[buson160man]

Quote:

 
So, after extended listening the only thing I can complain about is that I wasn't able to find any problems or shortcomings.
To me it sounds very neutral, clean and detailed, cant hear coloration or distortions, and it performed well with any headphone I tried.
Sure, its rather expensive, but its build like a tank, looks great, and does what it is supposed to do, flawlessly... I'd buy it again, no question!

 I was wondering how long the unit took to get to you.I ordered both the ha-501 and the ud-501 from the teac online store.They said the units are both on back order and that they would not be available for shipping for at least a week.Damn I am anxious to get mine.I initially ordered the dac but seeing that it had no preamp capability for my desk top active speakers I decided to order the headphone amp as well.The added benefit of balanced input connections may be worth checking out after I had read the balanced output of the dac is benificial over the single ended connection.The headphone amp does offer more flexibility than the headphone amp section in the ud 501 dac/amp for fine tuning with different phones and it also has more output capability as well I imagine.Drop me a line and let me know how the amp is working out I am interested in your opinion.
  It would have been interesting if teac had included two power transformers in the amp as well but they did not.I was wondering if you have ever tried upgrading the fuse in any of your equipment with a premium fuse.I am a firm believer of them having upgraded all the fuses in all my equipment to hifi tuning supreme fuses.I have found the tweak to be very beneficial in obtaining maximum performance from any piece of equipment that i have tried them in.
  If I do decide the teac units are keepers I intend to upgrade the stock fuses in them with hifi tuning supreme fuses as well
 As I had mentioned before get back to me.

 

[LordOctron]

Had to wait for more than a week... The amp is definitely more capable than the one in my Teac UD-H01 (which I already liked... but it lacks power and finesse). Don't know about the UD-501, but I bet its a pretty fine piece of gear as well, tho I wish it came with some sort of programmable DSP (ie. a parametric EQ)
 

 

[buson160man]

 After checking the specs the stated normal output for the ha-501 if I can remember is 600mw at 32 ohms.When comparing that to the stated spec for my burson ha-160 amp which is I believe is 250mw at 32 ohms I would expect a healthy boost in performance from my modest stable of headphones which consists of akg 701s,grado rs1is and audeze lcd 2v2s.My burson has been a pretty decent headphone amp particularly for driving my lcd2 v2s after a few tweaks which consisted of upgrading the stock fuse to a hifi tuning supreme fuse and upgrading the modest stock power cord on the burson amp..The best beeing at least on product synergy my nordost brahma power cord.Of course I had ordered the brahma to use elsewhere but when I want to just listen to my burson at its best it just seems to be the best matching power cord I have with the burson.I really can not imagine that anyone would buy a power cord this expensive to use specifically on a 700 dollar headphone amp.
   I had thought about possibly a burson soloist but I thought I might try something different so I ordered the teac.On paper it does not match the power output which is 4 watts per channel of course the burson is 999 dollars which is twenty percent more. After reading about the impedance matching ability of the teac and its stated seemingly chameleon like ability to adapt to different headphone types it looked interesting enough to me to check it out along with its preamp capability.Hopefully I will receve the unit with enough time to break the unit in sufficiently and return it within the 30 day free trial if it does not work out.
  we shall see.
P.S. LordOctron now that is an interesting handle.Mine is unusual only because I can not type very well I had originally meant burson160man but I missed the r. I see you are recent to head-fi at least on the posting side glad you are on board.
  Also how has your ha 501 developed so far and is it broken in completely yet ? I am interested in some specifics about how it sounds to you and how it adapts to your headphone or headphones if you have more than one like me.

 

[LordOctron]

Quote:

I see you are recent to head-fi at least on the posting side glad you are on board. Also how has your ha 501 developed so far and is it broken in completely yet ? I am interested in some specifics about how it sounds to you and how it adapts to your headphone or headphones if you have more than one like me.

 
Thanks! Actually I joined here because one of the drivers in my beloved Denon AH-D2000 died, so I looked for disassembly instructions and if someone with the same problem is willing to sell his broken ones (to repair mine). I'm involved in A/V related things for over 10 years (more in video than audio... codec and filter development and actual processing) but after these things became boring (content became better -> less processing/filtering needed -> less challenging... modern compression methods are "as good as it can get" -> current development is more about streaming and mobile devices -> never was a fan of quality trade-offs which are required here). Nowadays I spend my time with other things like photography and I earn my money "by hand" (I build trains) which is something completely different than what I did before but fun as well, A/V is down to consumption for the most part (home cinema and enjoying good music).
 
