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Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X – New from the Teac Reference 505 Series

The Teac Reference 505 Series gets two new solutions, namely the Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X systems. The Teac UD-505-X presents itself as a USB DAC Headphone Amplifier, the Teac NT-505-X is designed as a USB DAC Network Player.

Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X, these are the latest solutions of the Teac Reference 505 Series, which the Japanese HiFi manufacturer Teac Corporation now presents. Once again, these are products that fully live up to the name of the series, thus appearing as reference-level converters.

While the Teac UD-505-X is a pure USB DAC with headphone amplifier, the new Teac NT-505-X is designed as a USB DAC and network player.

Teac Reference 505 Series – Long tradition

There is no doubt that the Teac Reference 505 Series with its so-called A4 design, i.e. very compact dimensions, has a long tradition at the Japanese hi-fi manufacturer Teac Corporation. Despite the compact dimensions, however, these are clearly flagship models.

Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X

Naturally, they want to continue this tradition with the two new systems Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X and, according to their own statements, they rely on the most modern features.

But first of all, it can be stated that the concept of the new products is clearly oriented towards the previous solutions, this also applies to the design, which is once again a successful mixture of modern industrial design and a touch of retro.

Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X

Teac UD-505-X USB DAC Headphone Amplifier

The Teac UD-505-X features a USB DAC with dual monaural design. The D/A converter is combined with a fully balanced headphone amplifier, and the design is fully capable of satisfying even high-end demands, drawing on the decades of experience of Teac Corporation’s engineers.

The aforementioned dual-mono design processes stereo signals with the highest precision and free of interference, with the D/A converter section using an ESS Technology ES9038 Q2M in both the left and right channels. This model achieves a high signal-to-noise ratio by using each DAC in mono mode.

The user can actively intervene in the signal processing, at least when it comes to data in Linear PCM format, as seven PCM Digital Filters are available for this purpose.

  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X

The converter can rely on two clocks, one for 44.1 kHz and a multiple thereof, the second for 48 kHz. Optionally, a 10 MHz external clock can also be integrated.

The converter is able to process signals in Linear PCM with up to 32 bits and 768 kHz, as well as DSD up to DSD512.

The analogue section of the Teac UD-505-X relies on four TEAC-HCLD2 enhanced-current output buffer circuits, which are improved versions of the earlier TEAC-HCLD. For the headphone amplifier, which uses Teac Corporation’s newly introduced so-called Diamond Buffer Circuit, there are two 6.3 mm stereo jacks and a 4.4 mm PENTACONN 5-pole headphone jack, providing balanced connection and active grounding with a single plug. Volume control on the new Teac UD-505-X is via a fully balanced circuit based on the TEAC-QVCS High Precision Volume Control.

By the way, the new Teac UD-505-X is also equipped with Bluetooth, relying on a module from Qualcomm, which supports aptX, aptX HD and LDAC in addition to SBC and AAC.

Teac NT-505-X USB DAC Network Player

Everything that has just been written for the new Teac UD-505-X applies almost completely to the new Teac NT-505-X as well. However, the Teac NT-505-X does not feature the particularly high-quality headphone amplifier, i.e. it does without the so-called Diamond Buffer Circuit from Teac Corporation, and also with regard to the connection options for headphones, there is only a 3.5 mm stereo mini-jack here.

  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X
  • Photo © Teac Corporation | Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X

On the other hand, the Teac NT-505-X is of course also a streaming client, whereby it can directly access TIDAL, Qobuz, TuneIn and Spotify, among others, and is also certified for OpenHome. Via a firmware update, the system is also to be designated as Roon Ready, thus enabling bit-perfect music streaming via RAAT (Roon Advanced Audio Transport) using the media management and multi-room audio streaming software Roon from Roon Labs LLC.

In this context, it is of course also essential to mention that the Teac NT-505-X can process content in lossy encoded MQA.

Separate apps for Teac UD-505-X and Teac NT-505-X

Of course, these days apps are a must for such solutions, and Teac Corporation offers different apps for the two new solutions of the Teac Reference 505 Series.

The Teac HR Audio Player App for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows is available for the Teac UD-505-X, while the Teac HR Streamer App for Apple iOS and Google Android is available for the Teac NT-505-X streaming client.

According to the manufacturer, both solutions will be available immediately, with the customer having the choice between black and silver.

Getting to the point

Teac Corporation is once again expanding the Teac Reference 505 Series with two extremely exciting solutions that are quite similar in principle, but differ in detail. The new Teac UD-505-X is designed as a USB DAC and headphone amplifier, the new Teac NT-505-X is also a USB DAC and headphone amplifier, but can also be used as a streaming client.

Manufacturer:Teac Corporation
Distribution:Teac Corporation

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Michael Holzinger

Michael Holzinger, founder and editor-in-chief of HiFi BLOG and sempre-audio.at, has been working for years as a journalist in the fields of IT, photography, telecommunications and consumer electronics.

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