[chucky27]

Asked Kingwa which wire to cut to disable mute relay (despite seeing the photo couple of pages back) and his response was "You cut the one wire" and no picture or description of which one.
So does anyone know for sure - is it 2 wires or one (if one - which then). Thanks.

 

[chucky27]

Nevermind guys, i've cut the one with red stripes and mute is gone -  bye-bye clicks/pops in PCM.

 

[Surlias]

So cutting the wire totally resolved the problems you were having?
 
Have you tried DSD audio yet? Cutting the wire isn't supposed to disable DSD playback, but supposedly the mute is implemented to avoid a loud "popping" sound when first starting DSD playback and I'm curious just how bad/loud the popping is.

 

[chucky27]

  So cutting the wire totally resolved the problems you were having?
 
Have you tried DSD audio yet? Cutting the wire isn't supposed to disable DSD playback, but supposedly the mute is implemented to avoid a loud "popping" sound when first starting DSD playback and I'm curious just how bad/loud the popping is.

1) Yes, it did. no clicks/pops during play/pause, sound init, track switching...
2) DSD pop is not that bad, somehow i had occasional much louder pops (and 90% of it was in the left channel) with mute relay (my unit was an early May version, in Kingwa's words about difference between May and later versions - "Another is the mute design, the new version had slight (quieter i assume) click sound than the May version but not much different."
 
So for me it was like this:
 
WITH RELAY:  foobar asio/wasapi modes - play/pause/seek/track switch - medium volume clicks in headphones with occasional much louder pops during track switch. With foo_dsd_asio output clicking/popping was more pronounced than in VIA KS ASIO. In Movies/youtube/etc - clicks(and seldom pops) on start/stop playback. No clicks in play/pause.
 
WITHOUT RELAY: foobar asio (VIA KS ASIO) mode - no clicking whatsoever. Using foo_dsd_asio (for native DSD) medium pops during DSD manual track switching and a bit louder pop (but bearable, for me at least) during PCM->DSD switch.
In Movies/Youtube/etc - no clicks/pops/mute.
 
I was already using DSD-to-PCM conversion, having couple of albums in multichannel, so no loss for me on that front too.
 
I was thinking of adding a relay switch myself after cutting the wire, comparing the results - my relay-enabled experience was worse than having it disabled, but again, it may have been my particular unit's faulty relay.  Next step is TCXO upgrade)))

 

[Surlias]

 
1) Yes, it did. no clicks/pops in during play/pause, sound init, track switching...
2) DSD pop is not that bad, somehow i had occasional much louder pops (and 90% of it was in the left channel) with mute relay (my unit was an early May version, in Kingwa's words about differences between May and later versions - "Another is the mute design, the new version had slight (quieter i assume) click sound than the May version but not much different."
 
So for me it was like this:
 
WITH RELAY:  foobar asio/wasapi modes - play/pause/seek/track switch - medium volume clicks in headphones with occasional much louder pops during track switch. With foo_dsd_asio output clicking/popping was more pronounced than in VIA KS ASIO. In Movies/youtube/etc - clicks(and seldom pops) on start/stop playback. No clicks in play/pause.
 
WITHOUT RELAY: foobar asio (VIA KS ASIO) mode - no clicking whatsoever. Using foo_dsd_asio (for native DSD) medium pops during DSD manual track switching and a bit louder pop (but bearable, for me at least) during PCM->DSD switch.
In Movies/Youtube/etc - no clicks/pops/mute.
 
I was already using DSD-to-PCM conversion, having couple of albums in multichannel, so no loss for me on that front too.
 
I was thinking of adding a relay switch myself after cutting the wire, but comparing the results - my relay-enabled experience was worse than having it disabled, but again, it may have been my particular unit's faulty relay.  Next step is TCXO upgrade)))

 
Well damn, I guess I'll just go ahead and cut that **** and stop getting worked up about it. Probably just use via KS audio and do DSD->PCM conversion to avoid ever hearing any pops etc. It's not like I play many DSD files anyways. 
 
