[gandhisfist]

The pictures show only 'outputs', on the back. I'm more confused about the unmarked xlr slot...

You're right, I misread the markings on my unit.

 

[mrscotchguy]

You're right, I misread the markings on my unit.

So the unmarked xlrs are just placeholders or are they also outputs?

 

[mrscotchguy]

Loving this unit. Thought I would check in and see if anyone had anything new to pitch in.

Does anyone have the DIR9001 spdif module. Have you tried both?

 

[mrscotchguy]

Loving this unit. Thought I would check in and see if anyone had anything new to pitch in.

Does anyone have the DIR9001 spdif module. Have you tried both?

Well, since no one responded... I decided just to order it along with a remote and TCXO upgrade. Overkill?

 

[gandhisfist]

My only guess is that they might both be ACSS outputs, but I really have no idea.  How are you liking the unit though?  I am still in love with mine, though now I'm thinking about a 10.32

 

[Rockcoon]

I'm also about to buy 10.33. Smooth dac+ warm amp is totaly my cup of tea.

Guys, how do you think, txco is critical for the sound quality? Cuz for me is hard to buy directly from Kingwa, and local resseler has only nonupgraded units.

Also i would like to hear some impressions about this product, if you dont mind

 

[mrscotchguy]

I'm also about to buy 10.33. Smooth dac+ warm amp is totaly my cup of tea.

Guys, how do you think, txco is critical for the sound quality? Cuz for me is hard to buy directly from Kingwa, and local resseler has only nonupgraded units.

Also i would like to hear some impressions about this product, if you dont mind

I doubt there will be any improvement in sound with the TCXO other than during warm-up (maybe a couple hours). But, because I almost never leave my equipment on when I'm not home, I felt this upgrade was worth the risk ($20) since I was alreadying purchasing a remote and spdif module (DIR9001) from AGD.

Not sure if the previous owner didn't give this amp enough time (on the inputs and outputs I'm specifically using), or if brain burn-in has settled, and my tastes now lean towards the warm sound of this unit... but I'm having a tough time listening to most of my other gear now.

My Auditor certainly has more "air" and possibly more soundstage. But at the cost of sounding too "truthful" and almost brittle after adjusting to the 10.33. The weight, warmth, and forgiveness of the wolfson chip makes this a real treat to watch YouTube, Netflix, and other streamers. Yes, it performs great with my FLAC, much more emotive than my former Bifrost envoked, and no treble bite like with the handful of Sabre dacs I've used in the past.

To me, forgiveness of low-res streamed content keeps me listening and watching shows as that time becomes smaller and smaller with my crazy lifestyle. I remember my Bifrost (and more-so my Auditor) made tv shows, blurays, spotify, etc... sound as if cheap bit files were just cut into the mix and not mastered. If this is a what reviewers describe as "brutally honest", then I think I'll keep lying to myself!

With my 10.33 setup, I am fully engaged in the moment rather than worrying if my dac is altering my sound or if the content is rubbish (... chicken or the egg, I suppose). Some would say the 10.33 sounds natural (not neutral).

Is it all sunshine? No. Becoming accustomed to my HD800 and building gear around the flagship had led me down a path to seek the most "accurate" and detail-forward sound. Sometimes forcing myself to enjoy all the cons that come along the ride of a hyper-detailed system (as noted above), I got caught up in the rush of the HD800 experience.

We've all been there (okay, maybe not with the hd800), but I say it all the time now... I'm sick of listening to gear. I want to listen to music!

Originally, I bought the 10.33 specifically with my HD800s in mind. At first I was delighted by how smooth the HD800s paired with my new AGD all-in-one. Truthfully though, I ended up not fully enjoying to experience. Yes, the HD800s became "bearable" with the (poorly recorded) music I regularly enjoy, but at the cost of the soul of the cans.

Luckily, adding the SPL Auditor in the chain fixed all that the 10.33 castrated. Pros without cons.

Maybe it's true, the HD800 is picky and can show all the strengths and weaknesses of your equipment. Though, in doing so... I found I don't enjoy listening to uber-remastered music outside of my choice genres. The hd800 does me little good if I never listen to it, right?

So here's where I'm at with my HD800. Happy, with it, and all my other cans (that I don't intend to sell off). I'm amazed by how many of my favorite headphones synergize so nicely with the 10.33. No, not everything works with the 10.33's amplifier, but used as a dac, I can usually find a pleasant compromise...

What I've come to realize, after adjusting to the wolfson sound, other gear I own seems almost lifeless by comparison!

At first, the 10.33 will sound sweet, syrupy, and almost "thick". For the first time, I felt something besides headphones could make such drastic changes to the listening experience. Surprisingly, already warm headphones do not take on an additive relationship with the dac/amp. Rather, strengths and weeknesses of the headphones are made known, but in a polite, well mannered way.

