I am most impressed with my uDAC-2, I put this on my wish list and my wife picked it up for my bday. I am really enjoying this little device. This is my first DAC, like many these days I’ve got a fairly extensive digital music collection, I also have a pretty large vinyl collection, and as I transfer that stuff to MP3 or FLAC files I really want to make sure I’m hearing everything. I was doing some digging around on the web recently and came across a review of this device and downloaded some FLAC test files. I played them through my regular pc headphone jack and then through the NuForce2, wow. Initially I did notice improved clarity and details I’d been missing before but doing some AB’ing really made that stand out.
Some have complained about some channel balance issues with the pot on this device. Short of spending as much as this device costs to 3x as much on a high end volume control, I find no fault what so ever with the pot on this device. At very low volume levels it is not uncommon to experience some channel balance issues. I have a couple other amps that at barely audible volume levels there is some noticeable balance issues, but turn it up a smidge and the issue goes away. At low “listening” levels, I have experienced no balance issues at all.
Now I’m running my NuForce2 into my Bottlehead Crack OTL amp and holy smoke Batman!! I thought the Crack sounded good before… now with the uDAC-2 between my laptop and my Crack, I’m simply blown away.
I did listen to the uDAC-2 as a stand alone headphone amp while doing homework this week and it isn’t lacking anything either. My Sennheiser ear buds have never sounded so good. I pulled them out and stuck them back into my MP3 player, and then back to the uDAC-2… mmmmnnn musical goodness. Improved bass response, fuller mid range, nothing lacking from the top end either. Vocals are excellent, I have no real complaints, I could probably spend some time looking for one but I’d rather just listen to some more music.
Well done, I’m very pleased with this little amp/dac I might even be forced to buy a second one to take to work, but as small as this little guy is, I might just have to toss it into my bag and carry it back and forth for a while.
