[stephennic]

Quote:

See
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/624517/audio-gd-nfb-11-32-delivery-impression-thread/825#post_9649689

Hi,
I put the plug back in today, and certaintly is warmer and smoother but I did lose a little in basspunch and details not quite as forward. Its seems more balanced tonally now.
cheers
Steve.

 

[mohdkhamsya]

I was just wondering. What kind of usb cables do you guys use with the dac? Anything fancy? I think the one supplied good enough. I love how everything sounds now. But you see I'm looking for a shorter cable. I like my desktop to be neat and uncluttered. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

 

[genclaymore]

I use a monoprice usb cable with my NFB15.32 nothing fancy.

 

[GaryPham]

Are any of you guys using the 11.32 with a bottlehead crack by any chance?  I just ordered a kit and was wondering how it compares to the internal amp on the 11.32 (which I already find to be very nice sounding and freakishly powerful).

 

[bhazard]

I was about to pull the trigger on an O2+ODAC to try to get working on my Nexus 4/7 and PC, but then I see this nfb for nearly the same price, and it looks much better spec wise.
 
Any thoughts from someone who ran both? Is the 11.32 that much better?

 

[GaryPham]

Quote:

I was about to pull the trigger on an O2+ODAC to try to get working on my Nexus 4/7 and PC, but then I see this nfb for nearly the same price, and it looks much better spec wise.
 
Any thoughts from someone who ran both? Is the 11.32 that much better?

I've never owned the odac, but I have owned the O2 amplifier and the schiit magni/modi stack.  I can honestly say that the 11.32 stomps both the magni/modi stack and the modi/O2 combo.  The amplifier on the 11.32 is freakishly powerful and the ESS9018 dac is leagues ahead of the ESS9023 on the odac or the AKM chip on the modi. 

 

[bhazard]

I've never owned the odac, but I have owned the O2 amplifier and the schiit magni/modi stack.  I can honestly say that the 11.32 stomps both the magni/modi stack and the modi/O2 combo.  The amplifier on the 11.32 is freakishly powerful and the ESS9018 dac is leagues ahead of the ESS9023 on the odac or the AKM chip on the modi. 

That pretty much made the decision for me, thanks!

This will be my first DAC, which is surprising since I'm not exactly new to high end audio. I finished building my own full range tower speakers not too long ago, so it should be interesting to hear the difference between PC HDMI/AVR Burr Browns/emotiva xpa-5 to the 11.32 and my emotiva amp directly. The killer headphone amp is just a nice bonus.

 

[h4mm3r 0f th0r]

i haven't used the bifrost but i have always heard that it is slightly better than the odac and i am sure that the 11.32 might even beat that

 

[bhazard]

Just looked back in the thread on impressions/reviews, which ended up making me request a quote from Audio-gd. At ~$373 with shipping and upgraded TCOXs, it just seems like a great deal. I don't see anything else near it spec wise for the price.
 
I'm hoping I can hack it to work with my USB OTG phone/tablet, but if not, desktop and 2 channel reference speaker duty is just fine.

 

[Saraguie]

Quote:

Just looked back in the thread on impressions/reviews, which ended up making me request a quote from Audio-gd. At ~$373 with shipping and upgraded TCOXs, it just seems like a great deal. I don't see anything else near it spec wise for the price.
 
I'm hoping I can *hack it to work with my USB OTG phone/tablet, but if not, desktop and 2 channel reference speaker duty is just fine.

*Do you mean transport back and forth to work? If your used to carrying a suitcase then it won't really be a problem. Mine sits in a drawer (a shame really) and only comes out if I do not sit at my listening station where I have my home rig. It takes maybe 10 seconds to hookup. The big caution I would give is, be very careful not to shake, rattle, and roll the 11.32 too much. Other than that your good to go.

 

[GaryPham]

I apologize if I'm repeating obvious information, but I STRONGLY recommend you guys run bit-perfect (ASIO or Kernal Streaming) on foobar using the 11.32 if you aren't already doing so.  For my first few weeks of owning the 11.32, I was just running it normally through foobar at 24 bit- 192 khz, and was honestly somewhat disappointed, especially after hearing so many good things about the ESS9018.  I guess it must've been Windows re-sampling my signals or something, because once I started using Kernal Streaming and running it at 32bit 384khz, it was like night and day, soundstage expaned drastically, bass became much fuller and best of all, the highs were super smooth without any harshness at all. 

 

[bhazard]

Quote:

*Do you mean transport back and forth to work? If your used to carrying a suitcase then it won't really be a problem. Mine sits in a drawer (a shame really) and only comes out if I do not sit at my listening station where I have my home rig. It takes maybe 10 seconds to hookup. The big caution I would give is, be very careful not to shake, rattle, and roll the 11.32 too much. Other than that your good to go.

 
No, I mean that the Nexus 4 and new Nexus 7 don't natively support USB OTG audio (the new one might), and I would have to use a custom kernel/software to get it working if possible.

 

[jerg]

What's the deal with TCXOs anyway, are there any measurable improvements with them implemented, vs without?
 
I've always abode by the notion that if something makes little to no perceivable difference, but adds more stuff into the audio "chain", it's not worth it.

 

[BenF]

Quote:

What's the deal with TCXOs anyway, are there any measurable improvements with them implemented, vs without?
 
I've always abode by the notion that if something makes little to no perceivable difference, but adds more stuff into the audio "chain", it's not worth it.

I don't think anybody has both models to compare.
People just buy it because it's cheap and possibly improves the sound - and so did I.

 

[bhazard]

Quote:

I don't think anybody has both models to compare.
People just buy it because it's cheap and possibly improves the sound - and so did I.

Probably little to no audible difference. Since no one has already compared, I decided to take my chances and get it until more info is known about the differences.