[Todd]

HI All,

We are setting up this loaner program to help get the word out of how good the TEAC UD 505 Headphone amp and DAC is! It is an awesome unit and we think it will become very popular. Are YOU willing to give it a shot and write a review for that opportunity?

The UD-505 is a compact unit built like a tank. Single ended and balanced outputs, the UD 505 also serves as a very good preamp! Check it out on our website here. We llok forward to your email!

Loaner Program Rules:

Send your name and address, telephone number and your Head-Fi user name to me (Todd) at todd@ttvjaudio.com. Do NOT PM me as you will not be included in the program without an email.

You will get the loaner for 1 week to use in your home with your system. After your one week is up, you must send it to the next loaner participant. Email me (todd@ttvjaudio.com) the tracking info so I can pass it on to the recipient.

You MUST write a review and post it in this loaner thread. It must be posted in the same thread as this announcement for the loaner program. Please post the review here first and feel free to post it somewhere else if you like!

Once you have received the loaner, email me to let me know you have it and I will send the address for the next person.

Our loaner programs are USA only. We are restricted from shipping/selling outside the USA on most products.

Todd

 

[geoffalter11]

HI Todd,

Love to test and play with the 505.

 

[szore]

Very interested! Brooklyn, NY. Will be buying the RME ADI-2 in a few days. I can pair that DAC with the TEAC amp, plus will use my HE1000v1 headphones, and custom Valkyries.

 

[geoffalter11]

HI Todd,

Love to test and play with the 505.

Sorry, Todd. Didn't read all the way thru. I emailed you.

 

[DeweyCH]

Emailed. Very interested in seeing how this sounds with a variety of headphones - new and old, sensitive and hard-to-drive - as well as via balanced and unbalanced inputs.

 

[Todd]

I will ship it out to the first loaner guy on Monday. I am still enjoying it in my desktop rig until then.

Tomorrow I will post the lineup for the loaner program.

Todd

 

[B9Scrambler]

Beauty! Almost as sexy as my old HA-501

 

[lord_tris]

Email sent.

 

[Todd]

HI All,

Here is the list of participants for this loaner program. I sent the UD-505 out today so the program is active and going! I hope you alll enjoy your time with the TEAC UD-505 and I look forward to your reviews here in this thread.

TEAC UD-505 Loaner Program Participants

1 geoffalter11

2 Relaxasaurus

3 szore

4 xkonfuzed

5 DeweyCH

6 John Massaria

7 StivVid

8 Wiljen

9 ngoshawk

10 mbritt

11 Lord_tris

12 Condocondor



Todd

 

[szore]

Sweeeeet.

 

[lord_tris]

Well I have received the loaner unit yesterday!!!
I was a little worried cause I heard something rattling around in the box, came to find out it was just the floating feet on the unit itself, which by the way pretty snazzy piece of kit.

Also reading the manual, Teac calls single ended headphones "Ordinary" lol

Anyway
Here is a list of the gear feeding and comparing to the UD-505
sources
Nad c538
Schiit Modius
Rega Planer 2
Dell xps 13 7390
Bellari VP130 phono preamp

Amps
Schiit Magnius
Loxji p20

Headphones
Sennheiser 58x Jubilee (se/balanced) hart cable
Fostex t50rp (se/balanced) hart cable
Grado 325 goldie (se) original cable

The songs used for my listening session that I know well.
-Massive Attack - Angel, I like to see how well amps/headphones can handle the first bass notes as they start low and get louder.
-Dave Brubeck - Take Five, That sax and piano parts are amazing, I look for the clarity here.
-Vivaldi - Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315, L’estate Presto, Just the pure complexity of this song is amazing again use this to see how well equipment can produce this piece
-Pachelbel - Canon in D, I like to listen to the harp in this piece listening for plucks, and the timbre of the other instruments.
-Depache Mode - Enjoy the Silence, The bass here is what I am looking at see how clear and low it goes.
-Deadau5 - The Veldt, Hard to mess this up cause it is electronic music but you would be surprised at some headphones cant handle the highs here.
-Fouls - My Number, Up beat fast song looking for transitions of the instruments here along as the voice on clarity
-Smashing Pumpkins - 1979, The guitar and drum parts again looking for clarity and timbre here.
-NIne Inch Nails - Something I can never have, Can you hear all the details? no keep listening.

