[macrocheesium]

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EDIT:: Because of this thread, I decided to do an A/B test with a few songs... and I actually like the stock sound card better. My headphones aren't the most expensive so it's probably a preference in sound signature, but I'm sending it back now. I'd rather have $100 towards a headphone upgrade.
 

 
Ha, well I'm happy that I could help you there by drawing it to your attention. It is a pricey thing for $100 considering what it does.
 
I'm on the fence. Sure, it's not distorting now, but it still sounds oh-so similar to my on-board .. =/

Yeah, thanks for that! I'm glad it was brought to my attention. The main difference I could tell was lack of impact. Not "boomy" bass as much as it was being able to feel each drumbeat, and the DAC seemed to detract from this, probably because it was designed to a be balanced sound. I didn't hear a difference in soundstage though. The cable just got here, but the DAC is all packed up ready to get sent back so I guess it won't see any use. =/ Although it does look really nice inside the packaging...
 
I tried the included cable against a $3 USB A-B I have, and there's definitely a difference, mostly in volume. The included cable is noticeably louder.

 

[Vitor Machado]

I was considering getting the uDAC-2 (not the HP one), but now I'm not sure if it's a good idea at all...
 
I'm using the on-board sound from my Asus M4A785TD-M EVO (codec VT1708S, check my sig), I'd be using them mainly with my Edifier speakers (for reference, I believe they should sound in between the Audioengines 2 and 5), and I also might get a Sennheiser HD555 or something on the league (because my current Philips HP250 sucks hard).
 
Now I wonder if the Nuforce really is worth it for these stuff...

 

[JellyBeanRacer]

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I was considering getting the uDAC-2 (not the HP one), but now I'm not sure if it's a good idea at all...
 
I'm using the on-board sound from my Asus M4A785TD-M EVO (codec VT1708S, check my sig), I'd be using them mainly with my Edifier speakers (for reference, I believe they should sound in between the Audioengines 2 and 5), and I also might get a Sennheiser HD555 or something on the league (because my current Philips HP250 sucks hard).
 
Now I wonder if the Nuforce really is worth it for these stuff...

 
I read a little bit about that sound card you have. It definitely sounds superior to the NuForce. =P
 
Just one point of reference: the NuForce supports 96hz, but the sound card you have now goes up to 192hz.
 

 

[Vitor Machado]

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I was considering getting the uDAC-2 (not the HP one), but now I'm not sure if it's a good idea at all...
 
I'm using the on-board sound from my Asus M4A785TD-M EVO (codec VT1708S, check my sig), I'd be using them mainly with my Edifier speakers (for reference, I believe they should sound in between the Audioengines 2 and 5), and I also might get a Sennheiser HD555 or something on the league (because my current Philips HP250 sucks hard).
 
Now I wonder if the Nuforce really is worth it for these stuff...

 
I read a little bit about that sound card you have. It definitely sounds superior to the NuForce. =P
 
Just one point of reference: the NuForce supports 96hz, but the sound card you have now goes up to 192hz.
 

But how exactly did you conclude this? I already did some searches for my onboard codec, but couldn't find anything conclusive...
 
And I don't really care for anything above 44.1KHz to be honest. I just want a high quality 44.1KHz output.
 
EDIT: Well one thing that I like about my onboard audio is that, contrary to most onboard stuff out there, there's absolutely no background noise. Even using my Philips SHS8000 which are in-ears.
On my older onboard (ABIT KV7, some Realtek codec) I could hear noise from my hard-drive using these Philips, now I hear absolutely nothing.

 

[JellyBeanRacer]

 
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But how exactly did you conclude this? I already did some searches for my onboard codec, but couldn't find anything conclusive...

I was reading the official description of your sound card from the manufacturer. Many people buy external amplifiers because their on-board can't power their headphones to decent volume. Your sound card advertises, "built in high-quality headphone amp."
 
Also, many people buy external DACs because their on-board doesn't support higher sample rates / bit-depth music. As I said before, yours is exceptionally high (192khz.) And yeah, the NuForce just goes to 96khz.
 
I don't know a great deal about all of this stuff. I kind of got into the headphones / headphone amp/DAC scene a month ago, so don't take my word for worth too much. =P

 

[Vitor Machado]

 
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But how exactly did you conclude this? I already did some searches for my onboard codec, but couldn't find anything conclusive...

I was reading the official description of your sound card from the manufacturer. Many people buy external amplifiers because their on-board can't power their headphones to decent volume. Your sound card advertises, "built in high-quality headphone amp."
 
Also, many people buy external DACs because their on-board doesn't support higher sample rates / bit-depth music. As I said before, yours is exceptionally high (192khz.) And yeah, the NuForce just goes to 96khz.
 
I don't know a great deal about all of this stuff. I kind of got into the headphones / headphone amp/DAC scene a month ago, so don't take my word for worth too much. =P

Only problem is that specs aren't everything.

Take the Cambridge Audio DacMagic as an example, it only takes up to 24-bits/96KHz for input, but costs more than $400,00, and well, I think it's fairly safe to say it's better than any onboard audio DAC.
 
Same thing goes for amps, and everything else.

 

[Vitor Machado]

Okay, so I have found these RMAA measurements of my onboard audio, and on a very similar motherboard (the Asus M4A78T-E): http://www.ixbt.com/mainboard/asus/rmaa/asus-m4a78t-e-vt1708s.htm
And also considering the NuForce uDAC 2 measurements from this thread...
 
I guess I can conclude it's not much of a difference from my onboard, and it's freq. response is actually better than the uDAC 2.

 

[macrocheesium]

I'm also thinking it won't be a big difference, but keep in mind freq. response is subjective. The reason I preferred my sound card was because it the NuForce had too little bass for me, and I'm not a basshead, at all.

 

[hawkeyes22]

I am currently using a Macbook Pro 2010 and Shure srh-840s, worth buying this or not? Finding that the bass is very subtle and doesnt give me that rich thump im looking for...These are well burned in 200+ hours, any other suggestions if not this?

 

[macrocheesium]

 
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I am currently using a Macbook Pro 2010 and Shure srh-840s, worth buying this or not? Finding that the bass is very subtle and doesnt give me that rich thump im looking for...These are well burned in 200+ hours, any other suggestions if not this?

You can be sure that the uDAC won't give you any extra thump, although it is tight. I decided to go with a Musiland 02, it seems like one of the best DACs under $200. Good luck!

 

[hawkeyes22]

 
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You can be sure that the uDAC won't give you any extra thump, although it is tight. I decided to go with a Musiland 02, it seems like one of the best DACs under $200. Good luck!

Yeah i keep hearing that with the shures, been looking for an amp/dac for a few days now have not made much progress... making it sound like I wouldnt benefit as much as i would like to for the cost. oh well 

 

[macrocheesium]

I think you'll get a bigger difference from a dedicated amp. You should look at the Mini^3 for a portable, or a Little Dot 1+ desktop amp. Both are very nice amps for the prices they go for.

 

[Jondice]

There seems to be general trouble with the Nuforce uDAC line in Ubuntu Linux.  I'm wondering if anyone has solve the issue or not had trouble in a different distribution?  Many thanks.   See here:

 
 
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1628787.html

 

[macrocheesium]

I used mine with either 10.04 or 10.10 Ubuntu- I forget which I was using at the time. No problems.