[Von Soundcard]

Can anyone make a comparison between this and the NFB-17.2, 'soundwise' ?

 

[xtreme4099]

Can anyone make a comparison between this and the NFB-17.2, 'soundwise' ?

If we happen to see one at an audio meet sure, but as far as can you compare it to X product requests, we're not reviewers we're just folks like you.

Mine just shipped out to today, so looking forward to further comparisons to other sources I have listened to. Stay tuned.

 

[allyl]

Same here. Just received notice of shipping via DHL. Pretty excited to take a listen to this.

 

[allyl]

Just took delivery of mine here at the office. Now, to count down the minutes left in the workday....

 

[tme110]

also note for anyone looking for info, there is already a nfb-1 thread that was used on the previous generations of the nfb-1
 

 

[xtreme4099]

Forgot to leave a note to DHL to leave the damn thing in the front door, 2nd attempt is on Monday now with a big ass printed sign, I work graves so I was napping.

 

[xing3ds]

Hi xtreme4099,

I'm looking forward for your review for the new nfb1.32

 

[xtreme4099]

Well i have it hooked up, listening through my speakers, took me all bout 2 minutes to get it going to install the usb driver, and get sound. Instantly noticed the increased depth and I do mean lots of it, details, and airyness, and a slight warmth, easily outclasses the modded soundcard. I'm gonna get to listening with more material throughout the day and will be chiming in a bit later


Will be doing comparisons between this and my vinyl setup, i have a couple vinyl records that I have digitally that ill be able to flip back and forth to compare with. Will also be hooking it up to my Lisa3 headamp in a few. More fun thoughts later.

 

[xtreme4099]

Testing all the connections,
 
USB sonics are better than the toslink optical, that much was immediate when flicking between connections.
I haven't been able to coax working with the auzentech internal soundcard, foobar gives a device in use error, and none of the windows sounds appear to work either, where as the opposite is true when using toslink or usb. Setting the SPDIF to DIR mode didn't help. Coax works fine with the receiver so either the 1.32 is picky or I have driver problem and or it simply doesn't like the sound card which is more likely the case.
 
The coax is working fine however, i had to pull out an old dvd player with a coaxial out, and throw in a cd to test and it played fine. However since most of my music is digital i wont be able to play with it on sound card tsk tsk. I have a nice coax Oyaide DIR-510 pure silver cable that would of been nice to compare against the usb functionality. Oh well at least i know every portion of the DAC is working. I'm just musing

 

[xtreme4099]

Looks like I can play 24/352k files just fine in KS mode via foobar, and I imagine i can also play 384k files once I grab some


2L has some sample 24/352k DXD files here : http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html - they're big as you can imagine, tracks range from a couple hundred megs to over a gig in size.

 

[xing3ds]

Hi xtreme,

Looks promising..
Looking forward for more review.

Have you heard any audio-gd DAC with PCM1740UK chip? Such as Reference 5?

 

[xtreme4099]

Hi xtreme,
Looks promising..
Looking forward for more review.
Have you heard any audio-gd DAC with PCM1740UK chip? Such as Reference 5?

Not yet, I'd be curious to listen to either the 5.32 or the SA 1.32, it would be a fairer comparison to the 1.32 I have now.

In regards to a review I'll be in the process of matching it up with different gear so I get can overarching picture of the capabilities of the DAC, I have a couple friends in the area that have an assortment of sources that I'd be able to directly compare against. My immediate impressions are overwhelming positive, it's airy, detailed, and is absolutely wonderful with live recordings. Also your source music will have to be very well recorded otherwise you will be hear everything warts n all, this could be what some people attribute to some of the etchiness or hardness to some of the low bit recordings, which is not the case at all with well recorded material at any resolution above 44.1. The 352khz samples are phenomenal to listen to, even over their 192khz counterparts, I may just look at grabbing a couple of those in different genre's from an audiophile sites to wrap my head around at what is soon to become the future format of audiophilia considering hard drives are getting bigger and cheaper. The samples I've heard have either been piano or classical and 1 with vocals which sounded just about perfect to my ears. I look forward to matching it up and comparing it with other gear to give more level headed description of its capabilities, considering this is my one and only external dac at the moment, my immediate impressions may be newness bias, time will tell.

I'm also looking forward to ally's thoughts, since he appears to have an EE minimax plus in his inventory.

