I’m a dealer so take this as you will, but I got a demo unit to test on the possibility of picking up the Teac line.
The first thing you notice is the build quality, which for the money is off the charts. But build quality isn’t sound quality — I hooked it in our reference system and A/Bd it vs a couple of DACs, cheaper and more expensive. Longer story short, it’s a terrific DAC at its price point and above. Add in the flawless operation of the streaming (via Roon or its own app), ability to work as a 100% analog preamp for vinyl and many other features, and I think it’s a killer value and an excellent component on an absolute level. And in a surprise to me anyway, adding the external clock clearly improved audio performance. Based on this experience, we picked up the line. I’ll be A/Bing it vs its Esoteric counterpart soon.
From the house designed DAC to the build quality/internals at the price point; the UD 701N reflects what a larger company with the engineering prowess and buying power can do for the money if they put their mind to it.