joetjie2000
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2012
- Posts
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- 11
This DAC really sounds impressive (from the comments.....)! Does it ship with the heatshrink or is that a diy-issue later on? I'm going to give this dac a spin!
Mine came with yellow heatshrink already in place. It is excellent for the money.
Thanks! Good to know! Would you buy it over the ODAC?
Hmm. Hard to say. I have an ODAC that is cased up by itself with RCA outs which I really like, as it stacks nicely with my O2. The UD100 is better for travel since it is the size of a thumbdrive. If I could only have one instead of both, I think I would still take the ODAC, due to the slightly better soundstage and separation, and very much due to the form factor for my particular listening habits. I am at a desk nearly all day long so a portable setup isn't a priority. Roughly $100 separating the two, and while the ODAC definitely isn't 3x or even 2x better when you look at the price, the money was worth it for me to have the desktop implementation. I still need to do more critical listening tests to really get a feel for the UD100 vs ODAC vs HDP (which has a differnt Sabre DAC chip in it IIRC) differences.
That being said, I am still surprised by how dynamic and fun the UD100 paired with my Cmoy sound.
BTW, this is what my UD100 looks like now:
Go for it! Just be very, very careful when removing the jack. I actually had to do this. A different plug got stuck in the jack and the jack finally broke when I was able to remove the plug (the ground tab broke off). Stoner is very, very good about service and supposedly there is a replacement in the mail (haven't gotten a tracking number yet). Since I had a replacement coming, I decided to see if I could fix mine by removing the jack and soldering directly. When trying to remove the jack, I completely broke 2 solder pads. They come off quite easily when heat and a little force are applied. Luckily, I discovered there is no problem with soldering wires directly to the output pins of the DAC chip itself. (maybe even better since not going through a thin pcb trace and another solder point). This allows for a very simple straight cable. I used some 1" 3-1 ratio heatshrink to cover it, although I want to use something like Sugru to make it look a little nicer.
I should definitely try this with my broken one as well!
Edit: Plus Sugru is easily available here in Dublin, since it was invented in Ireland
Hi Everyone!
Has anyone tried this with a Mac? I contacted Stoner and they got back to me saying...
"We can't comment much on MAC output as we don't know the designs and specifications on it"...
I might be leaning towards the ODAC again in that case.
This seems like an amazingly promising DAC - but if it wont be better than the DAC in my MAC (rhyme time)... doesn't make sense!
I bought this Dac, I have a Mac. Once I hear it, I'll provide feedback... (I am terribly, terribly sorry for that rhyme attack...)
I bought this Dac, I have a Mac. Once I hear it, I'll provide feedback... (I am terribly, terribly sorry for that rhyme attack...)
Please let me know, then I'll give it a go!