Teac Reference Line UD-501 USB DAC "DSD"

[buson160man]

 This dac is just marvelously musical. I initially preferred the dac with the filter settings in place but now that the dac has settled in I am finding that I prefer the dac without the pcm filtering.
The dac sounds a bit more involving without any pcm filtering now that the dac has been seasoned sufficiently.
  The headphone amp has gotten better as well but the listening level may not be sufficient for head bangers. But if it is kept at a reasonable level the onboard amp is actually pretty revealing of recording quality and sounds no less than very good.
  I have a friend that has the mytek dac which I have heard. The mytek may have a advantage in resolution but it does not seem to have the self effacing musical quality that the ud 501 possesses.
If you love music you will find the teac to be a very inviting listen. The ud-501 may just be the dac for vinyl lovers.

 

[buson160man]

 Well after another evening of listening the 501 is sounding just amazing. I have never heard my akg 701s sound this good. The dynamics with my 701s are so palpable they very much suggest the real thing on really good recordings. I have never experienced the level of involvement that I am getting with this combination. A person that I know has a quad 2905 set up and even that set up does not have the dynamics and palpability that I am hearing from my 701s with the ud 501. It is 3 am and I just shut my set up down to get some sleep. The sound is just so palpable I just can not resist playing all my best cds one after another and each time I hear a lot more resolution and a beguiling musicality that I have never heard from any dac even ones that are obscenely priced. As I had stated before this is  a dac that vinyl lovers can really appreciate.
  I have to say once more that given the headphones output rating of 100 mw it sounds a lot more powerful than you would think for an amp of its rating. My akg 701 are pretty demanding of amplifiers but they work quite admirably with the headphone amp in the 501 dac.

 

[koiloco]

Well i guess i would have to try it out for myself then. I just ordered the 501 since i am up for testing out new Dac to replace a fiio e17 for home setup. Really curious about hhow well it will drive mmy q701 too. Thx for sharing ur experience.

 

[marklnj]

buson160man, You may want to rethink this decision. I have had the HA-501 for a month and find it to be revelatory compared to my modest Musical Fidelity XCan V3s and Fiio E09K amps? I'm no reviewer but the differences are not subtle with the HA-501 exuding velvet tonality and more palpable transients. The selectable damping factor feature is great for us who have several sets of cans and want a simple approach for matching the output impedance of each can. I own the HE500, HD650, K701, Shure SRH940 & SE535. I live in the NYC area and would be willing to lend you the amp (provided that you live in the area) to see what you think of it.

 

[koiloco]

The TEAC came this morning.  So far after 4 hours, initial impressions are very positive but I have to say that the TEAC makes me appreciate the Fiio E17 even more.  At this point, while there are absolute improvements in SQ, it's not as big as I was thinking or expecting.  A few words to best describe the TEAC at this point would be :
 
1.  "Smooth".  It totally smooths out my Q701 and makes it sound a lot more "velvet".
2.  "Relaxing" with great details, especially in the bass.
3.  "Pretty".  Nice looking box with great build quality.
4.  "Open sound". With the Q701 and HE500 running off the built in amp, the sound is not closed in and congested like in the E17.
5.  "Even" across the range.
 
I turn off resampler in foobar and let the TEAC do the upsampling.  It sounds great.  I've been playing with different filters but can't tell much difference in the mid.  Those filters are more obvious in the high and low frequencies.  Also, 1 big improvement is on the HE500 at this point is that the TEAC makes the HE500 sound cleaner and more open, I think that is what people often refer to as "veil" on the sound???  Some vocal tracks were stuffy before, now they are much better.  Overall, it's good so far but the question remains for me whether it's worth the price jump from let's say the Jolida, Concero, not considering other functions... I guess I have a few weeks to decide.
 
More to come when I have it in the home setup as a DAC only tonite ...

 

[reiserFS]

The UD-501 will probably profit from some burn in like many other dacs, you might want to keep your unit for a while. For example, my NFB-5 changed drastically after the initial 15 hours.

