[dukja]

I would like to continue my impression after 60 hours of continuous burn-in.  It seems to me its sound is stabilized.  And now I kind of having good idea of its difference from Ref-7.  While DAC19 has the same characteristic of Audio-gd's sound, which is smooth, natural tonality, and good bass. There are some difference that can be quickly picked up.  The soundstage of DAC19 is smaller.  Ref-7 has the "room" to expand the sound and laid out the music in a much easier fashion.  No congested feeling at all with any of my large-scale music scene.  The soundstage is quite larger even my Ref-7 only output single-ended to Aleph 3.  However, DAC19 has newer signal processing and seems to me do present details in a different way comparing to the Ref-7.  More details or microdynamic seems to be presented by DAC19.  However, this may be apparent due to its smaller soundstage.   The difference in details is kind of subtle and take AB comparison to find out.
 
The up/mid bass of DAC19 is respectable.  The quality and texture is there.  I will say close to 90% of the Ref-7.  However, the bass weight and impact cannot compare to Ref-7.  It is strange thing that DAC19 seems to have all the bass component but it cannot give the same sub-bass "feeling" of Ref-7.  When the sub-bass wave comes in with Ref-7, I felt the solid impact and vibration clearly and it got my attention and amazement every time.  But I cannot get the same exciting impact from DAC19.  It is so interesting.  I guess sub-bass can only be felt but not heard.
 
All these impressions were based on DI > DAC > Aleph 3 > HE6.

 

[richbass]

  I would like to continue my impression after 60 hours of continuous burn-in.  It seems to me its sound is stabilized.  And now I kind of having good idea of its difference from Ref-7.  While DAC19 has the same characteristic of Audio-gd's sound, which is smooth, natural tonality, and good bass. There are some difference that can be quickly picked up.  The soundstage of DAC19 is smaller.  Ref-7 has the "room" to expand the sound and laid out the music in a much easier fashion.  No congested feeling at all with any of my large-scale music scene.  The soundstage is quite larger even my Ref-7 only output single-ended to Aleph 3.  However, DAC19 has newer signal processing and seems to me do present details in a different way comparing to the Ref-7.  More details or microdynamic seems to be presented by DAC19.  However, this may be apparent due to its smaller soundstage.   The difference in details is kind of subtle and take AB comparison to find out.
 
The up/mid bass of DAC19 is respectable.  The quality and texture is there.  I will say close to 90% of the Ref-7.  However, the bass weight and impact cannot compare to Ref-7.  It is strange thing that DAC19 seems to have all the bass component but it cannot give the same sub-bass "feeling" of Ref-7.  When the sub-bass wave comes in with Ref-7, I felt the solid impact and vibration clearly and it got my attention and amazement every time.  But I cannot get the same exciting impact from DAC19.  It is so interesting.  I guess sub-bass can only be felt but not heard.
 
All these impressions were based on DI > DAC > Aleph 3 > HE6.

 
Sub-Bass = Felt
Impactful Bass / Mid-Bass = Felt + Heard

 

[dukja]

^^ Not sure totally understood your so-consisted notation.  
 
But felt has nothing to do with my DAC comparison.  My HE-6 was not modded with felt, and the sub-bass is very much amazing already.
 
And I am not sure if the "reduced diffraction effect" by felt has much effect for already strongly diffracted sub-bass.  

 

[jdpark]

Just pulled the trigger on this one, and got the extra Amanero combo 384, which is supposed to make the USB input quieter and some say "more open sounding". 
 
I've been using the HRT MS HD with an AQVOX linear 5V usb power supply and Chord SilverPlus USB cable. It's a good Burr Brown DAC by Kevin Halverson in some ways, but the highs get annoying after a while, particularly as my Lehmann BCL pick up every detail in the top end. Timbres on cymbals and violins don't do it for me, so I'm looking forward to this!
 
Thanks for reviewing it, guys. 

 

[Solude]

  ...and got the extra Amanero combo 384, which is supposed to make the USB input quieter and some say "more open sounding". 

 
From Audio-GD?

 

[jdpark]

Yep, Kingwa said it would take a few extra days, but offered it for $45 on orders over $600. 
 
I had mentioned something about USB noise and this is what he suggested. I'm not sure if it's a standard upgrade, but apparently it's doable.

 

[Solude]

Wow, that would be a nice move up from the VIA normally offered.

 

[jdpark]

From the little bits and pieces I gathered with a few quick searches it seemed like it could only do good things. It also seems like a really good deal, seeing as it's selling in Europe for 69 euros as a stand alone part. 

 

[Solude]

Presumably the VIA boards aren't free

 

[evillamer]

wrong post

 

[bimmer100]

Yep, Kingwa said it would take a few extra days, but offered it for $45 on orders over $600. 

I had mentioned something about USB noise and this is what he suggested. I'm not sure if it's a standard upgrade, but apparently it's doable.

I would be curious to try out this different USB i2s board. Especially if it is considered an upgrade over the via usb32.

If it's plug and play with a harness...
I just am curious if it has any limitations or advantage that are clear for the dac19.

