[somestranger26]

Ugh double post

 

[somestranger26]

Quote:

The AMP section of this thing is based on Roc or RocSA?
I suppose I't the SA version which means I should be "musical" sounding. This could explain the "juicy" sound.
With that treble it doesn't look like a good friend for the HE6.


 

Just letting you know Kingwa's "musical" gear tends to still be neutral but with some treble emphasis fwir. I don't think it's based on Roc or Roc SA because the output power on those stays the same at 100ohm and below but the NFB-10's goes up. I'm sure Kingwa would let you know if you email him.

 

[amcananey]

To the extent that it is based on either (and I'm not saying it is, I have no idea) I doubt it would be based on the ROC SA. As I undertand it, the ROC SA didn't support ACSS, whereas I have been told that internally the communication between the NFB-10 DAC and the amp is via ACSS. This should keep the signal neutral. All of the Audio-Gd ACSS-based gear is neutral-sounding.
 
Best regards,
Adam

 

[somestranger26]

Quote:

To the extent that it is based on either (and I'm not saying it is, I have no idea) I doubt it would be based on the ROC SA. As I undertand it, the ROC SA didn't support ACSS, whereas I have been told that internally the communication between the NFB-10 DAC and the amp is via ACSS. This should keep the signal neutral. All of the Audio-Gd ACSS-based gear is neutral-sounding.
 
Best regards,
Adam

 
To me the headphone amplifier section looks very similar to the C-2.1, but balanced and using linear as opposed to class A psu.

 

[somestranger26]

WOW this thing drives the HE-6 well. Screw the naysayers who think you need a speaker amp. Just from plugging it in I can tell a huge improvement in instrument positioning and bass (I was using EF5 from DAC-19MK3before). It's like having a subwoofer on my head. If anyone is wondering about treble, the NFB-10 is very deft about handling it but does not overpower whatsoever. Some songs have a bit too much treble energy but I think I can blame the recording (e.g. Armin Van Buuren's new album, track #13 with BT). Vocals are very... natural, they blend perfectly with the rest of the music. The volume control is really nifty and I'm using it around noon/1 on high gain. Low gain takes pretty much max volume for good volume levels.

 

[sayh]

Quote:

WOW this thing drives the HE-6 well. Screw the naysayers who think you need a speaker amp. Just from plugging it in I can tell a huge improvement in instrument positioning and bass (I was using EF5 from DAC-19MK3before). It's like having a subwoofer on my head. If anyone is wondering about treble, the NFB-10 is very deft about handling it but does not overpower whatsoever. Some songs have a bit too much treble energy but I think I can blame the recording (e.g. Armin Van Buuren's new album, track #13 with BT). Vocals are very... natural, they blend perfectly with the rest of the music. The volume control is really nifty and I'm using it around noon/1 on high gain. Low gain takes pretty much max volume for good volume levels.

Do plenty of burn-in on the NFB-10 and awaiting impressions from you on the HE-6 with different genres of musics.  = )

 

[PUGSTUB]

Mine is due to be delivered tomorrow. I ordered the 10Es with USB input. i can hardly wait to try it out with my Sennheiser HD800's.

 

[Wulvy]

 
Quote:

WOW this thing drives the HE-6 well. Screw the naysayers who think you need a speaker amp. Just from plugging it in I can tell a huge improvement in instrument positioning and bass (I was using EF5 from DAC-19MK3before). It's like having a subwoofer on my head. If anyone is wondering about treble, the NFB-10 is very deft about handling it but does not overpower whatsoever. Some songs have a bit too much treble energy but I think I can blame the recording (e.g. Armin Van Buuren's new album, track #13 with BT). Vocals are very... natural, they blend perfectly with the rest of the music. The volume control is really nifty and I'm using it around noon/1 on high gain. Low gain takes pretty much max volume for good volume levels.

Nice I'm glad your liking it and hope it's worth all the trouble/delays you had in acquiring it. Its good to hear it drives the HE-6 well. The HE-6 clearly takes a lot more juice than the LCD-2 - I like listening to the LCD-2's quite loud and around 12 o clock with gain off is usually where I have it. 9 o clock is still very listenable though. Are you running the HE-6 balanced?
 
