Review: TEAC UD-501 PCM/DSD...

[Archimago]

Hey boys, just put up the PCM measurements. Some pleasantly surprising
results for "stair-stepped PCM" lovers :-)

Initial impressions & subjective:
http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2013/05/initial-impressions-teac-ud-501-usb-dac.html

PCM measurements:
http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2013/05/measurements-teac-ud-501-pcm-performance.html


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[guidof]

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting!

Guido F.


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[ralphpnj]

Great work, as always. In there any chance that Keaton I. Goulden-Eyre
III, Esq. might weigh in with some insightful words on the Teac,
particularly the three filter settings?


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[Archimago]

Post by ralphpnj
Great work, as always. In there any chance that Keaton I. Goulden-Eyre
III, Esq. might weigh in with some insightful words on the Teac,
particularly the three filter settings?

Keaton was over last night listening to the TEAC. Sadly he knew of my
PCM measurement results already and so was declaring how "natural",
"airy", "substantial", "present", "unveiled", "punchy", "warm",
"analog", "rich" the sound became when the digital filter was disabled.
That was nothing compared to the raving about how amazing the various
analogue FIR filters sounded when playing DSD. He swore that FIR1
sounded like "it was designed by cloth-eared engineers" versus FIR2 as
"the filter that God inspired" with FIR3 and FIR4 somewhere in between.
We'll see soon when I publish the DSD data...

As usual, he ended the evening having consumed too much of my alcohol
and left with his usual "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams..." upon
leaving my humble abode with his lovely wife.

However, we did discuss the possibility of him doing a "guest review"
for me of the "obvious" differences between various bit-perfect software
players - JPlay, foobar, JRiver on the PC. In Keaton's hearing I trust.
We'll see what he comes up with!

:-)


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[garym]

Post by Archimago
That was nothing compared to the raving about how amazing the various
analogue FIR filters sounded when playing DSD. He swore that FIR1
sounded like "it was designed by cloth-eared engineers" versus FIR2 as
"the filter that God inspired" with FIR3 and FIR4 somewhere in between.

You made my Sunday.


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[Archimago]

DSD Tests out... Enjoy :-)

http://archimago.blogspot.ca/2013/05/measurements-teac-ud-501-dsd-performance.html


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[Julf]

Post by Archimago
DSD Tests out...

Excellent! Thanks!

One small wish - I would love to be able to subscribe to your blog
updates. Any chance of 'enabling RSS on your blog pages'
(http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41450&topic=12455&ctx=topic)?


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[Archimago]

Post by Julf
Excellent! Thanks!
One small wish - I would love to be able to subscribe to your blog
updates. Any chance of 'enabling RSS on your blog pages'
(http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41450&topic=12455&ctx=topic)?

The RSS widget should be visible now...


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[probedb]

Post by Archimago
Hey boys, just put up the PCM measurements. Some pleasantly surprising
results for "stair-stepped PCM" lovers :-)

Except PCM isn't stair-stepped ;)


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[steve-g]

Post by probedb
Except PCM isn't stair-stepped ;)

As his first graph clearly shows - it is WITHOUT any filters.


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[probedb]

Post by steve-g
As his first graph clearly shows - it is WITHOUT any filters.

Sorry, this is what I was referring to:
http://wiki.xiph.org/Videos/Digital_Show_and_Tell#Stairsteps


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[Mnyb]

Hmm :)

The filter is a part of the reconstruction of the signal ? if that works
all is well acording the sample theorem .

So audiophiles with NOS dacs want a technologie that breaks the sample
theorem ? and fullfils the myth that higher sample rates are needed ?
:confused:


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[Archimago]

Post by Mnyb
Hmm :)
The filter is a part of the reconstruction of the signal ? if that works
all is well acording the sample theorem .
So audiophiles with NOS dacs want a technologie that breaks the sample
theorem ? and fullfils the myth that higher sample rates are needed ?

Apparently.

Here's an example of a recent thread arguing for NOS from a few of the
posters as well as some more technical types chiming in...
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f6-dac-digital-analog-conversion/should-i-nos-dac-14869/

Just one of those things that remain "unsettled" in audiophilia. I've
always been curious about the AGE of some of the die-hard adherents of
the NOS design and what their hearing frequency response is. I'm sure my
dad would not be able to differentiate the sound of a NOS from one with
flat response for example...

Like DSD vs. PCM, is there some special *quality* present without the
digital filter in place that's desirable? I'm not sure... I'll need to
spend more time with this mode doing A-B tests but so far, it's really
not all *that* different in my listening (other than a small amount of
high-frequency loss).


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[Mnyb]

The uatenuated grunge >fs may aliase or fold down to the audiable range
?
Affect downstream equipment ?

Maybe the old multibit converters usually used in NOS design has some
properties that the TEAC can't emulate in its faux " NOS mode"


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[Archimago]

Post by Mnyb
The uatenuated grunge >fs may aliase or fold down to the audiable range
?
Affect downstream equipment ?
Maybe the old multibit converters usually used in NOS design has some
properties that the TEAC can't emulate in its faux " NOS mode"

Who knows... Certainly the measurements for the old TDA1543x4 DAC was a
lot grungier, more jittery, and less resolving with 24-bit upsampling
(it's a 16-bit part). But objectively, in terms of the waveform itself
and the frequency roll-off, it looks like the TEAC does the job :-).


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[Mnyb]

Post by Archimago
Who knows... Certainly the measurements for the old TDA1543x4 DAC was a
lot grungier, more jittery, and less resolving with 24-bit upsampling
(it's a 16-bit part). But objectively, in terms of the waveform itself
and the frequency roll-off, it looks like the TEAC does the job :-).

Just thinking out loud..

Friends of fringe designs such as NOS or Tube DAC's or both (heaven
forbids ) usually claim that most "normal" designs sounds similar and/or
wrong .

When reading sites about some of the cult designs you can see that they
are compound errors a flawed dac section is follow by a flawed analog
section , for example audio note with some kind of passive I/V stage
thats not linear anywhere ?
I think such design are clearly audible and not transparent .

And that digital bliss can only be achieved by said unorthodox design
principle . It actually describes an aspect of the subjectivist the
problem very good .

2 loose ends , no idea about how the original should sound like and not
considering if the DAC actually is true to the original signal or not ?
with that perspective anything can be right or wrong , but with the
helping hand of audio press we know that the expensive way is right :)

The flaw in the thinking is that you get some unknown x factor expect
the obvious treble roll off and extra distortion , but that’s all there
is , vivid imagination fills in the rest.

Nothing wrong with a sligth treble roll of I use that myself , due to
speaker placement and acoustics etc .

In the end i think this is the only thing you actually get with the
latest popular slow roll off filters apodising or whatnot , this can
ofcourse sound less aggressive and "digital" but you could also tweak
you treble control -0,5dB and be happy


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