My HD650 and HD580 sound very natural, but the 10.33 show that the hd650 is certainly the better sounding headphone...

My HE-4 sounds magical and makes me forget about the HD800s. Bold statement, I realize.

My Grados match superbly with the low-gain mode. I cannot say the same for previous gear. When one sounded good, the other were lacking in some way.

I hate the connotation that "jack of all trades" brings on Headfi and other Audio forums. But really, this box brings so much to the table, with little compromise. The biggest being if you like the 10.33 "flavor".

The headphone amp section 10.33 works exceptionally well with most of my cans. Feeding the dac to my other headphone amps really shows their limits.

The dac has a much harder time pairing with "lower level" equipment. Feeding the dac to my current speaker setup, we a surpirse. Using the 10.33 as a pre-amp cleaned up the sound and made a noticeable improvement from just using my Beresford or AQ Dragonfly.

I will mention, the 10.33 has this magical way of synergizing with such veried equipment. Pairings can truly be beautiful... but when they don't synergize, it seems like mass failure, :blink: .

My Beyer dt150s and AKG k7xx sounded dull and lifeless. My DT990s didn't quite have the bass impact or brightness most raved or ranted about, the "V" was gone.

To honestly describe the 10.33 is to say it's truthful, but politely so, in a "little old grandma giving you a backhanded compliment" kind of way! You never once feel the world view in rose-tinted-glasses. But maybe more like getting your glasses adjusted to a new prescription... you don't ever look back, but adjustment can be both easy and a pain at the same time.

I'll report back when I get my upgrades in a week or so, but if you have the extra cash why not just get all the upgrades now so you never have the idea or question eating at you. I am a full believer of placebo affecting the sound... so sometimes 20 bucks is worth the peace of mind

Keep us posted if you do go with the 10.33

 

[Rockcoon]

mrscotchguy
Thank you very much for such detailed impressions. It's realy helped me to inshure, that i made the right choise with 10.33.
Prefer to lose some details, than bleed my ears with "analytic" harshness
 
The upgrade is not a matter of money. I can't buy directly from Kingwa, cuz i'm living in Crimea. payPal and swift transactions are blocket because of sanctions. And local russian audioGd dealer have only non upgradet units.
 
Will have my 10.33 not earlier than in the midle of the june. The saddest thing in this situation, that i'm already sold my previous nad d d1050 dac, and left without music. Notebook simply have no power to drive HE500. So they looks like homless now.
 
P.S
While will wait for your post about upgrades

 

[mrscotchguy]

mrscotchguy
Thank you very much for such detailed impressions. It's realy helped me to inshure, that i made the right choise with 10.33.
Prefer to lose some details, than bleed my ears with "analytic" harshness

The upgrade is not a matter of money. I can't buy directly from Kingwa, cuz i'm living in Crimea. payPal and swift transactions are blocket because of sanctions. And local russian audioGd dealer have only non upgradet units.

Will have my 10.33 not earlier than in the midle of the june. The saddest thing in this situation, that i'm already sold my previous nad d d1050 dac, and left without music. Notebook simply have no power to drive HE500. So they looks like homless now.

P.S
While will wait for your post about upgrades

Do you have access to Audio Quest equipment? The DragonFly is a great temp-solution, especially if you can find one used. That should drive the HE-500 well enough until you get your 10.33

Can I ask, do you plan on only using usb?

 

[Rockcoon]

Do you have access to Audio Quest equipment?

yes, i can buy it. But shipment will take about 2 weeks. So i should wait a month and strike directly to 10.33.

Can I ask, do you plan on only using usb?

All my music inside the notebook (cdrip, vinylrip, have some hdtracks products). So yes- USB input will be the only, that's why txco bothers me so much

Read comparision of nad d1050 and nfb 15
http://www.head-fi.org/t/713161/nad-d1050-dac-and-headphone-amplifier/30#post_11582832
The guy there says, that nfb 15 more harsh and digit sounding dac, that d1050. Ofcourse nfb15 is an entry level product. But i'm little bit disturbed now, what if elder 10.33 still have this sound signature. Have you ever heard nfb 15 and can compare it to 10.33?

 

[mrscotchguy]

yes, i can buy it. But shipment will take about 2 weeks. So i should wait a month and strike directly to 10.33.
All my music inside the notebook (cdrip, vinylrip, have some hdtracks products). So yes- USB input will be the only, that's why txco bothers me so much

Read comparision of nad d1050 and nfb 15
http://www.head-fi.org/t/713161/nad-d1050-dac-and-headphone-amplifier/30#post_11582832
The guy there says, that nfb 15 more harsh and digit sounding dac, that d1050. Ofcourse nfb15 is an entry level product. But i'm little bit disturbed now, what if elder 10.33 still have this sound signature. Have you ever heard nfb 15 and can compare it to 10.33?

