Teac UD-505

disclaimer:  The Teac UD-505 was loaned to me by TTVJ (Todd the Vinyl Junkie) for purposes of this review.  I have no financial interest in TTVJ or Teac but was interested in this model due to its top end specs and mid-fi pricing.   It is not an inexpensive unit, but for the features included it, it is less expensive than my Bel Canto or other similar DACs.

The UD-505 is outside my norm for reviews for sure with its $2k sticker price and the fact that it is as much a 2-channel component DAC as it is a headphone amplifier.   It represents a market segment that is growing  as all-in-one units begin to overtake component DAC and amplifier stacks in the headphone space and more and more people are adding either a dedicated DAC or a streamer to their 2 channel setups.   For that reason, I am adding the review of the UD-505 here as I think in coming days this category will likely expand and more companies will offer this style of device.

Packaging:

The UD-505 is packaged for transport in a large cardboard box with heavy foam inserts and separate compartments for remote, power cable, rca to 3.5mm coaxial cable (for use with the front panel connector),  and manuals to keep everything from getting scratched up.   There are no interconnect cables in the box so whichever style is needed must be provided by the purchaser.   An early recommendation is the purchase of a 4.4mm to XLR adapter as the one glaring deficiency on the UD-505 is the absence of a XLR balanced output port.   The 4.4mm works well, but with the most common balanced termination being XLR, the choice of  4.4mm and dual mono 6.3mm is a bit perplexing.

Build:

In a word, solid.  All parts are metal, heavy gauge and give a very solid feel.  Combine that with dual Toroidal transformers internally and the heft of the unit is substantial as well.  While not a big fan of the winged design, it does provide an easy way to grasp the unit and limits the risk of slips, drops etc. which is comforting for a $2k unit.   Size wise, the UD-505 is roughly 12 inches wide, 10 inches deep, and 3 ½ inches tall making it slightly smaller than standard hi-fi components which typically have a 17 inch face.     I do appreciate the front facing power switch, and the layout is quite easy to use once acclimated to the controls.  The display is simple, but large enough to be seen easily at a distance (as it should be with a remote controlled unit), and offers 4 levels of brightness which is also nice as the highest level will allow for reading a book at night with the house lights off while the dimmest level is low enough to sleep in the same room with the unit.  The auto-power off is also appreciated for using the unit at night.    I’ll cover more details of the connectors and controls in the internals and controls sections below.

Internals:

If I have been a bit brief to this point, this is where that changes as this is the important part anyway.  While layout may make a device easier to use, internals define how well it will work and the UD-505 is a tour de-force with premium components throughout.      The UD-505 is the 3rd generation of the series that began with the UD-501 and maintains the same basic design that the previous models were built using.  All of the UD series are dual monaural DACs with built in headphone amplifiers.    This is an important distinction as I look at the UD series devices as first and foremost a 2-channel DAC and secondly as a headphone amp.       I had to take the cover off and get a look at the internals and they are indeed first rate from start to finish.

power:

Starting with the power supplies (at right in photo below), the 505 uses a pair of toroidal core power transformers that are each capable of powering the entire unit but are connected to a single channel each.    This gives the unit plenty of power to spare and a heavy power draw on one channel has no impact on the other channel resulting in better channel separation.

inputs/outputs:

The USB input is at center in the photo below (Type B connector) and has its own 44.1k and 48kHz clocks on board rather than relying on USB clocking and also supports the use of an external clock using a BNC connector on the rear of the unit next to the power connector.   It is important to note that what appears to be a micro-usb port is not usable for input and is a maintenance port and should not be used unless directed to by Teac.    The USB input is capable of using standard isochronous transfer or with the use of Teac drivers allows for a proprietary fixed data rate transfer that Teac claims reduces burden on the sending unit and guarantees better delivery.    USB supports up to 32bit / 768 kHz PCM input and DSD512 with the Teac software installed in windows.  In addition to USB, Coaxial and optical connections are both available but both are limited to 24/192 max and neither support DSD beyond 2.8MHz and even then only supported with 176.4kHz/24-bit DoP format.   So the UD-505 is clearly aimed at USB input.     For those who prefer wireless input, Bluetooth is provided and supports LDAC, aptX HD,  and AAC in addition to the SBC standard offering a large range of connectivity options.      In addition,  RCA analog inputs are provided for use of the 505 with an external source for those who wish to use it as a pre-amp or headphone amplifier only.

