NFB 29 vs NFB 11
How noticeable is the improvement of the 29?
Of course I expect it's night and day for many of you golden eared audiophiles, but if you had a friend over and just played them music through one and then the other, without telling them what to expect or which was which, would they notice much/any difference?
And is the improvement mostly in the amp section, split 50/50 between amp and DAC, or what?
Thanks
With the NFB-11, an Alps pot will replace the relay volume control, and you will lose the remote functionality.
I wouldn't lose the volume control for anything. Its channel balance is superior to even the best potentiometers, and its performance does not degrade due to fouling like a typical pot. The remote is vital for home theater setups, and I like to retire my old desktop rigs for home theater use.
Instead of asking about the sound, you should look at the specs and features and see what fits your needs. For example, I can tell you right away the NFB-29 not only has more power, but it has more power in pure class A. How much better would that sound? I don't know. That would depend on what load it is driving, what the listener preference is, and it would also on a multitude of other factors including placebo.
I read in another thread that you want to get the NFB-11 on a budget so you can afford an extra tube amp. Using a tube amp to tune an FR problem is like putting a cart in front of a horse. Use an equalizer if you want to tune the FR. If you want something more comprehensive, try a DSP like Sonarworks.
Let's say you get a tube amp, that say, rolls off the highs. Is that an effective and economical solution if you have one headphone that has too much presence at 6khz, and another one that has too much at 8khz? At that point you are just shelving everything down, without addressing the trouble region specifically. You also have to consider, are you going to swap amps every time you switch from a dark to a bright headphone? If tubes are your thing, that's okay, just don't have false expectations.
Get the right headphone, tune with DSP, and make sure the signal chain is transparent. Don't mope around and try to fix a fundamental problem like unsatisfactory headphone tonality by screwing with the amp and DAC.
