[VintageAudio]

Hi Guys,
 
I have a set of Hifiman HE400i with Alpha Pads running with a balanced connector I bought off of e-bay for 30 bux (http://www.ebay.ca/itm/121927539807).
 
I found that the active-ground mode sounds better than balanced.
 
I mostly play 44.1K 16-bit flacs and to me, sounds best with no filters or upsampling.
 
I think butchered the standard single-ended cable and soldered on a 4-pin XLR male connector to it.
 
With the other end I soldered on a 4-pin XLR female.
 
This allows me to switch between single-ended and balanced modes with my headphones.
 
Anyhow this is an amazing combo.
 
The active ground mode seems to give more power than the balanced mode.

 

[bflat]

 
The active ground mode seems to give more power than the balanced mode.

 
Welcome to the club! Active ground has less power than balanced because some of the amps are used just for ground. However since it lowers the noise floor the perception is that it sounds more powerful because you hear more details and dynamics.
 
I've really been enjoying this DAC and couldn't get over how revealing and accurate the sound is. I could swear there is galvanic isolation with the USB input. I re-read the Teac product page on the UD-503 and it does state there is digital noise isolation to the analog circuits and it is the first time that Teac has added this feature. I'm not sure it's galvanic isolation, but I do feel this makes a huge difference in the exception low noise floor of this DAC.
 
I am not thinking the only "upgrade" that will be needed is the external femto clock input. The UD-503 supports external 10 MHz clock so it would be great if anyone can comment on where to find one of these. I know there was one referenced a few pages back for about $700 from Japan, but if there are any lower cost options that would be cool.

 

[sygnus21]

Whatever the reason I have to agree VintageAudio that the Active Ground does sound better (louder) than balanced.  Anyway I had some custom balanced cables made for my Sennheiser HD700 phones as posted here. 
 
And yeah, I'm loving the 503 as well. I've played with a myriad of filter and sampling settings and have basically settled on no sampling, no filtering. Honestly it's hard to tell the difference between all the filter settings, though I find certain female voices like Norah Jones sound a tad better with the filter set to stdy slow. This is listening through my headphones. Though my Audio Engine A5+ powered speakers, filter off always sound better. But again, it's hard to really tell.
 
My system setup...
 
DAC connected to my PC through both USB and Optical cable. Powered speakers run directly off DAC. JRiver Media Center.  Lately I've been running my DAC through the optical cable because JRiver is more stable there. Sometimes the Teac ASIO drivers crap out and JRiver won't play. I find I have to switch everything off and on again (Media Center, DAC) to get things working. No such issue using WASAPI as the audio out for JRiver and SPDIF-OUT through Device playback under Windows 10 Pro x64. My Gigabyte motherboard supports digital out through the on-board soundcard. 
 
Anyone else notice the Teac ASIO drivers going wonky on them?
 
As to the clock add-on question I don't plan of getting one so I can't answer there.

 

[bflat]

  Whatever the reason I have to agree VintageAudio that the Active Ground does sound better (louder) than balanced.  Anyway I had some custom balanced cables made for my Sennheiser HD700 phones as posted here. 
 
And yeah, I'm loving the 503 as well. I've played with a myriad of filter and sampling settings and have basically settled on no sampling, no filtering. Honestly it's hard to tell the difference between all the filter settings, though I find certain female voices like Norah Jones sound a tad better with the filter set to stdy slow. This is listening through my headphones. Though my Audio Engine A5+ powered speakers, filter off always sound better. But again, it's hard to really tell.
 
My system setup...
 
DAC connected to my PC through both USB and Optical cable. Powered speakers run directly off DAC. JRiver Media Center.  Lately I've been running my DAC through the optical cable because JRiver is more stable there. Sometimes the Teac ASIO drivers crap out and JRiver won't play. I find I have to switch everything off and on again (Media Center, DAC) to get things working. No such issue using WASAPI as the audio out for JRiver and SPDIF-OUT through Device playback under Windows 10 Pro x64. My Gigabyte motherboard supports digital out through the on-board soundcard. 
 
Anyone else notice the Teac ASIO drivers going wonky on them?
 
As to the clock add-on question I don't plan of getting one so I can't answer there.

I also don't use filters, but I do have 8x up-sampling enabled. At max sampling, Teac UD-503 defaults to no filter. Highs sound a bit smoother to my ears when up-sampled.

 

[sygnus21]

I guess it depends on the listening device cause on my Sennheiser HD700 higher sample rates start sounding shrill until I get to DSD where the sound get a bit warm.  When listening to my speakers the different sampling rates are not so obvious.
 
I did forget to mention I rip my music from CD's in uncompressed flac, so that's mostly what I listen to.

 

[ReignofError]

Military satellites and audio yes! For those looking for GPS clocking for the 10 MHz. Ext. Clock input, I am successfully using this setup with my NT-503:
 
http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=234
 
or (USA) http://airspy.us/  
 
Next you need a 50 Ohm BNC cable.  These can be hard to find.  I found one on Amphenol Cables on Demand at http://cablesondemand.com  
 
The Software Defined Radio needs to be setup on a PC, but may default to 10 MHz (I forgot at this point).  Anyhow I ran the airspy instructions and set it for 10 MHz on the PC not knowing better.  It comes with a nice SMA connector and GPS receiver that my wood roof is having no issues with inside. I power the radio with the Schiit Wyrd I had lying around (excuse to buy another).  It needs 5V.  
 
How does it sound?   I can hear a cleaner decay, transients, etc. that seem to have brought this DAC to its final level.   A few hundred bucks well spent.  

