[Luckbad]

  How much of an upgrade would this be over my modi/magni stack?

 
It would almost certainly be a big upgrade, depending on the sound you favor. This will have a little more emphasis on bass, less on treble.
 
I've owned quite a few Audio-GD products. My NFB-2.32 is the only Wolfson DAC of theirs I've owned, and it's really incredible for the price.
 
If the 10.33 has a similar DAC section, it's gotta be awesome.
 
I've almost purchased a 10.33 a few times and I'm still considering it for work just have an all-in-one unit.

 

[gorbek]

Has anyone tried the NFB-10.33 with MrSpeakers Alpha Dog headphones?

Based on some of the previous commentary it seems that the 10.33 is a great amp for hard to drive cans, and I'm not sure the alpha dog is in that category, necessarily, so any feedback would be great!

 

 

[gorbek]

I ended up buying this amp, I'm using Alpha Dog headphones.

Very stellar sound, the amp is powerful so you get good range out of the headphones (lots of energy in low frequencies) although running the high gain output I rarely find the need to exceed 14 of 80 steps for the volume! 

 

[h1f1add1cted]

Why no love for the NFB-10.33? It offers amazing perfomance and options for the price.
 
I'm using it only in balanced output with my Sennheiser HD 800 and Fostex OE1 and very pleased with the SQ, compared to more expensive gear like Sennheiser HDVD 800 there is no difference. I will test soon if this will work as pre-amp for my coming Stax SRD 7 MK2 amplifier adapter, if dual XLR termination (back) or one 4 pin XLR termination (front) I will see what will work better. I know there different output stages.
 
I'm using the NFB-10.33 with my Daphile Music Box (based on Asrock Beebox with SSD drive)
 

 
Using a short USB interconnect with iFi iPurifier 2 USB filter works fine.
 

 
I have my NFB 10.33 with Amanero Combo 384 USB module. Audio-GD would also have built-in the Singxer F-1 module directly via IIS in the NFB-10.33 for me as custom request, but few weeks ago there was a problem with shipping of the F-1 and I skipped this custom request. DSD to PCM works very fine too with Daphile, normally this two built-in Wolfson DACs don't support DSD (native or DoP) as far I know.
 

 
 
Btw. it was very easy to order from Audio-GD directly and very fast shipping to Germany. Kingwa also reply fast on custom requests.

 

[gorbek]

  Why no love for the NFB-10.33? It offers amazing perfomance and options for the price.
 

 
 
I agree, I've also wondered why there is less demand for this dac/amp. I know it's been around for awhile, but that shouldn't matter. It really is a great piece of equipment, I'm very happy with mine.
 
While I was looking for a dac/amp for my setup and was considering the Audio-GD products it seemed apparent most people overlook the 10.33 as old and there seems to be an overwhelming demand for the NFB-28 (generally seen as superior as I read through the forum) to get the Sabre DAC. The NFB-28 also allows connection of a separate DAC for use just as an AMP. 

I haven't heard the NFB-28 but when I decided to buy the 10.33 it was because it was only $510USD versus the NFB-28's $750USD price tag and it's my opinion the dual-wolfson vs sabre wouldn't make a big difference in my setup. The types of music I listen to are mostly 320kbps mp3, some flac, online sources like youtube, soundcloud, etc.

 

[h1f1add1cted]

Hi,
 
yes it's a very overlooked and underrated gear, not deserved, there is no competition in this price range for such a all-in-one solution.
 
The release age (2014) and the used DAC (dual WM8741) is not a reason to not go for it, the signal chain should as short and direct as possible. I have used in the past a way longer chain with DDC, DAC, AMP all separate and I would now only go for a all-in-one solution like the 10.33 because all is perfect together. The output has perfect silent black background and provides plenty power for every headphone.
 
For me I also have not seen one single reason to go for the NFB-28 because the DAC don't matter (I own Chord Mojo with Xilinx Artix FPGA DAC and iFi micro iDSD with dual TI DSD1793 DACs and it's not a day & night differences which would make sense to go for a dedicaded DAC) and I need no analogue inputs, so money saved and get the NFB-10.33.

