Hi all.
So the 24'th of january I did recieve my Ref 7.1
During last year(2011) I have been buying a small pile of Audio-gd-stuff. It started with the NFB-11 and -12 when I first laid eye
on Audio-gd and Kingwa's designs. At that time I was searching for the ESS-Sabre32-chip (ES9018). The first buy was more or less a test of how trustful and how accurate the company was to deal with.
When I recieved the small boxes and started to listen to them I found both really good for their very reasonable prices. Worth mentioning is that they are still doing service for me at work and at home. No problems what so ever. Based on that experience among the fact that Kingwa and his coworkers are doing their best to deliver competent soundequipment and this with a warranty. I decided to rise my ambition to the next level by buying the NFB-10ES(ESS-chip and USB-version and stock XO).
This is a very good headphone amp used both single end and balanced, and You can say a nice mid-class DAC for the comparison with the other stuff.I liked the sound in my headphones (Senn.HD650 Balanced)that much that I ordered the NFB-7 (ESS- original w. TCXO)
As many of You already know DAC-chips performance in general are very much dependent of the supporting PSU.
The NFB-7 is really a winner. I will keep this one forever. I love it. I added a Master-1 pre and in the end of last summer I got my Master-2 poweramps. I have been running the gear almost constantly an almost redicilous long time of burning in. I am right now using a TEAC VRDS 10 with JZ-1 and a Squeezebox Duet(modded) as transports via the Digital Interface.
The sound is crisp clear, very defined, powerful with accuracy... For me, fantastic.
So why did I buy the Reference 7.1 when I was that happy with the NFB-7 in the contex? Well, to be honest, I couldn't resist... but there is more to it.
Very much of the played (digital) material today are "destroyed" in early stages in the recording process. The NFB-7 is revealing this in a rather brutal way..
If You use the possible and useful recording undestorted gap and allow the transient peaks from the music be the limitation and You don't "loudness it" the dynamic will give a greater experience listening.
Unfortunately the music recording business isn't helping much in this situation. The fact that smaller artists are producing themselves may maybe after some time better it. I don't know but let's hope for that.
We can right now see a reborn Vinyl-era and this partly because of this. I think the Vinyl has its charm, but the digitalworld could and should do better 2012.
As You all know there are recordings on CD 16/44.1 that sounds very good but they are not that many. If You use 24/96 in a good recording way it could compare near to analogue (Vinyl).
And Yes some 24/96 recordings are super but not all.
All the talking about gear accepting higher numbers here are interesting, but I am not sure it will hit the target. I think the cooperation between Neil Young and Steve Jobs could have helped. Let's hope somebody else with alot of money can step up and take over for Steve Jobs.
Back to the Ref 7.1
I have been reading reviews and about other peoples experiencies about the Ref 7.1 so when Kingwa put up a few some month before christmas 2011, I ordered one.
I have the Ref 7.1 stacked on the NFB-7 and they are simultaniously feeded with the same material through the DI (Coax-out)
The Ref 7.1 is connected via ACSS (ch5) and XLR(ch3) and the NFB-7 is on XLR(ch1) on the Master-1 pre. The Master-2 poweramps are connected with ACSS stock-cables.
Speakers used right now is Swedish made, electrodynamic w bassreflex with 2-way x-overfilter from Kingwa. Later a setup of Quad ESL-63 w Gradient SW-63 will serve.
It is easy to toggle through the channels (1-3-5) to compare between DAC's interfaces. Their individual levels are more or less exact. The difference between ch5(Ref 7.1 ACSS) and ch3(Ref 7.1 XLR) varies from day to day
Not much but it is noticeable
What was very noticeable when I first powered up the Ref 7.1 was that it is "smooth" and "wide" and this right out of the box. My NFB-7 had around 700 to 1000 hours before it opened up to what it is today.
To be honest...today after approx 14 days, they sound very similar in that aspect and I am sure the Ref 7.1 will mature more with time. As You understand I haven't had so much time listening yet, I am using burn in discs and music when I have the moments I can. This far the Ref 7.1 is very easy to like and it is very easy to listen to...and this is also the main reason why I ordered it. It is soft, smooth, It has more body than the NFB-7. It is more forgiving.The bass have to wait for a while before I say much about it. That one varies most now and it have to "decide itself what to be" before I give my final verdict.
About Audio-gd
To round this up I must thank Kingwa and his coworkers for the gear. What struck me the first time I came across Audio-gd was Kingwa's beautiful designs of the circuit boards. And sure, there are plenty of possibilities for tweaks but the gear sounds fantastic as they ship if paired to well matched speakers and such. Since the first time I have had contact with Kingwa or somebody else at Audio-gd, I have never had any problems at all.. So if You are hesitating over a buy.. Just approach them and buy. Kingwa is a solid guy with high moral and ethics. You can trust them - It's no doubt about that. I do.
Thank You for reading.
/Jan
Edited by JaMo - 2/7/12 at 11:45pm
