TEAC UD-H01 USB DAC

[sats87]

Thread seems to be quite dead =/ Or just nobody uses XP anymore.
Guys any comments on the DAC's headphone amp? What is inside it? How Good it is? Any recommendations for an amp? Probably tube, now I have Goldring DR150, planning on getting Philips X1 or AKG 701
Good set of pics of the insides, if only I would know all about those components
http://www.my-hiend.com/vbb/showthread.php?1672-%E6%AC%A1%E4%B8%96%E4%BB%A3%E8%A8%8A%E6%BA%90PK%E8%B3%BD%E5%8F%8A%E6%B7%B1%E5%85%A5%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90/page182
http://www.earzone.com.tw/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3326
Thanks

 

[cattlethief]

Headphone amp is good,not far behind my little dot mk3,i also had a nightmare with disconnection problems on my windows laptop,even downloaded windows 7,from vista worked ok for a week then back to the disconnections,got myself a mac for xmas 

,sorted works a treat!
Heads up on the TeacDS-H01 for your ipod £79.99 from Ritcher sounds,great sound and compliments the UD-H01 very well.

 

[TJ Max]

I've had this DAC for a few days now on a Windows XP SP3 laptop.
I've had no disconnect problems at all.
I was unaware that this DAC did not come with a USB Cable. So I was a bit unprepared. I have to temporarily use a 10ft long USB Printer cable that was in my closet. I was also suprised that it didnt come with a installation CD. Instead you get a pieceof paper that directs you to a Japanese website to get drivers. All you do get is a power cord and the generic red & white stereo RCA cables. Rather cheap for a $400 package I think.
 
I was unimpressed with the sound quality initially. Its does not sound as clear and spacious as my Creative X-Fi HD.  Theres more bass but the sound of the Teac is just not as impressive, I find it more narrow and not as lively. I wondered how this DAC which cost 4x as much as the X-Fi HD could not sound better? Then I remembered that DAC has about 2 years f burn in and I was using a high-end Audioquest Carbon USB cable with that DAC. So I'm gonna level the playing field a bit  and order a Kimber Kable B Bus AG and reevaluate.
 
Until then I can say it functions well, the only ocassional hiccup is when switching from songs with different sample rates back and forth, the Teac's sample rate indicator light does'nt change. I'm not sure why. But this is only sometimes.
 
P.S. Install the driver before connecting the DAC ! Or you may meet disasterous consequences of epic reformatandreinstallwindows porportions! I knew about it but didn't listen becuase I was experimenting with a different driver!
 

 

[derbigpr]

Quote:

I wondered how this DAC which cost 4x as much as the X-Fi HD could not sound better?
 

 
Thats because:
1)  even with the Creative Labs X-Fi HD you've already hit the point of diminishing returns. You've hit the level of performance above which differences in measurements are mostly inaudible to human ears, and overall differences in sound are going to be mostly small nuances, no massive differences. Especially if you're not using an external headphone amplifier (the one in Teac is nothing special) and something more high end and revealing than the HD558. 
2) Teac is an all in one device that focuses not only on sound quality, but also functionality. A lot of that x4 higher price goes not towards the DAC part of the device itself, but also implementing the balanced funciton, headphone amp part, better build quality, etc.
 
I've said it in the Asus STX thread. I compared a 200$ sound card that is the Asus Essence ST to a 900$ Musical Fidelity M1DAC, which is a standalone DAC, so all focus goes mainly towards sound.  And I hear no difference between it and the ST, not even with extremely revealing headphones such as AKG K701 or Beyerdynamic DT880. I mean, there is some difference in tonality, MF has maybe 1-2db more bass, ST sounds more detailed on the other hands, etc. But to say that MF is worth 5 times more? No way. Its worth exactly the same in terms of performance + maybe 100$ because it comes in a nice heavy metal casing and has balanced outputs.

 

[TJ Max]

Well yes....I think any hardware aimed at the decerning listener is already at a point where the audible differences are only little naunces that the casual listener may not notice. But such decerning listeners can be extremist and are willingly to pay for such naunces. I'm just suprised I'm not happy with the differences here yet. Functionality is also a big factor as you said....the TEAC UD-H01 is the only DAC that has exactly what I wanted (within my budget). 44.1-192kHz with signal input LED indicators, multiple digital inputs....small deals, but stuff desirable to me. The only thing missing is that it doesn't have digital outputs like the X-Fi HD. The reason I  wanted to replace it is because it only supported 48kHz & 96kHz (44.1 only with digital out) and didn't work well with ASIO drivers.
 
I don't regret buying the TEAC yet...theres some factors I wanna get out of the way first. Such as proper burn in time....the X-Fi HD has a 2 year head start after all. And proper cables...yeah I'm a sucker when it comes to USB Audio cable...I prefer something built better than the printer cable I'm using, and shorter too because I think 10 ft is too long.

