[Clemmaster]

The NFB-3 is probably not designed to output a strong enough signal for driving headphones.
 
It should work with sensitive headphones, though. After all, the output stage is active and has lots of (low power) transistors 

.
You would also need to resort to digital volume control, which is not the best. JRiver has a good software volume control, you might give it a shot. Set the output to 32bits in that case.

 

[Musica Amantem]

Thanks for the reply! 
 
One last thing: I'm confused on this issue of updating my new NFB 3 (2014) DAC to the new firmware. I'm supposed to uninstall the old drivers and then install the new firmware, right? My question is, does the firmware include the drivers? What is the difference between drivers and firmware?
 
I'm sorry but I can't figure this out yet!

 

[elmoe]

firmware flashes (writes to) the usb controller chip inside your dac with updated software, drivers are what lets your computer and the usb controller chip inside the dac talk to each other.
 
 In short, the drivers tell your computer how to communicate with your DAC, the firmware tells your DAC how to communicate with your computer.

 

[Musica Amantem]

Thanks for the info. Does this mean that I can update the drivers for Windows, independently of the DAC (i.e., DAC not connected) whereas the firmware has to be installed while the DAC is ON and connected to the laptop?
 
The other issue is, which file is the firmware and which file has the drivers. I also don't understand why I need to uninstall the drivers just to update the firmware: Are these two correlated so the drivers also changed?
 
Thanks for your patience!

 

[elmoe]

  Thanks for the info. Does this mean that I can update the drivers for Windows, independently of the DAC (i.e., DAC not connected) whereas the firmware has to be installed while the DAC is ON and connected to the laptop?
 
The other issue is, which file is the firmware and which file has the drivers. I also don't understand why I need to uninstall the drivers just to update the firmware: Are these two correlated so the drivers also changed?
 
Thanks for your patience!

 
It depends on the device and how things are programmed. Technically you should be able to update the drivers without the DAC connected, but it can vary.
 
The filename should give you an indication as to which is firmware and which is driver. Typically the driver will run a setup, whereas the firmware should run an independent application that will allow you to flash the DAC.
 
I don't see why you would need to uninstall the drivers to update the firmware - is this something audio-gd tells you to do? It would seem to me that without the drivers the DAC won't be recognized and you'd have a hard time flashing the firmware. If instead of uninstall you meant installing the updated driver, then that makes sense as it's probable that the new drivers and the new firmware were both designed to work together.

 

[DaemonSire]

  Thanks for the info. Does this mean that I can update the drivers for Windows, independently of the DAC (i.e., DAC not connected) whereas the firmware has to be installed while the DAC is ON and connected to the laptop?
 
The other issue is, which file is the firmware and which file has the drivers. I also don't understand why I need to uninstall the drivers just to update the firmware: Are these two correlated so the drivers also changed?
 
Thanks for your patience!

 
Check out my earlier post about upgrading the firmware:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/712627/audio-gd-nfb-3-2014-es9018-dac/105#post_10603011

 

[Musica Amantem]

Thanks again. I'm sorry, I've just been very busy lately so I've had almost no time at all to sit and review the information.

 

[Musica Amantem]

Well, I've been in a hiatus of three months without listening to my beloved NFB 3 (2014) for work and other reasons. In the meantime, I replaced my laptop with a Windows 8.1 OS version (I could not help it!), and now my new laptop wont allow the drivers or firmware to install, so I'm still out of my music!
 
I tried the old laptop and it did not recognize the NFB 3 (2014) anymore (I'm not sure if I tried to uninstall the drivers once, and since that went bad, I did not do anything else then.)
 
I followed Kingwa's instructions and so far no success, with either device.  I will be trying different ports in my new laptop, but on the old one the same port used to work, so it is odd. I have not done anything to ruin the firmware chip so I'm assuming it is not broken or anything.
 
If someone has any clues I'll appreciate a hint. Thanks in advance.