 

[MarcusV123]

Hello everyone. I know this thread doesn't get much traffic but I'm having some trouble deciding on an amp/dac from Audio gd. I was just wondering if I would be losing any sound quality if I went with the latest nfb 11.32 or 15.32 over the nfb 10.33. I will be using a pair of paradox slants with the set up and my music is mostly high quality mp3s from spotify and a collection of flac albums; none of which are of a really high bitrate. Also wondering if the balanced option would be worth buying the 10.33 over the other amp/sacs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gorbek]

Hello everyone. I know this thread doesn't get much traffic but I'm having some trouble deciding on an amp/dac from Audio gd. I was just wondering if I would be losing any sound quality if I went with the latest nfb 11.32 or 15.32 over the nfb 10.33. I will be using a pair of paradox slants with the set up and my music is mostly high quality mp3s from spotify and a collection of flac albums; none of which are of a really high bitrate. Also wondering if the balanced option would be worth buying the 10.33 over the other amp/sacs. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I haven't heard either the 11.32 or 15.32, I would guess that SQ is pretty good on any of these DAC/AMPs. The 11.32/15.32 seem to be much cheaper, although I'm not sure the 15.32 is actually available from Audio-GD anymore (don't see it on the products page). The 11.32 does have the Sabre DAC so I'm not sure if you'll experience anything different from it over the dual wolfson in the 10.33, but we just discussed this in the above posts that it's not likely going make much of a difference, although there seems to be a great deal of debate over audible differences in DACs in general.
 
I would suggest you consider the Amp capabilities, connections and general features (volume control, size of enclosure, etc) in comparing the products, and of course, the price.
 
I went for the bigger 10.33 because I wanted XLR outs for my monitors and a powerful amp so I have future upgradeability for headphones, should I get something that is harder to drive in the future.

I'll mention that the 4pin XLR balanced output on the 10.33 was a pleasant surprise for me. The balanced output sends a lot more power to the headphone and it results in very clean sound, I prefer it a lot over the single ended cable (I've also seen other people debate the differences between balanced and 1/4" on this forum, but as far as I can tell there is an improvement). I've only used the balanced output with my Alpha Dog but even switching between the 1/4" and the 4 pin XLR with just this headphone on the 10.33, I definitely believe I notice a difference.

If you're not using a balanced cable with your headphones and don't intend on having balanced cables in the future with your existing or any new headphones you'll probably be less interested in the 10.33 as much of it's design is catered to balanced output. 

 

[MarcusV123]

I haven't heard either the 11.32 or 15.32, I would guess that SQ is pretty good on any of these DAC/AMPs. The 11.32/15.32 seem to be much cheaper, although I'm not sure the 15.32 is actually available from Audio-GD anymore (don't see it on the products page). The 11.32 does have the Sabre DAC so I'm not sure if you'll experience anything different from it over the dual wolfson in the 10.33, but we just discussed this in the above posts that it's not likely going make much of a difference, although there seems to be a great deal of debate over audible differences in DACs in general.

I would suggest you consider the Amp capabilities, connections and general features (volume control, size of enclosure, etc) in comparing the products, and of course, the price.

I went for the bigger 10.33 because I wanted XLR outs for my monitors and a powerful amp so I have future upgradeability for headphones, should I get something that is harder to drive in the future.


I'll mention that the 4pin XLR balanced output on the 10.33 was a pleasant surprise for me. The balanced output sends a lot more power to the headphone and it results in very clean sound, I prefer it a lot over the single ended cable (I've also seen other people debate the differences between balanced and 1/4" on this forum, but as far as I can tell there is an improvement). I've only used the balanced output with my Alpha Dog but even switching between the 1/4" and the 4 pin XLR with just this headphone on the 10.33, I definitely believe I notice a difference.


If you're not using a balanced cable with your headphones and don't intend on having balanced cables in the future with your existing or any new headphones you'll probably be less interested in the 10.33 as much of it's design is catered to balanced output. 

Thanks I think that's what I will be going with. If I don't than I will just be stuck with a nagging feeling. Now all I need is to save up for it or hopefully find it in the classifieds one day.

 

[gorbek]

It's not obvious on the Audio-GD website but the 10.33 is 10% off (or was a month or two ago). You should send an email to Audio-GD for a quote.

 

 

[h1f1add1cted]

Update, now I', using my Audio-GD NFB 10.33 together with my Stax SRD-7 MK2 und Stax Lambda Professional, with the variable line-out works just perfect.