Let me preface this review by saying that I am no audiophile but just an audio enthusiast who really enjoys and gets into his music.
Now, the review:
SIZE / BUILD / DESIGN / AESTHETICS :
The udac-2 is small i.e. very portable (more than the pictures lead you to believe) and I love that. I travel a lot for business and its size is so very much appreciated.
Looking at the pictures I thought it would feel slightly cheap or plasticy but I was VERY VERY wrong; the all aluminum construction is first rate and the unit feels EXTREMELY solid. The volume control has a good feel / actuation and the soft blue led light (when on) is a classy touch.
The RCA and Coaxial(S/PDIF) outputs are all gold plated and again, like the rest of the construction, very solid. I'll cover the sound quality from the RCA outputs in the audio performance section of the review.
There are a few color choices. I decided to get black but after getting it, seeing and feeling it, I wish I had gotten red or silver; its that good looking.
AUDIO / PERFORMANCE / SOUND QUALITY :
Right out of the box the sound quality is outstanding. The DAC and amplifier are both very musical. I listen to all kinds of music and all genres and ever since I got the udac2, I have listened to every kind from Jazz to hip hop, rap, dance, rock, pop etc. I just cannot wipe the grin off my face.
I have the following headphones:
Ultimate ears super.fi 5 pro
Klipsch Image S4i
Sennheiser HD595.
I tried the udac2 will all three and although each and every one of them sounded great, the udac2 made my Sennheisers sing. I usually reserve the use of the Sennheisers with my old Nakamichi stereo receiver but no more. This thing just blows the Nak's headphone amp out of the water. The audio review that follows is the udac2 with the Sennheisers.
Group/ Artist: Down To The Bone
Album: From Manhattan To Staten
Track: 01 - Staten Island Groove
Format: flac
I think this is a very dynamic (albeit quite long) track filled with layers and layers of elements. While listening to the track and almost each and every element stayed distinct and I think I may have picked up another element that I didn't know existed. I tapped my fingers and feet the whole time I listened to it.
Group/ Artist: DEPECHE MODE
Album: Violator (Remastered 2006)
Track: 06 - Enjoy The Silence
Format: flac
I have heard this track countless times and is one of my favorites. The udac2 did it justice. The baseline, drums, the guitar riff throughout are crystal clear and in perfect harmony.
Group/ Artist: Blue Man Group
Album: The Complex
Track: 03 - Sing Along (Featuring Dave Mathews)
Format: MP3, 320Kbps
I got completely lost in this track the 2 or 3 times I listened to it over and over. I don't know what else to say.
Group/ Artist: Bass Mekanik
Album: Max Killa Hertz
Track: 02 - Aktivate-Terminate
Format: MP3, 320Kbps
The bass and percussions were solid. Never once did the bass get muddy.
Group/ Artist: Green Day
Album: American Idiot
Track: 04 - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
Format: flac
I felt Green Day were playing live for me.
I feel like listing every track I listened to and there was about 40 or 50 but this review would never end then.
The RCA outputs as I mentioned earlier are very solid. I connected the udac to the old nakamichi receiver in the bedroom. The signal was very strong and I wished this product was around a few years ago. I would have got this instead of a sound card to connect my HTPC to my home theater receiver; the sound quality would have been 10x better.
CONCLUSION / CLOSING THOUGHTS
It is everything that nuForce claims it is and more. Truth be told, I just cannot seem to stop listening to it and at $129 it is a steal. It has allowed me to enjoy my music when I am on the road as much as my main rig (some electronics connected to a McIntosh amp feeding paradigm studios) at a fraction of the cost.
Bravo nuForce!!
UPDATE APRIL 22, 2011
This thing is still as awesome as ever. Now that its broken in, it sounds even sweeter than before. In fact it sounds so good that I ended up replacing the sound card on my HTPC with the uDac2 (using the RCA outputs to my receiver). Results in one word? Fantabulous! And man is it Quiet! I cannot believe how much noise the old sound card (sound blaster X-Fi Xtreme) was picking up from the motherboard. Now, with the uDac2, all I hear is very detailed music and nothing more. NuForce Icon uDAC-2 (Black) Headphone Amp and USB DAC (24bit/96kHz)
I had the udac-1 and thought it was a tremendous bang for the buck.
Just as a dac alone, is worth the price.
Not that it was perfect. I thought the udac-1's midrange was a little too forward, and treble a little rolled off. But again, nothing to complain about considering the price.
Well now with the udac-2 they have worked on these small imperfections making it definitely worth the upgrade. When I hook up the udac-2 to my B&K amp through the B&W 705 speakers, they sound so close to the Pico dac that it's hard to tell the difference.
I will add that the udac-2 still retains a slight midrange forwardness and warmth to the tone of the sound. Not as much as the udac-1 but enough to make the midrange shine and give warmth to the sound of any speaker or headphone. You can almost say that they are very tube like in character.
Really pleased!
I only very recently began my journey into getting the very best audio for my systems.
I've tried out many pairs of headphones, and settled on a lower-budget pair of Senn HD595's. I figured, my system (Macbook Pro) wouldn't be pumping awesome music anyway, considering I have very little 320kbps FLAC/other lossless music on my computer. I took the dive to get the uDAC from a recommendation by a good friend.
WOW. This little thing has increased the quality of my music more than any of the other hardware I've bought so far. Every noise that now comes out of my Mac is jitter-free, as if someone had replaced every sound on my computer with one that was much higher-quality.
I read online that some people are worried about the controls with this thing. I have tested this on both the OSX and PC sides of my Mac. The system volume controls now work well with the DAC - I can now control the DAC's volume through both its own hardware switch (which is a great feature by itself) as well as through the computer/OS.
It's remarkably small, and requires no knowledge of anything to set up - just plug and play. Comes with a proper USB cable of good length (for me anyway). For those who are wondering, the light on the uDAC 2 (at least for this black one) is a less intrusive white, not bright blue. - Headphone Amp - Dac - Portable - Pc Audio'
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