[tme110]

I found optical very sensitive to jitter but not COAX in fact I've found COAX to be the best overall fit for getting full capabilities and not having signal/jitter issues.

 

[tme110]

that probably depends on my mood
 
Quote:

 
You like it better than your Apex and MApletree? 

 

 

[Naim.F.C]

Guys, please help me out. Ideally I want an all in one DAC/Amp for my T1's and later perhaps HD800 and LCD-2's but holy crap, it's mind numbingly difficult to get anywhere with these decisions. The market is so crowded. Every day I get recommended like 2-3 new products. Basically, I'm after a warm, full sounding all in one with a tubey sort of sounds (to null the high peaks of the brighter cans and add some body and smoothness). Is the 10SE up to that? How does it compare to the Audiolab M-DAC? I'd be using the amp built in.
 
I've scrubbed off the Benchmark DAC1, NuForce Icon HDP and a couple of others after hearing they're a bit more clean or cold sounding, whereas I'm after something slightly warmer. Also read that the Schiit Bifrost is similar sounding which is why I'm not sure about my Bifrost+Asgard combo any more.
 
Thinking of running it through a Macbook Pro via USB and SPDIF from my PC sound card.
 
Can anyone advise me? I'd be truly grateful!

 

[drez]

I would probably rule the NFB-10 out for HD800 and T1 as it is very neutral, too neutral for those phones IMO.
 
Given your preferences the RWA Isabellina or similar would be your best bet for a high quality tubey all-in-one solution.
 
EDIT: AFAIK

 

[YoengJyh]

Bad news to me... My NFB-10SE was dead... tonight.. only. Just drop an email to audio-gd.
 
Hopefully they could reply me asap.
 
Edit: Eh? The NFB-10SE was automatically survived after 20minutes of turning on power... weird...

 

[glenda]

Quote:

Guys, please help me out. Ideally I want an all in one DAC/Amp for my T1's and later perhaps HD800 and LCD-2's but holy crap, it's mind numbingly difficult to get anywhere with these decisions. The market is so crowded. Every day I get recommended like 2-3 new products. Basically, I'm after a warm, full sounding all in one with a tubey sort of sounds (to null the high peaks of the brighter cans and add some body and smoothness). Is the 10SE up to that? How does it compare to the Audiolab M-DAC? I'd be using the amp built in.
 
I've scrubbed off the Benchmark DAC1, NuForce Icon HDP and a couple of others after hearing they're a bit more clean or cold sounding, whereas I'm after something slightly warmer. Also read that the Schiit Bifrost is similar sounding which is why I'm not sure about my Bifrost+Asgard combo any more.
 
Thinking of running it through a Macbook Pro via USB and SPDIF from my PC sound card.
 
Can anyone advise me? I'd be truly grateful!

 I also hate the Benchmark sound, so I would try wolfson and pcm1704 based dac's first. But its impossible to predict what one prefers,  famous speaker designer Lynn Olsen said it important to get advice from people who have similar hearing preferences but they are hard to find.  I think you may want to start with a NFB-12, I am a tube guy but it is very impractical to build a full tube amp that can swing 10Vrms into headphones.  You have a fairly voltage hungry phone and want to buy a current hungry phone,  going to be difficult to find a tube amp that really performs with both of these phones.   I think the NFB-12 has a nice full sound and at only $200 for a DAC+amp it surprised the heck out of this tube guy plus you aren't out a lot if you don't like it, it measures like a decent tube amp with basically just 2H distortion but what makes it unique (and the 10SE) is that the sound signature doesn't change with the volume position and it really has a lot of power, it doesn't have NFB.    
 
   I was under the assumption that the NFB12 amp section was just half of the 10SE's so I am confused as the NFB-12 is not neutral rather warm and full  and of course you can change the digital filter and upsample with your mac to change the hf roll-off.  See the thread about it.    For the opposite end of the spectrum you could get a $100 O2 which is completely neutral,   then you could spend your money finding a good tube dac.
 
 
Your post just caught my attention with the mention of the Benchmark and the 600 ohm headphones,   the NFB-12 was really the first amp I was satisfied with my 600 ohm AKG's and it would have the current to drive LCD-2s and of course enough power for hd800's (but I think you should also try $100 MS1's as you may be a Grado guy and not know it.) 
 

 

[tme110]

Half an -10 amp wouldn't even remotely fit into a -12 (the -10 is 4 times larger).  And warmer or not the 2 amps don't sound alike at all.  The -12 sounds fuzzy compared to the -10.  I'm not sure the 2 are that close at all.

 

[tme110]

I didn't mean to imply any bad feelings towards the -12.  I have one and I don't plan on getting rid of it.

 

[zenki14]

I've owned both the NFB-12 and T1 at the same time but to be honest I don't really recommend that pairing.
Although NFB-12 has good power to drive high impedance headphones it somewhat lacked punch in the bass,
which makes music focused on mids and highs, that eventually made me fatigued with the T1.
 
Also since the T1 has efficient Tesla drivers it's much easier to drive than the DT990/600 with same impedance.
(For the NFB-12 I still recommend the DT990, much better synergy than the T1)

If Naim.F.C wants tubey sound, probably should really go for tubes.  How about a Lyr.. and just get a decent DAC to pair it.
 
