[runnin17]

Received my NFB-12 today and listened to it with my MP-301 amp and DT990's for about two hours. I would say that it does a good job with most music that I listened to. Mainly ran through some Ray Charles, Chopin and The Killers just to see how it handled different styles. I think it is a pretty forgiving amp overall. I did notice a little noise from the USB connection while using it. I will try it via optical and see if I have better results.
 
Overall I am really impressed and this is a great little DAC for the money. It destroys my iBasso cobra IMO.

 

[haloxt]

Quote:

hi everyone,
 
my Audio-GD NFB-12 is on the way, and I'm wondering what the best way to connect it to my desktop is. i will need 5 feet of cable length, and it would need to go through one fairly tight 90-degree bend when it comes down off the top of my desk into the gap between the desk and the wall and down to my computer. for this reason, i was thinking i might prefer coax over optical? any thoughts on this?
 
one other quick question... i will be using ASIO/Winamp bit-perfect output. if i have a soundcard installed, but use the optical or coax out on my motherboard to connect to the NFB-12, the sound will bypass the Windows k-mixer and my soundcard and stream directly to the DAC, right?
 
thanks.

Coax cables are pretty darn bendable, I wouldn't worry at all about a 90 degree bend.
 
Optical shouldn't have sharp bends, I would suggest adjusting your computer location, or desk, to spread out the bend to a greater area of the cable as opposed to a single point. Use a lot of duct tape tightly wrapped around the bend area to help spread out the bend too. Whether you like optical or coax more is a personal choice , but seems more people prefer coax than optical. Coax and usb with well-built cables sound more detailed to me, but I prefer the optical out of my mp3 player and sonicwave glass toslink cable. Glass toslink does cost relatively more than some well-built coax cables, and is easily damaged from bending or scratched lens, so keep that in mind if you decide to get a glass toslink.
 
Use asio4all to give your motherboard integrated soundcard the ability to play bit-perfect. If you have windows 7, I think the steps to set up bit-perfect are fewer but different.

 

[movi]

great stuff, thanks for the advice guys
 
one other question about the terminations of a Coax cable. if I am going from my motherboard coax out to the NFB-12 coax input, it is RCA-to-RCA, yes?
 
thanks

 

[Slaughter]

Yes. 
 
Quote:

great stuff, thanks for the advice guys
 
one other question about the terminations of a Coax cable. if I am going from my motherboard coax out to the NFB-12 coax input, it is RCA-to-RCA, yes?
 
thanks

 

[dubai2000]

Got mine NFB-12 this morning. Shipping was fast (DHL to Europe). I hooked it up to my Laptop and...bummer.....USB input distorts......even tried one of those USB isolating devices....no good. Using coax in from a CDP it works, but not USB in. Any suggestions? Player is foobar.

 

[runnin17]

Quote:

Got mine NFB-12 this morning. Shipping was fast (DHL to Europe). I hooked it up to my Laptop and...bummer.....USB input distorts......even tried one of those USB isolating devices....no good. Using coax in from a CDP it works, but not USB in. Any suggestions? Player is foobar.

What do you mean by distorts? what is happening to the sound?

 

[dubai2000]

Well, the sound isn't clear....it sounds as if it pulsates or distortes while playing. Tried different players.....but no change (so goes for restarting Windows).

 

[Slaughter]

Did you try different ports? Battery vs AC?

 

[jermng]

I don't use Foobar, but when I use VLC player, the volume on the software player has to be at 100% or less otherwise the sound distorts on my other DACs. The max volume on the software player is 400% - you might wanna check that. 

 

[dubai2000]

It seems indeed to be a hardware problem. Using it on my very old PC with Linux no problem. My laptop doesn't seem to be able to use the unit using either foobar or J.Rivers with asio or kernel output.....only DS plays fine.
Anyway, so far I like what I hear......the sound is very clear and open, fatigue I cannot detect yet. Cans are Denon D2000. So far, so good.

 

[squall343]

if u are using foobar, can try adjusting the buffer length

 

[dubai2000]

Putting the NFB-12 through its paces I must say I am really impressed. If it wasn't a Dac/Amp combo I'd say it rocks big time...

. Putting on live recordings such as Fleetwood Mac's The Dance or Eric Clapton in Hyde Park gives you the feeling of just being there. The unit is fast and prat comes through very nicely. I've been playing classical and jazz as well. Same impression. Not only is there authoritative control, no, also instrumental and vocal timbres are portrayed quite realistically. Of course if a recording is really crap, it shows. But you don't need any audiophile disc to appreciate the NFB-12. So until now I am still a happy camper.....

.

 

[madwolf]

 
Got mine today, If you ship using DHL they will ship to product from GuangZhou to Hong Hong via China Post and from Hong Kong they use DHL. 
There is no instruction manual. But the build quality is top notch. I am constantly surprise by their soldering skill. 
 
I open up the NFB12 before I even listen to it and was amaze by the engineering. Since this is a Prototype launch I am not surprise to find a rework. 
But it was amazing done 
 

 
I did a quick check it was GPO and GPO2 Pin. This 2 is used to configure the WM8805 for the various function. 
Not within the signal path. 
 
I like the way the Amplifier section is arrange. Very beautifully done. 
 

 
What surprise me what the transformer. It is a bit small and light.
One possible mod would be to Use a bigger Transformer in a secondary enclosure to feed this.
 
There are at 3 nos of 317 linear regulator for the digital section and 1 7805 
3 more pair of KingWa's discrete regulator for the analogue section ( 3 pair as in 3 positive and 3 negative). 
 
I am now listening to my NFB12 with the case open. Some of the heatsink is warm to the touch. 
Burning in now. 
 
 
 
 

 

[publicholiday]

Ain't it beautiful? planning to upgrade my audio rig, do you guys think I can solve the usb and ground noise by using Hud-mx1 as optical converter to NFB12?

 

[Elanzer]

If you have the choice of optical to the nfb-12 in the first place, why would you use a separate unit to convert optical to USB to get around the grounding issue for USB? That doesn't make much sense, especially since optical in theory should be better than USB on the NFB-12 anyways. Your groundloop issue shouldn't carry over toslink.