 

[Tangster]

I like my TEAC quite a lot, however since I exclusively use optical toslink(to avoid ground loop and emi problems) I haven't had any of the driver problems experienced here. It worked out of the box in Windows 7 and windows 8. I can't compare the DAC to my previous Xonar since that was riddled with ground loop and interference problems, however the headphone amp is ok. Nothing specia, but it's lower gain makes it useful for IEMs compared with my Asgard. Soundwise, it sounds a little thin and lacking in body compared to the Asgard.

 

[sats87]

Just got my toy yesterday, can't say much soundwise because have nothing to compare to, but to me it sounds very detailed, nice highs (cymbals are very clear) not much sibilance I guess, all the instruments are well separated, good dynamics, maybe bass is not that deep, it's kind of very controlled. Listening through DR150. About all the connection stuff, installed newest driver been listening to wavs flacs and mp3s using Teac's own HR player, this way all the bitrates go through, computer has no interference, only trouble was with 96 khz and up files, but i guess it's the pc, sinceall wnet away after a day and a restart otherwise for movies or youtube watching  and else using it connected with optical toslink and have no trouble at all.

 

[TJ Max]

Quote:

I've had this DAC for a few days now on Windows XP SP3 laptop.
I've had no disconnect problems at all.
I was unaware that this DAC did not come with a USB Cable. So I was a bit unprepared. I have to temporarily use a 10ft long USB Printer cable that was in my closet. I was also suprised that it didnt come with a installation CD. Instead you get a pieceof paper that directs you to a Japanese website to get drivers. All you do get is a power cord and the generic red & white stereo RCA cables. Rather cheap for a $400 package I think.
 
I was unimpressed with the sound quality initially. Its does not sound as clear and spacious as my Creative X-Fi HD.  Theres more bass but the sound of the Teac is just not as impressive, I find it more narrow and not as lively. I wondered how this DAC which cost 4x as much as the X-Fi HD could not sound better? Then I remembered that DAC has about 2 years f burn in and I was using a high-end Audioquest Carbon USB cable with that DAC. So I'm gonna level the playing field a bit  and order a Kimber Kable B Bus AG and reevaluate.
 
Until then I can say it functions well, the only ocassional hiccup is when switching from songs with different sample rates back and forth, the Teac's sample rate indicator light does'nt change. I'm not sure why. But this is only sometimes.
 
P.S. Install the driver before connecting the DAC ! Or you may meet disasterous consequences of epic reformatandreinstallwindows porportions! I knew about it but didn't listen becuase I was experimenting with a different driver!
 

 
I'd like to update these comments by saying that after 2 weeks the Teac sounds great! Since then I have replaced the USB cable with a Kimber Kable AG. After some 30 hours of burn-in the sound stage has opened and now sounds as big as the X-Fi HD, the bass has tightened up and theres a good degree of clarity to everything. And the upgraded cable brings just a tad bit of extra improvements for a few albums (but not all). Overall I am now pleased. And agian I've no issues with the latest drivers at all. My sources are a Onkyo C-7030 over toslink optical, and Laptop running Win XP over USB. I don't use Foobar, but I do use MusicBee and Mediamonkey over ASIO.

 

[mstark]

The issues are with USB, not any other form of connection, but thanks for describing your experiences!

 

[TJ Max]

Yes I'm using USB. I'm assuming those "issues" were with drivers prior to 12/28/12.

 

[mstark]

Oops, the toslink in the last sentence threw me off! Ok, thanks a lot, will have to install the latest! I still BSOD within 30 min whenever I use USB.

 

[neosoul]

Hey Guys,
 
I know this is the thread for the ud-h01, but I hve the ds-h01 and cannot get either of my pc's to see the dac. I am running windows 7 b64 bit and am connecting via usb from the dac to the pc without any luck. Any suggestions before I return this unit? Sorry for the hijack but I need help and there isn't much out there for the ds-h01
 

 

[Baxide]

Quote:

Hey Guys,
 
I know this is the thread for the ud-h01, but I hve the ds-h01 and cannot get either of my pc's to see the dac. I am running windows 7 b64 bit and am connecting via usb from the dac to the pc without any luck. Any suggestions before I return this unit? Sorry for the hijack but I need help and there isn't much out there for the ds-h01
 

I suggest that you start a new thread and put in the subject heading TEAC DS-H01. This will get you a better response and avoid confusion. I have a DS-H01 and can respond in your own thread, but not in this one.

 

[neosoul]

Will do.

 

[LordOctron]

I use this DAC for a year now to feed my amp (Yamaha AX-10 + 2.1 setup), but also for my headphones...
It's connected via USB to my PC, I had no problems so far, no interrupts, and the sound is clean and uncolored, I like it!
Only thing I can nag about is that the headphone amp lacks power, wouldn't use it with anything that is harder to drive than 250 Ohm Beyers.