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NuForce uDAC-5 DAC/Amp
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NuForce uDAC-5 DAC/Amp
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Product Description
Small enough to fit in your pocket. Powerful enough to play your music to its full potential Read More
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keyboard_arrow_downGrumpStump
0
Mar 8, 2017
Not a good price. This thing is available on Amazon for $99, in several colors.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FG9MJ6I/ref=twister_B017WD9XUK?_encoding=UTF8&th=1
A community member
Apr 12, 2018
What is the output power?
The specs say 2 Volts. However, that is not a power specification, it is a voltage spec.
Power is defined as volts x amps. Volts x amps = watts.
Basic ohms law. Without the current spec (amps), there is no way to solve for watts when given volts.
As such, the power output is entirely unknown.
In my experience, when a manufacturer tries to obfuscate and/or capitalize on the ignorance of the general public, there is usually something to hide.
Probably not much power at all coming from this unit, though it would be nice to know for sure.
The specs say 2 Volts. However, that is not a power specification, it is a voltage spec.
Power is defined as volts x amps. Volts x amps = watts.
Basic ohms law. Without the current spec (amps), there is no way to solve for watts when given volts.
As such, the power output is entirely unknown.
In my experience, when a manufacturer tries to obfuscate and/or capitalize on the ignorance of the general public, there is usually something to hide.
Probably not much power at all coming from this unit, though it would be nice to know for sure.
A community member
Jun 10, 2018
Sir, I suggest you read and comprehend posts before replying to them.
1) I said " Current limiting in amplifier design is not limited to protection against shorts ." I did not say current limiting factors are "not relevant." In fact, I said the opposite. I said (paraphrased) that there were several relevant current limiting factors beyond protection against shorts.
2) "Flat" frequency response is a relative and subjective term, especially if tolerance is not specified; i.e. +/- some number of dB. However, if you look at the peaks and valleys in the frequency response plots of the vast majority of headphones (or speakers, or any other electromechanical audio output transducer for that matter), and you consider that flat, then I postulate you wouldn't know a nice tittie if one motorboated you upside the head. Regardless, frequency response is irrelevant to my point and is not correlated to impedance. And, I would say that speakers and headphones have the widest FR variances of any component in an audio system. I would also say that this doesn't much matter to a large extent and many other factors have a greater impact on perceived fidelity.
3) Again, POWER by definition is voltage times amperage. One does not know the POWER output of an amplifier if only the VOLTAGE is specified. VOLTAGE only tells you the available rails before clipping. It is only part of the story. IMPEDANCE (not frequency response) is the AC approximate equivalent of resistance, and VARIES WITH FREQUENCY. The NOMINAL impedance of a speaker or headphone driver is an AVERAGE across the audible spectrum. At any given frequency, it will vary. Depending on the driver type, the actual impedance at any given frequency may vary significantly from the NOMINAL or average rating given. For example, my Martin Logan electrostatic speakers have a NOMINAL impedance of 8 ohms. But, this varies widely across the spectrum and at the upper frequencies the impedance is as low as 1/2 ohm. This is part of the reason why power testing into a dummy load such as an 8 ohm power resistor does not always translate well to an actual load. It is true that if there were no limiting factors upon current in an amplifier design, then one could derive the output power from the voltage rails and the impedance of the load, at least at a given frequency. But amplifiers often have many design constraints that limit the output current and thus prevent a given voltage from delivering the maximum theoretical amount of current into a given load. These can be power supply limitations, output device limitations, thermal protection, battery management, etc.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to teach an engineering course here, so if you have further questions I suggest enrolling in a basic electronics course at your local community college.
1) I said " Current limiting in amplifier design is not limited to protection against shorts ." I did not say current limiting factors are "not relevant." In fact, I said the opposite. I said (paraphrased) that there were several relevant current limiting factors beyond protection against shorts.
2) "Flat" frequency response is a relative and subjective term, especially if tolerance is not specified; i.e. +/- some number of dB. However, if you look at the peaks and valleys in the frequency response plots of the vast majority of headphones (or speakers, or any other electromechanical audio output transducer for that matter), and you consider that flat, then I postulate you wouldn't know a nice tittie if one motorboated you upside the head. Regardless, frequency response is irrelevant to my point and is not correlated to impedance. And, I would say that speakers and headphones have the widest FR variances of any component in an audio system. I would also say that this doesn't much matter to a large extent and many other factors have a greater impact on perceived fidelity.
