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Audio GD Dac....Walkthrough needed... - Page 2

post #16 of 35
11/14/10 at 3:37pm
Thread Starter 

I got a reply from Audio GD

 

Dear Denys
Sorry my mate Edwin reply is useless, because he only a interpreter just finished the university a year.
If you don't need XLR, I think you are better going to unbalance DAC, because all balanced DAC sound from RCA can't as good as XLR, not only our products.
And the XLR to RCA cables can't get benifit of XLR, they just samply connect the hot signal of the XLR.
In our products, the DAC19DSP, the Reference 9, the NFB2 and NFB3 all are the RCA output DACs.
The DAC19DSP sound neutral but without sharp.
The Reference 9 sound neutral but slight musical.
The NFB2 sound neutral but slight soft .
The RE7 is balanced DAC, it sound best in our products in my mind, but if only through RCA output, it will degrade from USD1750 to around USD1500, even though better than DAC19DSP, RE9, but not the best performance/price.
And the sound wise depend on your personal flavors. Upon all DAC sound neutral and analog, but if you look for a detail and much dynamic DAC, I think the NFB7 or NFB1 is better in the case, their sound slight brighter than upon DACs but I think they are not on the bright side, some customers feedback they are much faithful.
So, your personal flavor is lead your choice.
Kingwa

OK... obviously, we are living in two different worlds.... It's OK, I can live with that.....

 

So, it looks like the NFB-7 is the one to buy, as I have a tube amp...(WOO6SE) and HD800.... anyone can confirm ? just want to make sure I understood him correctly... English is not our mothertongue for either Kingwa or me....So I need your help...

 

Thanks for your time

 

Denys

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post #17 of 35
11/14/10 at 5:55pm

There is only one other person here that owns an NFB-7 (and he's a reseller), so you won't get much assistance with opinions from any of us.  But there are lots that own the RE-7 and it's predecessor (the RE-1).

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post #18 of 35
11/15/10 at 5:01am

Nice, Kingwa's English is improving a lot :). I think you need to decide how much you feel like spending, and what exactly you want to look for. Since you don't want balanced at all, I would limit the options to dac19, ref 9, NFB-2, or NFB-3.

 

Dac19 doesn't have the impressive psu you see in the huge size audio-gd dac's, but it is decently pleasant, just not super impressive.

Ref 9 has a big power supply, but is their most expensive single-ended dac, it may be wiser for resell value to just go ref 8 or ref 7.

NFB-2 uses the wm8741 which I have not heard anyone on head-fi say they dislike, I think if you want musicality instead of neutrality, you may prefer the wm8741 to a pcm1704 dac.

NFB-3 is promo priced and has the slightly soft wm8741, so I consider it a safe buy if you are totally unsure what you want from audio-gd's dac selection. If you think it is not dynamic enough, or not detailed enough, reselling it would not make too big a dint in your wallet.

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post #19 of 35
11/15/10 at 5:46am
Thread Starter 



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by haloxt View Post

Nice, Kingwa's English is improving a lot :). I think you need to decide how much you feel like spending, and what exactly you want to look for. Since you don't want balanced at all, I would limit the options to dac19, ref 9, NFB-2, or NFB-3.

 

Dac19 doesn't have the impressive psu you see in the huge size audio-gd dac's, but it is decently pleasant, just not super impressive.

Ref 9 has a big power supply, but is their most expensive single-ended dac, it may be wiser for resell value to just go ref 8 or ref 7.

NFB-2 uses the wm8741 which I have not heard anyone on head-fi say they dislike, I think if you want musicality instead of neutrality, you may prefer the wm8741 to a pcm1704 dac.

NFB-3 is promo priced and has the slightly soft wm8741, so I consider it a safe buy if you are totally unsure what you want from audio-gd's dac selection. If you think it is not dynamic enough, or not detailed enough, reselling it would not make too big a dint in your wallet.

 

Thanks,

 

I was thinking more of a neutral DAC as my Woo 6SE should give the musicality I need; therefore I thought that a neutral DAC should be better than a musical DAC. I was thinking of the NFB-7.... I need to see a big improvement over the DacMagic I am using now !!!

 

Denys

 

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post #20 of 35
11/15/10 at 11:57am

Higher end neutral audio-gd gear may not have the "fullness" some people expect out of audio gear. I think what higher tier neutral acss gear offers is extremely quick microdetail transients, but that is easily lost when you don't take care to make sure every other aspect of your chain is up to par. What lower end tier audio-gd gear do is add a sense of fullness, or more bold, blunt and impressive microdetail.

 

The wm8741 won't be as resolving as pcm1704 or es9018, but it will be more forgiving. If what you want is a lot of dynamics and aren't afraid of having your recording more revealed, I would go with the higher end neutral acss dac's, or else the "neutral but slightly soft/warm" ref 9 which uses diamond differential instead of acss.


Edited by haloxt - 11/15/10 at 12:00pm
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post #21 of 35
11/15/10 at 12:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by haloxt View Post

Higher end neutral audio-gd gear may not have the "fullness" some people expect out of audio gear. I think what higher tier neutral acss gear offers is extremely quick microdetail transients, but that is easily lost when you don't take care to make sure every other aspect of your chain is up to par. What lower end tier audio-gd gear do is add a sense of fullness, or more bold, blunt and impressive microdetail.

