TEAC NT-505 - How good is it?

I’ve had my NT-505 for about 2 months and really enjoy it. 

Build quality is excellent. Has some definite heft to the box - feels very solid. The “handles” aren’t really necessary like they are on the ARC DSI200 integrated amp that it feeds, but no matter it kind of completes the aesthetic match anyway. 

Lots of features. I am only using it to stream Tidal but it is excellent for that task. 

The upconvert feature seems seems to work for non-MQA tracks. I am still working on which of the filters I prefer. 

Lumin app works well. When upgrading firmware be sure to use the tiny and unlabeled micro USB port on back and not the port labeled usb. That stumped me for awhile. 

Ethernet cable made difference for me. Started with 10 ft cat 5 or 6 (not sure) but was getting random drops every four hours or so. Upgraded to 3 ft cat7 (cheap amazonbasics cable,  $7) and no drops since with 50 hrs or more of play. 

Really good spatial separation of instruments, great tone, super smooth. 

Speakers are Spendor D7 with Signal Magic power cords and MIT matrix interconnects (XLR balanced) and speaker cables. 

When end I can I listen for hours at a time and I don’t want to get up. 

Other steamers I own are marantz one Integra avrs- both cost half or less than Teac $2k price but Teac much better to my ears. 

Dealer suggested bc Teac has much trickledown tech from Esoteric DACs which they said were best of best. 

Anyway, super happy with nt-505 so far

The Teac nt505 uses dual monoural mode AKM 4497 dacs, while my marantz uses AKM 4458 and Integra uses AKM 4438. All are 32 bit dacs, but s/n ratio on the Teac dac 128 dB, while 115 and 112 on marantz and Integra, respectively.

Of course lots of other factors come into play but those are relevant. 

I can can definitely hear the superior sound quality of Tidal Masters tracks with my Teac dac. Not so much with Integra and marantz doesn’t decode mqa 

I think you’ll like it. When I compared its dac chip spec wise to others 2k or below I couldn’t find anything else that beat it. That plus the great user reviews and esoteric lineage convinced me to pull trigger. 

Downside for some might might be lack of WiFi. In my main system I’m good with router nearby but if I ever wanted to move it to my second (br) system I’d be out of luck

As I was mowing lawn today I was thinking about how I’d describe difference heard between Tidal Masters tracks and regular Tidal cd quality tracks 16/44. 

Best way way I can describe it is I can just “hear” the added resolution, not unlike seeing the picture difference in a 1080p content vs 720p, to use a slightly dated video analogy. Just wish Tidal had more Masters content!

@musicmann1 , did you ever upgrade from the Teac?  If so, to what and how did it compare to the nt-505?

Congrats! Post up your impressions after you get it broken in.

There are lots of filter and upsampling options.

FWIW, I stream Tidal exclusively and personally prefer the upsample to DSD512 setting, with the "wide" filter setting. I use XLR cables.

Interested to hear what settings other NT-505 users prefer ....

Not for me, but I don’t have separates so moot point for me I guess. I use an audio research integrated amp where the preamp portion of it is not bypass able. 

Well I can say I own NT-505 and Cambridge Azur 851n (the step above CXN) and the Teac destroys 851n sonically - no contest. Only thing better about the 851nbis the display with artwork (which is damn cool for the 851n price)