Is dsd even an option with the dac19?
Not that I care about dsd. Seems to be mostly marketing bs and hype imho. Hardly anything is even truly recorded in dsd.

I would be interested if it improved soundstage.
I would like to order one just to test the differences. Tinkering

 

[lukeap69]

Wonder if it us user replaceable...

 

[bimmer100]

I replaced the rj45 to hdmi i2s in my nfb-28 and was fairly easy with just one pin to solder a wire to. Basic soldering skills maybe is all. But when looking at the combo380 it has the same or very close to the same harness /pin layout as the via. I would think kingwa would either have a custom harness made or may already be plug and pray. (Cough) play.

I shot kingwa an email to ask him about the details and if I could get one shipped with my nfb1amp so I can layer install in my dac19 and do some tests. If it's more reliable than the via usb32 than that alone would be nice. Maybe is sounds weird, but I use my dac19 for gaming too. Just played some grand theft auto 5 with the dac19 as my sound source. But when I listen to speakers it's my Vanatoo transparent one's with their class D amp that apparently doesn't have a dac, it's pure digital. Or the conversion happens in the amp. D2audio makes that chip... I still don't quite understand it. Other than it sounds amazing.

I currently have my computer torn apart and am installing a ful EKWB water cooling setup with lots of radiators and waterblocks for the CPU,gpu and chipset. I miss listening to the Dac19! I won't be up and running again til next weekend when the rest of my parts show up. And I should have my audio-Gd nfb1amp by then too!!! I think it should be done with the burn in after this weekend!

On a side note...
Does anyone have an audio rack or table that they keep their gear on that has a small footprint and looks nice? Not too expensive either? I'm in the market to get something to stack A dac19 on top of nfb1amp, and nfb28 amp next to it. Maybe room to stack something on it, and hopefully room to put two headphone stands.

Lastly, anyone have a recommendation for acoustic foam. A quality product and fair price. Our computer areas need to be lined with some goal to acoustically shield/absorb apartment noise from leaking in and leaking out.

I almost forgot... I picked up some of that RF/emi shield 5050 whatever product that a few recommended. I have not messed with it yet. But we are moving to a new apartment that is literally next to a power line and transformer and wondered the possibility of some rf/emi interference. Maybe it won't matter... But shielding equip sounds like a backup plan just in case. I wonder which chips or components specifically would benefit from being shielded and which ones should be avoided. Or avoided entirely? I know many manufacturers don't install this film on their Dacs. I think maybe due to aesthetics and cost... Assuming it actually does make differences that can be read with test equipment. I would really love to hear if Kingwa or someone else with a significant amount of experience can measure an audible difference or show any benefit to using the 3M emi shielding material, and if so... Where is the biggest benefit in its use.

 

[jdpark]

I would be interested if it improved soundstage.

Yeah, I wasn't really thinking about that when I asked about computer noise, but I notices some have said the Dac-19 doesn't have the same size soundstage as the Master 7. Since I've never heard the Master 7, I can't really comment. But I have read that the 384 is supposed to provide a better soundstage according to some. Its difficult to isolate these parts and review them, however, since there are always a number of factors. I'm sure you can also get a better power chord and solid USB cable and improve the sounstage somewhat. (Within reason, of course.)
 
I also think DSD is largely off my radar at this point. Maybe some great analogue masters from the past exist that can be transferred to DSD one day through really good analogue to digital technology and virtually no digital mastering that will provide us with a new window on that stuff, but until then I think were getting towards finding good solutions to PCM decoding. Plus I don't really own any DSD music, and I don't think using my computer's processor to stream PCM in DSD on the fly is a great idea (again, at this point.)

 

[bimmer100]

Well, my curiousity is why I would like to try the combo 380. I have already upgraded my headphone cables to Norne audio Zoetic and achieved an obvious increase of sound quality from that. Also have upgraded the USB cables to Pangea pcocc USB, also a Schiit Wyrd which probably doesn't do anything for the audio-Gd stuff since it doesn't get a 5V power from the USB anyhow. I also upgraded all my devices to Pangea AC-14SE power cords. The DAC19, NFB28, NFB1AMP(whenever it arrives it will have Pangea cables waiting for it), also my PC is powered by a Corsair AX1200watt and Pangea AC14SE cord. All plugged into some CyberPower 900watt and850watt UPS with emi/Rf filtering, power conditioning blah blah blah.

All those cables look nice and all but honestly that's about as far as they go imho, excluding the Norne Audio Zoetic. That was an obvious upgrade from the stoke HE560 single crystal silver and single crystal copper cable that it came with stock. I've tried many cables with my he-560's in fact. Solid pure silver ones too... Nothing touched the Zoetic's sound signature. Quite easy to do a blind A/B test and pick that cable out from the rest.

I hope the combo 380 has a noticeable difference of sound stage to improve the Dac19... I know it's mostly the DAC that makes the difference... But the NfB28 has the same USB32 via chipset yet has a great sound stage in comparison to the DAC19. If the Combo380 improves airiness or separation...