[Yikes]

The "uDac 1" had coax out. Do you mean BNC out? Are there any other improvements to the s/pdif converter?
 
It would also be helpful for Nuforce to tell us what they are thinking of charging uDac 1 owners for the new board.

There's nothing wrong with the original uDAC. Just because they come out with an improved model doesn't mean that they owe all owners of the original model anything, much less a free upgrade. It is great of Nuforce to offer some sort of discount for original uDAC owners. Surely you don't expect them to give away new boards for free, they're a business, not a charity. When Sennheiser came out with the HD-600 did anyone seriously expect them to upgrade the drivers of everyone who had purchased HD-580's?



It would be a different matter if there were some technical problem with the original uDAC, but there isn't. So Nuforce doesn't owe anyone a free upgrade. It's sort of twisted that anyone would seriously expect them to do so.



Since the new uDAC uses the same case it's a simple matter to swap out boards, and Wa-La you have a new unit. This allows Nuforce to offer a "Discounted" upgrade price. Is Nuforce still making money offering this upgrade? Sure, and there's nothing wrong with that. They make some money, and customers save some money over buying a new unit. Of course a person could sell their original uDAC and then order a new uDAC-2 and it would probably end up costing a similar amount. Nuforce has just facilitated another upgrade path.



I personally like the way Nuforce does business, offering a good product at a fair price, and offering existing customers another means of upgrading besides selling the old model.



Now you'll excuse me while I go and try and insist that Dell offer me a new 6 core processor because my quad-core has been superseded.

Edit: I just reread grokit's post. I'm sorry he may not have been barking up the free upgrade tree, so my rant was inappropriate, sorry. I wouldn't be surprised if Nuforce doesn't offer boards to people who purchased outside of their arbitrary "Upgrade window". A line must be drawn somewhere.

 

[grokit]

I was just asking how much they were thinking of charging, not what were they thinking, charging us, Yikes

!
 
But I have to say that for $60 or so I would rather have a 2nd uDac than trash the first board of a perfectly functioning unit, especiall if that means it will no longer work with my iPad. The secondhand uDac-1 market will be a boon to iPad users for sure.

 

[Yikes]

Yes, I figured that out, look at my edit. Sorry again.

 

[grokit]

It's all good, I can see that my wording was a bit awkward

 
The "new jitter reduction system" does mean an improved s/pdif converter

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

The "uDac 1" had coax out. Do you mean BNC out? Are there any other improvements to the s/pdif converter?
 
It would also be helpful for Nuforce to tell us what they are thinking of charging uDac 1 owners for the new board.

 
I'm posting this in the new uDAC-2 thread, but will answer the question here.
 
The uDAC-2 uses the same 24/96 USB receiver chip as the HDP, and sends the data to the Sabre DAC to be decoded into analog.  The Sabre DAC has some jitter reduction algorithms inside, but the new receiver chip may also be responsible for some jitter reduction.  You can set the computer USB port to 24/96, but it can still decode 16/44 with the USB set to the max allowed.  But it does not up-sample the 16/44 music up to 24/96 with an SRC.
 
From the SABRE DAC the signal goes to the RCA line-out if no headphone is plugged in, and to the Coax S/PDIF out AT THE SAME TIME.  No longer do you have to turn off the uDAC at the volume knob to activate the S/PDIF output, as it is active all the time now.  
 
The RCA line out sounds noticeably better, and whatever flavor the older uDAC was giving the music is not there with the new USB receiver chip.  The RCA line-out (to my ears) now sounds identical to my Pico DAC-only when feeding my ALO Amphora, Woo WA6, or RSA Protector amps.  I honestly cannot tell which one I am listening to in A/B comparisons with the same music, regardless of bit rate.
 
The headphone amp section is improved, with better treble extension/presence and not too forward mids.  The frequency balance is now closer to the HDP than it is to the original uDAC, while retaining it's nice warm tone.  It's still slightly more forward sounding with a slightly smaller soundstage than the HDP.  The headphone amp with 24/96 music is noticeably more detailed than the same music with the original uDAC, and still slightly more detailed when using 16/44 CD rips with both devices.  While the earlier uDAC-2 prototype was being held back by the original uDAC headphone amp, the revised amp in the final production uDAC-2 take a step above the original amp.
 