3) Again, POWER by definition is voltage times amperage. One does not know the POWER output of an amplifier if only the VOLTAGE is specified. VOLTAGE only tells you the available rails before clipping. It is only part of the story. IMPEDANCE (not frequency response) is the AC approximate equivalent of resistance, and VARIES WITH FREQUENCY. The NOMINAL impedance of a speaker or headphone driver is an AVERAGE across the audible spectrum. At any given frequency, it will vary. Depending on the driver type, the actual impedance at any given frequency may vary significantly from the NOMINAL or average rating given. For example, my Martin Logan electrostatic speakers have a NOMINAL impedance of 8 ohms. But, this varies widely across the spectrum and at the upper frequencies the impedance is as low as 1/2 ohm. This is part of the reason why power testing into a dummy load such as an 8 ohm power resistor does not always translate well to an actual load. It is true that if there were no limiting factors upon current in an amplifier design, then one could derive the output power from the voltage rails and the impedance of the load, at least at a given frequency. But amplifiers often have many design constraints that limit the output current and thus prevent a given voltage from delivering the maximum theoretical amount of current into a given load. These can be power supply limitations, output device limitations, thermal protection, battery management, etc.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time to teach an engineering course here, so if you have further questions I suggest enrolling in a basic electronics course at your local community college.
MigratingCoconut
8
Jun 10, 2018
Would the current limiting factors of the amifying circuit really matter that much with a headset? Considering most heasets I've seen have a nominal impedence of 50 Ohm or more, you should expect a current of 0.02A on average. Are the current limits you can expect from an amplifying circuit really that small, and does impedence vary so much that the current will ever get to a significantly higher level?
olbez
109
Oct 20, 2016
I replied to a couple of folks here, but thought it'll be better to just post a separate thread. I've used udac5 since it was released a few months ago. I was looking for a little amp/dac for under $200 that would primarily drive my modded pair of Fostex t50rp MK3 cans at the office (and Senn 600 at home) and and tested a whole bunch of them when trying to decide: Fiio E10K, FiiO K1, DragonFly Red, DragonFly 1.2, Audioengine D3 and finally Cambridge Audio Dac Magic XS V2.
In the end, the sound signature, usb cable and a real volume knob did it for me. If anyone has any questions about this dac, shoot them here, I'll do my best to answer.
In the end, the sound signature, usb cable and a real volume knob did it for me. If anyone has any questions about this dac, shoot them here, I'll do my best to answer.
olbez
109
Aug 18, 2017
Just rocking the stock cable... I don't hear any interference from this DAC/AMP in my 50ohm headphones.
EDIT: clarified impedance
EDIT: clarified impedance
Sherv
147
Mar 9, 2017
i wouldn't touch a nuforce product with a 10ft pole.. the udac3 i bought was faulty and nuforce never replied back to me after 5 attempts. Looking online I see the same experience from others, expect 0 service from them.
derzulya
126
May 25, 2017
ShervI don't get it. I contacted with Optoma service two times about two different product and they wrote me back within a day.
jersey_boy
197
Aug 16, 2017
ive bought several headphones from them via massdrop (2 or 3 pairs) and every single one had a defect. their website is barely maintained but i was able to get all of them RMA'd and replaced pretty easily. iirc they actually have a phone line you can talk to live people at. on the other hand, out of my very large collection of headphones, the hem's have my favorite shells of anything i own. have never used their dacs or amps. i believe optoma is the website to go to iirc, and they usually get back to me within a day or so when i've contacted them.
Colm4g
18
Oct 13, 2017
Will these work/ work good with the hd6xx’s ? Or if/not could you maybe suggest some that would work? Thanks.
Kaboose
241
Nov 13, 2017
Colm4gThe long and short is yes. But not very well.
The HD650/6XX need 2-4 Vrms, the Nuforce UDAC 5 only outputs 2 Vrms. Meaning at full volume the UDAC 5 would only be able to push the HD6XX to ~108dB. I personally find some movies that have quiet dialog scenes will also have loud action scenes with 120dB peaks that the Nuforce UDAC 5 simply wouldn't do that well for, you either wont hear the quiet scenes, or the loud scenes will be somewhat loud but lacking in bass extension.
So if you listen to things at a lower volume level you might find the Nuforce UDAC 5 is fine. But most people will want more power for dynamic range, especially in movies or classical music.
I'd recommend looking at the following amp/DACs for the HD6XX/650/600 FiiO K5 DAC X6 Monoprice desktop amp
All should be cheaper than the Nuforce.