A local guy has the NFB 15... and there's no comparison.  The products are not on the same class.  The NFB-15 sounds great for entry-level and really has a ton of benefits for the price, but just look at the components in both units. The 10.33 is overbuilt, balanced, and provides a ton of headroom to work your way up in case you decide to run the 10.33 as a dedicate DAC down the road.  Try not to second guess yourself.  The NFB-15 work great as entry with entry level cans.  I have heard hundreds of setups, and ultimately, I decided to go with the 10.33 for the musicality and smooth, enjoyable presentation of the 10.33.  Had I built an entire system, trying to find synergy,I could easily see spending double what I paid just to track down dedicate parts to get me where I'm at.  
 
You could look for a wolfson dac (Mousai, Arcam, etc...) but then you would need something to synergize with both your dac and headphone(s) of choice.
 
Also, don't get hung up on the TCXO.  The improvements will be minute at best, and unnoticeable at worst.  If I hadn't been buying other gear... I probably would have skipped the TCXO over without any hesitation.  I will gladly share my opinion on the upgrades, but anything I hear will be so subjective since it would take several minute to make the changes before plugging the 10.33 back in and getting it started.  For all I know, I may need to install a new driver to boot!  
 
I'm hoping more for more noticeable improvements by switching to the DIR9001 module, as I listen primarily from the coax directly from my motherboard. 
 
I feel that purchasing an AudioGD product is always a safe one.  No buyers remorse whatsoever.  In fact, the 10.33 is such a great product, I've actually been able to sell off old, unused gear so I can focus on saving for a Precision2 and a pair of Magnepan speakers!

 

[Rockcoon]

A local guy has the NFB 15... and there's no comparison. The products are not on the same class. The NFB-15 sounds great for entry-level and really has a ton of benefits for the price, but just look at the components in both units. The 10.33 is overbuilt, balanced, and provides a ton of headroom to work your way up in case you decide to run the 10.33 as a dedicate DAC down the road.

I'm earning a 300 bucks per moht, it's average payment around Russia. And buying 600$ dac, is almost like buying a car . So i can't allow myself to get wrong. That's why i'm reading, and asking, and compairing, and asking for comparision, and over and over again... Thank you again. The last bit of doubt was shatteret.

When i get audio gd. I should write a comparision impressions of d1050 and 10.33. Cuz they at the same price point. It will be fair enough

P.S
The last question. Still can't figure out, is 10.33 suports up to 24/192 or 32/192 trough usb?

 

[heart banger-97]

Has anybody used these with T1? How do they pair? especially in comparison of nfb28.
Currently, I'm using modi/vali and I want just a little warmer tone and a thicker notes especially in midrange (electric guitar)

 

[gandhisfist]

  Has anybody used these with T1? How do they pair? especially in comparison of nfb28.
Currently, I'm using modi/vali and I want just a little warmer tone and a thicker notes especially in midrange (electric guitar)

 
I'd get a different headphone in that case.  I got to demo the T1 with my 10.33 at a meet recently and didn't find it changed the overall character of the headphone at all.  The T1 to me is a very neutral sounding headphone with a elevated but pleasing treble that has some serious sparkle.  Why not try something like a Sennheiser HD650 for a more mid-forward headphone?  
 
I would think the Vali would do more of what you're talking about than the 10.33 would.  People classify the 10.33 as warm sounding, but in my experience its only very slightly warm, nowhere near the warmth of the Vali for example.  You might want to try an OTL tube amp like the Valhalla 2 as that may be better for what you're after, but I still don't think you're going to get a neutral headphone with treble emphasis to start sounding mid-forward.

 

[heart banger-97]

I'd get a different headphone in that case.  I got to demo the T1 with my 10.33 at a meet recently and didn't find it changed the overall character of the headphone at all.  The T1 to me is a very neutral sounding headphone with a elevated but pleasing treble that has some serious sparkle.  Why not try something like a Sennheiser HD650 for a more mid-forward headphone?  

I would think the Vali would do more of what you're talking about than the 10.33 would.  People classify the 10.33 as warm sounding, but in my experience its only very slightly warm, nowhere near the warmth of the Vali for example.  You might want to try an OTL tube amp like the Valhalla 2 as that may be better for what you're after, but I still don't think you're going to get a neutral headphone with treble emphasis to start sounding mid-forward.

I don't consider hd650 an appropriate choice for me. I found hd800 laid back for my taste. So, I think hd650 would be more laid back.
What dac have you used with Vali?
I don't want to change the sound signature of t1. I just want a less resolving sound but a great step up in sound quality too.