[Crazy*Carl]

If thats possible, sure?
 
If not, I guess someone can start a new thread.

 

[nManJofo]

What USB chip does it have?
 
I was thinking of getting a Styleaudio Ruby MK2, but maybe Sparrow will change my mind... if it sounds the same as Fun, I probably won't regret getting Sparrow instead of Ruby. Anyone willing to review his new unit?

 

[haloxt]

I believe the sparrow uses usb2706 like the FUN. It certainly beats the audio-gd compass . And it gives me emotions of denial when my ears tell me the sparrow puts up a good fight against my dac19mk3+phoenix in terms of speed, macrodetails and size of ambience, but when I concentrate my attention on soundstage depth, microscopic nuances, and shades/tones of decay and emotional variety, I can tell the dac19mk3 (with rca connection, not acss connection) does better overall, but I don't know if it could justify the price increase.
 
If you've never been sensitized to extremely fast nuances (especially in bass) and soundstage decay/echoes, you will think the sparrow has no apparent weaknesses, and that it is strong on many points. And I think the slightly energetic sound signature I noted before is just a product of the dac19mk3's better instrument decay. This is with ~75 hours of my own burn-in time on top of factory burn-in time, I'm afraid of it improving with more burn-in and maybe do nuances nearly the same level as dac19mk3 . Luckily I'm preparing myself by buying a dac9mk3 but I highly suspect my headphones and transport and albums won't be on the same level as dac9mk3+phoenix, maybe I should just sell everything and get a sparrow for all my needs .

 

[Ypoknons]

Quote:

I believe the sparrow uses usb2706 like the FUN. It certainly beats the audio-gd compass . And it gives me emotions of denial when my ears tell me the sparrow puts up a good fight against my dac19mk3+phoenix in terms of speed, macrodetails and size of ambience, but when I concentrate my attention on soundstage depth, microscopic nuances, and shades/tones of decay and emotional variety, I can tell the dac19mk3 (with rca connection, not acss connection) does better overall, but I don't know if it could justify the price increase.
 
If you've never been sensitized to small nuances and soundstage decay/echoes, you will think the sparrow has no apparent weaknesses, and that it is strong on many points, and the slightly energetic sound signature I noted before is just a product of the slight shortcomings of the sparrow, and you wouldn't likely notice it. This is with ~75 hours of my own burn-in time on top of factory burn-in time, I'm afraid of it improving with more burn-in and maybe do nuances nearly the same level as dac19mk3 . Luckily I'm preparing myself by buying a dac9mk3 but I highly suspect my headphones and transport and albums won't be on the same level as dac9mk3+phoenix, maybe I should just live with the sparrow ..

 
I think that's true of moving from a 'good' amp to a high-end amp for many people really, more than usually acknowledged. Indeed I could be 'happy' with a HD650 <- Compass but on the other hand I felt there were enough differences listening at the shop to justify a more expensive amp (but the Compass was priced at $400, so the differential wasn't that big). Of course, this is all said without taking them home and being familiar with them for months on end (the last amp I owned as a Headroom Micro), so I'll need to try that.
 
That said, if the Sparrow is as good as you say, it must be an incredible value.

 

[haloxt]

I would say it is a great value if you want emotionally honest, detailed, focused, immediate (ie, not super 3D depth) sound, but if you want extremely deep soundstage, and lots of timbre detail and decay, the sparrow won't satisfy like audio-gd's mid/top-tier products.

 

[Crazy*Carl]

I am gonna go pick mine up very soon and should have some initial impressions by the end of the day.

 

[Ypoknons]

Hopefully you hear something!

 

[les_garten]

 
Quote:

I believe the sparrow uses usb2706 like the FUN. It certainly beats the audio-gd compass . And it gives me emotions of denial when my ears tell me the sparrow puts up a good fight against my dac19mk3+phoenix in terms of speed, macrodetails and size of ambience, but when I concentrate my attention on soundstage depth, microscopic nuances, and shades/tones of decay and emotional variety, I can tell the dac19mk3 (with rca connection, not acss connection) does better overall, but I don't know if it could justify the price increase.
 