The HD650/6XX need 2-4 Vrms, the Nuforce UDAC 5 only outputs 2 Vrms. Meaning at full volume the UDAC 5 would only be able to push the HD6XX to ~108dB. I personally find some movies that have quiet dialog scenes will also have loud action scenes with 120dB peaks that the Nuforce UDAC 5 simply wouldn't do that well for, you either wont hear the quiet scenes, or the loud scenes will be somewhat loud but lacking in bass extension.
So if you listen to things at a lower volume level you might find the Nuforce UDAC 5 is fine. But most people will want more power for dynamic range, especially in movies or classical music.
I'd recommend looking at the following amp/DACs for the HD6XX/650/600 FiiO K5 DAC X6 Monoprice desktop amp
All should be cheaper than the Nuforce.
johnjonathan
11
Oct 20, 2016
the ESS9010 is the SAME DAC that's being used in the $55,000 Sennheiser Orpheus
olbez
109
Oct 21, 2016
I have no idea how it compares to Orpheus heh, but it is great. Like I said in my other post here, I compared the udac5 with a bunch of other dacs in sub-$200 category and it was the best sounding for my tastes.
mocenigo
4
Oct 25, 2016
Yes and no. The Sabre chips have per se very similar sound signatures. They mostly differ in the amount of distortion and noise - in fact it is even more important how they are used. The Sennheiser HE 1 uses 4 of the 8 DACs in parallel per channel. The Gustard X20 uses two ESS9018 chips, one per channel, where in each one 4+4 are used in a balanced configuration (which should then be even superior). And so on. But 90% of the sound is given by what is around the DAC and I would expect the HE 1 to be top notch in this regard.
The DAC used in the uDAC-5 is not the 9010 but the 9010K2M, which is a low power, two-channel (stereo) only version. So it uses one internal DAC per channel. I expect the noise and distortion to be higher, but it would also be meaningless to put anything else in such a small box, with an opamp based amplification circuitry that by necessity is very simple - and definitely not at the refinement level of the Gustart X20, not to speak of the HE 1.
The DAC used in the uDAC-5 is not the 9010 but the 9010K2M, which is a low power, two-channel (stereo) only version. So it uses one internal DAC per channel. I expect the noise and distortion to be higher, but it would also be meaningless to put anything else in such a small box, with an opamp based amplification circuitry that by necessity is very simple - and definitely not at the refinement level of the Gustart X20, not to speak of the HE 1.
thezfunk
47
Jan 18, 2019
Lucky guy. By the time I realized there was a 4.1 set, I could never find one for sale. I often though about cannibalizing the satellite speakers for custom projects.
WileEPyote
12
Feb 15, 2019
I'm late to the party. Was scanning through comments and saw your setup.
How do you like your Loki? I've really been debating one.
ZerotypeX
10
Aug 16, 2017
Part of the HD6XX drop. Would this be a good option compared to the FX Audio DAC-X6 or the Schiit Full2/ Magni and Modi?
A community member
Feb 16, 2018
ZerotypeXUsing HD600 with an older UDAC2 now. It's underpowered. Still usb bus powered so I wouldn't expect this one to be much better.
I am going to buy a Schiit stack and try that (Modi 2 / Magni 3). I am expecting a lot more out of the HD600 in this case.
Granted, the UDAC2 still does work well. I have it plugged into my monitor and when I dock my laptop it automatically starts outputting sound. I like it as a "usb soundcard".
I am going to buy a Schiit stack and try that (Modi 2 / Magni 3). I am expecting a lot more out of the HD600 in this case.
Granted, the UDAC2 still does work well. I have it plugged into my monitor and when I dock my laptop it automatically starts outputting sound. I like it as a "usb soundcard".
Anent
167
Dec 13, 2016
Not just for laptop/desktop usage.
zep483
656
Aug 8, 2018
Is the centrance mini USB or micro? I got the recent dacport he drop as well, but waiting on it to come in. I have a note 8, so I'll have to get a type c to whaterver... hopefully with two outs... or for power one for the centrance.
kungfoolou
29
Aug 8, 2018
zep483The centrance is micro USB. To connect a USB-C phone to these devices, I used a micro-to-C adapter, make sure it is OTG-enabled. Not all micro-to-C adapters are OTG-enabled. And used a micro-USB OTG adapter with a power port. I did not find any USB-C OTG adapters with power other than hubs, but I haven't looked in a while as I bought a DAP recently. The micro-USB OTG adapters can be cheap and unreliable. Buy a few and test them out.
GeneralLien
65
Sep 17, 2018
Hi guys , How about this NuForce uDAC-5 DAC/Amp Combo compared to Schiit Fulla 2? Many thanks for your comments
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