[3083joe]

  Well, I don't know for him, but for my balanced TH-900... I've bought a second unit (at an amazing price) that I will leave at work.
I've sold Violectric HPA v200, and selling my M-Dac.
 
Don't get me wrong, don't ever buy a Pioneer in order to drive an orthodynamic. It would be a mistake.
 
Someone else told me that it believe it's on the dry side. In fact, the dac is on the dry side, but additionnal warmess from discrete balanced out + NOS settings tends to limit this characteristic.
I've tested Moon Neo HA430 and Aurorasound Heada out of the pionner and compared the balanced headphone out on my TH900.
 
Well, don't get me wrong, the Pioneer did not beat them... but didn't sound ridiculous neither.
 
The bad thing is that it was the brightest of the 3 (I hate brightness).
The soundstage front depth and definition was the best of the 3.
The best bass of the 3 belongs to the Heada, sound addictive, strong and refined, and the tamed highs is good with TH900... but the lacks of depth that really disappointed me. I wonder why it did not retain something that belong to the very nature of the Pionner Dac.
Moon is versatile, powerful, maybe too much for a TH-900, good all rounder, best volume adjustment I ever encountered. Every manufacturers using digital volume should look into their knob-of-god.
Also tested vs Alo Audio PanAm, I prefered the balanced headphone out of the Pioneer by a large margin...

Thanks 
I have no need to run headphones just need a good dedicated dac 

 

[karmazynowy]

Which is brighter: M-dac or U-05? What about bass?

 

[GourouLubrik]

  Which is brighter: M-dac or U-05? What about bass?

With the 7 filters in the mdac, that's a tough one...
Honestly I've no answer about the bass quality from the dac.
- I've no desktop amp anymore.
- I may test on my speakers... but that's gonna be tough to perform without getting my neighbours to call the police.

 

[hercule]

I just purchased an U-05-S, and to bounce on an issue raised in the previous posts,the driver was a no-go with windows 10.
I made it work with the same method described by GourouLubrik.
I installed the device driver via the device manager and by specifying the PioneerUSBDA.INF contained in the Win81 subfolder.I also registered (regsvr32 in an admin cmd) the two asio dll (ASIOPIONEERUSBDA64.dll, and it's 32 bit counterpart ASIOPIONEERUSBDA.dll).
I have not made extensive tests ( +- 3hours...) and it seems to work flawlessly with foobar in asio mode.
I will try tonight an alternative method, that should also work  with Windows 2012 R2:
  unzip the driver (Pioneer_USB_DA_Converter_WIN_102.zip) and then, go to the WIN81 folder.
 Open the file CmSetx.dll with a text editor (notepad, notepad++, not MS Word !) and replace the line SupportOS=WIN81 by SupportOS=donotcare
 
Edit: the second method seems OK. You have to use the setup in the WIN81 folder, not the root one.

 

[S-O8]

I heard one of these and am awaiting delivery.  
 
With Audeze EL-8's open backed the music sounded wonderful and B&W P7's sounded really good with it as well.  Not bright, just open and clean.  I was so impressed I bought one - and all I did was go into the store to try a couple of headphones out !  
 
I bought the P7's too ... oops !

 

[reiserFS]

I heard one of these and am awaiting delivery.  

With Audeze EL-8's open backed the music sounded wonderful and B&W P7's sounded really good with it as well.  Not bright, just open and clean.  I was so impressed I bought one - and all I did was go into the store to try a couple of headphones out !  

I bought the P7's too ... oops !

Would love to hear more impressions, as I still can't decide between the HD-DAC1 and U-05.

 

[S-O8]

Well, it's arrived and all working.  Really solid build and looks superb in silver.
 
Main instructions on a disc which is a pain but it is easy to work out the basics and it was running in about 10 mins from box to working.   It oozes quality of build which is good.
 
Sound.  Out of box and only 3 hours running it is warmer than my old MF M1 DAC which was a bit bright.  Early days.  Incredibly clear, detailed and powerful. Definitely a lot better than using the headphone socket on my old Arcam amp too but that is hardly surprising.
 
Time will tell with the sound - I don't know if there is such a thing as 'burn in' with amps - it is 12 years since I bought one and can't remember what they said then.  It is certainly a lovely sound as it is and goes far louder than I will need !
 
Really happy so far on v limited listening 

 

[beemarman]

Mine just arrived today as well.
 
My current setup is ifi Micro DAC into Sennheiser HDVA600 amp. Headphones HD800.
 
Compared to my ifi Micro DAC the Pioneer is more detailed and warmer, the vocals are amazing on the Pioneer compared to the ifi. Using the HD800 with the pioneer versus the HDVA600, the sound is warmer, but not sure if it's as detailed as the Sennheiser amp. 
 
Just got to let it burn it for a few days and see, but very impressed with the Pioneer. I rate it highly. 

 

[reiserFS]

  Well, it's arrived and all working.  Really solid build and looks superb in silver.
 
Main instructions on a disc which is a pain but it is easy to work out the basics and it was running in about 10 mins from box to working.   It oozes quality of build which is good.
 
