[KneelJung]

Quote:

I would not do anything until the D2000 arrive, then try them out with the uDAC headphone out.

The Denon's arrived today and they sound great right out of the uDAC. At this point it seems pretty superfluous adding an amp for set headphones that are so easily driven. I think the money burning a hole in my pocket will be better spent on some music.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

The Denon's arrived today and they sound great right out of the uDAC. At this point it seems pretty superfluous adding an amp for set headphones that are so easily driven. I think the money burning a hole in my pocket will be better spent on some music.

Great!  It just didn't make sense to recommend more gear until after you heard the Denon/uDAC combo.

 

[Faheem]

Can any one tell me how does the uDACs line out (via RCA) work exactly ?  Does it pass through the internal amp used for headphone out or does it bypass the amp ? How does the volume control work in line out ?
 
I had requested NuForce to clear these doubts I had in mind but haven't got any reply yet. If by any chance Ive missed this particular information in the thread, someone point it out to me please.

 

[grokit]

The headphone out and the RCA out are effectively the same thing, as they are both regulated by the uDac's volume control. There are those that say that there is a difference and the RCA out sounds better when the uDac is used as a stand-alone DAC. I think that it sounds best as an all in one unit myself so I prefer the headphone out. I have tried the uDac all three ways (dac only, dac/headamp, usb-s/pdif converter).

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Can any one tell me how does the uDACs line out (via RCA) work exactly ?  Does it pass through the internal amp used for headphone out or does it bypass the amp ? How does the volume control work in line out ?


 


I had requested NuForce to clear these doubts I had in mind but haven't got any reply yet. If by any chance Ive missed this particular information in the thread, someone point it out to me please.

The ESS Sabre DAC's 2V output goes through the volume control to the RCA outputs unamplified. There is a headphone amp circuit between the volume pot and RCA out that is disabled when no headphone is plugged in, sending the unamplified signal to the RCA jacks. Plugging in a headphone activates the headphone amp and the RCA jacks are disabled.

The key point is the RCA output is unamplified and the 1/8" jack is amplified. The two outputs retain some of the same characteristics (slight warm, slight mids forward, slight recessed treble) because they share the same source, but do not sound the same to me. The RCA out sounds slightly more neutral to me, giving the amp you are feeding it into a little more neutral tone than the built-in amp. However, I do like the sound of both outputs.

 

[puzl]

Quote:

I'm actually quite interested in this DAC. 
 
I'll be using it with my Schiit Asgard and HD 650's with my PC. I've tried doing the PC => AMP (3.5mm plug to RCA) => Headphone combo, and all I heard was static and jittery noises. Will the uDac be beneficial to my setup? All i want is to eliminate the static and jittery noise. 
 

Buy a ground loop isolator. It's the best way to eliminate computer based noise. USB does help a little over an internal soundcard/dac, but the isolator fixed the problem completely for me.

 

[Philimon]

I said earlier in the thread that I didn't notice any imbalance issue with my uDac, but now that I have a new amp/dac to compare to - it is pretty obvious that there is an imbalance issue with my uDac. When I first got my uDac I did notice an imbalance when listening through my Stax setup, but I did not blame the imbalance on the uDac, but on my Stax headphone or vintage receiver. I could not pinpoint which in the chain was the culprit, but I would not blame it on the uDac since it was by far the newest built between the other two components in the chain (over 10 and 30 years newer). Now I am not finding any imbalance while listening to my Stax headphones when the uDac is removed from the chain. I have to do more listening to confirm, but it feels quite obvious at this point. I feel bad for saying that there was no imbalance issue earlier in this thread... I can't remember how long ago I purchased the uDAC, but maybe Nuforce will be willing to do a "repair"/upgrade.
 
I have some good news though, I prefer the RCA out on my uDAC (less the imbalance issue) over my new Audio-Gd Sparrow (my version of the Sparrow - there are different spec'd versions of the Sparrow which make for a different sound), when used as a pre-amp/DAC. 

 

[ImitationOfLife]

Wrong thread...

 

[ImitationOfLife]

Wrong thread...

 

[nobias]

I am sorry to bother you all, I ahave a newbie question. Probably ther is an answer somwhere here but going trough 122 pages of this post seems a bit long for me.
 
I am planning to buy nuforce udac-2 this week and have a two questions. 
My amp is 4 m from my computer,(NAD 315BEE with B&W 686 speakers)  and i would like to know, what is the best way to connect them. Should I use longer USB cable (5m), will udac work with that cable or should i use supplied usb and 4 or 5 meters long quality RCA connectors.
And another one, what is the best position for volume control of udac when using it as udac connected to amp. 
 
Thanks in advance ,and sorry again if I am asking already answered questions.

 

[ITau]

Hello there nobias. I myself had asked the same question here. The answer was that the 5m lenght cable would not interfere with normal operations. That might be true, but highly depends i guess. For me it did not work. Probably because of lousy electricall instalations at my home. With the 5m cable, everytime my fridge would turn on/off , my uDAC would stop working. As soon as i connected it to a shorter cable problem dissapeared. Also i should point out that my 5m cable was among cheapest ones.... maybe this would not happen if the cable was more expensive, but i highly doubght it...
I guess you will have to try for yourself...good chances are that for you it will work perfectly. Good luck!

 

[fromatoz]

sorry, wrong thread.

 

[espandon]

Hi,
 
I am owning a udac (1st version) and although I am happy for its performance on the cost basis, I am considering an update. What do you think that would be the next significant upgrade in the 400$ range?

 

[bcwang]

Hi,


 


I am owning a udac (1st version) and although I am happy for its performance on the cost basis, I am considering an update. What do you think that would be the next significant upgrade in the 400$ range?

HDP or maybe the Dacport

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

HDP or maybe the Dacport

Agreed.