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HE-500 Review and Shoot out. - Page 20

post #286 of 718
9/23/12 at 10:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by wuwhere View Post

 

GE (General Electric)

 


yeah the GE tubes are rockin, schiit was awesome and sent me all the tubes for this bad boy and the GE tubes I find my self going back to more often.

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post #287 of 718
9/27/12 at 7:23pm

Hi guys,

 

I don't want to flood this thread with questions but I'm having some trouble with amping the HE500. What is the best solid state amp I can get for the HE500 under 500 dollar? People usually recommend the NFB12 as a cheap setup, but I'm willing to spend around 500 dollars or a bit more if necessary, so is there a setup in the 500 dollar price range for the HE500 than the NFB 12? Im willing to buy used gear, so would the matrix m-stage+Bifrost be a better setup or will I barely notice a difference when comparing with the NFB12?

 

thanks

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post #288 of 718
9/28/12 at 5:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by daniel521 View Post

Hi guys,

 

I don't want to flood this thread with questions but I'm having some trouble with amping the HE500. What is the best solid state amp I can get for the HE500 under 500 dollar? People usually recommend the NFB12 as a cheap setup, but I'm willing to spend around 500 dollars or a bit more if necessary, so is there a setup in the 500 dollar price range for the HE500 than the NFB 12? Im willing to buy used gear, so would the matrix m-stage+Bifrost be a better setup or will I barely notice a difference when comparing with the NFB12?

 

thanks

 

 

Save a few more $$ and get the http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=10  This will be better in the long run.

 

If not the Lyr is under your budget.  

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post #289 of 718
9/28/12 at 8:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by daniel521 View Post

Hi guys,

 

I don't want to flood this thread with questions but I'm having some trouble with amping the HE500. What is the best solid state amp I can get for the HE500 under 500 dollar? People usually recommend the NFB12 as a cheap setup, but I'm willing to spend around 500 dollars or a bit more if necessary, so is there a setup in the 500 dollar price range for the HE500 than the NFB 12? Im willing to buy used gear, so would the matrix m-stage+Bifrost be a better setup or will I barely notice a difference when comparing with the NFB12?

 

thanks

 

You can also check out the NFB-10.32 which would set you back about $600ish. I'm using the 10.2 and find the combo very enjoyable. biggrin.gif


Edited by kidchunks - 9/28/12 at 8:13am
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post #290 of 718
9/28/12 at 8:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kidchunks View Post

 

You can also check out the NFB-10.32 which would set you back about $600ish. I'm using the 10.2 and find the combo very enjoyable. biggrin.gif

I have experienced HE500 with both NFB12 and NFB10 and I can say that NFB10 is MUCH better than NFB12. But if you consider the current Audio-gd options at the price range of your interest, I would try the recently introduced Compass 2.

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post #291 of 718
9/28/12 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by i019791 View Post

I have experienced HE500 with both NFB12 and NFB10 and I can say that NFB10 is MUCH better than NFB12. But if you consider the current Audio-gd options at the price range of your interest, I would try the recently introduced Compass 2.

Do you think it would be overkill to get something like the Burson HA-160D or should I just get the compass 2 or NFB10?

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post #292 of 718
9/28/12 at 12:37pm

The Burson is a good amp.  How about the new "Conductor" ?

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post #293 of 718
9/28/12 at 1:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by daniel521 View Post

Do you think it would be overkill to get something like the Burson HA-160D or should I just get the compass 2 or NFB10?

I would not attempt to offer any opinion, as I have not heard the Burson. From my experience with Audio-gd products (five of them so far), I would not personally consider as overkill against NFB10 any Audio-gd combo at Burson's price range. 

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post #294 of 718
9/28/12 at 5:55pm

I did some researching when I was looking at an AMP/DAC to get for my HE-500's and the NFB stuff was recommended then. Did some reading of reviews and the end result seemed to be a lot of mixed feelings. Some people absolutely loved it where others had some pretty serious concerns in just about everything from the sound to build quality to implementation. There were enough of them that I decided it was a company I didn't need to do business with.

