[Clemmaster]

Quote:

Just ordered a Master 8 to pair with my Master 7 and HD 800. Needed something to tide me over while my Leviathan gets built-and didn't have the patience to wait on a GSX. Anyone using this combo that is actually a fan of the Senn?

-Daniel

 
I see you have a SBT/EDO. Do you run the Master 7 off it? If yes, did you do any mod to the SBT that (supposedly) improve the sound?
 
I'm asking this because I had a pretty bad experience with my NFB-27 and SBT (through USB).
As I said in many thread when people asked me what I thought about either the NFB-27 or the Metrum Quad, I never could enjoy the former on the SBT, till few days ago. While I could clearly notice the more resolving nature, I actually found the bass too tight and some harshness in the sound. As a result, the sound was quite overbearing. "Hardness" would be the word to describe the feeling I had with it. This was with SBT in stock form (+EDO, of course).
 
I then tried to run the NFB-27 on a laptop using JRiver in Kernel Streaming (I installed the Concero's drivers on this station so I could not do ASIO). The hardness was gone and, for the very first time, I could enjoy the sound of the NFB-27 and appreciate its goods.
 
The 2 things that I changed in the setup are:
- JRiver on laptop instead of the SBT
- NFB-27 plugged in the wall outlet instead of the cheap power strip I was using so far.
 
I don't know which of the 2 played the most important role though.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

Wow, lots of activity since I last looked in here. Good to hear more of these are getting out in the wild! Now lets drum up those reviews!!
 
I've recently started looking into USB->SPDIF converters since the A-GD DACs are sensitive in this department and I've come to a crossroads. If I have to invest more into a converter then why not look at a DAC that has been documented for taking care of that problem on it's own USB input? Like it might cost a bit more money on the front end, but I'll eliminate 1 converter >$450 and 1 SPDIF cable >$240. 
 
The other DAC I'm looking at is the PS-Audio PWD mkII because from my reading it's killed the USB input. I've read a few tid-bits in this thread about comparisons between the two, but they haven't been clear or detailed enough for me to take notes from.
 
If some one could, I would love to read a more detailed comparative review, and especially notes on the bass and soundstage departments. 

 
A convertor is unnecessary for the Master 7 if you order it with USB32.

 

[BournePerfect]

A couple of things-my M7 has been burning in for a week now but-I have ZERO means of listening to it atm. I have a Master 8 and a vintage Pioneer 8100 arriving in the next week or so to try my HD 800s on. Also-I need to reinstall the EDO plugin on the SBT but I can't because my computer just crapped out and need to have it repaired first. Oh the joy...+
 
Macrog-thanks. The Silver Dragon is also what I'm planning to buy unless I find the patience to wait for a Silver Widow.
 
-Daniel

 

[DarknightDK]

Quote:

To those who upgraded from Ref 7.1 to Master 7 - Currawong and JaMo, I am looking at you guys

 
I am going to order the upgrade kit and would like to know what to order extra to get an easy job.
The power plug was one, I understand, since it was difficult to detatch. Other suggestions?
 
Also - I'd LOVE to see good photos of the mounted digi-board and the internal cabling so I know where the cables are going.

 
Am interested in this as well. Anyone??

 

[Benny-x]

Quote:

 
A convertor is unnecessary for the Master 7 if you order it with USB32.

 
Thanks for letting me know. I read your last post on it and it kind of gave the impression that the two were close, but that you 'thought' the AP1+PP should sound better since it's greater cost. So the verdict from then to now is that you've sold/moved on from the AP1+PP to straight USB32 on the Master 7?
 
And how about a comparison with the PS Audio PWD mkII, any takers there? These two components are close enough in price that I'd really love to hear a good comparative review.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

Quote:

To those who upgraded from Ref 7.1 to Master 7 - Currawong and JaMo, I am looking at you guys

 
I am going to order the upgrade kit and would like to know what to order extra to get an easy job.
The power plug was one, I understand, since it was difficult to detatch. Other suggestions?
 
Also - I'd LOVE to see good photos of the mounted digi-board and the internal cabling so I know where the cables are going.

 
Am interested in this as well. Anyone??

 
The power socket and a new shield box for it. There's enough slack in the internal power cable that you can just cut the old one off and (carefully) strip the new one. I have a crazy idea one day to remove all the internal power cable shielding and use pre-shielded Acrolink power cable internally but that would be extremely tedious to do as you have to remove a hell of a lot of stuff first.
 
Quote:

Quote:

 
A convertor is unnecessary for the Master 7 if you order it with USB32.

 
Thanks for letting me know. I read your last post on it and it kind of gave the impression that the two were close, but that you 'thought' the AP1+PP should sound better since it's greater cost. So the verdict from then to now is that you've sold/moved on from the AP1+PP to straight USB32 on the Master 7?

 
If you use one of the S/PDIF inputs, the signal has to go through either a WM8805 or DIR9001 and be converted to I2S before going to the DSP. The USB32 has firmware where all functions except those absolutely necessary to convert the signal to I2S are removed and it feeds the DSP directly. So using the USB32 removes a whole conversion step from USB that one would normally have plus avoids a whole bunch of components used for that. The power line on the USB32 input is also disconnected, so it is fine even with the cheap and generic (but made to spec) Audio-gd-supplied USB cables.

 

[Shahrose]

Quote:

 
Thanks for letting me know. I read your last post on it and it kind of gave the impression that the two were close, but that you 'thought' the AP1+PP should sound better since it's greater cost. So the verdict from then to now is that you've sold/moved on from the AP1+PP to straight USB32 on the Master 7?
 
