[Philimon]

I would definitely trade you back your old Sparrow AVU plus cash on my end of course. 

 
What would probably be best though is for both of us to get soldering irons and try installing the other modules, though I am sure with enough time you will start to appreciate the WM8741.

 

[numbskull]

I've ordered the B version with WM8741. It cost me $15 to upgrade. It's my introduction to dedicated amp/dac department. Let's see what's coming for me.

 

[AVU]

This darn forum! 

 
You've got something that's perfectly great, and then you hear about something else - the 8741, or the possibility of a unity gain, or even the ibasso toucan/boomslang combo - and immediately you need to try it out, just to see, which means selling the old gear at substantial loss, etc. 
 
Oh well.  I can say that for certain, the amp I sold you sounded better than the new class A 8741 when I got it last week.  I was a bit peeved and wrote to Kingwa.  But after a week of burn-in, it's starting to open up.  Without the old unit, I can't A/B them, so I'll probably never know for sure.  
 
At least I'm supporting the audio industry (in China).

 
Quote:

I would definitely trade you back your old Sparrow AVU plus cash on my end of course. 

 
What would probably be best though is for both of us to get soldering irons and try installing the other modules, though I am sure with enough time you will start to appreciate the WM8741.

 

[haloxt]

I think the ad1852 sparrow is a very good dac/amp, if I wasn't upgrading out of curiosity I would be satisfied with the sparrow. And the sparrow/fun absolutely require burn-in to sound right, moreso than the older audio-gd compass. I think it's because they have surprisingly fast speed and detail, and it sounds all jittery and scattered without burn-in.
 
Btw it might be easier to mod the wm8740 to sound neutral by connecting pins 26+27 to the GND solder points instead of scratching away at the green thing to get to the ground. I am bad at soldering and tried using some bleh home depot solder and made a mess of my wm8740 module . I will eventually buy the wm8741 module and also ask audio-gd to give me some of their nice wbt tin solder which is easy to work with.

 

[olor1n]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but Audio-gd describe the Sparrow as having a "built-in headphone amp and pre amp, and also has a line in allowing it to be used as just a headphone amp or preamp, bypassing the DAC. The Headphone amp/preamp can also use ACSS technology". I'd like the option of connecting my ipod via lod cable. How is this achieved?
 
And another question I've asked elsewhere, but wouldn't using optical out of a macbook into the Sparrow instead of usb employ the macbook's soundcard and therefore color the output?

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but Audio-gd describe the Sparrow as having a "built-in headphone amp and pre amp, and also has a line in allowing it to be used as just a headphone amp or preamp, bypassing the DAC. The Headphone amp/preamp can also use ACSS technology". I'd like the option of connecting my ipod via lod cable. How is this achieved?
 
And another question I've asked elsewhere, but wouldn't using optical out of a macbook into the Sparrow instead of usb employ the macbook's soundcard and therefore color the output?

It does not have a "Line IN".  So not sure where you are seeing some of that.
 
It does preamp functions if you get a 1/8" to RCA Stereo adapter as shown on A-GD's website.
 
If used with Optical off your MAC, you don't use the sound card, it is bypassed.  NO COLORATION.  It sounds very nice that way.

 

[haloxt]

The current sparrow product description says there is now a line-in on the sparrow. I don't know if it is true, anyone with a more recent sparrow can confirm?

 

[Cya|\|]

Quote:

The current sparrow product description says there is now a line-in on the sparrow. I don't know if it is true, anyone with a more recent sparrow can confirm?

If that is true, i'll change idea again and will buy the sparrow. Originally planned to buy the sparrow, then the fun to make upgrades in future (starting from the dac), and if that's so, back to the sparrow ^^. I'm glad i'll make the purchase in 1 month.

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

The current sparrow product description says there is now a line-in on the sparrow. I don't know if it is true, anyone with a more recent sparrow can confirm?

Got any idea where you would plug in an iPod?
 

 

[haloxt]

Audio-gd did not put up any pictures showing a line-in, which makes me a little curious if they accidentally lifted it off their FUN product page. But they did indeed say the sparrow has line-in.
 
[size=x-small]

[/size][size=x-small]  [/size] [size=x-small]     The [/size][size=x-small]Sparrow [/size][size=x-small]  has a built-in headphone amp and pre amp, and also has a line in allowing it to be used as just a headphone amp or preamp, bypassing the DAC. The Headphone amp/preamp can also use ACSS technology. [/size]
[size=x-small] [/size]

 

[les_garten]

Quote:

Audio-gd did not put up any pictures showing a line-in, which makes me a little curious if they accidentally lifted it off their FUN product page. But they did indeed say the sparrow has line-in.
 
[size=x-small]

[/size][size=x-small]  [/size] [size=x-small]     The [/size][size=x-small]Sparrow [/size][size=x-small]  has a built-in headphone amp and pre amp, and also has a line in allowing it to be used as just a headphone amp or preamp, bypassing the DAC. The Headphone amp/preamp can also use ACSS technology. [/size]
[size=x-small] [/size]

I think that has to be a Typo...

 

[AVU]

Never had a line in - that was probably messed up with they reformatted the website.
 
A line in wouldn't have much point - the dac is better than the amp on the sparrow, so there'd not be much point in having a line in (unless to mate with an ipod, of course)
 
BTW - after 250hrs burn-in, unit is sounding much better. 
 

 

[mythless]

You have to realize their English isn't very good.

 

[haloxt]

I'll send audio-gd an email to fix it if it's a mistake. Lol wow what a mistake to make .

 

[mythless]

Unless you plan on correcting the webpage yourself and send Kingwa the corrections I doubt they'll fix the mistakes.  TBH, asking someone to grammatically fix a language they're not completely fluently in is a bit much.