Likewise, a pair of XLR outputs  and a pair of RCA outputs are provided for those wanting to use the 505 as a DAC only.    I tested the DAC section with the 505 replacing my Bel Canto in my home system for a time as well as utilizing it as a dedicated headphone amp from an external dac and as both dac and amplifier with a variety of headphones.

DAC:

In the UD-505, the DAC functions are handled by a pair of  AK4497  chips.   This is a distinct step up, as the 501 used Burr Brown chips and the 503 used AK4490s, so the move here is toward the flagship DAC chip rather than the mid-grade chips used in previous models.   As most well know, starting with a good chip is important, but implementation can make a world of difference.  The 505 offers up-sampling to 32/384 and 24.5MHz DSD and also exposes the filters of the 4497 chips to the end-user so the sound can be further tweaked to their preferences (more in controls section).    The DACs also serve as the domain boundary between digital and analog domains within the unit and Teac has been very careful to completely isolate the two from each other with the sole exception to that being the pathway through the DAC so grounds are kept separate in the two domains.

amplifier:

The analog section has been given a lot of thought too and has buffer circuits for both fully balanced/differential output and a parallel drive model for single ended.  Each channel has two circuits, one for differential output and another for single-ended and again both are completely isolated from each other to prevent any chance of cross-talk, interference or noise.  Likewise, volume controls are split with four sets of variable gain-amps controlling volume for left, right, positive and negative (L+, L–, R+, R-).   Again, separate controls help minimize interference and noise.  Volume controls offer either a 100 steps or in ½dB increments depending on the users preference.

In addition, the UD-505 also supports Active-ground (via the 4.4mm connector).  This technology forcibly reduces the ground to zero rather than utilizing the passive ground and assuming it is zero like most less expensive units do.   This helps suppress mains noise and other sources of interference that are often seen when using passive grounds.

Controls:

The first control the user needs to understand is the output selection.   the dual 6.3mm jacks can be used as either balanced connectors where each jack is used for a single channel or as standard single ended jacks where either jack can be used independently for standard 6.3mm stereo jacks.    As one can imagine, plugging in the wrong type of device could lead to damage to either the headphone or the amplifier so this needs to be set first.    Press the menu button to move into menu mode on display, then use the input knob to rotate through the options until you find Headphone 6.3mm, then push in on the input knob to be able to select the proper value for the type of device in use.  Even when using the balanced option, Stereo jacks must be used as the wiring is Tip+, Ring – and sleeve unused so use of mono jacks will short the unit.      New units should probably be shipped with a warning sticker over the 6.3mm jacks explaining that these settings must be updated first to prevent damage to the unit or headphones used.

Next up, selection of source, this one is easy, turning the input knob scrolls through the options for inputs starting with USB, Coax, Optical, Bluetooth, and Line-in(analog).   The only trick is Coax and Optical 1 are rear connections and Coax and optical 2 are front panel connector.  Once a connection is established it should display the bit rate information on screen.  If you see the connection type and the word Check, this implies a connection is not detected.

The rest of the options operate very similarly to the output selection with a push of the menu button and then turning the input selector to reach the desired setting and pressing the input button to go into select mode, turning the input to select the desired value, and pushing it again to set the value for that setting.  It is harder to describe than it is to do and works very well and quickly without a great deal of effort or learning curve.

As mentioned earlier, the 505 exposes the filters in the AK4497 so the user to can utilize them to tweak the sound.   These are accessed via the mechanism described above, and the options are as follows.    For PCM the options are:  sharp, slow, short delay – sharp, short delay – slow,  low dispersion, or none of the above (off)  while DSD offers narrow or wide cut-off frequency as options.

There are too many options and controls to cover them all, so please see the manual for more details.

The UD-505 also works with Teac’s in-house music player software that exposes more of the options on the teac models to the computer and allows some settings changes directly from the software.   More on it can be found here.