However if he wants the LCD-2 he should probably think about another setup, and if I had LCD-2 I would probably go for this NFB-10SE.
Signatures of the T1 and LCD-2 are so different, it will be hard for one budget setup to match both.
 
 
Quote:

 I also hate the Benchmark sound, so I would try wolfson and pcm1704 based dac's first. But its impossible to predict what one prefers,  famous speaker designer Lynn Olsen said it important to get advice from people who have similar hearing preferences but they are hard to find.  I think you may want to start with a NFB-12, I am a tube guy but it is very impractical to build a full tube amp that can swing 10Vrms into headphones.  You have a fairly voltage hungry phone and want to buy a current hungry phone,  going to be difficult to find a tube amp that really performs with both of these phones.   I think the NFB-12 has a nice full sound and at only $200 for a DAC+amp it surprised the heck out of this tube guy plus you aren't out a lot if you don't like it, it measures like a decent tube amp with basically just 2H distortion but what makes it unique (and the 10SE) is that the sound signature doesn't change with the volume position and it really has a lot of power, it doesn't have NFB.    
 
   I was under the assumption that the NFB12 amp section was just half of the 10SE's so I am confused as the NFB-12 is not neutral rather warm and full  and of course you can change the digital filter and upsample with your mac to change the hf roll-off.  See the thread about it.    For the opposite end of the spectrum you could get a $100 O2 which is completely neutral,   then you could spend your money finding a good tube dac.
 
 
Your post just caught my attention with the mention of the Benchmark and the 600 ohm headphones,   the NFB-12 was really the first amp I was satisfied with my 600 ohm AKG's and it would have the current to drive LCD-2s and of course enough power for hd800's (but I think you should also try $100 MS1's as you may be a Grado guy and not know it.) 
 

 

 

[drez]

I tried the output voltage mod the other day (on NFB-10 ES).
 
IMO stock output voltage had best results and mod did not affect sibilants, so IMO just keep the stock voltage and call the system neutral.

 

[fomoz]

Hello,

I'm looking for an amp/DAC/pre-amp like the DacMagic Plus and the Audiolab M-DAC. I need balanced XLR outputs for speakers and an unbalanced headphone out. Any suggestions? Is the NFB-10SE what I need?

From what the description says, the 1/4" headphone out is unbalanced.

If we only use the RCA or 1/4' headphone output, is the NFB-10SE wasted or not fully utilized?
The NFB-10SE is a real balanced output DAC and headphone amp, it has balanced (ACSS, XLR and balanced headphone output), single-ended output (RCA and 1/4' headphone output). There are 4 ACSS amps in the NFB-10SE for balanced output, and balanced input, so even through single-ended output, the all WM8741 DA chips will perform fully.

Thanks!

 

[tme110]

1/4 headphone jacks are unbalanced - they all are.  But in addition to the 1/4, it has a 4-pin XLR headphone jack which is balanced. 
 
It has XLR out's but they are line outs obviusly so you can't connect them directly to a speaker unless you're using active speakers. 
 
It is a digital preamp and can switch between multiple digital inputs but it has no analog inputs.

 

[d4nim4l]

I got my neutrik adapter kits and have been listening balanced for the past 3 days with some homemade canare cables.  The most notable change is a lot more bass presence, which is welcomed.  Beyond that it seems to make it generally better in every way I mentioned in my initial impression a few pages back.
 
My listening level went from high gain @ ~10 SE to high gain @ ~2 balanced with the same content.  I did notice some of the harshness in the upper frequencies on some recordings right when I got it; this has definitely softened as I approach the 250 hour burn in period.

 

[winkyeye]

Quote:

I got my neutrik adapter kits and have been listening balanced for the past 3 days with some homemade canare cables.  The most notable change is a lot more bass presence, which is welcomed.  Beyond that it seems to make it generally better in every way I mentioned in my initial impression a few pages back.
 
My listening level went from high gain @ ~10 SE to high gain @ ~2 balanced with the same content.  I did notice some of the harshness in the upper frequencies on some recordings right when I got it; this has definitely softened as I approach the 250 hour burn in period.

Awesome! I too recently ordered a neutrik 4 pin XLR connector since it's almost impossible to find at my local stores and I am anxiously waiting to make my LCD-2's cables balanced.
 

 

[HD595]

Hello,
 
I too am interested in NFB10SE for my Sennheiser HD595. If I get it, I will definitely make the balanced connector mod. My question is whether 10SE is an overkill to low impedance HD595. Kingwa has suggested NFB12 to me. But I am very tempted to try the complete balanced setup which should give 10SE a longer ownership considering future can upgrade and/or using it as a pure balanced DAC.
Personally IMHO Audio-gd's headphone amp design is superior than many of its competitors. This raises my next concern that 10SE lacks analog input which prevents it from being a standalone headphone amp in case crazy 32bit/384kHz recordings + fancy DAC become available in the future.
To give my question a better context, my environment will be foobar2000 + kernel_streaming/wasapi + USB + NFB?? + HD595 for now.
Thank you for your advice.