Nuforce Udac 5 and HEM 2 Review

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by GenClaymore, Jun 24, 2016.

  1. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    The Nuforce U-Dac 5 the latest model in their portable dac/amp line. This little fellow packs a lot of performance in an compact size. Lets start with the connections, on the front of the unit you see an headphone out jack and the volume/power on knob. On the rear of the unit, a USB input,coaxial and RCA out. The device doesn’t use an wall-wart instead it uses USB for power. Since it is small you can easily pack it in your laptop carry back, in your pocket if your using it with an tablet. It uses an Xmos chip for the USB connection,Which haven gave me any issues in the past, as I have used plenty of Xmos using devices before. It never give me any issues at all that the other chips give me.


    The coaxial out on the rear is an nice addition, with this you can connect either connect the u-dac 5 to an TV,Receiver, Even another external dac if you needed to for the features. Sadly the RCA out on the rear isn’t fixed, but works as an pre-amp, meaning you will need to raise the volume knob on it just to get volume from an standalone headphone amp. This won’t be an problem for you if you are using an speakers or an power amp that does not have any volume controls.



    The headphone amp works great with the HEM2’s, I did try an pair of Edifier H850’s with the udac 5 and it worked pretty well too. Now don’t expect headphone’s like the HD700 or any other similar headphones to work as you will be disappointed, as the headphone amp doesn’t supply enough power for those headphones. The Udac 5 shouldn’t have any problems with headphones like the Audio Techinca A900X, or even DT770/880/900 32 ohms.


    Since I receive the HEM 2, I been enjoying them a lot, more then what I thought I would. These are really my first IEM that I ever used. The sound quality coming from them when I listen to them was very good. I tried an couple of the different tips,the isolation tips does a very good job at blocking out my loud house fan to the point that you barely hear it. While they do an good job at that,I found those foam ear-tips to be a little uncomfortable after a while of use. The silicon ear-tips felt more comfortable to my ears while going in with ease but at the cost of sound isolation. I don’t know if it was just me, but I found the isolation tips to add some freq to the bass over the normal ones. The tips that it comes with comes in different sizes, small,medium and large, it comes with two pairs of foam isolation tips. An tough looking protection box is also included.

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    The major thing that I love about the HEM 2 besides their sound is the fact that the cables are replaceable which is an plus to me. Being able to replace the cable if something goes wrong,It does come with an second cable in the case with an built in mic. That cable is useful for those who are on the go and using these with an smart phone, so they can answer calls while enjoying music. I feel the cable labeling needs to be a bit clear as the directions on the box confused me causing me to connect the cable in reverse.

    An carrying case comes with the HEM 2 which is handy when you need to carry the IEM’s around without doing any damage to them while having access to the other tips.



    Setup

    I’m using the Nuforce U-Dac 5 dac/amp as the source with music bee with it set to Asio. I am using the foam ear tips and not the silicon ones so lets get down to business.


    HP out: HEM 2

    I listen to an wide range of different song genres. I found the bass to have an slight impact to it in some songs, while others it came off as controlled. It did not bleed into the rest of the song. It also doesn’t take over the sound in the dub-step and DnB songs while in others I found it to be tight the bass is not muddy at all.

    The sound stage comes off as being medium, the separation between all the instrument and the voices is very good, I can tell every thing apart from each other. While the sound stage was small, I could hear the music outside my heard, I would say it was spacious while small if that make sense. The voices had the feel of being projected out in front of me like the singer was sitting on my desk singing to me personally.

    When I listen to songs with snares in it, I can hear the snares along with the hit hats, the snap of them is so clear, Including the tap of the drums. The high end is good nice and clear with the right amount of detail while not being too much.

    Besides song’s I watched an movie called goosebumps with the HEM2’s and the movie was wonderful, all the same qualities as the songs, The voices and the bass came out great. Felt like I was in the movie and jack black character was yelling at me. I think I will use these more when I watching movies.


    During the time I spent with it, the most important thing is getting an good seal and making sure it’s is inside your ears good, other wise it won’t sound right. I found that out when my results was different then my original results.



    RCA: JBL LSR 305

    I wanted to see how the RCA perform with my JSL LSR 305’s, I tried an song with a lot of bass in it. The low bass sounded great, it was accurate and other times controlled as the song played cleanly. It sounded like bass and not one noted bass. The mid bass blended in perfectly coming from front of me like it was played on stage. Each note of it was heard cleanly. Even the Snares sounded good like the bass, I could hear each hit of the snare including the drums, just the way it was being hit.

    The separation was just as good as the way it sound, nothing was overlapping and each one was heard separately all over the sound stage. To see how well the voices was done, I put on an song that had singing in it. The singers was placed directly on state. You could hear the location of each one as they sing on the state. Their voices was very clean and clear, but their voices was not tinny as it had force behind those voices. The words they was singing was spreading through out the sound stage.

    Over all the RCA out on the Nuforce worked great with the JBL 305’s, every thing played like it was suppose to with no issues in the sound.


    I haven’t tried the coaxial output so I don’t know how well the U-dac 5 will work as an usb to spdif converter. But over all I had an great time with the U-Dac5 and the HEM2’s. To the point that I switched my Gustard H10 over to the RCA output’s from the matrix M-stage dac.
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2016
  2. Bleib

    Bleib Guest

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  3. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    No offensive but that doesn't have any thing to do with the Udac 5 review, other then it being about an older product that nuforce made. The only thing the udac 5 does is volume miss-matching at the lowest volume but when it is turn up a bit it's perfectly fine. Both the U-dac 2 and U-dac 5 are designed differently with different dac, and usb chip. if I recall the U-dac 2 used Tennor for its usb connection, and a lot of times tennor causes issues, as I know it had for me with dac's that used it. Where the U-Dac 5 uses Xmos and that been working flawless for me.

    The U-dac5 for me didn't give me any static issues or hissing issues, the RCA output does not disconnect the Headphone connection when used. But instead both play audio at the same time while controlled by the volume knob. Which only annoyed me an tad. The RCA output performed very well no matter what I plugged it into.

    Compared to my other sources that I own.
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2016
  4. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    I had micro-dac2, and it was vary good for its price. I never had issues with its USB implementation (although I always use Windows and I never use audio with sample rate higher than 48KHz). Also I have Nuforce Icon HDP, and it sounds better but costs a bit steep. Overall Nuforce was good brand.
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2016

  5. GenClaymore

    GenClaymore Ancient Guru

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    Now that I got an coaxial cable, I was able to see how the digital connection on the Udac 5 work. The digital output works passively even when the Udac 5 is turned off. The good thing is the output is not variable but line level. Pretty much being used as an USB to spdif convertor.

    Which can be useful to people who are running the U-dac 5 to some speakers using the RCA ouputs,Digital an external dac/amp setup, while having the front headphone jack for IEM's or another pair of headphones.
     

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