[cidiano]

How do you guys think the 15.32 would pair with the HE-500s?

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Purple - clearly you're burning in your new Audio-GD before posting up your impressions. How long to do think before we can see them (guessing end of next week)?
 
Personally I'm looking at the 11.32's, as I'm hoping to get a set of warm headphones and others here have recommended the combo.

So far my impression of the 15.32 is positive, last night I was watching The PeaceKeeper Wars on DVD, with my Beyerdynamic DT990 Premium 600-Ohm headphones, it sounded very nice.
Guess the 15.32 provides more power then the Essence STX.
 
There is a used 11.32 for sale for $265, in the "Amplication for Sale" thread.
If it had be for sale 8 days ago, I would have bought it.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/686519/audio-gd-nfb-11-32-upgraded-tcxo-and-usb-chip-options-installed#post_9923275

 

[stephennic]

 
So far my impression of the 15.32 is positive, last night I was watching The PeaceKeeper Wars on DVD, with my Beyerdynamic DT990 Premium 600-Ohm headphones, it sounded very nice.
Guess the 15.32 provides more power then the Essence STX.
 
There is a used 11.32 for sale for $265, in the "Amplication for Sale" thread.
If it had be for sale 8 days ago, I would have bought it.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/686519/audio-gd-nfb-11-32-upgraded-tcxo-and-usb-chip-options-installed#post_9923275

Hi,
I use this dac on my hifi system on a consonance cd-120 linear, with a nice powerlead into it and some upmarket DH Labs 75 and RCA  Chord cables. I have it plugged into a valve pre. It sounds very good as a dac into a cd player. As a budget dac it does very well - beats the cambridge and arcam dacs.
 
The soundstage is very open almost 3D like. It opened up the consonance and the marantz cd63se sound with more micro detail. I even put some isolation devices under it and it tightened up the image, a very musical dac.
 
This ones a keeper, great value for money.
Cheers
Steve 
 
 
 

 

[yoyougola]

yes,Took a few tries to install the drivers--it didn't like the USB ports on my laptop, but works fine from the powered port on my second monitor.

 

[genclaymore]

Finally put a order in for the TCXO upgrade for my NFB 15.32, I heard from people how it improves their sound. So I hope I like the unit all over again, with my DT880 premiums 600.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Really interested in this.

Most likely going to sell my zxr and grab one of these. Any of you guys have thoughts on this as a possible side grade?

I want an external unit for console gaming as well as PC. So optical is a must.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Really interested in this.

Most likely going to sell my ZxR and grab one of these. Any of you guys have thoughts on this as a possible side grade?

I want an external unit for console gaming as well as PC. So optical is a must.

I've been using my 15.32 for about 15 days, all my headphones sound nice.
 
The 15.32 does not do any Headphone Surround Sound Processing on it's own, something needs to process Headphone Surround Sound before the audio signal is sent to the 15.32.
With your PC, you can connect the 15.32 to the S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) outputs on the motherboard and use the on-board audio.
Or wait until the Sound Blaster Z (OEM) goes on sale, like for around $60?, and plug the 15.32 into the Z's optical connection.
Even a $20 Xonar DG can feed Dolby Headphone 5.1 Surround Sound to the 15.32
For music you would be using the 15.32's USB connection.
 
Games consoles can feed stereo 2-channel (optical) audio directly to the 15.32.
It will be an awesome 2-channel sound quality.

 

[SaLX]

Purple - so what's the verdict? Decent sidegrade to your STX or a bit better?

 

[DJINFERNO806]

I've been using my 15.32 for about 15 days, all my headphones sound nice.

The 15.32 does not do any Headphone Surround Sound Processing on it's own, something needs to process Headphone Surround Sound before the audio signal is sent to the 15.32.
With your PC, you can connect the 15.32 to the S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) outputs on the motherboard and use the on-board audio.
Or wait until the Sound Blaster Z (OEM) goes on sale, like for around $60?, and plug the 15.32 into the Z's optical connection.
Even a $20 Xonar DG can feed Dolby Headphone 5.1 Surround Sound to the 15.32
For music you would be using the 15.32's USB connection.

Games consoles can feed stereo 2-channel (optical) audio directly to the 15.32.
It will be an awesome 2-channel sound quality.

Ya I forgot to mention that was my plan, get an OEM z to run sbx surriund via optical to the 15.32.

For music I would just stick with optical too, use wasapi exclusive to send 44.1 kHz directly to the 15.32 unmolested.

Thanks for the input buddy . I want this thing so bad. I just need to make sure its at least comparable to the zxr quality as that's my main goal.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Purple - so what's the verdict? Decent sidegrade to your STX or a bit better?

