Aune Nano USB DAC
Dec 22, 2010 0:32:09 GMT
Post by 405line on Dec 22, 2010 0:32:09 GMT
Hello everyone, I would like to put a good word in for the Aune USB Nano Dac that I recently replaced my 2 year old uca202 with. The Aune Nano Dac sounds fantastic, has real bass power, great stereo imaging and seperation of the various instruments, and voices in addition to higher output levels. I really liked the uca202, however it's bright but strangely likeable top end glare, lack of really deep bass and limited output levels have recently started irritate me, so I looked for a better quality replacement USB Dac and found the Nano Dac, it looked well put together and appeared to be made from very good stock components, so I thought I'd take a chance...I was well rewarded, it came with a SMPS 12v@3A psu...(36W)!!! which cheered me up no end and made me think that the makers really meant business and have a good grasp of the fundamentals of audio/electronic engineering...the result, anything played through my laptop now has a proper bottom end, and the treble is of a much better quality, no harshness, it sounds rich and fullbodied but not overbloated or slow, it really does seems to have been listened to by its makers and not just "thrown together".
Negatives...the headphone output seems to hiss a little bit and it lacks a headphone volume control (related to each other perhaps?), but I don't really mind as I have the uca202 for my limited headphone listening, I don't tend to listen to music via headphones much anyway, and it requires an external (mains) power supply for its operation which is a very good thing in my opinion and one of the main reasons I chose it in the first place.
Anyone who wants to connect to a good quality hi fi or sound system of any sort yet cautious about spending £££'s and then being unsure of what your actually gonna get in return, I can recommend the Nano Dac at least as far as the line outputs are concerned, real headphone buffs will want and need something better at dealing with high end headphones that cost much more than the Nano Dac itself IMHO.
More importantly to me the unit appears to have its line out driven by what looks like a discrete 1815/1015 push pull output stage/buffer driven by NE5532 op amps, this output arrangement also appears to drive the headphone output but not at the same time as the line outs as plugging in the headphones mutes the line out connection so the unit likely has a very low output impedance, another good thing, it certainly doesn't seem to "compress" and slightly loose it's thread like the uca202 does when the music gets busy...I think I will leave it there, I don't wish to over-hype etc but in short the pictures of the various internal components that you will see if you look it up, to my ears at least have been worth it and are definitely not only marketing BS.
I thought I'd write this as little piece as there is not to much written about this particular device, hope it helps you.
p.s the line outputs may also have a slight hiss but I'm not aware of it day to day.
Thanks for reading.
Negatives...the headphone output seems to hiss a little bit and it lacks a headphone volume control (related to each other perhaps?), but I don't really mind as I have the uca202 for my limited headphone listening, I don't tend to listen to music via headphones much anyway, and it requires an external (mains) power supply for its operation which is a very good thing in my opinion and one of the main reasons I chose it in the first place.
Anyone who wants to connect to a good quality hi fi or sound system of any sort yet cautious about spending £££'s and then being unsure of what your actually gonna get in return, I can recommend the Nano Dac at least as far as the line outputs are concerned, real headphone buffs will want and need something better at dealing with high end headphones that cost much more than the Nano Dac itself IMHO.
More importantly to me the unit appears to have its line out driven by what looks like a discrete 1815/1015 push pull output stage/buffer driven by NE5532 op amps, this output arrangement also appears to drive the headphone output but not at the same time as the line outs as plugging in the headphones mutes the line out connection so the unit likely has a very low output impedance, another good thing, it certainly doesn't seem to "compress" and slightly loose it's thread like the uca202 does when the music gets busy...I think I will leave it there, I don't wish to over-hype etc but in short the pictures of the various internal components that you will see if you look it up, to my ears at least have been worth it and are definitely not only marketing BS.
I thought I'd write this as little piece as there is not to much written about this particular device, hope it helps you.
p.s the line outputs may also have a slight hiss but I'm not aware of it day to day.
Thanks for reading.