[FauDrei]

Now my disappointment has turned somewhat hostile. I just spotted a TL072I opamp in my NFB-12. Hard to trace the PCB but it looks like it could just be for the headphone section. But why such an old opamp, especially when the rest of the analog stage is discrete?
... and a 2nd TL072I has shown up. Anyone else curious as to why this 30 year old opamp is in these units?

 
Do not get irked so easely.
 
Beside input stages in some of their low-end gear, A-GD use opamps as DC servos. Not many DC servo implementations in NFB-12 price range - you will usually find a DC blocking caps in audio signal path on other gear.

 

[Maxtcc]

Quote:

I just notice some one mentioning it puts out alot of heat, the NFB-12. Sadly that changed my mind on it.My room already get hot like I have a space heater running, when I don't. To the point I have to either open a window and let freezing cold air in. Or turn on a house fan to High.

Sorry, I didn't catch who said it runs hot but I have had mine on for three days straight and it isn't even warm. Well okay you can feel a slight difference from the room temperature, but it is by no means even close to hot. The NFB-12 is becoming a sweeter unit by the hour, mastering all of the kinds of music I have from electronic to soul, thrash and symphony. I do not think that I will even bother with any of the filters on this thing as the sound it provides is so neutral and full ranged with my 325's.
 
DHL , well it is hit and miss in Canada if they hit you with lots of extra fees, (especially that brokerage fee of $45 I have gotten sometimes. But audio-gd lists the parcel as audio sample parts with a $50 value and I paid the $2.50 GST with $7 handling charge. They were here in 48 hrs door to door. It is FEDEX which I scream about they always overcharge and added fees, If I have no choice in shipping something and would be forced to FEDEX then I always cancel the order.
 
The NFB-12 will have absolutely no problem driving any 250-300 ohm headphones, no worries there.
 
Did anyone else get the 5% off right now for this unit?
 

 

[eclipes]

yeah it is a hit or miss for Canadian Buyers. Luckily DHL was fairly good for all my purchases from China. Fedex and UPS depends on how nice the seller is willing to cope with the system. NFB-12 doesn't even come close to be a mini heater, its warm and i've had it on for almost a week and the temperature was still reasonably warm but never HOT. Mini Heaters are used to describe tube amps in my situation, those are the heating units, best for the winter times.
 
Quote:

Sorry, I didn't catch who said it runs hot but I have had mine on for three days straight and it isn't even warm. Well okay you can feel a slight difference from the room temperature, but it is by no means even close to hot. The NFB-12 is becoming a sweeter unit by the hour, mastering all of the kinds of music I have from electronic to soul, thrash and symphony. I do not think that I will even bother with any of the filters on this thing as the sound it provides is so neutral and full ranged with my 325's.
 
DHL , well it is hit and miss in Canada if they hit you with lots of extra fees, (especially that brokerage fee of $45 I have gotten sometimes. But audio-gd lists the parcel as audio sample parts with a $50 value and I paid the $2.50 GST with $7 handling charge. They were here in 48 hrs door to door. It is FEDEX which I scream about they always overcharge and added fees, If I have no choice in shipping something and would be forced to FEDEX then I always cancel the order.
 
The NFB-12 will have absolutely no problem driving any 250-300 ohm headphones, no worries there.
 
Did anyone else get the 5% off right now for this unit?
 

 

 

[ac500]

The NFB12 is warm to the touch for sure but certainly not hot. I can't imagine most high end units being much colder - audiophile equipment isn't exactly energy efficiency oriented.

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

 
Do not get irked so easely.
 
Beside input stages in some of their low-end gear, A-GD use opamps as DC servos. Not many DC servo implementations in NFB-12 price range - you will usually find a DC blocking caps in audio signal path on other gear.

Aren't servos motors? I'm not an electrical engineer so I don't understand circuits very good. I've asked Kingwa about them but haven't received a reply on them. Do you know what they're doing?
 


Quote:

Sorry, I didn't catch who said it runs hot but I have had mine on for three days straight and it isn't even warm. Well okay you can feel a slight difference from the room temperature, but it is by no means even close to hot.

Mine runs hot to the touch at the back left corner, above the PSU. Personally, I'm not worried about it. I've had mine 6 months and it's operation hasn't changed one bit. The case is aluminum as well so it will disperse heat pretty good. I've had mine on for an hour and it's cool to the touch but I do remember there's times that I'll touch it and it's considerably warm. To be fair though, mine sits on a power amplifier.
 

 

[tme110]

Anyone whos been following AGD for more than a month should know that the gear is frequently updated.  It happens all the time.  It has nothing to do with a 'work in progress' it's the work of an engineer always trying to make things better.  I have  2 AGD pieces now that don't have changeable filters where newer equipment does but I'm not too worried about it.  I wish he'd stop changing form factors all the time and making some of the larger changes but it has to be better than the gear that never changes for years on end.