 

The wm8741 won't be as resolving as pcm1704 or es9018, but it will be more forgiving. If what you want is a lot of dynamics and aren't afraid of having your recording more revealed, I would go with the higher end neutral acss dac's, or else the "neutral but slightly soft/warm" ref 9 which uses diamond differential instead of acss.

Thanks,

 

So my idea of the NBF-7 was not so bad after all.... even if I use the RCA output for the WA6SE....??

 

Denys

 

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post #22 of 35
11/15/10 at 12:57pm

There is no single-ended es9018 dac with the same size psu as the NFB-7, so that is one main reason you might want to get the NFB-7. You will be using all the dac chips in single-ended, but you won't be using some other parts of the circuitry by just using RCA. It will have resale value and also have future upgradability if you ever change your mind about not going balanced.

 

I will repeat myself and say the NFB-7 might be too revealing for your taste, and I suggest you make sure all the cables in your audio setup is adequate, meaning good gauge and well constructed cables. I highly recommend at least top monoprice cables that cost ~$3-5 each, I can suggest which ones you may want in your setup if you like.

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post #23 of 35
11/15/10 at 2:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by haloxt View Post

There is no single-ended es9018 dac with the same size psu as the NFB-7, so that is one main reason you might want to get the NFB-7. You will be using all the dac chips in single-ended, but you won't be using some other parts of the circuitry by just using RCA. It will have resale value and also have future upgradability if you ever change your mind about not going balanced.

 

I will repeat myself and say the NFB-7 might be too revealing for your taste, and I suggest you make sure all the cables in your audio setup is adequate, meaning good gauge and well constructed cables. I highly recommend at least top monoprice cables that cost ~$3-5 each, I can suggest which ones you may want in your setup if you like.


My cables were hancrafted by an audiophile here in Montreal... I tried a few of them (copper, silver, both...)....For that part I am not worried.... But to be honest, I do not think I'll ever go balanced. My Wa6se is new from this year (June) and I will have other financial obligations in the future. This is why I want to make sure I'll pick the right product. I wanted to have the Sabre chip in the DAC. Audio GD has it in the NFB-7 as well as Wyred 4 sound...

 

If I read between the lines, it's useless to purchase a DAC with balanced output if you do not use them right ????

 

Anyway....thank you for your timr and advice

 

Denys
 


Edited by Denys - 11/15/10 at 2:58pm
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post #24 of 35
11/15/10 at 3:03pm

It's not useless, there's two benefits. According to audio-gd, the ref 7 and ref 8 sound slightly better (sounds technically better) than ref 9 when all are used single-ended. I think this may also mean that if there was a single-ended es9018 dac by audio-gd with the same size psu as used in the NFB-7, then the NFB-7 would be slightly better when used single-ended. The other benefit is that getting a balanced audio-gd dac may have better resale value or upgradability in the future.

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post #25 of 35
11/16/10 at 3:23pm

No doubt AGD products are good but it appears that their product line up is ever changing and very short lived.  Maybe a product will be in production for 2 years or less, for example how long with the AGD Roc in production or the Roc-SA, then there are the Integrated amp products.  What ever discussion you have about a particular dac today will not be valid for long.  It even appears that the DD series is going to be replaced with a Fission series.

 

Perhaps its this short lived product life cycle combined with over-the-top design philosophy and sound is what makes people buy the products as fast as they can make them.  If you like a particular product of his you had better buy it before its out of production, good point is, its likely to be replaced by something equally as good.  In my opinion they are all jewels of audio.


Edited by Dynobot - 11/16/10 at 3:24pm
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post #26 of 35
11/17/10 at 9:31am
Thread Starter 

Now that all PCM1704 DAC are discontinued (Ref 8 Ref 9 etc...), what can we expect ?

 

I guess it leaves us with the Sabre chip only....which should help for the choice !!!

 

NFB 1 or NFB 7 !!!! There's a $500 decision to me made here !!!!

 

Denys

 

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post #27 of 35
11/17/10 at 10:58am

All PCM1704 aren´t discontinued. Actually just the REF9 and the DAC-19 are discontinued. The 6Moons review said he got a new shipment that will last for around two years. The REF7/8 can still be ordered. Kingwa listened to the fans :)

 

Also: 

 

 


Quote:
Originally Posted by Dynobot View Post

  It even appears that the DD series is going to be replaced with a Fission series.

 


What do you mean? Never heard of this before...


Edited by vrln - 11/17/10 at 11:01am
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post #28 of 35
11/17/10 at 11:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vrln View Post

All PCM1704 aren´t discontinued. Actually just the REF9 and the DAC-19 are discontinued. The 6Moons review said he got a new shipment that will last for around two years. The REF7/8 can still be ordered. Kingwa listened to the fans :)

 

Also: 

 

 


Quote:
Originally Posted by Dynobot View Post

  It even appears that the DD series is going to be replaced with a Fission series.

 


What do you mean? Never heard of this before...



Pure speculation because I saw C-3 preamp that says it has a Fission power source.  100% speculation...on my part

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post #29 of 35
11/17/10 at 4:54pm

show some respect...

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post #30 of 35
11/17/10 at 7:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dynobot View Post
Pure speculation because I saw C-3 preamp that says it has a Fission power source.  100% speculation...on my part


Speculation doesn't do anyone any good, so unless Kingwa told you the information first hand you shouldn't make assumptions.  The Fission power source has been around for a long time and has nothing to do whatsoever with any output stage on a DAC.

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