Sound.  Out of box and only 3 hours running it is warmer than my old MF M1 DAC which was a bit bright.  Early days.  Incredibly clear, detailed and powerful. Definitely a lot better than using the headphone socket on my old Arcam amp too but that is hardly surprising.
 
Time will tell with the sound - I don't know if there is such a thing as 'burn in' with amps - it is 12 years since I bought one and can't remember what they said then.  It is certainly a lovely sound as it is and goes far louder than I will need !
 
Really happy so far on v limited listening 

 
 

  Mine just arrived today as well.
 
My current setup is ifi Micro DAC into Sennheiser HDVA600 amp. Headphones HD800.
 
Compared to my ifi Micro DAC the Pioneer is more detailed and warmer, the vocals are amazing on the Pioneer compared to the ifi. Using the HD800 with the pioneer versus the HDVA600, the sound is warmer, but not sure if it's as detailed as the Sennheiser amp. 
 
Just got to let it burn it for a few days and see, but very impressed with the Pioneer. I rate it highly. 

Sounds promising! Hopefully I'll have the chance to try one at CanJam Europe tomorrow!

 

[S-O8]

Interestingly my Arcam A32/dual P35 combo through PMC OB1 speakers seems brighter when running TIDAL / Sonos via the Pioneer than my old Musical Fidelity M1 DAC ... though the headphones seem warmer using the Pioneer !   Hmmm ....

 

[S-O8]

  Interestingly my Arcam A32/dual P35 combo through PMC OB1 speakers seems brighter when running TIDAL / Sonos via the Pioneer than my old Musical Fidelity M1 DAC ... though the headphones seem warmer using the Pioneer !   Hmmm ....

 
My Musical Fidelity M1 DAC is going back to take the TIDAL stuff to my Arcam stereo set up - the Pioneer is clean but too bright for the Arcam & PMC speakers.  Oddly the headphone sound is absolutely lovely and not bright at all - if anything warm.
 
I am assuming this is the different route inside the little box the signal takes for 'normal' out via interconnects versus the headphone side of things.  I am not that technically minded but know what I can hear and this unit is too bright (maybe at the moment as new?) for my stereo speakers.
 
Headphones and it is a lovely device - so will be relocated to the other end of the room next to a very comfy chair for HF relaxation 

 

[IYAshike]

l'm close to pull the trigger on this unit. Problem is l'm also looking at the Marantz HD-DAC1... l'd buy the one that sounds warmer... What a difficult decision! 
 
Now, where l live, Pioneer is $80 cheaper. lt has balanced HO (l have several balanced HPs) and mainly, l tried it once in Japan paired to the HD-650 and l remember l loved the sound! l also listened to the Marantz, paired to the TH-900; l enjoyed that listening, too, but it did not surprised me as much as the Pioneer and the Senns... 
 
Anyone could answer which of the two is a 'warmer unit'? (l know someone already placed the same question, but l think it's still unanswered).
 
Thanks in advance!

 

[plakat]

Received my UH-05-S just today, complementing my Master-1. A nice combination, lending a touch of warmth to the upper midrange/lower treble region I found slightly harsh when running out of my Benchmark DAC2. The U-05 also seems to have slightly more bass but a bit less than the V281, so still OK for me (I'm a bit sensitive to too much bass for longer listening).
 
Build quality looks good, I really like the design without visible screws and that its not plastered with proclamations of its internals, just stating what it is: "USB D/A Converter UH-5" in the upper right corner. Quite big... and fortunately the display can be dimmed (4 levels + off). One minor disappointment: headphone out cannot be used simultaneously with line-out. Nice touch: volume fine tuning by an additional knob below the main volume.
 
Overall a nice DAC/Amp at a very fair price.

 

[S-O8]

  Received my UH-05-S just today, complementing my Master-1. A nice combination, lending a touch of warmth to the upper midrange/lower treble region I found slightly harsh when running out of my Benchmark DAC2. The U-05 also seems to have slightly more bass but a bit less than the V281, so still OK for me (I'm a bit sensitive to too much bass for longer listening).
 
Build quality looks good, I really like the design without visible screws and that its not plastered with proclamations of its internals, just stating what it is: "USB D/A Converter UH-5" in the upper right corner. Quite big... and fortunately the display can be dimmed (4 levels + off). One minor disappointment: headphone out cannot be used simultaneously with line-out. Nice touch: volume fine tuning by an additional knob below the main volume.
 
Overall a nice DAC/Amp at a very fair price.

Give it a couple of days and I think you will notice the treble calms down.  I heard one well used .. so to speak ... then bought one.  Initially not the same but give two days I felt it was exactly as I listened to.

 

[plakat]

  Give it a couple of days and I think you will notice the treble calms down.  I heard one well used .. so to speak ... then bought one.  Initially not the same but give two days I felt it was exactly as I listened to.

Are you talking about the Master-1? I have that in active usage for about two weeks already (plus I'm not a believer in burn-in except for brain-burn-in which already happened in this case). Its just the U-05 that is new...