[leesure]

Quote:

If possible, it would be interesting to hear how would your 10SE, your Schiit and your Isabellina combo scale up with better transport (f.e. audiophilleo or the likes).
 

 
Unfortunately, I have only two digital delivery options...computer or Virtue Audio CD player digital out.  I have no current plans to add another option. 

 

[tme110]

And an audiophilio with a -10 seems a bit extreme.  A hiface maybe.

 

[tim3320070]

I felt the DI was pretty close to my AP@, you could try that one too (w/o PSU is a better value for the 10SE IMO).

 

[brasewel]

Quote:

 
I never said my experience and opinion was gospel...it's just my opinion and experience. I stand by what I heard to date, but your mileage may vary. 
 
I will note that since I described what I was hearing, others have come forth with descriptions of 'dryness' 'sibilance' and not playing well with HD800's...a headphone with a brighter sound signature.  Perhaps I am not alone in hearing what I'm hearing. 

You're definitely not alone since we both came to the same conclusion that day.
 
 

 

[drez]

I think a few people were also saying the amp section on the NFB-10 is a little bright - so maybe I have just become used to this presentation (as a side note I find my SE brighter than my older sabre ES, so hopefully it burns in).  Anyway will be moving to a more powerfaul amp - either Little Dot MKIV+ or Master 6 to drive Hifiman HE-6 so hopefully that will give me some better perspective to comment on the NFB-10 SE - I certainly don't want to pair a bright dac/amp with the HE-6

.

 

[DarknightDK]

Quote:

I think a few people were also saying the amp section on the NFB-10 is a little bright - so maybe I have just become used to this presentation (as a side note I find my SE brighter than my older sabre ES, so hopefully it burns in).  Anyway will be moving to a more powerfaul amp - either Little Dot MKIV+ or Master 6 to drive Hifiman HE-6 so hopefully that will give me some better perspective to comment on the NFB-10 SE - I certainly don't want to pair a bright dac/amp with the HE-6

.

Very tempted with the Master 5/6 as well. I wonder how much of a step up is the Master 5/6 from the 10SE. There hasn't been many impressions on the Master 5/6 amplifiers and I'm hoping someone would do a review soon.

 

[drez]

I'm sure it's excellent - just personally I will see first how well the HE-6 does with the NFB-10 ES power as the Master 6 produces about the same, otherwise it would be a no-brainer.
 
For LCD-3 the difference would be pretty clear I would imagine.
 
Schiit statement products could be great also - a more refined Lyr could be excellent, hope they release specs soon.

 

[tim3320070]

Quote:

Very tempted with the Master 5/6 as well. I wonder how much of a step up is the Master 5/6 from the 10SE. There hasn't been many impressions on the Master 5/6 amplifiers and I'm hoping someone would do a review soon.

I might the only person with a Master-5 and a 10SE. The Master-5 is definitely more refined and natural sounding, an awesome amp. Probably not worth 3x the money but if you want the best....
 

 

[DarknightDK]

Quote:

I might the only person with a Master-5 and a 10SE. The Master-5 is definitely more refined and natural sounding, an awesome amp. Probably not worth 3x the money but if you want the best....
 

I wonder how the Master 5/6 compares to the RSA Dark Star. They both seem to have incredible amounts of power to drive all headphones.

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

I wonder how the Master 5/6 compares to the RSA Dark Star. They both seem to have incredible amounts of power to drive all headphones.

I believe the DS puts out 49Ws into the HE-6's 50ohm load.  Compared that to the 7Ws at 50ohms of the Master-6.
 
 

Spoiler: Source

 

...Ray's running +/-40 volt supplies in the Dark Star. The OPA541's can swing within several volts of the rails. So even at a conservative 5 volts, that's 70 volts peak in bridged mode. Into 50 ohms, that's 49 watts RMS.
 
[Note]: The above of course presupposes that you have a source with sufficient output to drive the Dark Star's outputs to 70 volts peak. I don't know what the maximum gain of the Dark Star is, but if you're feeding it with say, a 4VRMS output from a balanced DAC or CD player, it would need to have about 22dB of gain in order to achieve that output.

 
 

 

 

[tim3320070]

Quote:

I wonder how the Master 5/6 compares to the RSA Dark Star. They both seem to have incredible amounts of power to drive all headphones.

At $3500 for the DS, you could have a Master-6/ Ref-7.1 system. Just saying.

 

[leesure]

Quote:

At $3500 for the DS, you could have a Master-6/ Ref-7.1 system. Just saying.

Or a RWA balanced Isabellina.  The system Skylab says made his LCD-2's sound better than anything he's tried.
 
But isn't this about the NFB-10?

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

Or a RWA balanced Isabellina.  The system Skylab says made his LCD-2's sound better than anything he's tried.
 
But isn't this about the NFB-10?

I hear yours is sounding terrific now ("A Skylab Recommendation[size=11.0pt]™[/size]" of tubes, I bet?).  It'll be nice to hear it again in January.
 
...back to the NFB-10.  Where were we?  Dryness?  

 

[leesure]

I had an extra Mullard ECC88...same as I'm running in my Lyr.  Gave it a try and it made a big difference over the JJ.

 

[brasewel]

Quote:

I had an extra Mullard ECC88...same as I'm running in my Lyr.  Gave it a try and it made a big difference over the JJ.

From that one song I heard through the RWA it's a pretty big difference from what I heard at your meet and a week later. It will now be a really close call between the top amps. Looking forward to the PA meet to rate a winner