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Teac UD 503 DAC (2015 New Release, DXD, DSD256)
Apr 28, 2016 at 3:24 AM Post #256 of 572
sygnus21 said:
drewtt said:
 Just got this DAC in and it is a very good unit.  Running it straight to my powered monitors with very good results.  Running it nonstop for a few days and will be able to comment further but so far so good.  
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 Which powered speakers are those? I'm running mine to my Audioengine A5+ with the S8 sub.
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Focal Solo6.
 
Apr 28, 2016 at 4:50 AM Post #257 of 572
Interesting, my local headphone store sells this for us$750 and us$500 for ud501. i am wondering should i save some money buying ud503 hearing it got a better amp ,or opt for the second option ud501 and a discrete headphone amp with more power. my headphones are dt880 600ohm, akg k701
 
Apr 28, 2016 at 9:12 AM Post #258 of 572
UD-503 is very different. A different sound (which is not surprising - another chip), a much more "transparency" in the sound, plus it is an adequate amplifier, especially on the balance sheet. In single ended to HA-501 it does not hold, but in balanced mode in pair with the z7 it easily passes.
 
Apr 28, 2016 at 11:17 AM Post #259 of 572
nwavguy-exodus said:
  Interesting, my local headphone store sells this for us$750 and us$500 for ud501. i am wondering should i save some money buying ud503 hearing it got a better amp ,or opt for the second option ud501 and a discrete headphone amp with more power. my headphones are dt880 600ohm, akg k701
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I'd double check that $750 price tag since this is a fairly new item retailing at $999. You may want to find out why so low? 
 
That said, the lowest I've seen this DAC go for was 884 on Amazon when they first got them. That's what I paid when I got mine from Amazon. Shortly after that it went to $999, which is pretty much standard across the net.
 
Anyway it may be in your best interest to ask why the unit is priced so low.
 
Good luck.
 
And yeah, I'm lovin mine.
 
Apr 28, 2016 at 3:15 PM Post #260 of 572
sygnus21 said:
 
I'd double check that $750 price tag since this is a fairly new item retailing at $999. You may want to find out why so low? 
 
That said, the lowest I've seen this DAC go for was 884 on Amazon when they first got them. That's what I paid when I got mine from Amazon. Shortly after that it went to $999, which is pretty much standard across the net.
 
Anyway it may be in your best interest to ask why the unit is priced so low.
 
Good luck.
 
And yeah, I'm lovin mine.
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    I think that 750 usd price is for the discontinued ud-501 and not the ud-503 . I have a ud-501 and have been satisfied with it though I wished it had a peamp function so I could use it as a preamp for my desk powered monitors(emotiva airmotiv 5s original version) so I could control the volume with a pre instead of the attenuators on the monitor.
   I love my akg 701s for their forensic ability to accurately reveal the nature of the source . But the k701 does not easily reveal its ability with less than stellar amplification . My best headphone amp is not a headphone amp but a vintage receiver circa late 1970s . It has had some restoration work done on it. The 701 likes power and when it gets it can really come to life like few headphones that I have heard . The  akg 701 gets a bad rap from a lot of people which I feel is undeserved because they use it with weak amplification . But to be fair I use a monster vintage receiver with 165 watts rms to power them . This is not exactly something that you can just prop down on a desk top and easily move around (mine weighs in at 67 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!! ) but once you have heard it you can never go back to those wimpy desk top amps that most people use . In fact I have never heard any big boy headphone amps that have the dynamic prowess of these old monster vintage amps .
   I am not familiar with the sound of the ud 503 but from what I deduce the akm chip set is more resolving than the bur brown chips in the ud-501 .
   Another choice would be to buy a ud501 and pair it with the teac ud501 amp for headphone use . The hifi news record review had done a review of the ud 503 in the april 2016 issue .
 