And how about a comparison with the PS Audio PWD mkII, any takers there? These two components are close enough in price that I'd really love to hear a good comparative review.

 
I wrote some stuff and so did preproman. We both had the PWD MK2 but with different firmwares (mine was the one shipping now 2.2.0, his is the previous version 2.0.2). The firmwares change the sound noticeably.
 
Anyways, just go through my previous posts (not necessarily in this thread). You can click the username and browse posts, I don't have time to search for them. Same for prep.

 

[DACLadder]

Based upon the USB comments this morning I finally got around to testing the Master 7 USB32 interface.  I have been using the Audiophilleo 1 to input #1 (DIR9001 receiver) since receiving the box 2 months ago.  Wow!  I am impressed and liking what I hear!    Seems to me the instruments are slightly more in focus with better separation between.  As a result can hear deeper into the mix.  Hard to believe but maybe it is less jitter what I am experiencing with the USB32 interface.  So I'll be happily running USB32 until further notice. 

 

[ztsen]

The M7 doesn't sound anything like the Reference 5 to my recollection.  It is closer to the NFB-1ES than it is to the Ref 5.  I am drawing from almost a year old memory here because I can't do a direct comparison between the M7 and the Ref 5.  I found the Ref 5 darker than the NFB-1 which is why I kept the NFB-1.  Regarding the Ref 5, if you mean laid back as in dark then yes I would agree but I found vocals on the Ref 5 to be forward while the NFB-1 pushed them back a tiny bit.  Vocals were the only thing I liked better on the Ref5 over the NFB-1.  The M7 sounds a little more forward in the vocals than the NFB-1, just enough to hear all the vocal details without being the slightest bit overbearing as was the case with my Ref5 sometimes.  To be honest, it is really hard to tell whether the vocals are more forward or if I am just hearing more detail and added resolution.  The M7 is not dark by any stretch the music just seems to have more mass and the treble extends just as far as the NFB-1 and my sigma-delta CD player.  I listened to some very complex musical passages last night and I was surprised at how it was able to give so much weight to separate instruments and voices (especially background vocals) without sounding congested.     
 
I have to again agree with the posts of other owners, the M7 really seems to marry the best of Kingwa's 1704UK dac series and the NFB series.     

I totally agreed with the weight on each entities play apart in the music. The separation and focus for each individual is really stunning.

 

[ztsen]

Anyone try if the usb input from a windows or Mac will make any different in SQ?

For my setup I prefer using Hiface to coaxial then USB direct in windows because it brings more body to the music.

 

[macrog]

I use a Mac Mini i7 and Macbook Pro i7 and a couple of PCs using Win7Pro and Win8Pro.
 
I used to think the Mac had better sound by USB but I dont now. JRiver + Jplay sounds as good as Mac.
 
The decent music plaing software on Mac all sound different though. Amarra is probably best but the interface is truly awful. 
 
Regards
 
Macrog

 

[LarsHP]

Quote:

The power socket and a new shield box for it. There's enough slack in the internal power cable that you can just cut the old one off and (carefully) strip the new one. I have a crazy idea one day to remove all the internal power cable shielding and use pre-shielded Acrolink power cable internally but that would be extremely tedious to do as you have to remove a hell of a lot of stuff first.

Thanks Currawong!
Could you take a couple of pictures of the wirings that you did showing where what goes, please?
That would be a big help for me.

 

[BournePerfect]

I hear my M7 humming when I put my ear up to it-is this normal? I don't recall my Reference 9 humming.
-Daniel

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

To those who upgraded from Ref 7.1 to Master 7 - Currawong and JaMo, I am looking at you guys

 
I am going to order the upgrade kit and would like to know what to order extra to get an easy job.
The power plug was one, I understand, since it was difficult to detatch. Other suggestions?
 
Also - I'd LOVE to see good photos of the mounted digi-board and the internal cabling so I know where the cables are going.

 
Am interested in this as well. Anyone??

 
The power socket and a new shield box for it. There's enough slack in the internal power cable that you can just cut the old one off and (carefully) strip the new one. I have a crazy idea one day to remove all the internal power cable shielding and use pre-shielded Acrolink power cable internally but that would be extremely tedious to do as you have to remove a hell of a lot of stuff first.
 
Quote:

Quote:

 
A convertor is unnecessary for the Master 7 if you order it with USB32.

 
Thanks for letting me know. I read your last post on it and it kind of gave the impression that the two were close, but that you 'thought' the AP1+PP should sound better since it's greater cost. So the verdict from then to now is that you've sold/moved on from the AP1+PP to straight USB32 on the Master 7?

 
If you use one of the S/PDIF inputs, the signal has to go through either a WM8805 or DIR9001 and be converted to I2S before going to the DSP. The USB32 has firmware where all functions except those absolutely necessary to convert the signal to I2S are removed and it feeds the DSP directly. So using the USB32 removes a whole conversion step from USB that one would normally have plus avoids a whole bunch of components used for that. The power line on the USB32 input is also disconnected, so it is fine even with the cheap and generic (but made to spec) Audio-gd-supplied USB cables.

 
Hey Currawong, does the USB32 implementation work with the iPad with the CCK?

 

[DarknightDK]

Quote:

Thanks Currawong!
Could you take a couple of pictures of the wirings that you did showing where what goes, please?
That would be a big help for me.

 
Interested in the pic too. Am getting the upgrade module soon.