[Baird GoW]

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Has anyone directly compared the NFB-10's USB input directly against a Hiface? The usb input on my NFB-10WM does really well, but I'm wondering how much room there is for improvement with a Hiface.

I (and many others on head-fi) would get Audio-GD digital interface over hiface any day... Yes I own a digital interface and yes it makes a difference.The optional psu that you can buy separately for the DI also make a improvement in sq. Please keep in mind I got non-usb because bnc is true 75ohm unlike usb, and the only input I have used without the DI is optical. Also you may want to set replay gain to your albums using foobar if your having volume issues between albums.

 

[somestranger26]

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It's worth pointing out that my volume varies all over the place when playing lossless files in Foobar 2000, which is strange because that didn't seem to be the case anywhere near as much with my Nuforce Icon HDP. The next album I listened to after posting about listening at 1-2pm was loud at 10 am and would be painful if I took it to 11 am. It seems weird that one album will be dramatically louder than another and other etc. I didn't change any settings in Foobar either.

That's because different albums are mastered differently. Generally, older albums from the 80's and earlier are going to need to be turned up quite a bit, whereas newer albums affected by the loudness wars are going to be louder. It has nothing to do with the NFB-10.
 
Quote:

Has anyone directly compared the NFB-10's USB input directly against a Hiface? The usb input on my NFB-10WM does really well, but I'm wondering how much room there is for improvement with a Hiface.

Why would you get a hiface over the digital interface? It is cheaper and better than the Hiface.

 

[ulyses]

Looks like many user using nfb10 with low gain and below 12:00. Weird beacuse I am using it with my k702 single end at 1:00pm with high gain. I am pretty sure my ears are good because it's cecking periodically in my bussiness place. My unit is not burned yet, is that effect volume that much?

 

[somestranger26]

Quote:

Looks like many user using nfb10 with low gain and below 12:00. Weird beacuse I am using it with my k702 single end at 1:00pm with high gain. I am pretty sure my ears are good because it's cecking periodically in my bussiness place. My unit is not burned yet, is that effect volume that much?

The volume thing sid-fi is talking about has nothing to do with the NFB-10 and everything to do with the recording.

 

[ohhgourami]

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If you have no vents on the top, then you have the same chassis as mine and the switch is at the back. O = Low gain,  I = high. As there is no manual I emailed Kingwa, who put me straight. Well I thought it was the on/off switch 

Yes, I have the same chassis as you do.  Well I found the switch and I also thought it was an on/off switch!!!!  Wow it's crazy how much output this baby has just on low gain.  Volume wise, it is almost as much as the Burson 160D on high gain.  This thing has a lot more potential then...

 

[drez]

Hi ohhgourami.  Just wondering how do you find the NFB-10ES with the DT-880 playing extreme metal?  You are much braver than I am - I got scared and bought the WM in fear of hearing all the rubbish in some of my (favorite) recordings - my Essence ST and RS1i are bad enough for that lol - I never heard poor audio engineering before this setup.

 

[Baird GoW]

Comparing NFB-10 ES non-usb ver with Somestranger:

In conclusion we both believe that the AC-9 is a better powercable than the audio-gd one. His nfb 10 dos not have the new clock and is not wired with occ wire.
My conclusion was I preferred my nfb-10 and thought it had the same amount of detail and was slightly warmer. Somestranger felt that mine sacrificed the details in highs for warmth/more bass.

 

[somestranger26]

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Somestranger felt that mine sacrificed some detail and treble extension for improved bass impact.

Fixed that for you. The newer clock model sounds like what I'd expect the WM version to sound like, but with more detail. They're extremely close in performance, but I prefer the original clock since I prefer a more balanced / neutral frequency response. That is not to say that the newer clock model sounds warm though, the bass is just slightly more emphasized and the treble slightly less so.

 

[Baird GoW]

Btw when I said it sounds warmer I do not mean it is a warm amp/dac, it is still very neutral (everything else is exactly the same imo).
 