The Nuforce HDP is still more detailed and spacious than the uDAC-2, but the uDAC-2 clearly spans the gap between the two products and comes closer to the HDP than the original.  The $65 upgrade price is great, at 50% the cost of a new one.  The only downside I can think of is that uDAC-2 doesn't work with the iPad which wont support a USB DAC that goes higher than 48Khz (with camera connection kit).  But at these prices maybe someone could buy one of each?
 
Don't forget to subscribe to the uDAC-2 thread:  http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/505523/first-impressions-nuforce-udac-2-24-96-usb-dac-amp-with-line-out-and-s-pdif-out

 

[dcpoor]

Just wondering if the upgrade will be available to those who purchased a udac second-hand or only to those that purchased direct from Nuforce/Amazon?
 
Thanks.

 

[jasonl]

Quote:

Just wondering if the upgrade will be available to those who purchased a udac second-hand or only to those that purchased direct from Nuforce/Amazon?
 
Thanks.

Since we can't easily verify the purchase, you can send the unit to us for upgrade. For now, we will do it on a case by case basis. The support cost of processing and servicing the upgrade cost $ so we really shouldn't be doing this . 

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Since we can't easily verify the purchase, you can send the unit to us for upgrade. For now, we will do it on a case by case basis. The support cost of processing and servicing the upgrade cost $ so we really shouldn't be doing this . 

But you do it because you love happy customers!

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

Just wondering if the upgrade will be available to those who purchased a udac second-hand or only to those that purchased direct from Nuforce/Amazon?
 
Thanks.

They are just selling the new board for $65 to those that may want it; it shouldn't really matter who they sell them to, IMHO. It would seem like they would be making a reasonable profit at this price and the whole verification step would be a wasted and unproductive effort. I think they should only bother with verification for the July purchases that get a discount. If the second-handers want to shell out the extra $65, why not let them?

 

[Yikes]

IMO - because it becomes one of the benefits of purchasing new, like a warranty. If you give used buyers all of the benefits of buying new then less people buy new. They instead wait to purchase used. This shrinks overall sales, and also the size of the used pool. There must be some significant difference between buying new and used, otherwise overall sales will suffer.

 

[grokit]

There is too much man-made "stuff" in the world. The less the better for the environment, and for the sake of ultimate utility and efficiency. That is why I am firmly in favor of buying used goods, whether it is a CD or a piece of audio gear. As for Nuforce, they are profiting either way, so they might as well take the more environmentally responsible approach. IMHO.

 

[Yikes]

Compost it

 

[semaniaci]

hello, i have a problem with older uDac. I have no idea how to use its spdif out. Volume knob is in minimum position. But it doesn´t work like it has to. is it necessary to set something in windows or in foobar?
 
laptop - uDac - cable from uDac´s coax out to DAC´s coax in - DAC´s output to AMP´s input - headphones
 
thank you for your advice

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

hello, i have a problem with older uDac. I have no idea how to use its spdif out. Volume knob is in minimum position. But it doesn´t work like it has to. is it necessary to set something in windows or in foobar?
 
laptop - uDac - cable from uDac´s coax out to DAC´s coax in - DAC´s output to AMP´s input - headphones
 
thank you for your advice

Turn the volume down till it clicks "off".  Then SDPIF output will be active.

 

[KneelJung]

Total noob question, I bought the uDAC back in Febuary or March based on stuff I read in this thread. No regrets the little gizmo does exactly what I was looking for. I was thinking about a total bit head and decided on this instead in case I ever wanted to hook an amp up to it. My basic desire was to improve the source I was plugging my headphone into and at $99 compared to $149 for the bit head it seemed like the way to go, especially since it has the RCA outs and I could add an amp later.
 
I doubt it's the best DAC out there (maybe not even best budget DAC) I just know it's way better than the headphone out on my PC. My question is this though. I have some Denon d2000's on the way and was wondering if anyone had any experience with the d2000's using the uDAC's headphone out. I only ask because it seems one the criticisms of the uDAC is the way it adds to the mids which is supposedly the weakness of the Denons
 
Also would be interested in some amp suggestions. Right now I'm leaning toward the little dot +1. Have also considered the ef2 both of which are hybrid amps and supposedly have good synergy with low impedance phones like the Denons. Another DAC is not out of the question either, but from what I can remember when reading the Feb / March incarnation of this thread; the RCA outs on my version of the uDAC were pretty solid. Anyway what I'm looking for is something that has good synergy with the Denon d2000's.
 
Add an amp or replace the uDAC?