Ok, came to a final conclusion. (Thanks Matt for agreeing with me
)
I corresponded with quiet large amount of people, and heard lot's of different views.
I think that the AGD NFB-5 is a better-buy than the Yulong D100. because of the following reasons:
1.
Reliability / Warranty issues:
from what i read, statistically speaking, the Yulong suffer much more than AGD. it's like comparing peugeot/citroen , to a Nissan/Suzuki ...
Also, Yulong has/had problems with some operating systems.
AGD also gives you the 1 year international warranty. while Yulong only protects you (sometimes) against DOA.. but its hard to get to the source: try to find Yulong's official site which regards headphone amps.
2.
AGD are older (site exists from 2004) then Yulong's (2008)
3.
When you buy a Yulong, you just buy it from some middle man... nothing is promised.
but when you buy an AGD, you buy it directly from the manufacture.
4.
Communications & customer service; I once corresponded with kingwa (of AGD), 19 emails at the same day (!), while he knew at that time that i wasn't going to buy anything.
5.
AGD has a stronger Amp. it can drive "hungry" headphones such as HE-500, while still driving IEMs without hissing at normal volumes.
6.
Yulong might have the benefit of having a slightly better DAC (similar to the Dragonfly), BUT while Yulong uses the TAS1020B usb chip. AGD uses the upgraded, TE8802.
And yes, the TE8802 is fully asynchronous as well.
7.
AGD supports ACSS (which means, that if you ever buy another AGD product, they will communicate with each other much better than RCA connectors).
8.
AGD NFB 5 allows you to use your chosen OPA , and you can also bypass it, for more neutral sound. this is great because you can hear different when a certain music sounds better to you when using this or this.
9.
AGD is 2x weightier...(did i mention built quality?)
10.
NFB-5 can be used as preamp.
11.
All AGD products are going through a 100 hours of burn-in in before shipped.
In summary:
while some people might find the D100 to sound slightly better, I really feel that with the AGD NFB-5, you get more of a complete package. therefore- it's a better buy.
-Eyal
