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Audio-GD NFB-11
Oct 27, 2010 at 6:51 AM Post #181 of 987
The Audio-gd gear tends to sound best after 30 mins switched on. As well, we found that the sound improves over the first 350 hours of use, including the 100 hours of testing at the factory.
 
Oct 28, 2010 at 3:08 AM Post #185 of 987
I just found out why we are not getting impressions of NFB-11 yet. except for one from isao.
 
Apparently, there has been 12 NFB-11 shipped out until 26th (on their consignment webpage), all of them went to Japan.
ph34r.gif

 
http://www.audio-gd.com/ConsignmentGlobal.htm
 
Perhaps they have their own website to share the impressions??
 
Oct 28, 2010 at 7:19 AM Post #187 of 987


Quote:
vrln said:
I think most people here who said they ordered one are on the second batch, so they´ll get the NFB-11 in ~2 weeks. I´m one of them at least...
Click to expand...



Me too, I thought I was early but never got a confirmation of my order, so I had to contact them again ... I wish the ordering system was more transparent.
 
Oct 28, 2010 at 7:26 AM Post #188 of 987


Quote:
pzm9pzm9 said:
I just found out why we are not getting impressions of NFB-11 yet. except for one from isao.
 
Apparently, there has been 12 NFB-11 shipped out until 26th (on their consignment webpage), all of them went to Japan.
ph34r.gif

 
http://www.audio-gd.com/ConsignmentGlobal.htm
 
Perhaps they have their own website to share the impressions??
Click to expand...



Makes sense.  Looks like isao is in Tokyo.

 
Quote:
vrln said:
I think most people here who said they ordered one are on the second batch, so they´ll get the NFB-11 in ~2 weeks. I´m one of them at least...
Click to expand...



True.  I'm in the first batch and Edwin advised that due to the first 38 selling out quickly, that batch is slightly delayed in shipping.  I'll post when I get my tracking info.
 
Oct 28, 2010 at 2:09 PM Post #190 of 987
Is the Sabre ES9018 the best DAC in the world?
 
I'm not in serach of rage or annoyance if that's what you mean. It's just that on paper it's the best but is it the best performer?
 
Oct 28, 2010 at 5:15 PM Post #192 of 987


 
Quote:
login said:
Is the Sabre ES9018 the best DAC in the world?
 
I'm not in serach of rage or annoyance if that's what you mean. It's just that on paper it's the best but is it the best performer?
Click to expand...



Well i havent seen the paper that documents its abilities, have you seen it?
 
The digital to analogue convertion is not that dificult in itself (ex filter, iv, amp), and according to the very, very few that actually have heard the difference, fx. Marantz Ken Íshiwata, there is only slight, if any, differences. What makes it hard to make a good 1bit sound is that they are normally very sensitive to clock jitter despite fx. capacitor loading of the clock, and second is very sensitive to a fast, liniar and noise free power suply. Its hard to make, so what you can save on the dac itself compared to multibit, often transforms into cost sourrounding the dac.
 
Where is the market for cheap a/d chips, in very expensive machines?
smily_headphones1.gif
- you dont exactly brag about it, but there is many examples non the less.
 
What often contributes to to bad sound of 1bit systems is a bad i/v output, amp/buffer in the dac chip itself. Therefore for most 1bit, its simply not possible to get decent sound, not matter what.
 
The 1bit solution to d/a conversion is in fact a very, very elegant solution, that can provide very relaxed and sweet sound, but the designs have nearly always for the chips and implementation been dictated by economics and not quality. I am not saying this will happen for the nfb-11 because a lot talks against it fx. not class a discrete suply for the analogue suply of the dac, non-liniar smd decoupling of the analogue section and so on. But whatever. Perhaps the es9018 is not that sensitive to its surroundings. We will know soon enough, and hopefully we will all be clever.
 
Its by far the cheapest hifi i have ever bought, and i am really looking forward to it (even though the inside material cost looks like something that cost 5 times as much). This is what hifi should be, cheap and full of energy
smily_headphones1.gif

 
Oct 28, 2010 at 8:58 PM Post #193 of 987


Quote:
login said:
Is the Sabre ES9018 the best DAC in the world?
 
I'm not in serach of rage or annoyance if that's what you mean. It's just that on paper it's the best but is it the best performer?
Click to expand...

 
I guess it has some features and proprietary technologies never been implemented on delta-sigma one-bit converter. According to what I have read, it overcome jitter problem not by oversampling (as most people believe) rather by changing decode algorithm without relying on clock signal extract from incoming pulse stream as most other converters do. Please refer to following review for how the decoding is done in ES9018 DAC:
 
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/wyred4/dac.html

I suppose its close contenders include other newer 32-bit DA converters such as Wolfson WM8741 as far as one-bit converter is concerned. Sign-magnitude multi-bit converters such as older PCM1704UK utilize entirely different conversion scheme and is less sensitive to input jitter. Pro and con between the two conversion schemes and their implementation and design of analog support circuits will determine final sound quality.
 
Thus answer to the question is not straight forward when it involve commercial products where implementation/design is likely to be influenced by other factors such as pricing, marketing and economy of scale. Assumption is made all designers are equally competent/knowledgeable and have same level of expertise/experience no matter which converter they have chosen in their commercial design.
 
Oct 28, 2010 at 11:28 PM Post #194 of 987
The 9018 (and the series brethren) is very sensitive to the quality of it's power supplies....in fact it has been said that designing the optimum PSU for the ESS chip is a daunting task, just as challenging (if not more) than designing the optimum I/V analog stage is for the pcm1704UK.
 
Peete.
 
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