If you've never been sensitized to extremely fast nuances (especially in bass) and soundstage decay/echoes, you will think the sparrow has no apparent weaknesses, and that it is strong on many points. And I think the slightly energetic sound signature I noted before is just a product of the dac19mk3's better instrument decay. This is with ~75 hours of my own burn-in time on top of factory burn-in time, I'm afraid of it improving with more burn-in and maybe do nuances nearly the same level as dac19mk3 . Luckily I'm preparing myself by buying a dac9mk3 but I highly suspect my headphones and transport and albums won't be on the same level as dac9mk3+phoenix, maybe I should just sell everything and get a sparrow for all my needs .
 
Btw I dunno if I should post this in other audio-gd threads, but dac9mk3 is currently discounted on audio-gd.com, it is to be discontinued and this is the last batch. Will delete this last sentence when I see it is no longer on sale.

 
 
The A-GD website is down presently.  What is the DAC 8 going for?  That should be a great deal for sme folks.
 

 

[nManJofo]

Can anyone compare Fun or Sparrow to Styleaudio stuff? And how often does audio-gd release new modules?

 

[haloxt]

He quoted me $950.
 
Also just letting people know, Kingwa sent me this sparrow to test and give him feedback, not give impressions on head-fi. My impressions of audio-gd is probably biased from Kingwa's habit of being too generous. But on the other hand I only have audio-gd products to compare so I will never wrongly criticize other brands.

 

[Kayk]

Quote:

The A-GD website is down presently.  What is the DAC 8 going for?  That should be a great deal for sme folks.

 
They just changed the format of their site, google audio-gd site again and you will see they changed stuff around a bit.
 
I just got my Sparrow in the mail, first impressions : 

After being ampless for a week or so on my D-2000s, the sparrow sounds much more articulate, detailed, and has a much greater sense of soundstage compared to amp-less. Compared to my EF2, it doesn't have the 'tube sound' that the EF2 had, which IMO makes the Sparrow even better. It also just feels like its not having any trouble amping what I'm listening too, and looks and feels like a very well made product.
 
The only 2 things I don't like about it so far is that the input switch says 1, 2 and 3, not USB, Coax, and Optical. It's kinda vague but I'll figure it out soon. My second gripe is that the power switch is on the back (Do I have to regularly turn this unit on and off like my old tube amp? Or can I just leave it on all the time?)
 

 

[Crazy*Carl]

I just got my Sparrow in this morning. 
 
First Impressions:
Good detail, but what I really notice difference is BIG soundstage.
Great unit and build
Tons of power
 
I also used to have a EF2 and to me it sounded the same as my computers onboard.
Sparrow better unit and value.  Much more impressions to come later.

 

[les_garten]

 
Quote:

 
They just changed the format of their site, google audio-gd site again and you will see they changed stuff around a bit.
 
I just got my Sparrow in the mail, first impressions : 

After being ampless for a week or so on my D-2000s, the sparrow sounds much more articulate, detailed, and has a much greater sense of soundstage compared to amp-less. Compared to my EF2, it doesn't have the 'tube sound' that the EF2 had, which IMO makes the Sparrow even better. It also just feels like its not having any trouble amping what I'm listening too, and looks and feels like a very well made product.
 
The only 2 things I don't like about it so far is that the input switch says 1, 2 and 3, not USB, Coax, and Optical. It's kinda vague but I'll figure it out soon. My second gripe is that the power switch is on the back (Do I have to regularly turn this unit on and off like my old tube amp? Or can I just leave it on all the time?)
 

It won't hurt it to run all the time IMHO.  It runs pretty cool.  Mine has a "box" temp of 95F in a 78F ambient temp room.  I would agree with the labeling, it could be have been more precise.
 

 

[EraserXIV]

@haloxt
 
you've mentioned before that the treble on the sparrow is a bit hot. do you think it's because of the DA1852 chip? On the website they describe the DA1852 as: "Sounds a bit dynamic with extended highs."
 
Maybe switching to the DA8740 module would make it a bit better? The website decribes the DA8740 as: "Sounds a bit tubelike and soft/warm." Did Kingwa give you a DA8740 to test out?

 

[Kayk]

I just came back here to post that the highs are significantly better than my EF2, and that the beats are very hard hitting, which is a really cool effect.
 
Also, the light on the front of the box is basically a super small LED light that is illuminated a piece of transparent glass or whatever a dim blue, which is cool because it doesn't shine when it's in your peripheral vision, and it's a low brightness but easily visible light.
 
My volume right now is reasonably loud and the volume knob is only turned up about 1/3rd of the way..