 

[Bill St. Clair]

Bonzo, that depends, of course on which OS is running on your laptop. I'll assume Windows, since that's got the biggest market share. This looks useful for that:

Wavelength Audio, USB DACS, Setup information for Windows based Computers

There's also a "Macintosh" tab at the top of that page.

 

[Toddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is there any other source that sells overseas (Europe) than Amazon? Their shipping is pretty high in my book...

Don’t know about Switzerland, but Nuforce has an European (Distributor-) website: NuForce Icon Europe - NuForce Icon Europe. But I didn’t order there and instead used Amazon US, because at the current exchange rate that was the cheaper solution. (99 US$ + 19.75 US$ Postage = 88.43€ + 13.31€ import taxes [no other import duties as it is under the limit of 153€] vs. 115€+8€ postage from the European site.) Shipping from the US itself was really fast, only customs took more than a week.

T

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by feverfive /img/forum/go_quote.gif Man, I wish my Macbook Pro had more than 2 USB ports (I use one for connecting to a hub and the other for when syncing my iPhone/iPod)... Can the uDac be connected via a hub, or does it have to be connected directly to a onboard USB port? Makes me wish I didn't sell my Apogee Duet 18 months ago...loved that it was firewire.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill St. Clair /img/forum/go_quote.gif "System Profiler" on my Mac says that the port can provide 500 mA, and the µDAC requires 250 mA. An unpowered hub has to split that 500 mA between its outputs. That may mean that it promises only 100 mA per connection, so won't work. A powered hub won't have that limitation. It will be able to provide 500 mA to each connection. If your hub is unpowered (powered only by its input USB connection), which one is it (manufacturer and model)? We may be able to discover whether it can distribute that 500 mA unevenly, allowing you to have a 100 mA connection in addition to the 250 mA for the µDAC. But that would be the maximum, one connection in addition to the µDAC. See this Wikipedia article. Of course, the only way to know for sure with your particular USB hub and computer is to try it.

I am using a mini 4-port portable hub and the cable takes the power from both USB ports on the macbook. I can connect the uDAC, Pico DAC, HDP and DACport (or D4) all at the same time with no problem.

I do believe that since the HDP plugs into the wall that it doesn't draw much power, and the Pico DAC doesn't either since it's a DAC only and not an amp. Still, I have enough USB power to use the uDAC, DACport, D4 and Pico, and switch between them even though 3 of the 4 have internal headphone amps that are powered entirely by USB. Only one can be active at a time, so when the others are dormant they don't draw much power.

 

[mmerrill99]

Can anybody tell me whether the loudness on AKG701s is enough or indeed other hard-to-drive headphones?

 

[K_19]

The loudness of K701 thru uDAC is ear splitting past 1 o'clock to my ears with foobar volume full through WASAPI. It's plenty loud.

With HD650 you have to crank it up a bit higher (2 or 3 o'clock) but still gets loud enough without distortion.

Do note that I'm not one of those people that require concert-level loudness for all my listen or anything, though.

 

[mmerrill99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by K_19 /img/forum/go_quote.gif The loudness of K701 thru uDAC is ear splitting past 1 o'clock to my ears. It's plenty loud. With HD650 you have to crank it up a bit higher (2 or 3 o'clock) but still gets loud enough without distortion. Do note that I'm not one of those people that require concert-level loudness for all my listen or anything, though.

Thanks K_19. I have an ES9022 DAC which is the same as used in the uDac & I don't get ear splitting levels when directly driving a AKG701s. I would in fact, say that a lot of regular headphone users would probably want a bit more volume extension.

My conclusion is that some boosting of the signal from the Vout DAC is happening through the use of op-amps or other active device on the ESS DAC output.

Has anybody opened one up to confirm NuForce's claim of no op-amps in the signal path? There were some fuzzy pics early in the thread but impossible to make anything out.

 

[Hugh Laurie]

Anyone know how long the stock usb cable is? Just wondering if I need to get a longer one

 

[Bill St. Clair]

Mine measure 42 inches.