[sysfail]

I've been debating whether to upgrade my amp to a Cavalli CTH hybrid amp or upgrade my DAC+amp to the Audio-gd NFB-12. My current DAC is the Pure i20's DAC which has a Cirrus 4353 24-bit/192KHz DAC, and my current amp is a FiiO E9. Which one would give me the greater improvement over my current E9 amp and Cirrus 4353 DAC?
 
Headphones I will be using with this setup will be the Thunderpants (Fostex T50RP), Sennheiser HD600, Beyerdynamic DT990/600ohm, Fischer Audio FA-011, and Audio-Technica AD900. Possibly a Hifiman HE-4 in the future as well.
 
It's basically coming down to upgrading the DAC or upgrading the amp.
 
I know the NFB-12 amp section probably won't be a great upgrade over the FiiO E9, but its Wolfson dual WM8741 DAC could be a great upgrade over the Cirrus 4353 DAC I currently have (I am not positive with this since there are no comparisons).
 
I also know that the Cavalli CTH would be a great upgrade from my FiiO E9, but it does not have a DAC at all, which means I have to stick with the Cirrus 4353 DAC I currently have.
 
Which path should I go to see the greatest improvement? Sadly, I can't afford both.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[sgrossklass]

Improvement? Consider yourself lucky if things don't get worse. The E9 actually is a pretty decent little amp (OK, I wouldn't have used an OPA2134, but that's another story), with low output impedance and a very reasonable amount of available power. You should still be able to get well over 100 dB SPL out of the HE-4.
 
If you want something more powerful for orthos, neither of your two candidates seem particularly well-suited. I might go with a Lake People / Violectric model (which generally pack a punch and are hard to fault), but that's personal preference.
 
Bonus question: How much have you been spending on headgear and how much on music in the same time frame? Are you satisfied with resulting balance?

 

[sysfail]

Quote:

Improvement? Consider yourself lucky if things don't get worse. The E9 actually is a pretty decent little amp (OK, I wouldn't have used an OPA2134, but that's another story), with low output impedance and a very reasonable amount of available power. You should still be able to get well over 100 dB SPL out of the HE-4.
 
If you want something more powerful for orthos, neither of your two candidates seem particularly well-suited. I might go with a Lake People / Violectric model (which generally pack a punch and are hard to fault), but that's personal preference.
 
Bonus question: How much have you been spending on headgear and how much on music in the same time frame? Are you satisfied with resulting balance?

Really? I read the Cavalli CTH is an amazing amp for the orthos like the Thunderpants. I know the NFB-12 probably won't be much of an upgrade as an amp from the E9, but it's DAC section should be an upgrade. I like what I have, but I know there can be improvements, but don't know if it has to come from upgrading the amp or upgrading the DAC. The Violectric stuff is nice but quite out of my price range of around $250-$300.
 

 

[sysfail]

Bump! Need more advice on this.

 

[Synergy Sound]

I can't speak for the Cavalli, but I would put the NFB-12 slightly above the E9 in terms of performance. For one, the NFB-12 uses dual Wolfson WM8741's DAC chips as opposed to the E7's single WM8740 (obviously acting as the E9's DAC). In addition to that, the NFB-12 pushes 150mW @ 600 ohms whereas the E9 puts out 80mW @ 600 ohms, so the NFB-12 has almost twice the driving capability of the E9. Both of these factors lead me to purchasing the NFB-12, I was in a similar situation.

 

[sysfail]

Quote:

I can't speak for the Cavalli, but I would put the NFB-12 slightly above the E9 in terms of performance. For one, the NFB-12 uses dual Wolfson WM8741's DAC chips as opposed to the E7's single WM8740 (obviously acting as the E9's DAC). In addition to that, the NFB-12 pushes 150mW @ 600 ohms whereas the E9 puts out 80mW @ 600 ohms, so the NFB-12 has almost twice the driving capability of the E9. Both of these factors lead me to purchasing the NFB-12, I was in a similar situation.

Thanks! I think I'm leaning towards the NFB-12 now.
 

 

[LiqTenExp]

NFB-12 can drive everything with ease except HE-6.  I own one and know and have tried HE-6.  Now as far as the DAC goes, I do find it more revealing and slightly warmer sounding than the Pure I-20 (also have one of those).  I didn't think the DAC in the Pure was bad but something WM874X series has better potential.  I think the NFB-12 is the best deal out there period if you are looking for a sub 300 dollar amp or a sub 300 dollar amp/dac combo.  
 
Not many other amps out there can say they drive everything except the one pair previously stated.  It drives the HE-6, just not to loud levels, to levels louder than you would want to listen to them in an office.
 
I love mine and bring it to work, to friends house, it is very portable for being a desktop style amp.  I have also used to drive power amps with its variable mode and other amps/headphone amps with preamps in them using the fixed output mode.  What's nice too is the gain control. For your low impedance sensitive headphones you can take more advantage of the volume knob in the low gain setting and better control of volume for higher impedance harder to drive headphones in high gain setting.
 
I have had tried it with:
 
LCD-2
HE-6
Ultrasone HFI-780
Ultrasone ED 10
HD650
HD598
Denon AH-D5000
AKG 701
Beyer DT990-600 ohm
Beyer DT770-250 ohm
1964 Ears Quad Customs
 
Only one it wouldn't pair up with nicely were the HE-6.
 

 

[sysfail]

Quote:

NFB-12 can drive everything with ease except HE-6.  I own one and know and have tried HE-6.  Now as far as the DAC goes, I do find it more revealing and slightly warmer sounding than the Pure I-20 (also have one of those).  I didn't think the DAC in the Pure was bad but something WM874X series has better potential.  I think the NFB-12 is the best deal out there period if you are looking for a sub 300 dollar amp or a sub 300 dollar amp/dac combo.  
 
Not many other amps out there can say they drive everything except the one pair previously stated.  It drives the HE-6, just not to loud levels, to levels louder than you would want to listen to them in an office.
 
I love mine and bring it to work, to friends house, it is very portable for being a desktop style amp.  I have also used to drive power amps with its variable mode and other amps/headphone amps with preamps in them using the fixed output mode.  What's nice too is the gain control. For your low impedance sensitive headphones you can take more advantage of the volume knob in the low gain setting and better control of volume for higher impedance harder to drive headphones in high gain setting.
 
I have had tried it with:
 
LCD-2
HE-6
Ultrasone HFI-780
Ultrasone ED 10
HD650
HD598
Denon AH-D5000
AKG 701
Beyer DT990-600 ohm
Beyer DT770-250 ohm
1964 Ears Quad Customs
 
Only one it wouldn't pair up with nicely were the HE-6.
 

Wow thanks! Really glad you gave me a comparison with the i20's DAC vs the NFB-12's DAC. It looks like the NFB-12 is just what I need.

So you are able to use the i20 with coax out and hook it up with the NFB-12 coax in? So basically iPod > i20 > Coax cable > NFB-12 (Using both the DAC and amp) > Headphones.
 

 

[LiqTenExp]

That is my work setup exactly.

 

[sysfail]

Great! That'll probably be my setup soon also.