ЦАПы — TEAC UD-507

The UD-507 from TEAC is a USB DAC with preamp and headphone amp stages, built into the compact A4-size chassis of the Reference 500 series. TEAC describes it as a completely redesigned 500 series unit that carries over the design concept of the higher 700 series. Conversion is handled by the in-house TRDD 5 discrete DAC where the preceding UD-505-X used two ES9038Q2M chips. TEAC USA lists it at USD 2,199.99.

Key specs that matter

USB input covers PCM up to 384 kHz and 32 bit and DSD up to 22.5 MHz. Coaxial and optical connections handle PCM up to 192 kHz and 24 bit plus DSD 2.8 MHz in DoP form. Frequency response runs from 5 Hz to 70 kHz (+1/-6 dB), distortion is 0.01% or less with S/N at 105 dB or better. The balanced XLR output delivers 2.0 Vrms at the 0 dB setting or 4.0 Vrms at +6 dB at an output impedance of 40 ohm, while RCA gives 2.0 Vrms from 20 ohm. Analog inputs are one XLR pair (50 kohm, 5 Vrms) and one RCA pair (24 kohm, 2.5 Vrms). The case measures 290 x 85 x 249 mm and weighs 4.9 kg, with 18 W power consumption.

Engineering and use context

The headphone section is a fully balanced dual monaural design built around the TEAC-HCLD2 high current line driver. It gives 1,200 mW per channel balanced into 100 ohm, or 900 mW per channel into 32 ohm in active ground and unbalanced modes, and supports headphones from 16 to 600 ohm with three gain positions. Three headphone sockets are fitted - a 6.3 mm TRS jack, a 4-pin XLR and a 4.4 mm 5-pole Pentaconn. Volume is set by the TEAC-QVCS analog attenuator. Digital connections comprise USB Type-C and Type-B ports with asynchronous transfer and Bulk Pet support, plus a coaxial input (75 ohm, 0.5 Vp-p) and an optical input. Compared with the UD-505-X, the analog line inputs grow from one RCA pair to an XLR pair plus an RCA pair, and the front digital input becomes USB Type-C. A Bluetooth 4.2 receiver handles LDAC, LHDC, aptX HD, aptX, AAC and SBC, remembers up to 8 devices and links two at once, with a range of about 10 m. PCM can be up-converted by 2Fs, 4Fs or 8Fs up to the top USB sampling rate. A BNC input accepts a 10 MHz external clock, a 12 V trigger output on a 3.5 mm jack supplies up to 100 mA, and the unit stands on Stressless Foot v2 feet and ships with the RC-1334 remote.

Pairing

The line outputs can run fixed at either gain setting, variable as a preamplifier, or be switched off. TEAC names the UD-507 as a partner for the AP-507 stereo power amplifier to build a compact letter-size system.

Alternatives

Within TEAC's current range the UD-701N USB DAC and network player is the other converter to consider.