[olor1n]

I think he's referring to the "Loudness Wars" and the degradation of sq that results in overly dynamic compressed tracks. I don't listen to metal but the rock and alternative albums I listen to don't suffer from it as much as contemporary pop/hip-hop/r&b or indie for that matter. Wanna know what it sounds like? Listen to any Kanye West album, particularly My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, or any Kid Cudi, Bruno Mars, Jamie T (these are guilty pleasures, don't laugh)...

 

[drez]

Quote:

 
What does 'clipping' actually sound like?
 
I have the NFB-7 and listen to rock and metal, not normally the best produced genre's, and have yet to hear any clipping.

 
Now I am asked for an example I struggle to find one - but for example 1 Sylosis's Procession at 2:10, Enter by Russian Circles - Carpe @ 5:26, I also notice the embrittlement of certain transients such as very impactful snare hits, sometimes embrittlement of the treble, Berliner Philharmoniker's 1984 recording of Beethoven's 9th - movement 5 @ 8:58, Devin Townsend's Synchestra - Vampira @ 0:38.
 
Well at least I hope its on the recording as the artifacts occur at the same time each time I play the section.  I will do some testing to see if the NFB-10 SE also reproduces these artifacts I am hearing.  I hear these on both my LCD-2.2 and modded T50.

 

[MorbidToaster]

While I loathe Kanye, I do love Bruno Mars (Kid Cudi isn't half bad either)...
 
I've always taken clipping to mean the 'buzzing' you get on a lot of modern recordings (no matter your cans). I hear it a lot in modern Hip Hop. Best example I've found recently (of what I consider clipping) is in Tinie Tempah's Disc-Overy album. Quite a few tracks 'clip'.
There's a few tracks on (my rip) of Blueprint 3 by Jay Z that clip as well. It's frustrating because this album is otherwise brilliant.
 
Quote:

I think he's referring to the "Loudness Wars" and the degradation of sq that results in overly dynamic compressed tracks. I don't listen to metal but the rock and alternative albums I listen to don't suffer from it as much as contemporary pop/hip-hop/r&b or indie for that matter. Wanna know what it sounds like? Listen to any Kanye West album, particularly My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, or any Kid Cudi, Bruno Mars, Jamie T (these are guilty pleasures, don't laugh)...

 
 

 

[OPrwtos]

a quick pic i just took
 
in real life the led's have a much more Brilliant Blue colour, however i was pointing some 800watt mini heater light on it that im using to warm me up.

 

[drez]

ermmmm I have done a booboo:
 
I have been using the WM8805 and thinking it was the DIR9001 - the improvement in soundstage came from swapping the WM8805 module in...
 

 

[Argo Duck]

drez this is consistent with what Currawong reported IIRC, after first favoring the DIR.
 
Thanks for reporting your honest mistake!

 

[olor1n]

I believe Currawong favoured the dir9001 but then stated the wm8805 bridged the gap after burn in. It's interesting that drez is finding the wm8805 more to his liking. I swapped to the dir9001 as soon as I received the unit to have the module burn in with the 10SE. It never crossed my mind to try the wm8805 (I was using usb anyway).

 

[CEE TEE]

 
Or better:
 

Quote:

a quick pic i just took
 
in real life the led's have a much more Brilliant Blue colour, however i was pointing some 800watt mini heater light on it that im using to warm me up.

 

 

[OPrwtos]

Quote:

 
Or better:
 

 

haha i got more versions too, but i made the white balance and contrast like this because i liked it best , i also added slight split toning to give a redding tint in the shadows and yellowish tint in the highlights.
 
 

 

[glenda]

Quote:

ermmmm I have done a booboo:
 
I have been using the WM8805 and thinking it was the DIR9001 - the improvement in soundstage came from swapping the WM8805 module in...
 

Not surprising,   at DIYA the lead moderator stated that the WM8805 is functionally superior to the dir9001.
 
The problem is that WM8805 has gotten a bad rap because it doesn't work well with spdif that is higher level than spec as a lot of new devices have (see Hiface for an example.)
 
That said the DIR9001 is fine especially if you have a low jitter source.
 
 
 

 

[drez]

I should probably clarify - now I know which is which, the WM8805 (no burn in) has a slightly more musical and full-bodied dynamic, the (burned in) DIR9001 sounds more neutral and laid back.  Similarly the soundstage on the WM8805 is more engaging with increased contrast in instrument placement depth .  For classical music I tend to prefer the latter as the former seems to ham-fist some subtle dynamic nuances.  I shall have to burn in the WM8805 to see how it changes - unless Currawong can give me some hints

 

[glenda]

Quote:

I should probably clarify - now I know which is which, the WM8805 (no burn in) has a slightly more musical and full-bodied dynamic, the (burned in) DIR9001 sounds more neutral and laid back.  Similarly the soundstage on the WM8805 is more engaging with increased contrast in instrument placement depth .  For classical music I tend to prefer the latter as the former seems to ham-fist some subtle dynamic nuances.  I shall have to burn in the WM8805 to see how it changes - unless Currawong can give me some hints

Drez also appreciate your honest impressions.  The one that really stuck out to me is the clipping comments.   As much as I try to avoid compressed, digital limited recordings they are almost unavoidable.  Even when you find a recording that has a low overall volume and no obvious 0 dbs clipped peaks that loudness war fighters use a poster boards with screenshots showing obvious clipping,  there are still a lot of the newer recordings that subtly hide their over processing.  Limiting or delimiting is where the DAW is programmed to find a peak that will clip and the software rounds it down.  Its a little less obscene than the usual hot recording but it still doesn't sound good with a lot of DAC's.
 
I think the wolfson DAC has become so popular ( the ipods, bluerays, and just about everywhere)  that some mastering engineers are doing their monitoring/voicing with the intended customer having a wolfson dac in their playback.    Its sort of like when mastering engineers would use jbl monitors in the 70's 'cause that was what most everyone was listening too.
 
That and I do think there is flat out something about the wolfson that it handles compression/limiting/hot mastering better than other dac's.   I have a recent release from one of my favorite sound engineers where the mix/sound was completely different.  It just plain sounded bad with my AudioGD PCM1704 DAC. So I bought a used NFB12 on a whim, and it was night and day. The mastering was fine with Wolfson.
 
 
 

 

[BrainFood]

Quote:

IMO, the 10ES is better than the Burson 160D.  The DAC section of the Burson is obviously inferior.

 
Yes, but how about comparing the USB input's only?   The Burson has been engineered to sound great via USB, without the need to use a SPDIF to USB converter.  Reading this thread, it seems that with NFB-10SE, computer audio really needs a converter to shine.  Or am I wrong?

 

[tim3320070]

Quote:

 
Yes, but how about comparing the USB input's only?   The Burson has been engineered to sound great via USB, without the need to use a SPDIF to USB converter.  Reading this thread, it seems that with NFB-10SE, computer audio really needs a converter to shine.  Or am I wrong?

Well you could get the 10SE and an Audiophilleo2 for the same price as the Burson- overkill but you get my point.
 

 

[drez]

Kingwa has struck on a winner here - I don't think I would miss the saber NFB-10 when I have the SE on hand.  I think there are even some aspects of the tonality I prefer on the SE versus the ES.  Overall however I feel the ES images better and has more microdetail (of course) but this comes at the expense of being more revealing of recording artifacts and a slight reduction in body.  I definitely wouldn't put $400 between them though.
 
For the money this is also overall better than the Burson which I find overly warm in the bass which muffles the mids.  This plus a $400 transport would walk all over a Burson even more.