[regal]

Quote:

Thanks for the great info - not that I would ever mod Kingwa's designs ( I cant even mod a cable

) but I wonder if mains power spikes could damage the chips?
 

 In the case of the Lite DAC60 it was just a poor design with a 180V tube sharing the same small ground trace as the PCM1704.  I would have a surge suppressor but everyone uses those.

 

[borrego]

 
Quote:

If he has really sold 20,000 chips, why wouldn't he place an order for a new reel?  It can't be the cost, since you can get them for $18 each when you buy 1000 of them.  We know it can't be the cost since his Altera chip is like $50 and he uses it in the Digital Interface, plus people are willing to pay the extra amount.  So it sounds like he just prefers the Sabre.  It must sound better, and he probably doesn't want to say that yet empirically until he is able to sell the rest of his R2R units.  This is the only scenario that makes sense.

The other reason is: as the Sabre is of a simplier implementation, it will be easier for mass production (i.e. the NFB1 and NFB7 uses the same digital section PCB), and potentially give Kingwa better profit margin (fewer components, fewer QC steps, no need to pay external guy to write DSP codes...). As the Audio-gd business is getting bigger, the single chip Sabre design makes much more sense than the 8 x PCM1704 + external DSP implementation, say,  if they are within 5% the performance of each others.  For whom do not know the labour cost in China has also been rising in recent years.

 

[dura]

 


The other reason is: as the Sabre is of a simplier implementation, it will be easier for mass production (i.e. the NFB1 and NFB7 uses the same digital section PCB), and potentially give Kingwa better profit margin (fewer components, fewer QC steps, no need to pay external guy to write DSP codes...). As the Audio-gd business is getting bigger, the single chip Sabre design makes much more sense than the 8 x PCM1704 + external DSP implementation, say,  if they are within 5% the performance of each others.  For whom do not know the labour cost in China has also been rising in recent years.

Hmm, and the C-core transformators are replaced by toroids...no doubt you are right and costs have gone up; glad I've got one of the old batch.

 

[Dynobot]

x2!!!!
 
Quote:

Hmm, and the C-core transformators are replaced by toroids...no doubt you are right and costs have gone up; glad I've got one of the old batch.

 

[IPodPJ]

Quote:

Hmm, and the C-core transformators are replaced by toroids...no doubt you are right and costs have gone up; glad I've got one of the old batch.

You mean R-core?  And the only DAC using a torroid is the NFB-3.  None of the high-end models are using torroids.

 

[dura]

Ah, my mistake, you're right on both accounts, I was looking at the wrong picture. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Dynobot]

Quote:

Ah, my mistake, you're right on both accounts, I was looking at the wrong picture. Sorry for the confusion.

In that case I take my x2 back.
 
-x2!!!
 

 

[SP Wild]

Heck I am this close to pulling the trigger on the ref-7.  I just don't want to miss the boat with these PCM1704 dac chips - I've emailed AudioGD,  the balance now hangs in his customer service.

 

[les_garten]

You know you want it!

 

[Dynobot]

Quote:

Heck I am this close to pulling the trigger on the ref-7.  I just don't want to miss the boat with these PCM1704 dac chips - I've emailed AudioGD,  the balance now hangs in his customer service.

In that case you are going to buy one because the customer service is pretty good.
 
24hr turn around usually...
 

 

[DaveBSC]

Does anyone know if there will be diamond amp versions of the Sabre DACs?

 

[FauDrei]

Originally Posted by SP Wild /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
Heck I am this close to pulling the trigger on the ref-7.  I just don't want to miss the boat with these PCM1704 dac chips - I've emailed AudioGD,  the balance now hangs in his customer service.

You sure you don't want RE-7 HE?

 

[dmac03]

A question for fellow US head-fiers with audio-gd products:
 
Is there any advantage, one over the other, of purchasing direct from audio-gd vs pacific valve?

 

[Dynobot]

I purchased my Ref 5 from Pacific Valve and the Ref 7 from AGD. Price plus shipping is about the same, shipping from AGD was faster because instead of them shipping to PV then to me AGD just shipped straight to me.
 
Oh and shipping from PV was double boxed, essentially PV added a box when they got the shipment from AGD.

 

[tonsosnot]

If you don't mind the extra wait, ordering from Pacific Valve gives you the benefit of repairs being performed in the US instead of overseas. Shipping to Chicago is almost always going to be less expensive than shipping to China. I recently placed an order for a Reference 9 through PV, and it was $1222 instead of $1249 through AGD. PV also has a promotion going on where you can get free AGD interconnects (RCA or ACSS) and an AGD power cable for $25. I started looking at Pacific Valve because I didn't want to figure out bank transfer or pay the PayPal fees, and it just turned out being a better deal. Though the wait is killing me