Apr 28, 2016 at 9:51 PM Post #261 of 572
i would think a nos 501 should be less than $750 now but honestly have no idea. either way i would get the 503 now. of course if you double this price their are dacsa to be had in a different league. i understand their are budgets of course. the thing is though just twice this money puts you into serious stuff sometimes. you do not need to spend thousands to get reference class anymore. technology is increasing. still, the heavily modded 501 is a very nice dac to this day. it is more expensive than better dacs now out of the box though but still better than the 503 in pcm. at dsd i guess the 503 can beat even the modded one. i like dsd. the strange thing though with very expensive dacs is they tend to sound best at the files native resolution. i am not sure why that is. the 503 actually upsamples to dsd better than some very serious dacs. id go with the 503. it is a great value.
 
Apr 28, 2016 at 11:03 PM Post #262 of 572
buson160man said:
 
    I think that 750 usd price is for the discontinued ud-501 and not the ud-503 . I have a ud-501 and have been satisfied with it though I wished it had a peamp function so I could use it as a preamp for my desk powered monitors(emotiva airmotiv 5s original version) so I could control the volume with a pre instead of the attenuators on the monitor.
   I love my akg 701s for their forensic ability to accurately reveal the nature of the source . But the k701 does not easily reveal its ability with less than stellar amplification . My best headphone amp is not a headphone amp but a vintage receiver circa late 1970s . It has had some restoration work done on it. The 701 likes power and when it gets it can really come to life like few headphones that I have heard . The  akg 701 gets a bad rap from a lot of people which I feel is undeserved because they use it with weak amplification . But to be fair I use a monster vintage receiver with 165 watts rms to power them . This is not exactly something that you can just prop down on a desk top and easily move around (mine weighs in at 67 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!! ) but once you have heard it you can never go back to those wimpy desk top amps that most people use . In fact I have never heard any big boy headphone amps that have the dynamic prowess of these old monster vintage amps .
   I am not familiar with the sound of the ud 503 but from what I deduce the akm chip set is more resolving than the bur brown chips in the ud-501 .
   Another choice would be to buy a ud501 and pair it with the teac ud501 amp for headphone use . The hifi news record review had done a review of the ud 503 in the april 2016 issue .
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I remember the old power amps and receivers of yesteryear. A friend of mine had a Yamaha power amp which put out about 200-250 watts per channel and could easily give you a hernia trying to lift it.  Big heavy beast, but man was it a powerhouse.
 
Anyway I've never owned or heard the UD-501 so I can't compare it to the 503, but the 503 is impressive. I honestly had no earthly intentions on spending this type money on a DAC for my PC, but with the amount of time I spend on my PC, it was well worth it.
 
And I love the headphone amp of the 503 -  the warmth, soundstage, and openness of sound is quite impressive in my opinion. Very revealing in detail, especially with a headphone like Sennheiser's HD700.  I'm now listening to CD's I've not listened to in years because of this.  Now I just need to replace my powered Audioengine A5+ speakers with something better.  The A5+ are nice, but they don't have the soundstage or clarity I now desire.    
 
Oh, this note piqued my interest - "The hifi news record review had done a review of the ud 503 in the april 2016 issue" - is there anyway to link to that article, would love to read it. Thanks.
 
Apr 28, 2016 at 11:58 PM Post #264 of 572

Got it. Thanks
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Apr 29, 2016 at 1:11 AM Post #265 of 572
Right now I am using a lp CD player connected with a old power amp to power my speakers and headphones. It does sound awesome with headphones. However i was curious about the high resolution files I have been missing out, the only modern dac I have is a alc1150 Realtek dac on my asrock motherboard.It seems to shine on dsd tracks more details,more lively sound. For Regular 44.1 16bit tracks ,the Realtek dac has cleaner sound but my CD player coupled with my old power amp have a much wider soundstage and slower paced sound for pop songs which is more natural sounding. I wonder would ud503 be a nice upgrade listening to my growing collection of dsd music as well as doing great to pcms. The reason I don't want to use my old power amp is ,it is too hot to use in summer. It's more like a fireplace just by being switched on for under a minute. As a college student i know I will not be able to afford the latest end game dac amp. Where should I go from here?
FYI I am not buying from us and I double checked the ud503 was selling for 750when converted to usd the nt503 were more expensive at usd850. We don't have gst so normally electronics are cheaper than anywhere else.
 
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