First lets discuss the unit itself.
It comes in black or silver.
It is very heavy for its size 4.2 kg or 9 3/8 lb @ these dimension 290 mm × 84.5 mm × 248.7 mm or 11 1/2" × 3 3/8" × 9 7/8"
It has all the inputs/outputs ever on one unit. Balanced 4.4mm/ TRS Single Ended/usb/bnc/coax/toslink/mini toslink/rca
The power is pretty nice in this unit albeit, compared to other amps is kind of low. Unbalanced (ordinary) is 500mW+500mW into 32Ω and 350mW+350mW into two pairs into 32Ω Balanced (not ordinary lol) is 700mW+700mW into 32 Ω

I am going to address this off the bat, i am on the side that if a dac is not doing something bad they all are doing a great job so for me to try and audibly tell you the difference between my Modius and the Dac side of the UD505 is going to be something I can not do. The UD505 does have DSD support so if that is something that is very important to you then that is really the only thing difference between them. Sound wise they are both not intrusive and both do not make the sound bad. You could be happy with either.

THE AMPS THOUGH!!!!!!
These I can hear and this is where i am going to stick for my review using all three of my headphones, amps, and same songs for the review portion.

Using this amp is really nice. I like the switches the knobs how everything is very smooth or tactile when needed. I really like the power switch very nice to have that type of switch on the front instead of just a boring button. The volume knob is smooth smooth smooth. The input selector is a small tactile knob letting you know that you switched the input but its not hard to move. All around everything on the front end of this amp is very nice.

Lets talk about those low power numbers, I dont think the amp is lacking in anyway power wise. Even for a harder lower impedance planer to easy to drive low impedance dynamic drives. The difference in turning the volume knob for the Grado 325 vs tr50p is actually pretty little with the ud505 vs the Magnius, I could not drive the tr50p on single ended mode on low the volume was so low it was cranked and just could not drive the headphone. But the Ud505 just pushes no matter the load.

Sound wise the UD505 sounds good over all. The lower end there was some weird happening with the bass like it was being stretched out longer then the original audio (technically not possible) maybe the response time was slower I am not sure. I thought it was the t50rp's and being weird with the amp but it happened with any headphone that I put on it.

Sound quality otherwise was really good. I especially liked listening to orchestral music on this amp with the hd580, while I did not enjoy at all electronically produced music like deadmau5 or even Depeche Mode. The sound was clear I feel like it is not suited for hard hitting bass types of tracks.

The amp is able to resolve anything I threw at it. The Massive Attack track you could hear everything in the first few seconds of the track with some amps like loxjie p20 unless i crank that amp i can not hear the first 8-10 seconds of the track.

This amp is powerful I was able to drive all my headphones easily especially if you can run it in 4.4mm balance mode.

This amp would be awesome for a single piece solution for a desk or work area. paired with a semi good pair of headphones in the least. There is not much this amp wont do for most people. I could easily recommend this unit for that use and for anyone that just wants a plug in play awesome amp/dac this is a great buy

 

[Condocondor]

EMAIL SENT.

 

[DeweyCH]

Looking forward to hearing it. Reserved for review.

 

[szore]

Reserved!

 

[cpurdy]

We are setting up this loaner program to help get the word out of how good the TEAC UD 505 Headphone amp and DAC is! It is an awesome unit and we think it will become very popular. Are YOU willing to give it a shot and write a review for that opportunity?
[..]

Our loaner programs are USA only. We are restricted from shipping/selling outside the USA on most products.

It's been frustrating to watch the units release in Japan, and still, years later, have no dealers in the states with these. I hope this means that is finally changing!