[pasgod]

With the Audio GD, you will not have the same sound signature as with the Cambridge. I give you a link of a review of the NFB 2 with wolfson where the reviewer compared it with the dac magic. For him, it is night and day. NFB 2 is his new reference.
 
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au
 
And don't forget NFB 2 is the little dac, not balanced.
 
You can read review about Linn Klimax DS. It is as costly as a car, for a lot of reviewers it is a reference, i hope it does not sound like dac magic. Implementation is very important, power supply, output stage are fundamental. It is not because two products use the same chip, that they have the same sound signature. And we already told you, it is not the same chip in the Cambridge.

 

[DBB1]

It seems there is no price yet. It may still be in development. Am I correct that its predecessor with the Sabre chip never shipped? Has anyone heard when it will be available and at what price?

 

[pasgod]

The first NFB 8 with Sabre chip was about 1200 USD.

 

[K3cT]

Quote:

Yes, but there is a difference between a wolfson dac that is a little smooth on its own, and a dac which the little smoothness is accentuated by a special output stage. I can be interested by a dac a little smoother than a NFB7 by using a wolfson chip, but a diamond output stage, it is something else. 

Are you sure?
 
Try to do some search in this sub-forum and you will find out that some people who have both musical and neutral versions of his DACs actually found out that the musical version sounds brighter than the neutral one. I wouldn't take Kingwa's descriptions in his site at face value.  

 

[pasgod]

Quote:

Quote:

Yes, but there is a difference between a wolfson dac that is a little smooth on its own, and a dac which the little smoothness is accentuated by a special output stage. I can be interested by a dac a little smoother than a NFB7 by using a wolfson chip, but a diamond output stage, it is something else. 

Are you sure?
 
Try to do some search in this sub-forum and you will find out that some people who have both musical and neutral versions of his DACs actually found out that the musical version sounds brighter than the neutral one. I wouldn't take Kingwa's descriptions in his site at face value.  

Thanks for the information. But, i do not like brigthness either. I have an old Denon cd player wich is bright, it is horrible. I listen to symphonic music, Beethoven, Brahms symphonies, there is a lot of brass. With brightness it is unbearable. All coloration is bad for me. It is why i try to understand if this dac is neutral or not. Acss and diamond output stage for the same dac, it is not clear for me.
 

 

[vrln]

Anyone know what the double FET output stage is? (mentioned on the NFB-8 page) Never seen that on any outher Audio-gd DAC before. Seems to be a new design.

 

[pasgod]

Kingwa has just made a change on NFB 8 page in order to try to explain his design. He explains that Diamond differential amp and diamond buffer are not the same thing. I confounded both. So, diamond buffer is the neutral design , NFB 8 is a neutral dac. It seems that all the neutral dacs have the diamond buffer, i think that the musical dacs have the diamond differential amp.
 
ACSS + dual FET buffer (diamond buffer) = neutral design 
 
Thank you Kingwa for your explanation.

 

[SP Wild]

Pure speculation on my behalf, but perhaps Kingwa felt that he couldn't quite make the Sabre as "musical" as according to his personal standards and felt that the Wolfson ACSS route is more capable as a combination to provide a "musical" experience?

 

[pasgod]

In order to make Sabre sound musical, Kingwa has to use the diamond differential amp output stage which add a colour, it is a little artificial design.
 
The wolfson 8741 is a little smooth on its own, a little forgiving, so Kingwa does not have to add colour with a special output stage. It is a straight way, a purer design. Personnaly, i think it's better, more neutral.

 

[vrln]

Denys: DacMagic upsamples by default, this doesn´t. It also uses the cheap budget Wolfson chip, this is the high end one used in many expensive products like the PS Audio PerfectWave DAC. This will be in a way, way different league than the DM Not to mention the hardcore power supply, ACSS and so on.
 
edit: if I remember correctly PS Audio said they tried the Sabre32, but chose the Wolfson exactly for the reason speculated on this thread: to add some musicality. The Sabre32 is fantastic for the super neutral NFB-7, but for those looking for something a little more forgiving, this looks awesome. 
 
Any guesses on price?

 

[Cankin]

IIRC, DacMagic uses WM8740 which was the flagship of Wolfson. WM8741 and WM8742 were not out at that time.

 

[SP Wild]

errrr, comparing my wallwart Dacmagic to any one of Kingwa's 15 kilos worth of Total Annihilation dacs is a little bit of a mismatch I think? 

 

[K3cT]

I have no idea about Kingwa's Sabre implementations but the Buffalo24 that I had tried is perhaps one of the most sterile-sounding piece of equipments that I've ever tried. 

 

[Denys]

Quote:

Denys: DacMagic upsamples by default, this doesn´t. It also uses the cheap budget Wolfson chip, this is the high end one used in many expensive products like the PS Audio PerfectWave DAC. This will be in a way, way different league than the DM Not to mention the hardcore power supply, ACSS and so on.
 
edit: if I remember correctly PS Audio said they tried the Sabre32, but chose the Wolfson exactly for the reason speculated on this thread: to add some musicality. The Sabre32 is fantastic for the super neutral NFB-7, but for those looking for something a little more forgiving, this looks awesome. 
 
Any guesses on price?

Thank you Sir,
 
This helps.....I am not so sure about the Sabre chip anymore... at least not without listening to one first...
 
Denys
 

 

[pasgod]

NFB 8 price is 1200 USD.