I've been using the 15.32 for over two weeks, so far I have not felt any reason to going back to using the Essence STX's headphone amplifier.
I was watching Thor (2011) on Blu-ray, using Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra, running S/PDIF from the Essence STX to the 15.32, using DT990 Premium 600-Ohm headphones. Audio quality was just great, the audio seemed very clear.
I do notice I no longer having any electrical noise in the audio background.
Currently my future plans are to sell off the Essence STX and just use my old Xonar DX in the computer, running S/PDIF optical to the 15.32, for movies and gaming and use USB for music.
Might even be tempted to get a Sound Blaster Z (OEM), if it goes on sale and drops below $60.
But I plan on doing testing on the STX DAC/amp vs the 15.32 DAC/amp, before I would sell off my STX.
 
The top of the 15.32 is a little warmer then I would have expected, but not something I would call overly hot.
But I'm tempted to put some passive heat sinks on top of the 15.32.

 

[SaLX]

Purple - thanks for replying. Am very pleased that you like your new Audio-Gd and this gives me confidence to go ahead and get this model (or the 11.32), either paired with a SBZ Oem.
 
Did you go for the TXCO upgrade?

 

[genclaymore]

 
I've been using the 15.32 for over two weeks, so far I have not felt any reason to going back to using the Essence STX's headphone amplifier.
I was watching Thor (2011) on Blu-ray, using Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra, running S/PDIF from the Essence STX to the 15.32, using DT990 Premium 600-Ohm headphones. Audio quality was just great, the audio seemed very clear.
I do notice I no longer having any electrical noise in the audio background.
Currently my future plans are to sell off the Essence STX and just use my old Xonar DX in the computer, running S/PDIF optical to the 15.32, for movies and gaming and use USB for music.
Might even be tempted to get a Sound Blaster Z (OEM), if it goes on sale and drops below $60.
But I plan on doing testing on the STX DAC/amp vs the 15.32 DAC/amp, before I would sell off my STX.
 
The top of the 15.32 is a little warmer then I would have expected, but not something I would call overly hot.
But I'm tempted to put some passive heat sinks on top of the 15.32.

As for the unit being a little warm, The digital filter settings on the front does make a difference, I been using OS: 4 Filter :3 which I found to make it more transparent and make the details easier to pick out if I explaining it right. Tho my unit is fully burned in. I was using 8-3 but got tired of the highs being too harsh, so  I went back to 4-3.  4-2 for me is a good mix of both detail and warmness, Tho end results can be different because of headphones. So you might have to play with the digital filter settings after your unit is burned in, to see which ones you like with your DT990 premium 600ohm's, Since I had DT880 premiums 600 which are different.
 
I also been using a Cheap Xonar DGX that I gotten a couple of days ago used for gaming since it fixed my volume issues I was having in comcast xifinty internet streaming services, As well that odd game volume glitch I had where most of the games was low volume.  But yea I been using Dolby headphone which I missed having.  I may plug back in the USB in the future, but  I currently waiting for the TCXO upgrade that I bought to be shipped from audio-gd.
 
I have my unit by a window, but it does get hot still, but I was told that it can handle the heat,if you do place heat sinks on it, make sure they can be easly removed just in case. Maybe one day some one could make a custom case for them, where there are fans blowing inside pushing the heat out.

 

[DJINFERNO806]

Hey U guys... Want to to try something which help to improve the sound quality of this DAC !!!

This is something can be done with both 11.32 and 15.32 (my friend hav also try with other brand DAC)

** For the guy who did't used optical port **
1. Open up the case and just take out (unplug) optical connector plug !! U will see the different !!!
note that!! no special tools required just ur finger is enough or if u hav a big hand screw driver can help)

Short Conclusion
The Reason why sound change is because The optical port use the same 5V current as DACs chip as we know that even we didt use them but it will work all the time to dectect if the optical cable is connect or not. ____Skip long explanation ____ It disturb DAC chip .

For me after done this the sound is a lot more clear n smooth u can notice this different immediately !!!

In the case that u want to use optical cable or did't like new sound u can just plug it back whenever u want
** If anyone want the picture of what i hav done just PM me ur email ^^ **

Credit of this method to Thai Engineer that i know ^^

 
 
This is concerning me a bit.
 
I plan on mainly using this unit through optical from SB Z(PC) oem for gaming and on the the xbox 360 as well.  How bad is the sq hit on the DAC from this "disturbance"?
 
Can any of you guys comment on this?

 

[DanPluck]

Ignore that, Kingwa has confirmed its bollocks.

 

[stephennic]

Hi,
 
I did notice a little more transparency but at a cost on tonal neutrality and I found the mids a little too forward, I put it back to original. Actually the TCXO was a better improvement sonically.
 
Cheers
 
Steve