TEAC UD-701 vs NT-505 vs ?

Interesting point. I have no experience of the outboard clocks and cannot quantify the improvement vs cost, which is very substantial for big brother Esoteric and dCS. If anyone does have first hand experience, I would be glad to hear your views. I have tried to get the best out off the ud701n with Audioquest power cable and Ethernet cable, plus xlr and vibration mitigation. Whether any of these are beneficial is unknown, but do no harm other than to the wallet.

I guess there is no digital out as TEAC judges that the onboard DAC is already the strong point and why would anyone buy the product for its streamer section alone? In saying that, I have a Node130 solely for radio paradise MQA stream output via coax.

Hope you enjoy the demos, bosssound and look forward to hearing your views. I visited ATL many times as an aviator. Busy, busy busy!

@nomorelandings  Get your tag now. Trust not holding the lives of hundreds in your hands relieves some stress. Curious what filter settings you employed with your NT-505? I I have settled for now on fixed volume (line out) DSD 512 (Upconversion), slow roll off (PCM filter), wide (DSD filter). Also, what's your estimate of burn-in time? I will withhold opinions on sound until I listen further. By the way, I got hold of NT-505 unit with AKM chips, since folks are so enthusiastic about that model.

@big_greg Same questions to you. Peace.

@bosssound Thanks for all your updates on your thread.  I really look forward to hearing about your DAC shootout in ATL. I wish I was a little closer than 805 miles. I've reached out to HiDEF Lifestyle to see if they have a demo on the floor of the UD-701. I also reached out to Moon Audio who have it listed on their site and heard nothing back. Just an FYI, on my NT-505 (AKM version) in my system I prefer Short (Delay Slow) with 4x upsampling. My second favorite is DSD 512 and wide like you have. I run it direct into an Odyssey Kismet amp and like it better than pretty much anything I've tried including integrateds and using a preamp.

Certain destinations had their moments, but my commute to Heathrow was often more stressful!

I had mine set to 512dsd for several months, but then switched to PCM/ 8X upsampled. Found DSD a little softer which suited some recordings. Conversely, the 701 in 512 mode is probably my final setting. Like you, I used soft roll off in pcm mode. I have no experience of ESS, but suspect that without the factory fire, TEAC would have gone with the akm4499. Happy listening. 

plus xlr and vibration mitigation. Whether any of these are beneficial is unknown, but do no harm other than to the wallet.

At least my experience, in MY system, has been that vibration mitigation makes a lot of difference, especially in controlling image smearing and achieving tight bass.

@bosssound , is the UD-701N expected soon? I would like to know your take on the difference between the AKM/ESS based 505. A proprietary Delta Sigma implementation OR FPGA DAC OR a Maranzt style proprietary implementation interests me more than R2R or chip based DAC. But you never know unless you hear one in person. I am not sure if I can make it to AXPONA this year.