[Legis]

I also bought this DAC, two days in. I have a flu right now which makes my hearing very questionable, head and ears being full off nasty slime. I might post some impressions later, but so far the impressions are VERY good. Smooth and yet very articulate, authoritative bass and musicality overall is very good.
 
On contrary to some later posts, I don't find the build quality bad at all (I opened it). The reason for why there is many jump cables used, is because of the modular structure, USB input and analog input are on different cards and headphone outs needs jump cables also etc. Does not look pretty in the pictures, but I don't find the build quality per se negative at all.
 
I scoped that the UD-503 is also NOS capable like UD-501 was. Below is a 44,1khz/16bit NOS "step-sine" (digital filter at OFF) and below that is the same signal except it is upsampled to 2f with UD-503. Still NOS. I quess evertyhing stays NOS if the digital filter setting is kept at OFF, no matter what is the input signal or how it is upsampled (keeping in mind the difference between up- and oversampling).
 

 

[koso]

Try to use USB cable with separate power and signal leads ... If available ... I believe Auralic has two USB ports.. There is   cable dealer on ebay , that sells those, for around 35$ , seems decently made, before you plunk lot more on expensive cables of this type...  Otherwise ask Auralic and Teac if they can help you to re-flash the firmware on units, one at a time .... By the way how does Auralic sound with TEACs? Any advantage over Apple TV/Airport Express, for non "high" resolution files?

Good idea! I Will try and let you know. Not at home right now, tomorrow I will see...

Anyway, Auralic Aries and Teac UD DAC (either 501 or 503) is great match! I have tried so many combinations, but this one is really born to each other. Right now my Aries is directly hardwired to SSD HDD (mounted in powered LaCie Quadra enclosure), so I am using Auralic Aries internal Lightning server. Working flawless. Auralic did huge improvement in this area.
Dont own Apple TV, can only compare sound quality to PC setup without Aries (direct usb stream to UD 501 DAC from windows PC via dedicated Teac hi-res player or Foobar) or Squeezebox Touch. Aries blows them away almost in all areas: better highs, better lows, clarity, soundstage, super quiet background... My music library contains of CD quality FLAC files (mainly), all sorts of hi-res files and dozen DSD files. Any of these sounds great on this combo.
Maybe it depends on all other components in your setup, but in mine it really does the job extremely well...

 

[koso]

Critical comparo between UD 501 and UD 503 should be done when the UD 503 has at least 250 hours of break-in on it... I ve put mine 24/7 with various radios streams , so far day 4... Otherwise  unbroken it sounds like crap.....with hints of excellence.... of course your experience may be different 

Agree, of course!
While investigating usb issue, it is already about two weeks 24/7 in burn-in period via dedicated burn in tunes (Chesky, XLO/Reference Recordings...)

 

[LL4mat]

I received my UD-503 this week.
Some Swiss web shops got it on stock. The price was 999 Swiss Francs (~ 993 $).
 
Now i am looking for a balanced cable for my Shure SRH-1540.
Moon Audio has a good cable but the wrong connectors i believe. Pricey too...
 
So far I like how my SACD Rips sounds with this DAC. Even without burn-in.
 
Cheers
Michel

 

[Acesn8s]

  I received my UD-503 this week.
Some Swiss web shops got it on stock. The price was 999 Swiss Francs (~ 993 $).
 
Now i am looking for a balanced cable for my Shure SRH-1540.
Moon Audio has a good cable but the wrong connectors i believe. Pricey too...
 
So far I like how my SACD Rips sounds with this DAC. Even without burn-in.
 
Cheers
Michel

As I referenced up-thread, Surf Cables in San Diego, California fabricated a balanced cable with dual Neutrik 1/4" connectors for my HiFiMan HE-500's, with less than one week turnaround. Surf is not at all "pricey"...an eight foot wire was $140 (US) delivered. FWIW, I had asked CablePro (which previously made me an unbalanced upgrade cable) for a quote and never got a response.
 
Have you compared SACD rips at the UD-503's standard DSD to Red Book rips upsampled in the dac to quad DSD?
 
And what filter settings are you using for PCM and for DSD?
 
Enjoy...burn-in does take about 200 hours.

 

[LL4mat]

 
As I referenced up-thread, Surf Cables in San Diego.
 