 

I can't comment on Burson from personal experience, but what I can say is it was a name I saw repeated very regularly in good favor, both for sound and build quality. The only reason I didn't go that direction was because of how much their gear costs, it was a bit beyond my intended budget (which I was already exceeding).

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post #295 of 718
9/28/12 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougofTheAbaci View Post

I did some researching when I was looking at an AMP/DAC to get for my HE-500's and the NFB stuff was recommended then. Did some reading of reviews and the end result seemed to be a lot of mixed feelings. Some people absolutely loved it where others had some pretty serious concerns in just about everything from the sound to build quality to implementation. There were enough of them that I decided it was a company I didn't need to do business with.

 

I can't comment on Burson from personal experience, but what I can say is it was a name I saw repeated very regularly in good favor, both for sound and build quality. The only reason I didn't go that direction was because of how much their gear costs, it was a bit beyond my intended budget (which I was already exceeding).

Yeah, They seem to have a very bad impression of it in this review ===>http://www.headfonia.com/no-music-audio-gd-nfb-12/ 

I'm still a bit worried that I won't enjoy the NFB 10 or NFB12.

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post #296 of 718
9/28/12 at 6:29pm

I wouldn't trust anything from headfonia.

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post #297 of 718
9/28/12 at 6:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TMRaven View Post

I wouldn't trust anything from headfonia.

That's good news, I really want the nfb 12 and nfb 10 to be good.

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post #298 of 718
9/28/12 at 8:04pm
Headphonia? Come on Danny. Back in 2007 they had lots of issues and surprisingly they are commenting on other products. Lol
Look back in this thread maybe a couple pages. A buddy brought over his HE-500s.
I can confirm positively, with no doubts whatsoever, that the HE-500s get spanked with A-GD gear. Especially balanced with the NFB-10.2.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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post #299 of 718
9/28/12 at 8:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by daniel521 View Post

That's good news, I really want the nfb 12 and nfb 10 to be good.

Headfonia didn't play around with the digital filters to find the best sound. On the version that had internal switches to change filters, the stock setting wasn't the best, but that's the one that was used for the review.

The NFB-12 is a nice DAC and pretty powerful HP amp. I've found it to have no problem driving Hifiman HE-500's or HE-5LE's. To my ears, it also slightly augments the bass and slightly rolls off the treble. For the $200 it costs, of course it's not going to give you the ultimate sound/potential for higher end cans like HE-500, but I could certainly live with as a secondary setup or as a stopgap until I could save up more $.

On the DAC side, I found the Bifrost to be somewhat better and on the amp side, I found speaker taps to various vintage receivers, or EF5 amp, to be nice amp solutions for both above Hifiman cans.

But as a combo DAC and powerful HP amp for $200 ($150+ used), it's pretty great bang-for-your-buck IMO.
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post #300 of 718
9/28/12 at 11:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by captouch View Post


Headfonia didn't play around with the digital filters to find the best sound. On the version that had internal switches to change filters, the stock setting wasn't the best, but that's the one that was used for the review.
The NFB-12 is a nice DAC and pretty powerful HP amp. I've found it to have no problem driving Hifiman HE-500's or HE-5LE's. To my ears, it also slightly augments the bass and slightly rolls off the treble. For the $200 it costs, of course it's not going to give you the ultimate sound/potential for higher end cans like HE-500, but I could certainly live with as a secondary setup or as a stopgap until I could save up more $.
On the DAC side, I found the Bifrost to be somewhat better and on the amp side, I found speaker taps to various vintage receivers, or EF5 amp, to be nice amp solutions for both above Hifiman cans.
But as a combo DAC and powerful HP amp for $200 ($150+ used), it's pretty great bang-for-your-buck IMO.

I'll probably get the NFB 10 since people say it's much better than the NFB 12.

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