 

[ohhgourami]

Quote:

Hi ohhgourami.  Just wondering how do you find the NFB-10ES with the DT-880 playing extreme metal?  You are much braver than I am - I got scared and bought the WM in fear of hearing all the rubbish in some of my (favorite) recordings - my Essence ST and RS1i are bad enough for that lol - I never heard poor audio engineering before this setup.

I find the combo to be great with extreme metal.  Nice and aggressive but I don't find it harsh at all.  Possibly because I have bad ears and don't notice these things.  Having tried the RS1i (although not on the NFB-10ES, was a MusicHall amp not sure which) and found that a bit fatiguing while listening to metal.
 
Slightly off topic, but IMO, I find the T1 to be by far the best can for metal.
 

 

[drez]

Thanks Ohgourami, I really want to try the T1 eventually as well (but no money lol), and I'm pretty sure I'll move on from the Grado - with the wrong amp it certainly can sound fatiguing - but it does do a very good job of bringing life out of flat sounding recordings.  Glad to hear the ES isn't that harsh as I just changed my order o_O.  I will definitely have to hunt down decent lossless versions of my music as I can now hear the limitations of 320 mp3 esp in the treble. 
 
BTW wrt "new clock" is this the clock upgrade option or an amendment to the standard design.

 

[haloxt]

Quote:

It's worth pointing out that my volume varies all over the place when playing lossless files in Foobar 2000, which is strange because that didn't seem to be the case anywhere near as much with my Nuforce Icon HDP. The next album I listened to after posting about listening at 1-2pm was loud at 10 am and would be painful if I took it to 11 am. It seems weird that one album will be dramatically louder than another and other etc. I didn't change any settings in Foobar either.

Look in foobar dsp's, seems to me you may have some weird processing going on. Switch between replay gain on and off. If that doesn't work try another media player, like windows media plyer, vlc, mpc, media monkey.

 

[ohhgourami]

Quote:

Thanks Ohgourami, I really want to try the T1 eventually as well (but no money lol), and I'm pretty sure I'll move on from the Grado - with the wrong amp it certainly can sound fatiguing - but it does do a very good job of bringing life out of flat sounding recordings.  Glad to hear the ES isn't that harsh as I just changed my order o_O.  I will definitely have to hunt down decent lossless versions of my music as I can now hear the limitations of 320 mp3 esp in the treble. 
 
BTW wrt "new clock" is this the clock upgrade option or an amendment to the standard design.

Currently just using the standard one.  I plan to upgrade the clock some time later this month when I get mo moneyz

  BTW, I don't actually own a T1 but of the times I have tried it, I find them to be one of the best cans overall.  Soundstage and imaging makes it very easy to pick out instruments in metal but isn't thin in sound, plus detailing is just fantastic.
 

 

[Sid-Fi]

Thanks for the recommendation. It's really wasn't all that bad of an issue, just the natural difference in recording/mastering volume levels. I have since turned on replay gain in foobar and that has been helping. I think I exaggerated this in my post when I said "all over the place". Thanks again.

 
Quote:

Look in foobar dsp's, seems to me you may have some weird processing going on. Switch between replay gain on and off. If that doesn't work try another media player, like windows media plyer, vlc, mpc, media monkey.

 

 

[Sid-Fi]

Thanks for the impressions Baird GoW and Stranger26. I'm using a Pangea ac-14se and find it to have excellent price/performance.
 
A quick question, is there also a clock upgrade option for the actual NFB-10WM or just the digital interface? I am thinking about picking up a digital interface version A with power supply and taking the clock upgrade for that. Since the signal would be reclocked after the NFB-10WM, would there be benefit in still upgrading its clock?
 
Also, if anyone has compared a Hiface Evo or Mk2 Hiface with the AG digital interface, I would really appreciate a PM on your brief impressions as I don't want to sidetrack this thread. I'm leaning between these three and pulling the trigger within the next couple of weeks.