dave1701
Active Member
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.