 

[koiloco]

Quote:

 Well after another evening of listening the 501 is sounding just amazing. I have never heard my akg 701s sound this good. The dynamics with my 701s are so palpable they very much suggest the real thing on really good recordings. I have never experienced the level of involvement that I am getting with this combination. A person that I know has a quad 2905 set up and even that set up does not have the dynamics and palpability that I am hearing from my 701s with the ud 501. It is 3 am and I just shut my set up down to get some sleep. The sound is just so palpable I just can not resist playing all my best cds one after another and each time I hear a lot more resolution and a beguiling musicality that I have never heard from any dac even ones that are obscenely priced. As I had stated before this is  a dac that vinyl lovers can really appreciate.
  I have to say once more that given the headphones output rating of 100 mw it sounds a lot more powerful than you would think for an amp of its rating. My akg 701 are pretty demanding of amplifiers but they work quite admirably with the headphone amp in the 501 dac.

+1.
Agree with you 100% so far about the Q701 running off the 501 = sweet sound.  Curious, what's your volume knob at?  Mine is between 6 and 8.

 

[Stealer]

Just received mine...
initial impression good
now running in...
 
was wondering. if I connect it to a external amp... will the Teac automatically goes to pure DAC mode, by-passing the headphone amp
cos I don't see any setting for this function in the menu..
 
rgds

 

[koiloco]

Quote:

Just received mine...
initial impression good
now running in...
 
was wondering. if I connect it to a external amp... will the Teac automatically goes to pure DAC mode, by-passing the headphone amp
cos I don't see any setting for this function in the menu..
 
rgds

Nope, you can choose output from both or not in the menu after selecting your output on the back bewteen RCA and XLR.  It's not automatic.

 

[Stealer]

Quote:

Nope, you can choose output from both or not in the menu after selecting your output on the back bewteen RCA and XLR.  It's not automatic.

- 1

 

[koiloco]

Quote:

- 1

Did not work?

 

[Stealer]

Quote:

Did not work?

I meant that I was not sure that if we connect to a external amp, it will by-pass the headamp section.
 
the RCA & XLR selection is mean for the type of interconnect that you gonna use ... balance or unbalance.... rite...
 not for by-passing the headphone section..
 
rgds

 

[raytang]

Quote:

The TEAC came this morning.  So far after 4 hours, initial impressions are very positive but I have to say that the TEAC makes me appreciate the Fiio E17 even more.  At this point, while there are absolute improvements in SQ, it's not as big as I was thinking or expecting.  A few words to best describe the TEAC at this point would be :
 
1.  "Smooth".  It totally smooths out my Q701 and makes it sound a lot more "velvet".
2.  "Relaxing" with great details, especially in the bass.
3.  "Pretty".  Nice looking box with great build quality.
4.  "Open sound". With the Q701 and HE500 running off the built in amp, the sound is not closed in and congested like in the E17.
5.  "Even" across the range.
 
I turn off resampler in foobar and let the TEAC do the upsampling.  It sounds great.  I've been playing with different filters but can't tell much difference in the mid.  Those filters are more obvious in the high and low frequencies.  Also, 1 big improvement is on the HE500 at this point is that the TEAC makes the HE500 sound cleaner and more open, I think that is what people often refer to as "veil" on the sound???  Some vocal tracks were stuffy before, now they are much better.  Overall, it's good so far but the question remains for me whether it's worth the price jump from let's say the Jolida, Concero, not considering other functions... I guess I have a few weeks to decide.
 
More to come when I have it in the home setup as a DAC only tonite ...

 
Just want to check if you get a chance to compare the TEAC with the Concero ?

 

[koiloco]

Quote:

 
Just want to check if you get a chance to compare the TEAC with the Concero ?

Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to compare but indeed these 2 were my final choice.  I personally prefer the look and build design of the TEAC over the minimalist approach of the Concero.  This was a major factor in my decision, after SQ of course.

 

[buson160man]

Quote:

+1.
Agree with you 100% so far about the Q701 running off the 501 = sweet sound.  Curious, what's your volume knob at?  Mine is between 6 and 8.

 I have not used my headphones much lately as I ordered a pair of power cords from cable pro for my emotiva stealth 8 monitors and have been breaking them in , so far they seem to be a good match with the active monitors. I do not remember exactly but I thought they had sufficient drive at maybe 3/4 of the way up. Oh I am using the teac with my outrageously expensive nordost brahma power cable . The brahma is a very dynamic sounding and very quiet sounding power cord . The brahma is also very fast sounding as well.so I made my review comments with that cord connected.
I recently hooked  the teac up as a single-ended output dac to both my burson ha-160 along with my ray samuels raptor amp and it sounded just superb. I especially liked both of those amps with my new cable pro power cable. Both of the amps sounded better than they ever have sounded before driven by the output of the teac dac.