[ac500]

I am quite tempted to buy the NFB10se as an upgrade for my HD650. I wonder if this will scale up my HD650 anywhere near the flagships, as some people claim the HD650 is capable of (or maybe they're just crazy to claim that)? At least, I wonder if it's worth the price/performance as an upgrade coming from my NFB12 for the HD650.

 

[HD595]

Quote:

Just sent an email to Kingwa about why he did not allow DAC bypass in his DAC+Amp combo products, e.g. NFB-10,5,12..., which can only do Amp bypass. Are there any obvious reasons I ignored?

Dr. He said that since in general customers do not use DAC+Amp combo as an Amp, he decided to remove such feature and to reduce the price.
 
I somehow find it contradictory to what I read from many threads on head-fi... 

 

[tme110]

I was going to off load most of my stuff except for the -10 but just yesterday I started thinking I may actually get rid of the 10 because I can't use it as an amp.  Though I have 3 balanced sources but no amp to connect any of them to...
 
 
 

 

[tme110]

HD650's may scale well but I see no way how someone could consider them a flagship with any amount of scaling (unless they haven't heard a flagship).
 
Quote:

I am quite tempted to buy the NFB10se as an upgrade for my HD650. I wonder if this will scale up my HD650 anywhere near the flagships, as some people claim the HD650 is capable of (or maybe they're just crazy to claim that)? At least, I wonder if it's worth the price/performance as an upgrade coming from my NFB12 for the HD650.

 

 

[olor1n]

Quote:

I am quite tempted to buy the NFB10se as an upgrade for my HD650. I wonder if this will scale up my HD650 anywhere near the flagships, as some people claim the HD650 is capable of (or maybe they're just crazy to claim that)? At least, I wonder if it's worth the price/performance as an upgrade coming from my NFB12 for the HD650.

Prepare for bitter disappointment if you expect the 10SE to bridge the gap between the HD650 and something like the LCD-2. If anything that divide was widened, as I felt my rev.2 had better synergy with the 10SE than the HD650.
 
The 10SE's features and its budget price weighed heavily, but in the end I found the HD650 too fatiguing due to dryness in the upper mids that persisted after a long burn in. The synergy with the rev.2 was outweighed by the HD650 being my main headphone and the 10SE was moved on as a result.

 

[drez]

Quote:

^ Joeseph Grado gonna be there. I'm jealous.
 

So did you end up keeping the ES? I see that you sold the SE..
 

Ended up selling the ES (Sabre) as I was unable to increase the tonal saturation to an acceptable degree!

 

[BleaK]

My NFB-10SE just about to ship, and I must say. The customer support of Audio gd is just top class!
 
Had some trouble with paypal and had a dialog with Sai as I fixed it and he was very patient and tried to help as best he could.
 
I am very pleased as I wait for it to ship!

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

The transducer will ALWAYS make the largestt difference, for better or worse.  In loudspeaker audio, the rule of thumb was that you should invest haf of your budget into the speakers and the other half into source and amplification. The same or similar holds true in head-fi...perhaps not half, but the cans should be the 'best' portion of your chain.  For example, if you have $2,000 to spend...a pretty large initial budget...I would recommend $900-1000 cans and $900-1000 of electronics to drive it, rather than buying $500 'phones and $1500 on the DAC & amp. 
 
While I have not been the most vocal supporter of he sonic signature of the 10SE, what its price does is allow you to invest more in the phones than you could have otherwise while keeping to the budget.  
 
In short, I'd rather see someone buy LCD-2's and a 10se than a maxed Woo WA6SE to drive Senn HD-25's for roughly the same budget.  Always dedicate the most you can to the transducer. 

I've always been a proponent of this ^ "strategy" but purchasing the Zodiac recently has me reconsidering, not entirely, but at least enough to say...it ain't that simple after all.  I now fall in the camp that would say: it depends on what you're looking for.  
 
If you're just looking for maximum resolution, then go the above route, but if you're looking for a step above in timbre, tonal realism, accurate sound reproduction & accurate spatial cues, then buying a very resolving phone won't help you much at all.  It will most likely mean that you'll be hearing the "problem" in great resolution.

 

[FauDrei]

...but if you're looking for a step above in timbre, tonal realism, accurate sound reproduction & accurate spatial cues, then buying a very resolving phone won't help you much at all.  It will most likely mean that you'll be hearing the "problem" in great resolution.

True. Very true - you will have an open window to almost all flaws in your system. The worst thing that might happen in such situation is that you get rid of your nice headphones/speakers because you blame them for the flaws in the rest of your present chain.

 

[YoengJyh]

Hi Guys,
 
This is the second time that no indicator power is on after i turn on the plug socket. Does anyone encounter this issue?
 
I am waiting now, and wish it would back to normal as the 1st time.
 
Edit: Ok, after 10 to 15 minutes wait. The 10SE back to normal. Weird... what is the problems then?

 

[HD595]

Quote:

True. Very true - you will have an open window to almost all flaws in your system. The worst thing that might happen in such situation is that you get rid of your nice headphones/speakers because you blame them for the flaws in the rest of your present chain.

Aren't we all experts on isolating the problem? With all my questions, people on this forum helped me out with great precision inferring individual component(s) in such chain, even down to the cable level.  For me, I would rather criticise bad recordings than rave on my equipment, until I have new budget. Yeah, sure it is a chicken-and-egg problem. LOL
It is like putting a supercharged V8 into a Honda civic. Whose fault is it?
 

 

[winkyeye]

Does anyone have experience driving the HE-500 or the HE-6 in balanced mode with these?

 

[jtiis]

I'm running 500s with it. I like the sound a lot, but I'm eager to hear more experienced ears chime in. I have little audiophile experience and hence, little to compare my finding to. Others?...

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

True. Very true - you will have an open window to almost all flaws in your system. The worst thing that might happen in such situation is that you get rid of your nice headphones/speakers because you blame them for the flaws in the rest of your present chain.

In some sense (overall agree with you).  Lower end ancillaries tend to be forgiving though.  So the "flaws" aren't really apparent & tend to be hard to notice unless you have a higher-end source on hand to compare with.  

 

[leesure]

Quote:

Does anyone have experience driving the HE-500 or the HE-6 in balanced mode with these?

I have the 500's with it and find the combination a bit dry...bordering on glarey.  I prefer the LCD-2's with it as they are a bit dark to begin with.