Review of TEAC NT-505

Enjoyed that come back, Frank.

Kinda in the spirit of things you should consider changing your A'gon handle to cannibalfrank

I started this thread five months ago and after using the NT-505 feel compelled to submit an update.

1. I am still thrilled with this product. In my prior review did not emphasis what a great PREAMP this DAC is because I was using it with a preamp and was just using it as a DAC. I am now using it in place of a tube preamp that costs new more than twice the NT-505. The description of this product should include the word "Preamp" somewhere because it is a Preamp/DAC.

2. I moved the NT-505 to an area of my home without an Ethernet connection. Not a problem for me because I am using my Bluesound Node 2 as the wifi streamer and connected the NT-505 to the digital output from the Node 2 which bypasses the Node 2's DAC function and uses the NT-505's DAC and MQA decoding functions. So no degradation of sound with the Node 2 as the streamer only plus I get to use the BluOS app controller which personally I like much better than the Lumin Controller App. These comments would apply to the newer Node 2i as well and likely any other standalone streamer if a buyer wanted to use the NT-505 somewhere without a hard Ethernet connection. Now I consider the lack of built in wifi a plus rather than a negative.

Agree!

I use mine as a streamer/dac fed by ethernet and it’s great. Have posted my thoughts/reviews on the NT-505 across various other threads.

Have you settled on upconvert and filter settings that you prefer?

I prefer upconvert to DSD512 with the "wide" filter setting.

It is amazing the quality that you get for $2k US. Love the AK4497 DAC sound, dual monaural, analog output section and balanced outs.

Many streamer/DACs that cost substantially more than the Teac use DAC chips that are inferior to the AK4497. For example, the announced but not yet released Gold Note DS10 uses AK4493 and as a unit costs substantially more.

Is there a fixed volume output setting for using the 505 as a Dac only (feeding and outboard preamp) or do you just turn volume control up to 100%?