[Headphony]

Just saw this little new product on the Audio-GD website. Sabre DAC with coax, optical, and 24/96 USB input. Variable and fixed DAC output,  Headphone amp. Looks nice!
 

 
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFB11/NFB11EN.htm

 

[cheaphifi]

Wow, look like the next "best seller" unit of Audio-GD : 
- Very detailed sound.
- Sabre DAC.
- Headphone and RCA output with fixed or variable gain.
- Gain switch.
 
All-in-one in a little unit, what about the price ?
under 250$ it will be a real bargain

 

[thuantran]

I guess this will be in the same price range or a little more expensive than the FUN. I'm interested. If not for these monitors I recently had purchased, I would have ordered this instantly.

 

[HeatFan12]

LOL.....Talk about pumping out products....Great job...
 

 

[Dynobot]

Any other Headphone Dac/Amps that use the Sabre chip?
 
Looks like this might be the only one of its kind.

 

[Epoch]

Well, the uDAC-2 uses a Sabre chip, but I don't think there is anything else like this that uses the ESS9018 part, the particular unit in this product.
 
It does look quite interesting, its slightly longer than the Sparrow, but the width and height look the same.  It also lacks any analog input, so I would say that this should actually compete with the Sparrow, which might mean a relatively low price point.
The Fun is a much larger unit with the previously mentioned line level input, so maybe he will provide something in the Fun chassis with a similar setup.
 
Its a pretty hilarious product description though with "[size=small]If you are dread  come out in the wash of the music files , choice other gears like applied WM8741 will be better "[/size] which makes me think that its more a more revealing unit in comparison to the Fun/Sparrow.

 

[noxlord]

Hum, I was thinking of replacing my Compass by a FUN, now I might consider this instead... I wonder what the price will be tho.

 

[gevorg]

Very interesting, probably will be the cheapest DAC with ES9018 chip (let alone DAC/amp combo). But I'm not sure if it will be better than FUN, just different sound flavor. Plus, FUN seems to have a beefier power supply.

 

[Epoch]

Again, I don't think this is a competitor to the Fun, its much smaller and lacking the analog input that the Fun has.  This is much more likely as an upgrade to the Sparrow, which Kingwa said he couldn't improve any further.
 
There should be another product along these lines to be a step up from the Fun.

 

[haloxt]

NO HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME. Grr now I'm tempted to get because I gave away some of my audio gear and this fills the need for work setup

.

 

[vrln]

Interesting to see what the price is. I´m also wondering about the "Promo for ESS Sabre32" tag on the Audio-gd website. Is this just a limited run or a product that´s here to stay? Also the comment about the first ~35 units having Vishay resistors is odd. What about the rest etc? We´ll need to wait and see.
 
Personally I wouldn´t be suprised if this would become his most popular product so far. Perfect size for desktop users, extreme value.

 

[HectorNavarro]

now that's a nice dac & amp, it's all the Sparrow wanted to be!

 

[thuantran]

Hum, if it is indeed intended to be the Sparrow replacement with a somewhat similar or a little higher price, I'm sold.
 
Someone said Kingwa intended to take a break in the NFB-1 or NFB-7 thread, either him or Kingwa was a liar. But it's a good thing

.

 

[Epoch]

When he rolled out the latest DAC he said he was maybe going to take a break for a month.  What was stated clearly was that it was the last dedicated DAC for the year, which is true so far.
 
That still leaves the majority of his product line open for updates though.
 
That is both the advantage and disadvantage of Audio-GD gear, its updated rather frequently with newer/better products.

 

[vrln]

I asked Audio-gd about the price, was told it will be announced on the 20th of October. So we´ll see... My guess: 300 $