For the broken-in thing: Because of my background I'm more on the "scientific" side, this means that effects I cant clearly observe or test are questionable to me. That doesn't necessary mean they don't exist, they are perhaps just to small to point my finger at. Burn-in is one of this things... Even if I'd perceive a change over time I cant be sure if its just "imaginary" or real without having equipment to measure it or having a second "fresh" device to compare to.
 
For the headphones... I tried the following: Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 80, Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro 250, Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro 250, Ultrasone HFi 580, Ultrasone Pro 900, and my old old Sony MDR 7506. Each of this cans has its own characteristics, strengths and shortcomings (ie. the Ultrasone's are great in low frequency rendition but they can sound somewhat metallic upwards) but I'm happy to say that none of these were significantly enhanced or altered by the amp (as I wrote, it seems to be kinda neutral). For the dampening factor switch, I'm not sure what to think of it... While running headphones on a low/bad dampening factor seems to make a difference (for some cans) I don't perceive much (if any) difference when its already high (ie. 80 Ohm @ mid vs high), so leaving it on high seems to be a valid option to me (this might change when trying other headphones tho). Anyway, its always nice to have a option, heh?

 

[zenpunk]

Not the headphone amp  but the speaker amplifier + DAC from the same series. Superb with the HE-6 and very sexy looking 

 
 

 

[buson160man]

 Yeah the teacs do look sexy from the pictures I have seen.I am anxious to get both the dsd dac and the headphone amp but so far I have not heard anything from teacs online store and it has been over a week now since I ordered.I guess I am going to have to just struggle with my decco 2 ( just kidding the decco 2s dac is actually very good) for now.
  It will be interesting to make a comparison to the decco 2s dac section.The decco 2 is only 96khz but it seems to be a fine sounding dac even without the higher sampling rates.But there are better dedicated headphone amps out there.Both my burson ha-160 and my ray samuels otl raptor amps trump the amp section in my peachtree.
  As I had stated before I am particularly interested in the headphone amps compatabilty with my lcd2 v2 phones.
   I hope both units come soon.

 

[LordOctron]

Quote:

Not the headphone amp  but the speaker amplifier + DAC from the same series. Superb with the HE-6 and very sexy looking 

 
 

 
Very sexy! I'm a sucker for VU-meters, every amp should have em

 

[buson160man]

 Well both my dac and headphone amp that were ordered are now on backorder for delivery till mid june.These must be popular because it will be almost a month since  I ordered the units in another week and a half.Patience is another name for audiophile.

 

[al10]

Anyone tried it with Senn HD800 ?

 

[Stoney]

Bumping this thread, seeking more comments from owners and auditioners.  
My main interests are the HD800 and HD650, although LCDs are also of interest.  
I note that this does not support balanced wiring of headphones.  So, I wonder
if its other virtues outweigh this lack of feature.  I'm told the Senns love to run balanced.  
 
User manual: http://www.teac.com/content/downloads/products/885/ha-501_om_efs_va.pdf

 

[Audiowood]

I am very close to pulling the trigger on the HA501. I wonder if there are any more review out there? So far Amazon reviews are superb. I am very curious on the Muse Opamp.
 
Anyone ?

 

[Audiowood]

 
 

 

[breizh]

Hi,
 
I have been owning the Teac HA-501 for few days now
I already have a Yulong U100 and the Schiit Asgard 1 and my headphones are AKG K550 + Beyer DT880 32
 
It's a clear step up in comparison to the Asgard which is already a nice beast
To make it short, the Teac is better in everything (logical, given the price difference) (625€ vs 250€ best price in Europe)
 
It makes my K550 really shine
 
Compared to the Asgard:
 - the bass is clearly more defined, more controlled with great impact
 - soundstage, transparence are better and clarity is exceptional
 - the dynamic is also one step up
 
It's really a wonderful combination with the AKG, with razor edge to the guitars and amazing separation between the instruments
For example, it does a marvellous job with the Beatles remasters (2009) - the stereo is fantastic
 
With my Beyer it's sometimes paradise, but bad recordings may be a little treble harsh
But with good recordings, it's sublime
 
For closed listening, i think i will retain this combination for a long long time (teac + K550)
For open listening, maybe i will look at an upgrade toward something with a little less treble... do you have any recommendation in this way ? Beyer T1 ? Hifiman HE-500 ?
 
thanks
 
a french headfier

 

[metalgear]

bump for more awareness and reviews..

 

[mrenvy]

I have ordered mine. Looking forward to trying it tonight.