Sound:

Using just the DAC first, the UD-505 has a very smooth effortless quality to its delivery that makes for a very pleasant listening experience.  Linearity is very good and detail is quite good but is very gently smoothed in places so a few ragged edges in tracks like Keith Richard’s Main Offender seem a little less jagged than perhaps they ought to be.   This trade off is not uncommon in the AKM Velvet series DACs and is somewhat to be expected.  Having said that, the UD-505 is one of the most detail oriented implementations of the AKM I have heard.   Coming from the Bel Canto in my home system, detail is on par or better, transients are about on par, and if anything the UD-505 seems a touch fuller and warmer in comparison.  Having said that, I think the Bel Canto comes off a bit cool and the UD-505 is more neutral rather than introducing warmth in and of itself.

Moving to the headphone output, I found the UD-505 had ample power to drive the He6 when run in balanced mode but left less than the headroom I would have liked in single-ended use.  Other hard to drive headphones fared better with the 600Ω Beyerdynamic and AKG models having more than enough power in single ended mode to get louder than anyone should ever listen to them.   Signature here was again quite linear with no major coloration anywhere throughout and detail again was extremely good even with that hint of smoothness seen earlier.    The UD-505 does a great job of leveling the playing field on poor source material as that same smoothing effect comes into its own and made listening for long periods a pleasure even with a mix of tracks of varying quality.  While purists may frown on this, the real world will find this to be a plus as most of us have collections of varying quality that we can neither afford to replace or find higher quality versions available in order to replace.

Comparisons:

When looking at comparing the UD-505 to other competitors on the market, it quickly becomes clear that at this price point most focus solely on being a DAC or solely on being an amplifier.  I excluded the Phonitor X for example as the dac module in it is comparatively an afterthought unlike the UD-505 where I would argue the DAC is at least half of what you are paying for if not a bit higher percentage.  For that reason, I chose the Bel Canto 2.7, the RME ADI-2 Pro and Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ as they are all fairly comparable in price, function and even to a degree aesthetic.

Bel Canto eOne DAC 2.7 – I’ve used the Bel Canto as the dac in my home system for quite some-time as I dearly love the transparency of this unit.  If one has to define the 2.7 in a single word, Clean is that word.  It only supports 24/192 as it utilizes the Burr Brown 17xx series dac chips so it gives up some resolving power to the 505 comparatively.  It also does not have the balanced headphone output and is limited to a less potent single-ended output.   Were I shopping for a new 2 channel dac today to replace the Bel Canto unit, the UD-505 would be a very short list of top competitors.  I liked the sound of the UD-505 nearly as well as the Bel Canto as it delivers a very effortless clean sound with no digital artifact and offers about as wide a range of formats as can be had at the price point.

RME ADI-2 Pro FS R – Another potential suitor in this market space is the ADI.  I’ve owned some version of the ADI-2 since release and this latest version is a beast that can go toe to toe with about anything at the price point.   Having said that, it loses to the UD-505 on inputs as it does not support Coax (its optical only), doesn’t have Bluetooth,  and its output power is not quite as potent as the 505.   It fires back by adding Parametric EQ in addition to the filter modes that both expose, and by being more designed for musicians who want to use it as a recording interface.   I think for users who want the most possible control the RME will likely get the nod, but for those wanting good sound with less fuss, the 505 is a great option.

Mytek Brooklyn DAC+  –  The Mytek gives up a bit of resolution as it tops out at 32/384 and DSD256 with its generation back 9028 Pro, but it does add MQA support which is something the others currently dont.  Its worth noting that both RME and Teac could easily add this with a firmware update if so desired as the chips used support it.  The Burr brown of the Bel  Canto means it is less likely to see this feature added.    The DAC+ has a very comparable range of inputs with multiple coax, an optical, USB, and analog inputs as well as support for external clocking.   Here the Teac is a bit more resolving, more potent as a headphone amp, and a bit more relaxed and effortless in its delivery.   The Mytek was good when released and still trumps the 505 with MQA support but otherwise is starting to show its age.

Conclusions: