Bought a TEAC AI-501DA

dave1701

Active Member
maxresdefault.jpg


Techmoan did a video review of this; that's the best resource for info about the device in my opinion. I will just add my opinions of the device.

It is WAY smaller than I thought it would be, even after watching Techmoan's video. It does look beautiful as does the remote. It will take me some getting used to--driving my big speakers with an 8 1/2" by 11" by 3" unit seems weird to me, as I come from big vintage amps.

Because the device is small, the meters are quite small too.

The volume knob is much stiffer than I'm used to, but the fact that it is motorized when using the remote keeps me from criticizing it too much.

Techmoan said the meters are a bit unresponsive. I think they are fine, but Ive never had equipment with dB meters before.

There is NO PHONO PREAMP in the unit. I should have known this before I bought it. Totally my fault.

The driver for it (I use windows 7 64bit) is absolutely horrid. I saw reports of this in the reviews, but I figured no one knew what they were doing and if they did TEAC would have fixed it by now. NOPE. I installed the driver, turned the unit on, and nothing happened. I rebooted the computer, fiddled with it a bit and got it working. Later that night, my computer went berserk. I'm not a guy who has no idea what he's doing with a computer. The drivers are fatally bad. Windows eventually became unresponsive and I had to do a system restore to before the drivers were installed.

The lack of even an attempt at decent drivers for a device marketed as a "USB DAC" is pretty atrocious. I have little doubt that I could get the drivers working properly, but even then I suspect it will be very fragile. The instructions specify that you cannot switch the unit off while plugged in with the computer on, switch from the USB input and go back, or use other programs while playing music (what?).

After I saw the pathetic nature of the USB drivers, I decided to just hook it to my computer using the optical connection from my sound card. I think this should result in the same sound quality in theory, someone please correct me if I'm wrong. The thing does seem to be designed for mainly USB use though, which makes it pretty sad that little attention was paid to the drivers by the company. Even the instructions for installing the driver are very poor. The ball was seriously dropped in that area.

As for the actual amp, it sounds fine. As a class D amp, it has a very wide frequency response. I definitely hear more treble from my EMIT tweeters. Whether I like it remains to be seen. It has adequate power to drive my Infinity RSb speakers, so it packs a surprisingly powerful punch for its small size.

My bottom line is that the aesthetics of the unit are great, but it lacks some substance. Sure the amp works great, but it fails in its chief operation of being a USB DAC. Luckily, I have an optical output on my computer, so this isn't the end of the world for me, but it is still an issue. I love aesthetics. That's mainly why I bought it, but I want a product that does what it claims. This is why I am not sure if I am going to keep it. I probably will, but I wouldn't but it again if that makes sense. The unit is beautiful and so is the remote. That was definitely the first priority in the design of this. Inside, there is basically a computer and an amp. Something makes me suspicious that TEAC is making out like a bandit in terms of profit on this thing, but I don't know. It's a bit high on form and low on functionality, but I can make it work for me.

Here is techmoan's review

Anyone else have thoughts on this particular or similar products? All comments appreciated.
 
nice unit, teac has really stepped up their game in recent years, their ud 503 is a very impressive DAC with true dual mono config and all the options you need, with SQ to back it up. I've ever heard that some of the new interfaces/DACs by tascam which is teac have a really good sound while being low priced

It's a great time to be into hifi, class D has finally caught up to class A ever since b&o licensed out their icepower chipset and many mfg experimented and implemented it into their own products

DACs are sounding really damn good in the 500-1000 range, which would have been 1500-2500 only a few years ago.

also, to get better sound from your PC I recommend using a USB-SPDIF interface, you will have a lot less signal degrading jitter than optical, and a hell of a lot less emi/rf than USB. this will take your DAC to the next level, and you can get a MUSE usb-spdif interface on ebay for only 20-40 usd

I also recommend picking up a canare SPDIF digital coax interconnect, one can be picked up from blue jeans cable or markertek for like $20 shipped.

congrats again on the pickup. seriously a nice piece

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Muse-HIFI-U...684925?hash=item19ffe9a63d:g:HQYAAOSwpDdVXA--
 
Returned it to Amazon and fixed my old amp, the Denon PMA-860. I returned it mainly because I was generally underwhelmed. Two things that were specifically unacceptable (which I used to the seller as justification for the return) were the useless drivers and a problem that seemed to be developing in my unit where adjusting the volume with the remote caused my music to cut out.
 
Last edited:
That's a shame it didn't work out for you. I've had a couple of the Teac DACs through here and they all worked fine - no driver problems on Win 7 or 8. I like the size of these units from Teac and the fact you can get something other than black. I still have their 501 HA and am still impressed by its performance. Given you had other problems, perhaps it was a defective unit. In any case, don't give up on the little Teacs completely. I think they are some of the most overlooked bargains out there.
Glad you got your amp fixed.
 
yeah i have a 503 dac, and am quite happy with it, and while getting the wasapi drivers sorted out with foobar to get it streaming dsd files into the dac was a nuisance, it has been trouble-free since.

not sure your product fits in the same category - being a dac/amp/preamp it's an awful lot cramped into a small package and while i haven't played with class d enough to say whether or not it's certainly not popular.

fwiw, i run a pair of old-school yamaha power amps, along with a tube pre. makes me smile if i listening to binary bits or wobbly wax.
 
Back
Top Bottom