[buson160man]

Today I just picked up a iFi  usb micro power supply to try with my teac ud-501 computer rig. My initial impression after about an hour or two is that the micro is definitely an improvement over the standard usb feed from my computer. I am using the teac ud-501 to feed my emotiva airmotiv 5 active speakers on my desk top. I use the passive attenuators on the airmotiv 5s to control the volume given the lack of a preamp function on the teac ud 501.The isolation of the usb signal from interference and the dirty power from my desktop computer power supply does seem to make a difference . Of course I only have a couple of hours on the iFi micro so it is to early to make any permanent judgement about the effect of the separating iFi micro power supply. But already the benefit of a separate power supply seems to have a noticeable effect on the sound of my desk top set up. 
   For anyone looking to improve the sonics of their desk top set up you might want to investigate the IFi micro power supply . It does seem to make a noticeable improvement in the sound reproduction of your desk top set up. My next stop is to investigate the iFi Gemini usb cable. While it is not cheap (it actually costs more than the iFi Micro usb power supply in a 1.5 meter length) after reading about the combination of the power supply and the usb cable the resultant sound may actually be reasonable in lite of the costs of some of the higher end usb cables out there. I can see the possible improvement from separating the signal from the power. It should be interesting to see what it does for my teac ud-501.

 

[RingingEars]

  Today I just picked up a iFi  usb micro power supply to try with my teac ud-501 computer rig. My initial impression after about an hour or two is that the micro is definitely an improvement over the standard usb feed from my computer. I am using the teac ud-501 to feed my emotiva airmotiv 5 active speakers on my desk top. I use the passive attenuators on the airmotiv 5s to control the volume given the lack of a preamp function on the teac ud 501.The isolation of the usb signal from interference and the dirty power from my desktop computer power supply does seem to make a difference . Of course I only have a couple of hours on the iFi micro so it is to early to make any permanent judgement about the effect of the separating iFi micro power supply. But already the benefit of a separate power supply seems to have a noticeable effect on the sound of my desk top set up. 
   For anyone looking to improve the sonics of their desk top set up you might want to investigate the IFi micro power supply . It does seem to make a noticeable improvement in the sound reproduction of your desk top set up. My next stop is to investigate the iFi Gemini usb cable. While it is not cheap (it actually costs more than the iFi Micro usb power supply in a 1.5 meter length) after reading about the combination of the power supply and the usb cable the resultant sound may actually be reasonable in lite of the costs of some of the higher end usb cables out there. I can see the possible improvement from separating the signal from the power. It should be interesting to see what it does for my teac ud-501.

I'm glad you posted this. I was looking into the ifi or wyrd to use when my ud-501 comes in next week.
Keep me posted on your thoughts on the ifi will you? 

 

[RingingEars]

Just pulled it out of the box, hooked it up and downloaded a couple DSD sample tracks from Oppo.
Man this thing is built like a tank. The build quality alone is worth the price.
DSD setup in f2k is a snap. I have Davis Elias sample tracks playing now in DSD64.
The sound so far running it with it through a CSP3 and into the HD800 is really impressive. Of course I've only had it running for a about an hour so far so a long way from burn in quality...
I'll give it some time, but so far I really like what I hear... Very clean, open. No grain I can hear.
Crappy cell pic.
 

 

[buson160man]

  I'm glad you posted this. I was looking into the ifi or wyrd to use when my ud-501 comes in next week.
Keep me posted on your thoughts on the ifi will you? 

Well it has been 6 days since I hooked up the iFi micro usb power supply to my teac ud-501. Wow it has made quite a difference in my desk top set up. So much so that there is no way I can go back to the usb feed from my computer. The gains in clarity , soundstage , reduction of grain , dynamics and just about everything else is amazing. I really had not heard my teac ud-501 till I hooked up the micro usb power supply .
   You have to buy one of these that's plain and simple. The micro usb power supply really works. The next avenue I will explore is trying the iFi Gemini usb cable. It should be interesting to see what separating the usb signal from the usb power will do for my desktop set up. But that will be awhile before that happens. The usb cable costs more than the micro power supply in the longer length.

 

[buson160man]

  Just pulled it out of the box, hooked it up and downloaded a couple DSD sample tracks from Oppo.
Man this thing is built like a tank. The build quality alone is worth the price.
DSD setup in f2k is a snap. I have Davis Elias sample tracks playing now in DSD64.
The sound so far running it with it through a CSP3 and into the HD800 is really impressive. Of course I've only had it running for a about an hour so far so a long way from burn in quality...
I'll give it some time, but so far I really like what I hear... Very clean, open. No grain I can hear.
Crappy cell pic.
 

 The build quality on this dac is excellent. The dual transformers and power supply is hard to believe in a dac that costs under a grand.
Keep me posted on your observations as your unit breaks in .

