Kingwa states in the nfb1/nfb7 page that he's been testing the sabre chip for over a year, and i'm guessing over that long period of time maybe he figured out that the 1 sabre chip could sound as good as 8 x pcm1704 chips. Obviously it makes a lot more economic sense for him to use 1 sabre than...

he already mentioned that he brought the dac to his friend's place and swapped in the dac3 but it didn't work, so the fault doesn't lie with the computer's spdif/usb side.    

Quote: Except that this is hardly true. You can have the best measurements on paper with very generous use of negative feedback in the circuit, yet the amp can sound terrible. Just ask Charles Hansen (Ayre), John Curl (Parasound) what they think about NFB. Measurements are not everything...

Quote: yea you can, they're the usual rubber/silicon-ish material so no worries  

seriously speaking, the stems are unnoticeable once you have it on. i've used the ety er20 red earplugs in clubs, gigs and concerts so many times and nobody has ever noticed it before. In places like these, the last thing people look at are your ears, so don't sweat it  

Considering what the OP is using now (hd595), he'll find that the a2s don't have much extension, nor usable output. i say "usable output" because the thing with many ported speakers is, you can't get decent bass output at low-moderate volumes. You have to bump the vol up before you start hearing...

If the hd595 is not giving you enough bass, the a2 definitely won't cut it. Heck, even the bigger a5 won't.

For electronic music, pass on the Adams, they won't give you enough bass. I'm not too fond of KRK since they can sound quite boomy with mid bass bloat.   Check out the dynaudio bm6a

Quote: They won't sound like your AT cans at all. The A7s has very little low end. They image well and produce a nice sound stage if the recording calls for it, but the highs can be rather fatiguing and too harsh. If you plan on getting them, be sure to audition them first.

Seems like a strange question to ask why kingwa would put in extra transformers. I mean if it gives better sonics, then why not?   FWIW, i'm using the lil dynaudio BM5As with a rythmik f12 sub and they sound amazing with the AG dac9mk3 + c39 pre.   If you're looking for really deep...

i'm thinking of upgrading the entire middle board of my dac9mk3 to the dsp1 board. currawong and other guys who have replaced their ref 1 middle board before, could you guys tell me how difficult the replacement is?   i'm wondering if it's possible, after upgrading, to use the old board as...

Quote: I'm chinese and monkey king isn't exactly a cool mythical creature in asian culture, unlike a Phoenix.    

T-Square, Casiopea and Mori. Probably not what i would consider experimental but they're nice japanese music lol

Man, the hiface is getting to me. Is there anyone else on windows 7, 64 bit getting random BSODs also? I'm using JRMC 15 on KS. WASAPI doesn't work, for some reason. I'm writing an email to Marco to ask him how to solve the problem. http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q197/noinimod/hifaceBSOD.jpg

Quote: After all the trouble i went to for my 75 ohm BNC connectors, dang. Did you swap out the BNC socket on your hiface?  

The Tenor chip is adaptive. Woot, the hiface is a 75 ohm BNC? Damn it, i need to replace the BNC on mine then

Quote: it isn't a guess, lol. <USD200 is the price kingwa quoted me  

<USD200, probably as cheap/expensive as the hiface

Quote: Pretty good recording, although the double bass is turned up pretty hot   Quote: No spittyness at my side, no weird sibilance. I'm using the hiface bnc -> audio gd dac9mk3.If anything, it's probably a slight fuzzy gruff in his voice that sounds like a fault of the...

Dang, now i'm thinking if i should hold back the hiface purchase. He's probably using the same Tenor TE7022 chip. I'm not too confident about the TE7022 chip to be honest, but i'm really hoping Kingwa comes up with something good. AG's tiny usb->spdif converter is waaay overdue!

I'm must confess i'm a total newbie at DIY, so i might be talking out of my ass here. I'm wondering, is it possible to use these sort of regulators to mod the hiface? http://www.paulhynesdesign.com/ http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/diy/PSU09/PSU09EN.htm

Quote: Yea some headamps come with a pre function also, but how well that works vis-a-vis a stand-alone preamp is another thing altogether. If you're looking at Adam/Dynaudio/Focal, you probably care enough about fidelity not to cheap out on a lousy (read: most headamps) pre.   That...

Best to hear them both before making a decision. The adams are not everyone's cup of tea. The real problem after getting either one of these monitors is getting a proper volume controller, unless you don't mind controlling the left and right channels separately. Doing it that way is a huge...

I was wondering the same too, whether the BNC's a true 75 ohm. So i opened up my dac9mk3 just now and took some pictures of the BNC connector.   Apologies for the poor picture quality. It reads: "BCJ-RUD". Google then brought me here...

Hmm, someone please enlighten me why everyone's getting so hung up on the 'new' 24/96 usb? Just because it's 24/96 doesn't mean it's better. Sorry, i just can't see why it's such a big deal. Besides, if you're looking to get the best out of your AG dac, or any other dac for that matter, usb...