One thing I'd be really interested in is how big of a difference the digital interface and BJC BNC makes in your setup versus just using the NFB10 straight from the computer in USB mode like I do. But burn her in first mate

 

[somestranger26]

Quote:

Nice I'm glad your liking it and hope it's worth all the trouble/delays you had in acquiring it. Its good to hear it drives the HE-6 well. The HE-6 clearly takes a lot more juice than the LCD-2 - I like listening to the LCD-2's quite loud and around 12 o clock with gain off is usually where I have it. 9 o clock is still very listenable though. Are you running the HE-6 balanced?
 
One thing I'd be really interested in is how big of a difference the digital interface and BJC BNC makes in your setup versus just using the NFB10 straight from the computer in USB mode like I do. But burn her in first mate

Yeah I'm running them balanced and am not going to bother comparing single ended seeing as they come balanced out of the box. I should add that I was listening to some quieter songs when it was around 12-1, I find louder songs are good around 10:30-11 or so and higher if I want it quite loud like you.
 
Sorry, I can't give you a comparison between USB and BNC, I got the non-usb ES. The power filter is new and helps too, especially bringing details out from the background.
 
I'm planning to post some more detailed impressions Sunday before I ship my he-6 for a replacement.

 

[milosz]

I'm using the NFB-10ES on my HE-6, there's PLENTY of power.  
 
When people say you need speaker amps for the HE-6, they are kind of right in a way- you need an amp comfortably capable of around 2 watts into 50 ohms for full potential performance of the HE-6's.  Some might say 4 watts.  OK, I won't quibble over 3 dB.
 
An amp that can deliver 2 watts into 50 ohms can potentially deliver 12.5 watts into 8 ohm speakers.
 
The Audio-GD NFB-10ES is rated at 4 watts into 100 ohms.  Going purely by Ohm's Law, this amp circuit inside the NFB-10ES should be capable of 8 watts into the 50-ohm HE-6 and into 8 ohm speakers calculations show 50 watts per channel!  50 watts / channel is INDEED a "speaker amp" by any definition. 
 
HOWEVER, doing power calculations using Ohm's Law ignores limitation as regards current delivery by the amplifier; I doubt the NFB-10's power supply could stand up to demands for current by 8 ohm speaker loads, and the heatsinks on the output transistors are in no way sufficient to dissipate the heat that would be generated pumping 50 watts / channel out into speakers, so after a brief listen at that power level, the silicon dies inside the output transistors would melt. This would result in "kaput."
 
But I bet if you connected a pair of speakers to the NFB-10 it would drive them just fine at moderately low levels.  It could rock your house pretty fair with a pair of Klipschorns! 
 
So, in a sense the NFB-10  IS a speaker amp-  it's just not built so that it could actually drive speakers properly.  Add a 3x bigger power supply and 5 times the heatsink area plus a little forced air cooling and you'd have a FINE  "speaker amp."  This is true for all the larger headphone amps.  Given a little more beef in the power supply and heatsink departments and they can drive speakers.  There are folks who use appropriately modified Beta 22's to drive high-efficiency speakers, for example.

 

[milosz]

Does anyone know if the output stage of the NFB-10 is Class A?  I assume it is, but.....
 
I could ask Audio-Gd  I suppose.

 

[PUGSTUB]

Just wanted to let the folks here know that Pacific Valve has the NFB-10ES in stock ready for delivery. Free shipping

 

[PUGSTUB]

Just got my 10Es and I must say I am a little disappointed in the sound. The highs sound real hot and shrill. Can anybody tell me if they will tame down with burn-in? My matrix Mini-i sounded better in the highs than this but I must say that I haven't really allowed it to burn-in yet. Thoughts?

 

[haloxt]

Try some albums that haven't been overly compressed. Sorry if you didn't know but that's the only kind of music tolerable with higher end audio-gd neutral gear .

 

[PUGSTUB]

I am thinking I should have ordered the one with the Wolfson DAC chips instead of the Sabre but I will give it some more time to burn in and see.