Buy Nuforce ICON-UDAC2-RED Headphone Amplifier and USB DACNuforce ICON-UDAC2-RED Headphone Amplifier and USB DAC Product Description:
- Discrete USB audio receiver and D/A converter
- Coaxial S/PDIF output
- Double jitter-reduction mechanism at data level and at oversampling filter stage
- USB-powered, no external power supply required
- A highly linear TOCOS volume control for improved channel tracking at low listening levels
Product Description
The NuForce uDAC-2 is a high-performance, 24bit/96kHz USB Digital Audio Converter (DAC) that connects your personal computer's audio to your home stereo, desktop sound system, or headphones to deliver superior sound. It improves upon our original dual model by providing a highly linear TOCOS volume control for improved channel tracking at low listening levels, a 24bit/96kHz USB DAC, and an improved headphone amp. Nuforce USB Audio devices are designed to work with x86 architecture. Tablet devices running Windows 8 (RT) are not supported.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
By A User
The NuForce Icon uDAC-2 has been a useful and effective addition to my computer audio setup.Pros: (1) Tiny footprint; (2) USB powered, so no wall-wart; (3) Excellent sound quality; (4) Handy onboard volume control; (5) Good connectivity for its size (one USB input, one headphone output, one coaxial digital output, and one pair of RCA line-level audio outputs); (6) Recognized by MS Windows immediately and without additional software. Cons: (1) On/off switch is at the "smallest" end of the rotary volume control, like an old car radio. This causes undue wear on the control and "forgets" your ideal volume setting between sessions; (2) Depending on the power arrangement of USB port it's connected to, it may be on, off, or sleeping while the computer itself is powered down; (3) Sound quality improvement may not be dramatic if your motherboard sound hardware is already good. (4) Won't drive some larger headphones such as over-the-ear models from AKG; (5) Content to really leverage the DAC's capabilities (24 bits, 96 KHz) may not be readily available for all genres (but that's not really a uDAC-2 criticism).For me the uDAC-2 solved a particular problem: my motherboard audio hardware is severely polluted by the digital circuits in the PC. There is a noticible whine present 100% of the time, and louder noises always occur during periods of disk activity. As an external digital device the uDAC-2 is immune to these conditions, and gives me crystal-clear audio without any of the artifacts. Sweet!Whether the uDAC-2 is worthwhile for you will depend on your current computer audio arrangement. If you already have a soundcard with decent DACs on it, then you probably canpass. If you use your PC for proofing audio files, but do your serious listening elsewhere, you can pass. But if you do a lot of music listening on your PC, and you're still using motherboard AC'97-style audio, the uDAC-2 will give a noticible improvement in both frequency response and dynamics.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
By Micaiah D
I've never written a review for anything but after receiving this amp I just had to. It's actually a gift for my brother. A few months ago I got him some Audio Technica ATH AD-700 headphones and they sound quite good plugged into a laptop or iPod. You can tell though that they could sound a lot better with a better source. After reading the glowing reviews about this little dac/amp and the price being reasonable I decided it was worth a try. Well I just got it in the mail yesterday. I've got some 10 year old Sony headphones that don't sound nearly as good as the Audio Technicas. After not being able to stop myself from opening what's supposed to be a gift for my brother, I plugged the usb cord it into my laptop. I was expecting it to sound ok but the Sony's sounded amazing. They have never had a sound stage before. Well hooked to the Icon uDac they have one. The clarity is amazing and more than enough power for songs that have tons of bass. Then I plugged the uDac icon 2 into my sound system as a source, which includes revealing Magnepan MMG speakers. Again there was a huge improvement and they never sounded so good. My source normally is Cambridge Audio's D500SE CD player which is about 7 years old but still sounds good, or at least it used to till I tried this tiny thing as a source. I'm sure there are better amps and dacs out there but I'm pretty sure they would be a lot more expensive. Another plus is that it has not only RCA outputs on back that are controlled by the volume knob but it can be used as a 24/96 USB to SPDIF converter with the digital out rca. Above all, this thing is just fun to listen to, especially when I think of how little I paid for it. To bad I already told my brother I got him something. Guess I'll have to by one for me now.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
By P. Wells
I am most impressed with my uDAC-2, I put this on my wish list and my wife picked it up for my bday. I am really enjoying this little device. This is my first DAC, like many these days I've got a fairly extensive digital music collection, I also have a pretty large vinyl collection, and as I transfer that stuff to MP3 or FLAC files I really want to make sure I'm hearing everything. I was doing some digging around on the web recently and came across a review of this device and downloaded some FLAC test files. I played them through my regular pc headphone jack and then through the NuForce2, wow. Initially I did notice improved clarity and details I'd been missing before but doing some AB'ing really made that stand out.Some have complained about some channel balance issues with the pot on this device. Short of spending as much as this device costs to 3x as much on a high end volume control, I find no fault what so ever with the pot on this device. At very low volume levels it is not uncommon to experience some channel balance issues. I have a couple other amps that at barely audible volume levels there is some noticeable balance issues, but turn it up a smidge and the issue goes away. At low "listening" levels, I have experienced no balance issues at all.Now I'm running my NuForce2 into my Bottlehead Crack OTL amp and holy smoke Batman!! I thought the Crack sounded good before... now with the uDAC-2 between my laptop and my Crack, I'm simply blown away.I did listen to the uDAC-2 as a stand alone headphone amp while doing homework this week and it isn't lacking anything either. My Sennheiser ear buds have never sounded so good. I pulled them out and stuck them back into my MP3 player, and then back to the uDAC-2... mmmmnnn musical goodness. Improved bass response, fuller mid range, nothing lacking from the top end either. Vocals are excellent, I have no real complaints, I could probably spend some time looking for one but I'd rather just listen to some more music.Well done, I'm very pleased with this little amp/dac I might even be forced to buy a second one to take to work, but as small as this little guy is, I might just have to toss it into my bag and carry it back and forth for a while.
Latest Price: See on Amazon.com!
More Info: See on Amazon.com!
See Customers Review: See on Amazon.com!
