TEAC HA-P90SD (To be released in Dec, 2014)

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

 
don't you think "magic sauce" was refering to his tastes, sound signature? and you're probably talking about standalone amp, not dac/amp.
Well, our discussion will be more reasonable with the direct comparison, not hypothetical statements. Let's end it here

 
No, "magic sauce" he was referring to "micro-textural" elements, aka the M8 did not have the refinement of the desktop product.
 
Just to put things in perspective, look at a portable amp with pure monoaural class A, like the Aune B1, it can only achieve 40mW of power output, and has a 4000mAH battery (same as M8), but Aune B1 can only last for 4 hours outputting only 40mW with 4000mAH battery. This is how difficult pure class A is in a portable, that is why desktop Class A like the Teac is much better, much more powerful with even better sound quality. M8 is not pure Class A, same as PHA-3 and most portable gear, Class A amps have been the best in audio for decades for a reason, the best desktop amps are always Class A. Portable products use different topology to achieve battery life.

 

[Max Choiral]

T.R.A.N.C.E., if you didn't see, I had made some corrections in my last comment. Mistook dac/amp for pure amp

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

UD-501 doesn't have the great amp in the HA-501, but the UD-501 has a great dac implementation that would never fit in a portable, is silly to compare portable to desktop. Portable can come close, but with the right gear you will hear that the desktop product will have higher refinement in every area.

 

[kawaivpc1]

UD-501 doesn't have the great amp in the HA-501, but the UD-501 has a great dac implementation that would never fit in a portable, is silly to compare portable to desktop.

How would you describe soubd quality difference between P90SD and UH01 in percentage?
UH01 is on sale for 200 USD on ebay now. P90SD costs twice more.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

UD-H01 is better value than any dap in terms of sound quality for the price, same can be said for many desktop products. Portable in general cost more than their performance would indicate. I won't put in percentage as it would be meaningless. But do you want portable or desktop? Should just decide.

 

[kawaivpc1]

UD-H01 is better value than any dap in terms of sound quality for the price, same can be said for many desktop products. Portable in general cost more than their performance would indicate. I won't put in percentage as it would be meaningless. But do you want portable or desktop? Should just decide.

I'm looking for UH01 level portable device so I can monitor music at pro quality anytime.

IBasso R10 was close but it was a faulty unit with only 4 hours battery life.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

Well P90 only has 5 hour battery life with 3500mAH battery, to get high performance out of a portable means high battery drain.

 

[kawaivpc1]

Well P90 only has 5 hour battery life with 3500mAH battery, to get high performance out of a portable means high battery drain.

Yeah, so I'm waiting till you find out about its charge-while-playing feature.

I was a busy man. I couldn't find time to fully charge R10 for the most of time. In the end, I couldn't use it often. Its terrible firmware made it even worse.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

If you like R10 sound you should also consider upcoming fiio X7, same dac. Or just call it a day and get a PHA-3!

 

[kawaivpc1]

If you like R10 sound you should also consider upcoming fiio X7, same dac. Or just call it a day and get a PHA-3!

Yeah.. PHA-3 is good. I have to order a special balanced cable from Moon Audio to make it work with my SRH1840. In the end I will end up paying $1,000.
This Teac, on the other hand, is $560 on Amazon.

 

[kawaivpc1]

Do you know other portable DAC which has sound of R10?
I tried Geek Out 1000... It was a little behind R10

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

I got the cable and tested. Phone can read P90 sd storage in it's file system, any app can play music from P90 sd card, even stock music player.
 
But as expected P90 does not charge from usb when on, only when you turn P90 off then it starts to charge though usb from phone battery.

 

[kawaivpc1]

I got the cable and tested. Phone can read P90 sd storage in it's file system, any app can play music from P90 sd card, even stock music player.

But as expected P90 does not charge from usb when on, only when you turn P90 off then it starts to charge though usb from phone battery.

Sweet.
You can add up to 200GB of microSD storage. Sandisk is selling 200GB microSD for 200 dollars on Amazon.

PHA-3 is just like P90SD. It can't charge from the same cable while playing...

 

[kawaivpc1]

Can you test one more thing?
So how many hours can it play through a phone?
Some devices such as DX100 use power from phone when they're playing from phone or other external source.
So, their batteries last longer with that setup.

 

[T.R.A.N.C.E.]

I haven't tested but teac says it gives 1 hour more battery life when using with a phone.