Have you compared SACD rips at the UD-503's standard DSD to Red Book rips upsampled in the dac to quad DSD?
 
And what filter settings are you using for PCM and for DSD?

 
 
Hi Acesn8s

 
Thanks for your reply and the Surf Cable advice. I will sent them an E-Mail and ask for SRH-1540 cables.
 
Yes i have listened to SACD rips and up sampled PCM hi-res files. Both sounded great to my but the DSD files have more room and separation in my ears.
The problem is, i was not able to listen to DST format bevor so this is a new experience for me.
My former DAC was a FiiO E17 with the matching AMP so it is a giant step to the TEAC.
I listen to the music in a big office with noise and other distraction around my.
So i have to do some blind tests in quite hours to be sure about the difference I’m talking about.

I have to find out which filter set I like most.

 
After all it is a real interesting journey to high fidelity music and learning how to improve the sound even more. :-D

 

[Rozeqloud]

I hope this thread continues as this is the one DAC im near to affording and am intrigued by
 
The build quality and re calls concern me tho
 
im anticipating more talk on this DAC
 
Cheers

 

[KotBegemot]

Recalls should not concern you if you like its sound, it was for firmware...I did have it on playing 24/7 for longer than 3 weeks and not a peep.... If your system  is on a brighter, forward-type of sound side this unit  should do well... Give it at least 400 hours break in thou...

 

[Rozeqloud]

Thanks mate
 
Here in Canada all stores i call are scrambling saying What we havent heard of this yet
 
To which i wonder What this is your business lol
 
i look forward to more reads on this in meantime
 
Cheers

 

[Martin666]

Hello,
 
anyone else who tried this DAC? i'm  also thinking about purchasing it, just curious how does it look against other dacs of this price category? 
Maybe someone compared it with dacs like GUSTARD DAC-X20, 

Oppo HA-1, Yulong Sabre DA8II , others ...
 
 
Thanks 

 

[zeissiez]

I compared the 503 to the Marantz HD-DAC1, with a pair of HE-1000. The DAC1 was more open sounding, more detailed, leaner and more neutral, while the 503 sounded fuller, with less treble energy and more natural. The 503 has a steeper roll-off in the treble, while the 503 has a more natural tone. Haven't tried other cans, but I think the 503 is good for lean sounding cans but may not work as well as the Marantz for darker sounding cans

 

[Thurax]

Hello Michel, 
 
I am in Switzerland too... Could you tell me how you ripped your SACDs? I want to rip my collection, and was thinking about using my PS3 that I'd firmware downgrade... Is it how you did it?
 
Thanks in advance!

 

[LL4mat]

..thinking about using my PS3 that I'd firmware downgrade... Is it how you did it?

 
Hi Thurax fellow countryman

 

Yes had i ripped with my PS3. I think there is no other way for SACDs. I was not aware, that there is a possibility to downgrade the firmware. If you have no luck with that, send me a PM. Maybe I can help.

 

In the meantime I bought the silver-dragon balanced cable for my Shure cans. My equipment is in my office, so burn-in takes some time. So far, the sound is already quite promising.

 

Regards & “Frohi Fäschttäg”

Michel

 

[music_man]

Esoteric grandioso is at 2x dsd. since my ud-501 is pretty much on that level I am going to stick with it. I cannot figure out how to go about modding the ud-503. I know there are some Chinese page but I cannot find them or read Chinese. I would really like to try 4x dsd. I could clean up the 503 and hot rod it too. however some players are at 8 or in the case of ps audio 10x dsd(but converted back to redbook). I guess there will always be higher if that is what one wants. it seems 2x dsd is enough. hence the greandioso being 2x. now, if I am going to mod something with a faster chip I am not sure what. I guess I could be happy with the sound rather than the highest speed chip. unless of course it does in fact sound better. could someone please do a critical test? listen if you can hear a difference for the better over 2x dsd. or perhaps someone already has. it is not just the chip that makes a dac though. far from it. just trying to compare the sound on the same device.

 

[SundayDriver]

I sent Teac a few questions about the UD 503 and never even received a response.Think I'll take my money and purchase something else. If they won't answer basic questions, I don't want to imagine what you would have to do to get it serviced should it fall apart at some point.