 

[DaemonSire]

  Well, I've been in a hiatus of three months without listening to my beloved NFB 3 (2014) for work and other reasons. In the meantime, I replaced my laptop with a Windows 8.1 OS version (I could not help it!), and now my new laptop wont allow the drivers or firmware to install, so I'm still out of my music!
 
I tried the old laptop and it did not recognize the NFB 3 (2014) anymore (I'm not sure if I tried to uninstall the drivers once, and since that went bad, I did not do anything else then.)
 
I followed Kingwa's instructions and so far no success, with either device.  I will be trying different ports in my new laptop, but on the old one the same port used to work, so it is odd. I have not done anything to ruin the firmware chip so I'm assuming it is not broken or anything.
 
If someone has any clues I'll appreciate a hint. Thanks in advance.

Did you install the drivers before connecting it to USB?
 
What happens when you run the driver install?

 

[Asound]

Are you using a usb 3.0 port? It will only work with usb 2.0.

 

[Musica Amantem]

Hi! Thanks for your assistance.
 
In my new laptop I used the std 2.0 usb port, not the 3.0 ports. When the driver install routine is about to confirm normal mode it just stays there for a while and then reports it was not able to reach normal mode.
 
When I tried to flash the firmware in my old laptop, I could not find the DFU files at all, although these were supposed to be there. The computer could not even recognize them, I guess?
 
So, in my old laptop that used to have the original drivers working fine, there's no DFU files available. In my new laptop, the drivers won't even install as these cannot reach normal mode, or something like that.
 
I'm really lost here.   

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

  Hi! Thanks for your assistance.
 
In my new laptop I used the std 2.0 usb port, not the 3.0 ports. When the driver install routine is about to confirm normal mode it just stays there for a while and then reports it was not able to reach normal mode.
 
When I tried to flash the firmware in my old laptop, I could not find the DFU files at all, although these were supposed to be there. The computer could not even recognize them, I guess?
 
So, in my old laptop that used to have the original drivers working fine, there's no DFU files available. In my new laptop, the drivers won't even install as these cannot reach normal mode, or something like that.
 
I'm really lost here.   

hi, the firmware update require to "uninstall driver" since it will use another generic driver for DFU mode
each driver version are associated with very specified version of USB firmware, if you mismatch them the sound will be significantly degraded and the whole system may not work at all
after any step: uninstall driver, install firmware you need to restart both the dac and pc 
 
so they use different driver for dfu mode and normal mode, i used to have many agd dacs and used them since the first version of usb32 version
everytime agd update their website with new driver version, it means they have a new firmware, you will need to email them for latest link of firmware
 
one more thing is after installing driver you must not delete the installation driver folder, the asio via ks driver is stored in that folder
 
for your case i think you need to find a way to uninstall the control driver first before attemping to update firmware and new driver
always update firmware first prior to update driver 

 

[Musica Amantem]

Thanks for the valuable inputs. I'll follow those guidelines this weekend and see if I get lucky this time around. Do I need to have both the PC and the NFB connected and powered on for the driver uninstall as well as for the driver installation and firmware update?

 

[xxxfbsxxx]

  Thanks for the valuable inputs. I'll follow those guidelines this weekend and see if I get lucky this time around. Do I need to have both the PC and the NFB connected and powered on for the driver uninstall as well as for the driver installation and firmware update?

for uninstallation with newer driver from 2014 i dont think you need to connect and turn on dac
but for installation and firmware update, definitely yes and remember always turn on the dac "after" pc has been fully on
 
also, i had a trouble with some laps which you must keep the same usb port where you used when installing the dac driver, if you connect to another port it may not work

 

[Musica Amantem]

Thanks for the info. Exactly where do I find the drivers uninstall procedure? Is it part of the drivers setup icon that comes in the new drivers folder? What would be the name of the uninstall routine? I'm sorry, but this is confusing for me. I'm an old fart, really illiterate in terms of computers.