TEAC NT 503 or UD-503: Opinions?

[wgscott]

It is supposed to get here Friday. It might take me awhile to get my act together.

[wgscott]

I haven't had a chance to mention the purchase to my wife yet...

[wgscott]

Mine arrived yesterday. I haven't had time to do much except plug it in and verify it works. It sounds fine, via the Halide Bridge connection I was using before. I haven't yet played with usb, optical, or network connections.

 

If you have a harmony remote, NT-503 isn't in their library, but UD-503 is, and that seems to work (at least for the functions the two share in common).

 

Meanwhile, here is some hype:

 

[wgscott]

I have to say, this does nothing to excite me like a Peachtree product.

[wgscott]

It is about as thrilling as my Marantz receiver. Completely utilitarian. No charm. It is quite well-made. It even has little handles on the front to facilitate repossession.

 

It is on the network. I downloaded the iOS app to control it, so I can turn it on and off, select input type, volume, and so forth. I would like to figure out how to control it from the OS X desktop. Anyone know how to go about discovering the commands sent from an iOS device?

[wgscott]

That was based on a comic I saw in Stereo Review as a kid.

[wgscott]

Exactly the same as every other DAC ever manufactured.

[wgscott]

I've only started listening to it, and with the Halide Bridge and Dirac room correction, it sounds rather similar to what I had. I haven't tested the USB connection yet, or done anything more than flip through the filters quickly (and the differences are audible, but subtle). I need to spend some quality time with it (meaning without a 12 year old in the next room having a melt-down about thermal paste) when no one else is at home.

[wgscott]

Believe me, it was coming close to that.

 

BTW, losing has one o.

[wgscott]

And "heat sink" is spelled with a "t" - but perhaps you thought Eloise was recommending sticking her head in the sink to cool it off? (!)

 

That is how I read it.

 

I also thought it was a great idea.

[wgscott]

I have tried so many dacs and none of them seemed to do much for me. Yes, i could hear subtle differences, but none that blew me away, like, "wow, totally different level". I still swear the audiogate program with dsd files and my amp made much bigger differences than any dac has ever made. I think dacs are "over-rated".

 

[wgscott]

Originally Posted by jackovh

So how does it sound so far?

 

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25140[/ATTACH]

 

Loud. Beethoven's 7th. (Klieber)

[wgscott]

Everything I have tested seems to be working ok. I haven't had much of a chance yet to really listen really carefully to the differences between filter options (which on first pass seem indistiguishable). If you happen to use a Harmony remote, they have the UD503 in the library of functions, but not the NT-503. Fortunately almost all of what you need is common between the two. It's own remote is quite nice. By default it is set to turn off after 20 min of idle, but fortunately that can be turned off. (I wish it could be set to something like 2 hours idle off.) There are no obvious significant flaws, and the sound quality is excellent. I haven't had a chance yet to play with the network functionality, apart from putting it on the network. I downloaded the iOS remote application, and it finds the Teac without issue and controls volume, source input, power on/off, etc nicely from an iOS or android device. It is a comparatively small box (smaller than an Xbox) and unobtrusive. It does not seem to get hot during playback, so you can stack stuff on it if need be.

 

My only substantive complaint is you can't control the DAC's volume setting using the volume control of your playback software via USB.

 

I also haven't figured out how to issue a volume control command over IP from the desktop. This should be possible, as there is an iOS volume control, but I got no reply when I tried to contact Teac customer service.

 

Sorry about customs. There are a lot of crazy people running for president here, so you never can be too careful.

[wgscott]

Thanks for the update. What playback software are you using? The actual TEAC s/w or another such as Jriver? I'm assuming one would need to use the TEAC for the network input.

 

I'm using Audirvana+ (and, optionally, Dirac room correction as an AU plug-in, which is why I am going through some gymnastics that are probably irrelevant to less OCD listeners). I briefly looked at the Teac player but it didn't seem to offer anything. I don't think it does any network things. I think you have to configure it using the iOS interface its local webserver (there is a separate manual for all the network stuff on the Teac website).

[wgscott]

Are you saying...

 

No. This:

 

[wgscott]

Yeah. For example, if I listen to DSD, Dirac can't process it unless I down-sample to PCM. But you are right, it is better to get an idea for how things sound first. Dirac does enable easy toggle on/off, to facilitate this (the advantage in addition to convenience is it keeps the gain constant, making comparisons easier). I also think the changes imposed by room correction are of a much greater magnitude than differences between DACs (at least DACs I have owned) and their filters, so yes, it is best to apply it only when everything else is settled. I've also noticed Dirac doesn't play nice with audio produced with Q-sound (like Roger Waters' Perfect Sense), so clearly sometimes it can not only mask differences but actually degrade the effect.

[wgscott]

I've now had a chance to play with a few of the network features. The iOS/Android app gives you access to most of the controls that the conventional remote does (except filter settings and stuff like that). Setup is extremely straightforward -- the Teac is instantly discovered on the network. There are quite a few different streaming options, not only for music (including Spotify, Pandora, Deezer, Slacker, Sirius, etc) but also Tunein, which has pretty much every internet-enabled radio station, so I can get local broadcasts from my home town, from Cambridge UK, or anywhere else on the planet. This is particularly useful where I live, since over-air broadcasts are extremely limited, and doing this through iTunes was very clunky and unreliable. The sound quality is good as well. In addition to streaming services, you can stream music directly from your iOS/Android device (i.e., you don't have to resort to Blutooth and its compression), and there are options for DNLA and "Home Media". I think the latter requires windows file-sharing. I haven't tried these last two options yet.

[wgscott]

I tried the DLNA functionality today, just to prove to myself it worked. First I tried serving a test library with Kodi. The file structure shows up in the Teac remote, but none of the files (mp3, flac, alac) shows in the remote. I then tried UMS, and this worked better, but seems to want to transcode everything (my real library is mostly ALAC). I also installed mediatomb, which would be an ideal DLNA server since it will run GUIless in the background, but I haven't messed with it yet. If DLNA precludes streaming ALAC natively, gapless, and precludes using room correction, I probably won't make much use of it. However, I am fairly convinced that this, or something similar, is really how computer audio ought to be done (rather than via USB, for example).

[wgscott]

After going through all the dependency installations, etc, I went to the MinimServer page MinimServer downloads and saw there is an OS X version. Within 30 seconds of download I am natively network streaming DSD. Everything "just works" (except for album art in the control iOS app. I probably need to have it in the folder rather than embedded.). I'll be interested to hear what happens when it transitions to the next track. Anyway, thanks for the tip. (The NAS is 15 miles from here on a completely different network, so this is much better).

[wgscott]

I'll get it running on the NAS jail. It has a static IP address, so I should be able to make it work.

 

I wonder why they have all those platform-specific downloads (which excludes freeBSD) if it is java?

[wgscott]

Nice - after your last post I thought it was going to be a case of ALAC and alas.

 

(Sorry.)

 

Lack of Gapless Playback is hateful.

 

There always has to be some goddamn shortcoming in every approach.

[wgscott]

Java: write once, debug everywhere.

 

I feel almost as dirty as when I download Flash.

[wgscott]

I'm using bubbleUPnP Server now which adds another layer but allows gapless playback. I don't really have a good grasp of how this works.

[wgscott]

I put "Teac" in the search field just now and it came right up on my iPhone.

 

What a comedian.

[wgscott]

Or maybe the Apple store restricts the App to the US market. I shall see what I can do.