[moodyrn]

Thats fine if he's building upon the same basic platform. It is however a very good platform to build upon. I was just worried it would be more than just the platform and a reboxing with minor tweaks.

 

[tim3320070]

No different than any car company- mainly just new skin on the same internals. But the filter selector and built in filters is a cool idea to me.

 

[reiserFS]

Just ordered one, crossing fingers here.

 

[.Sup]

How do his entry level 8741 products compare with Opus DAC? Anyone know what should be better?

 

[Elanzer]

Looks cool. The amp section they use for their lower end products like the Sparrow/FUN/NFB-12 have been mostly identical.. and with the same DA chips they sound mostly identical too. NFB-5 doesn't appear to be an exception here, it has the same specs.
 
Audio-gd's lower end stuff is mainly different in connection types, prices, and chassis sizes across the line.. this is basically like a hybrid of the FUN/NFB-12 with adjustable DAC filters. For $330, I'd say it's a welcome addition as a choice for someone wanting to go above the NFB-12, gaining some flavour customization via swappable opamp/discrete toggle and DAC sample filters.
 
It does sort of render the FUN pointless though and really is the 2011 version of the FUN, beyond the extra outputs there is no more reason to buy the FUN at all, as the NFB-5 is cheaper and has made some improvements. I'd buy it if I just wanted an all-in-one SS unit and didn't already have an NFB-12.

 

[haloxt]

Quote:

It reminds me of what the guy at pacific valve told me. When i called and asked about one of the audio-gd products he told me that all of these new products are just reboxed versions of old gear. He said they take one product, put it in a new case, and call it something else. At the time I just thought he was saying that out of spite and thought there might be some issues between the two companies. But as time goes by, his statements look more true by the minute.

If you take a glance at the FUN and a glance at this new product you can notice many major differences. The R&D used to revise FUN and NFB-12 to this, is probably greater than the amount of R&D used for making new products at this price range. Audio-gd has refined their products to the point you can't expect them to reinvent the wheel with every new product, neither do you expect any other company to. It's kind of like trying to get greater efficiency out of high efficiency generators, except it takes more than a percentage to define audio performance. Comparing audio-gd products with cutting edge audio companies' products will give you some idea of audio-gd's supposed lack of innovation.

 

[Kingwa]

    Several years ago we applied some different design. At the highest rang we applied the ACSS technology, in middle rang we applied the diamond difference technology, in low rang we applied the classis technology as the circuit of our Moon, Earth and Sun. Like the Compass release in 2009, it is applied the amps as the Earth . This circuit still applied in some brands as the main amp technology.
    But I still can't happy of the coloration of the non-ACSS technology , I always want to improved the gears  but the non-ACSS technology can't let me happy. Even the lowest products, I still wish can applied the best technology for the best neutral sound . So now we applied the ACSS technology in all rang procucts.
    The popular digital technology is not mysterious . Understand the PDF files , most designers can design the chips in the products.
    The popular chips AD1896 not the tea of mine, so I never applied in our products , I prefer spend a lot money design the DSP3 had better performance .
    If I just want to design a products for watch, I can easy add the AD1896 chips , but that is not my mind.

 

[.Sup]

Thanks for the interesting info Kingwa

 

[Mad Max]

 
Quote:

And they seem to have tried to photoshop it out in this pic:
 
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/Headphoneamp/NFB5/NFB56.JPG

Broken photoshop skills, lol!
 
Perhaps he changed his mind after the PCBs were printed as to whether this would be the FUN's successor or not.

 

[brat]

NFB-5 is fresh, has more features but the FUN is still on sale and still more expensive. Is it omission or the new stuff is inferior in some way?

 

[Elanzer]

Quote:

NFB-5 is fresh, has more features but the FUN is still on sale and still more expensive. Is it omission or the new stuff is inferior in some way?

 
The FUN itself has alot more guts to it, and allows you to use it as just an amp without the DAC section, which you can't on the NFB-5 (Line-In).
 
It's pretty uncommon that someone would use one of these units as just an amp, so it's simplifying and reducing the costs of the unit for a feature most people won't use.
 
 

 

[tim3320070]

Quote:

 

Broken photoshop skills, lol!
 
Perhaps he changed his mind after the PCBs were printed as to whether this would be the FUN's successor or not.

I believe he uses boards on hand until the production models start. I seem to remember some DAC's with different model numbers until production started.
 
 

 

[jTizMLG]

Quote:

 
The FUN itself has alot more guts to it, and allows you to use it as just an amp without the DAC section, which you can't on the NFB-5 (Line-In).
 
It's pretty uncommon that someone would use one of these units as just an amp, so it's simplifying and reducing the costs of the unit for a feature most people won't use.
 
 

 
I think that the Fun can be used as a Preamp for speakers and the NFB-5 cannot but has better sound quality, I tried contacting Kingwa but he has not replied to my PM.
 
 

 

[Mad Max]

Kingwa will probably say that you can use the HP output as the "preamp" into speakers or what have you.  He said the same thing with the Sparrow.

 

[Currawong]

On the page, it says:
 
Quote:

[size=x-small]The DAC output level can be chosen between variable and fixed[/size]

 
So it can be used as a pre-amp from what I can see.
 
It has a better PSU than the Fun too.