marlew
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2014
- Posts
- 1
- Likes
- 10
Hello, I have never posted on any forum so I could mess this up. I must apologize for not using headphones. I started in audio back in the 60's when we were all analog and I never got into phones. I am computer based now (J River MC19) and started following Head-Fi back when I was looking for my first dac. Largely based on enthusiasm on Head-Fi I purchased an NFB 3 in July 2011 and then a Ref-5 in Feb 2012. I was very happy with the Ref-5 and changed many of my components while keeping the dac constant in my system. Then earlier this year I purchased a NFB-7.32 dsd capable dac and I have been trying to decide how I like it ever since.
I did get the Via driver installed and some DSD64 sample files to play successfully. I am not convinced that I want to invest much in the DSD files available for download. Comparing good old wav files with Ref-5 vs NFB-7.32 I'm not sure that I've gained much. In fact on piano music which is one of my primary listening criteria I think I may prefer the Ref-5 as more natural sounding.
My latest tweak has been to add an Asus Xonar DSX sound card to my music server to gain optical spdif out to the dacs. I didn't expect to like the sound based on negative impressions of TOSlink connections but in fact I find the sound through the Ref-5 enjoyable.
The more I compare the more confused I get. But I'm wondering now if I should have looked for a PCM1704 upgrade rather than opting for a dsd dac. I figured I would introduce myself and see what reactions I might get from the experts here. I am in awe of the expertise I find in reviews here.
Thanks, Mark Lewis
I did get the Via driver installed and some DSD64 sample files to play successfully. I am not convinced that I want to invest much in the DSD files available for download. Comparing good old wav files with Ref-5 vs NFB-7.32 I'm not sure that I've gained much. In fact on piano music which is one of my primary listening criteria I think I may prefer the Ref-5 as more natural sounding.
My latest tweak has been to add an Asus Xonar DSX sound card to my music server to gain optical spdif out to the dacs. I didn't expect to like the sound based on negative impressions of TOSlink connections but in fact I find the sound through the Ref-5 enjoyable.
The more I compare the more confused I get. But I'm wondering now if I should have looked for a PCM1704 upgrade rather than opting for a dsd dac. I figured I would introduce myself and see what reactions I might get from the experts here. I am in awe of the expertise I find in reviews here.
Thanks, Mark Lewis