 

[RingingEars]

 
Well it has been 6 days since I hooked up the iFi micro usb power supply to my teac ud-501. Wow it has made quite a difference in my desk top set up. So much so that there is no way I can go back to the usb feed from my computer. The gains in clarity , soundstage , reduction of grain , dynamics and just about everything else is amazing. I really had not heard my teac ud-501 till I hooked up the micro usb power supply .
   You have to buy one of these that's plain and simple. The micro usb power supply really works. The next avenue I will explore is trying the iFi Gemini usb cable. It should be interesting to see what separating the usb signal from the usb power will do for my desktop set up. But that will be awhile before that happens. The usb cable costs more than the micro power supply in the longer length.

Good to hear buson160. I know you and I were discussing the ifi. Unfortunately my 501 is going back. Every few minutes it would start distorting really bad so I plugged it into a powered usb hub hoping it was just weak usb power from my computer. No dice. Too bad too because it had a great sound. Excellent control, bass was tight and weighty, overall sound sig was fast and accurate. I really liked this dac.
 
I was just going to replace it with another, but I decided to upgrade my Geek Pulse with an LPS so the 501 needed to go back to fund the new dac... I'm a little gutted about it too because I'm back to my Fubar II MK2 for a few months and man... This dac isn't even on the same playing field as the Teac. 

 

[reiserFS]

Just bought a used UD 501 for an amazing price, kinda looking forward to it. Should be a step up from the Fostex HP-A3. Will use it to drive a HM5 and HD700s. 

 

[reiserFS]

  I just noticed a faint hum coming from the headphone port of my UD-501 when an input is engaged "steady light". It's really obvious around 0-8 db but I still faintly hear it around -23db my normal listening volume when it's dead silent in the room. Is this normal or should I be concerned? Well I am concerned because the port should be silent. I didn't notice any hum with my UD-H01.
 
Update:
According the Noise Level Analysis here http://archimago.blogspot.com/2013/05/measurements-teac-ud-501-pcm-performance.html
Could I be hearing the 60 Hz powerline hum around -118 db? 

I can confirm this. Any way to fix this?

 

[fb24601]

I somehow tried k812 with Teac ud301 and Sony uda1 yesterday. I owned the uda1 and ud301 is from my friend.


The ud301 shared some similar specifications with ud501, both have dual burr brown 1795 dac chips for dac and they both have XLR output into amp. The build-in amp of ud301 and ud501 both shown max output of 100mw into 32 Ohm. Compare with ud301, the ud501 has separate power transformers for each channel in the amp section.


Sony uda1 has a similar retail price as Teac models. It only has single burr brown 1795 as dac chip and there is no XLR output for amp when working as dac. There is separate amplification unit for driving speakers. The power output of headphone shown 55mw into 32 Ohm, which suggested it is smaller than Teac.


I have read comment from other forum that the driving power of Teac is "weak" and the sound seems lack of punch. The k812 has low impedance for these deck units to drive. When I tried myself I do find that the sound signature is different from ud301 and ud1a. The ud301 gives a softer and mellow tone while uda1 there there feels more bass punch and the tone is more neutral rather than soft. The ud301 feels warmer sound while ud1a is colder.


On specifications teac has higher power than sony. I am not sure if the mellow tone is the signature of teac. I also tried Fostex hp-a8 before and I also find its signature is soft and mellow.

 

[reiserFS]

I found that the TEAC 501 series have a warm sound signature in general. It's especially nice on the HA-501, since you can tune the sound to your liking with the output impedance knob.
Should be a good match with the HD800.

 

[marklnj]

Agreed. Started listening to DSD through the iFi iUSB w/ Gemini USB, UD501 and HA501 and all I can say is amazing....... like nothing I've ever heard before..... stirring.

 

[nikko2014]

Hi guys just bought this wonderfull dac. I'm using a Mac mini as a source and audirvana plus as a player. I've noticed that in the midi audio set up, when i choose the Teac, i only see 24 or 32 bit options, no 16 bit rate option ... Is this normal? I also noticed that if i play an aiff file 16/44 (with the midi set at 32 bit) audirvana says that the dac is at 32/44 even if i've set the teac with no oversampling... Am i doing something wong Here? I've played also an aiff file 24/88 and audirvana shows the dac is set correctly at 24/88. Can someone Give some help in this regard? Thank you very much for every information you'll be so kind to give me

 

[DObleX]

How about compare Schiit Wyrd and iFi iUSB? Will be any differences for UD-501?

 

[Faithless]

Hi...DObleX.
 
I'm using the UD501 + Wyrd.
For my perception the Wyrd brings some improvements.
No more pops and glitches from the USB.
And, for the first time, i found the USB input as good as the coaxial input.

 

 

[DObleX]

Faithless, thanks for review! And great photo!