Thanks for taking the plunge and cutting the wire and letting us know how it turned out!

 

[mandrake50]

  Can anyone comment on the value of the TXCO upgrades? Are they even remotely worth it?

Well, you will almost always hear people say that anything that is more expensive...or more highly rated (better specs, more expensive) is "better" .
As with most things, you get to a place of severely diminishing returns. Can you hear the difference is the better question.
I have yet to see anyone doing a double blind test with identical gear except for the TXCO change.
 
The idea is that the more accuracy in the clock, the better the jitter specs.... as long as the rest of the design is done well. BTW, those clocks are used all of the time regardless of up-sampling!
So the question comes back to can you hear the three to four decimal place difference in the jitter? Just speculation on my part, but I think the majority of people will not!
 
Would it be worth it to you? How critical do you listen? What level of training in listening do you have? If you are a casual listener, it likely is not worth it..
Other than maybe the fact that you can say that you DAC/AMP has those high end clocks in it... placebo anyone?

 

[JustinZ]

I asked kingwa about adding a switch to my 1 week old NFB-11 and... no response...

 

[Surlias]

I asked kingwa about adding a switch to my 1 week old NFB-11 and... no response...

I have an email conversation with Audio-GD customer service asking the same question that reached about 30 replies back and forth before I gave up, and the ultimate outcome was that they definitely weren't willing to do a simple exchange. They were willing to accept a return but I've received only ambiguous and conflicting responses regarding whether they will issue a full refund including original shipping cost if I pay to ship the old unit back to them, all so that I can simply reorder the newer model with the switch ready installed. Best case scenario I'm out the cost of shipping the unit from USA to China.

Anyways, I decided to drop the whole exchange/return idea and just go ahead and cut the wire so I don't have to deal with any further frustration communicating with them via email and the possibly considerable expense for a feature that might not even be that important, given the effectiveness of cutting the wire reported by a few Head-Fi members.

 

[schuetz]

Does anyone experience click/pops under OS X or Linux for theese both operating system are natively UAC2* compliant and therefore do not need drivers? (USB audio Class 2.0)

 

[willowbrook]

  Does anyone experience click/pops under OS X or Linux for theese both operating system are natively UAC2* compliant and therefore do not need drivers? (USB audio Class 2.0)

Did you try switching USB ports?

 

[schuetz]

  Did you try switching USB ports?

No for I do not have this DAC but I was wondering if the windows USB drivers might be implicated (pops/clicks) or if it is an hardware issue.

 

[willowbrook]

So, I was able to get a used DT880 for a very cheap price. Hooked it up and it sounded pretty good. I think having HD650 and DT880 together will be a great combination to swap back and forth. The treble on the DT880...something you can't get out of HD650.

 

[BlueRequiem]

 
No for I do not have this DAC but I was wondering if the windows USB drivers might be implicated (pops/clicks) or if it is an hardware issue.

If it helps, my NFB-15 works flawlessly with linux.  It's pretty much plug and play and I haven't experienced any pops or clicks.  Since the NFB-11 and 15 both use the via usb-32 chip, it's probably a safe bet that it would work fine under linux as well. It might be the same case with mac os, but I don't have a mac to test it with.

 

[conquerator2]

The latest driver might have resolved some issues I had with my DI-V2014's USB input [not recognized, intermittent on/off]. Seems like the latest drivers have been solving lots of issues!
If things stay good then what seemed like a hardware issue might turn out to be software after all... LOL 

I'll keep ya posted folks.

 

[kishorfarm]

I just cut one of the wires on my NFB-11 (bought on September 2014). No more annoying "click click click" and lost pieces of music all the time. NFB-11 is a good DAC/amp combo, but I can't believe they released it with such a botched job.
 
Greetings from Spain.