 

[Tilpo]

I guess every engineer is different. Some are feverishly working for multiple years to make one product perfect, falling behind the rest of the industry in the process.
While AGD's products are far from perfect, they do try to stay on top of the market by frequently producing new stuff. The disadvantage could be that people stop buying stuff from AGD as they new a new and better version is always around the corner.

 

[Kingwa]

I don't think any one or company can design a perfect products in world.
If Apple never have the 286, maybe now we can not see the Macbook  and the Ipad.
Does anyone can say the newest Macbook or Ipad 2 is perfect? don't need upgrade?
I bet they will be upgrade in 2012.
 
The NFB-12 had release more than 1 year, there is no main upgrade, and we can't have the importand upgrade , in this year we only slight change the layout, allow users select the filter setting based on a lot users advice.
 
If you looking our products, a lot of them have not upgrade some years. Like the Phoenix, near 3 years, the C series preamps, power amps,  they are design since 2006 and to now without a important upgrade.

 

[ac500]

There's a whole science to release cycles I think, and Apple most certainly does it. They release products like the iPhone / iPad etc. in intervals in such a way that consumers will always want to buy the "latest and greatest", but without intervals being too close together that people don't want to upgrade or feel hopelessly caught upgrading. 

 

[_Spanky_]

Quote:

I guess every engineer is different. Some are feverishly working for multiple years to make one product perfect, falling behind the rest of the industry in the process.
While AGD's products are far from perfect, they do try to stay on top of the market by frequently producing new stuff. The disadvantage could be that people stop buying stuff from AGD as they new a new and better version is always around the corner.

I totally understand that a company can't stand still, especially one that designs products. I guess I find it irritating that there was no mention of changes to come. I think it would be nice for Audio-GD to have a blog that could keep people up to date as far as product stock, upcoming products, potential upcoming changes, etc. I remember seeing the digital filter info added to the NFB-12 page not that long after I bought mine. Had I known that feature was coming, I would have waited. Hell, I would have paid more.
 
Bottom line is, I'm totally happy with my NFB-12. But I still think the website and it's information could be a LOT better as far as organization, layout and the product info.

 

[JereHakala]

Sort of unrelated question, but does anyone have experience with EMS (Express mail service)
 
My package hasn't moved in 3 days now, it's a NFB-12 hmm.
 
http://i.imgur.com/XJXja.jpg
 
Does this site (ems-tracking.net) only track inside china or something?
I guess it could be due to new year or something, meh.

 

[glenda]

Quote:

I totally understand that a company can't stand still, especially one that designs products. I guess I find it irritating that there was no mention of changes to come. I think it would be nice for Audio-GD to have a blog that could keep people up to date as far as product stock, upcoming products, potential upcoming changes, etc. I remember seeing the digital filter info added to the NFB-12 page not that long after I bought mine. Had I known that feature was coming, I would have waited. Hell, I would have paid more.
 
Bottom line is, I'm totally happy with my NFB-12. But I still think the website and it's information could be a LOT better as far as organization, layout and the product info.

I am a huge fan of the quality of Audi-gd products but agree on this one,  I got burnt buying a used NFB12 not knowing that changng filters requires smd work rather than jumpers,  its not a huge deal but when two totally different products are selling on the market with the same name it is not good,   there should be a revB or NFB12.1 or something to identify. There isn't even any small print anywhere on the Audiogd site. I'm not terribly pissed as I'll end up stripping this thing and making it a hifidino controlled lundahl output DAC anyway,  but for most folks I would like to see a "used buyer's should know ..." with the info plastered to the front page of this thread and on the Audiogd site.  Its just good business practice.
 
 
 
 

 

[eclipes]

When i ordered mine, they didn't right away either, I assume they were building it once they got my order. It took around 4 days to build and 2 days to deliver. Someone will send you an email saying the item has been shipped. If its already been shipped, then i guess its normal because its holidays right now.
 
Quote:

Sort of unrelated question, but does anyone have experience with EMS (Express mail service)
 
My package hasn't moved in 3 days now, it's a NFB-12 hmm.
 
http://i.imgur.com/XJXja.jpg
 
Does this site (ems-tracking.net) only track inside china or something?
I guess it could be due to new year or something, meh.

 

 

[eclipes]

You should've made sure with the seller, but based on good practice the seller should have informed you about if they were selling the old or new model.
 
Quote:

I am a huge fan of the quality of Audi-gd products but agree on this one,  I got burnt buying a used NFB12 not knowing that changng filters requires smd work rather than jumpers,  its not a huge deal but when two totally different products are selling on the market with the same name it is not good,   there should be a revB or NFB12.1 or something to identify. There isn't even any small print anywhere on the Audiogd site. I'm not terribly pissed as I'll end up stripping this thing and making it a hifidino controlled lundahl output DAC anyway,  but for most folks I would like to see a "used buyer's should know ..." with the info plastered to the front page of this thread and on the Audiogd site.  Its just good business practice.
 
 
 
 

 

 

[CantScareMe]

Any opposition against audio gd's mess up here is opposed by the statement 'Can't get anything better for near the price. Still brilliant bang for your buck'
 
Well, that simply isn't true.