 

[bflat]

  Military satellites and audio yes! For those looking for GPS clocking for the 10 MHz. Ext. Clock input, I am successfully using this setup with my NT-503:
 
http://www.leobodnar.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=234
 
or (USA) http://airspy.us/  
 
Next you need a 50 Ohm BNC cable.  These can be hard to find.  I found one on Amphenol Cables on Demand at http://cablesondemand.com  
 
The Software Defined Radio needs to be setup on a PC, but may default to 10 MHz (I forgot at this point).  Anyhow I ran the airspy instructions and set it for 10 MHz on the PC not knowing better.  It comes with a nice SMA connector and GPS receiver that my wood roof is having no issues with inside. I power the radio with the Schiit Wyrd I had lying around (excuse to buy another).  It needs 5V.  
 
How does it sound?   I can hear a cleaner decay, transients, etc. that seem to have brought this DAC to its final level.   A few hundred bucks well spent.  

Cool!
 
I've seen GPS external clocks on eBay in similar price range but had no idea if those would work. Just to be clear, all I need is one of these devices and the BNC cable? GPS is there just for clock accuracy? I had initially thought these devices were only used for GPS purposes.

 

[ReignofError]

Yeah, I think as long as the output is 10MHz PPS and 50 ohm BNC you should be in business. 

 

[bflat]

  Yeah, I think as long as the output is 10MHz PPS and 50 ohm BNC you should be in business. 

Thanks. I'm still trying to get some specs to these clocks. The built in clock has a pretty decent jitter of 28 ps (USB). Femto clocked DACs are around 0.2-0.3 ps.
 
I'm not even sure if that's how one compares the external clock benefit since the source clock is 10 MHz whereas max PCM sampling frequency is 384 KHz.

 

[bflat]

Sweet deal on UD-503 for $649
 
https://slickdeals.net/f/9996944-teac-ud-503-b-dual-monaural-usb-dac-with-headphone-amplifier-649-free-shipping-teac-ud-301-bk-259-free-s-h

 

[frogmeat69]

  Sweet deal on UD-503 for $649
 
https://slickdeals.net/f/9996944-teac-ud-503-b-dual-monaural-usb-dac-with-headphone-amplifier-649-free-shipping-teac-ud-301-bk-259-free-s-h

What, just bought the NT-503 for $719, arrived today. Guess I'll have to put the network capabilities to good use for the extra $70 I paid, lol. Bought it for use as a DAC for my iCan Pro, Too much of a pain to return.

 

[shaggy]

 
What, just bought the NT-503 for $719, arrived today. Guess I'll have to put the network capabilities to good use for the extra $70 I paid, lol. Bought it for use as a DAC for my iCan Pro, Too much of a pain to return.

If you don't mid sharing, where did you acquire the NT-503 for $719?

 
 
Also, has any one tried listening to the UD-503/NT-503 with iems? Most specifically with the Shure se846? I would like to know if there is any audible background hum/hiss present with this Teac when listened to with iems and whether there the volume control has a suitable range of steps present for fine tune control of earbud loudness.
 
Another thing I wanted to know is whether or not upon turning this unit on the last used input setting are remembered, or does the Teac default to a particular input?
 
Lastly, is the consensus that this Teac is analog sounding? I would prefer a to have DAC that does not sound sterile and is somewhat forgiving.

 

[frogmeat69]

 
If you don't mid sharing, where did you acquire the NT-503 for $719?

 
 
Also, has any one tried listening to the UD-503/NT-503 with iems? Most specifically with the Shure se846? I would like to know if there is any audible background hum/hiss present with this Teac when listened to with iems and whether there the volume control has a suitable range of steps present for fine tune control of earbud loudness.
 
Another thing I wanted to know is whether or not upon turning this unit on the last used input setting are remembered, or does the Teac default to a particular input?
 
Lastly, is the consensus that this Teac is analog sounding? I would prefer a to have DAC that does not sound sterile and is somewhat forgiving.

Got it from World Wide Stereo, it's currently $799.99, they had a code for another $80 off, but ended about a week ago, got in on the last day. Here's a link,  https://www.worldwidestereo.com/products/teac-nt-503-dual-monaural-usb-dac-network-player-black-nt-503-b
 
Sale ends 4/5/17, then back up to $999.99.
 
Haven't tried any IEMs, so can't help you there, sorry. But I can say it certainly is not sterile sounding, only have about 20 hours use, but I think it sounds great, like it a lot. Definitely more analog sounding than my Oppo HA-1, lol.

 

[AverageGuyNC]

 
What, just bought the NT-503 for $719, arrived today. Guess I'll have to put the network capabilities to good use for the extra $70 I paid, lol. Bought it for use as a DAC for my iCan Pro, Too much of a pain to return.

​I recently got the iCan pro amp as well. how do you like the pair? using mimby to start

 

[axtran]

 
Got it from World Wide Stereo, it's currently $799.99, they had a code for another $80 off, but ended about a week ago, got in on the last day. Here's a link,  https://www.worldwidestereo.com/products/teac-nt-503-dual-monaural-usb-dac-network-player-black-nt-503-b
 
Sale ends 4/5/17, then back up to $999.99.
 
Haven't tried any IEMs, so can't help you there, sorry. But I can say it certainly is not sterile sounding, only have about 20 hours use, but I think it sounds great, like it a lot. Definitely more analog sounding than my Oppo HA-1, lol.

So, any update on impressions of the DAC after some additional usage? I'm thinking about getting one to pair with my Master 9.