 

[mikicasellas]

Quote:

Some quick questions to everyone that already owns this DAC
 
1. What does the front panel display? (I know silly question but I couldn't find any info on that in audio-gd site)
2. In the specs, it is stated that the USB input supports up to 32/384 but the DAC supports 32/192. To my understanding, 9018 can accept up to 1.5Mhz. Thus, I would expect that it is possible to send over 32/384. Have you tried it?
3. Is anyone using Win7 64bit? If yes, did you experience any problem with the USB driver?
 
 
Thanks a bunch for the replies.

 
 
Quote:

So after a few email exchanges with Kingwa, I have gone ahead and placed an order with him. I asked him a couple questions as well (responses paraphrased). For the record, Kingwa was superbly responsive to my emails, and a real help throughout this process. So far so good for the customer service.
 
Concerning the difference between the NFB-11.32 and the NFB-1.32, Kingwa said the 1.32 is a little more clear and detailed, and should sound better through the balanced outputs.
 
Additionally, the 1.32 is essentially an update of the ESS Sabre based NFB-1, which is now discontinued. From our emails, the 1.32 is an upgrade on the NFB-1 while being priced cheaper both as a way to get the Audio-GD name out there and because the casework is less expensive. The "upgrade" part is based on an improvement in the USB input as well as shortening of signal paths purportedly leading to a better sonic product.
 
Finally, in comparison to the other Audio-GD dedicated DACs in the $500-$1000 price range, the NFB 1.32 is described as the most neutral and accurate of the three, the SA-1 is the warmer, smoother single-ended DAC, and the Ref-5 is described as neutral with a little bit more weight (perhaps to the low end?).
 
With 2xTXCO clocks ($40), and shipping to the US ($65), the promo price came out to be just about $710. The unit should ship on the 10th of this month, and hopefully I will have a chance to listen to it alongside the Audiolab M-DAC, likely feeding a Yulong A18 via XLR out. 

Hi, Any comparisons yet with Calyx or other DACs, i need help pleeeaase! i am between the Calyx, Audio-gd NFB 1.32 and Audio-gd NFB 7.32...
 
thank you!

 

[xtreme4099]

Quote:

 
 
Hi, Any comparisons yet with Calyx or other DACs, i need help pleeeaase! i am between the Calyx, Audio-gd NFB 1.32 and Audio-gd NFB 7.32...
 
thank you!

 
Unfortunately most of us don't have more than a few sources on hand, and often certainly not more than 1 sabre based product, Im not sure if you saw my reply to you in my brief thoughts on the nfb 1.32 in the review section, but based on the design and parts choice id pick the nfb 1.32 or nfb 7.32 if your going with a sabredac, to get most bang for the buck, and considering how spendy the calyx is, id jump on the 3 r-core transformered usb 7.32, its cheaper still.
 
The only other dac i've heard with a sabre chip is the Weiss 202 but it isn't a fair comparison because I've don't readily have access to it, it's a $6500 dac, and i'd be going off auditory memory which is always pretty poor. The one thing i can say about the Weiss' sound that has been said elsewhere is that it is indeed very liquid, analog, and has a rich rounded sound while remaining detailed. I can probably attribute most of this to its robust and excellently designed powersupply regulation and perhaps other good design choices. The sabre 9018 is very sensitive to clean power, Id go with beefiest psu you can find, the 7.32 is a brute force solution, not many designers incorporate the excellent r-core transformers except maybe sony and a handful of other high end manufacturers.

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Quote:

 
Unfortunately most of us don't have more than a few sources on hand, and often certainly not more than 1 sabre based product, Im not sure if you saw my reply to you in my brief thoughts on the nfb 1.32 in the review section, but based on the design and parts choice id pick the nfb 1.32 or nfb 7.32 if your going with a sabredac, to get most bang for the buck, and considering how spendy the calyx is, id jump on the 3 r-core transformered usb 7.32, its cheaper still.
 
The only other dac i've heard with a sabre chip is the Weiss 202 but it isn't a fair comparison because I've don't readily have access to it, it's a $6500 dac, and i'd be going off auditory memory which is always pretty poor. The one thing i can say about the Weiss' sound that has been said elsewhere is that it is indeed very liquid, analog, and has a rich rounded sound while remaining detailed. I can probably attribute most of this to its robust and excellently designed powersupply regulation and perhaps other good design choices. The sabre 9018 is very sensitive to clean power, Id go with beefiest psu you can find, the 7.32 is a brute force solution, not many designers incorporate the excellent r-core transformers except maybe sony and a handful of other high end manufacturers.

 
Dont forget about the Anedio D2 as far as ESS Sabre 9018 based dacs go, it has probably the best specs out of any of them, on top of having nothing but amazing user reviews.