jbpstereo Posted August 17, 2013 Posted August 17, 2013 Hi all! Has anyone had a chance to hear the audio-gd NFB-3 DAC? http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/dac/NFB3-2011/NFB3-384EN.htm I'm thinking about pairing it with an audio-gd Precision 1 amp and Usher S520 speakers... Now, where's that tax return? Jason
pete_mac Posted August 17, 2013 Posted August 17, 2013 I've owned the NFB3 with the Wolfson WM8741 chips, but not the 384 version with the TI PCM5102 chips. I'd expect there to be a slight difference in sound between the two. Nobody has heard a Precision-1 yet... You may be the first if you go ahead and order one!
jbpstereo Posted August 18, 2013 Author Posted August 18, 2013 I've owned the NFB3 with the Wolfson WM8741 chips, but not the 384 version with the TI PCM5102 chips. pete_mac, were you impressed with your NFB? Was is classy? A good buy? We read so much about our potential new toys that it's easy to get paralysed - I'm liking what I've read about the Meridian Director, too, especially for classical music (which is my "listen with eyes closed" fodder) but the gd-audio stuff impresses me with it's technology, upgradability, and apparent brilliant bang for buck. Jason
Batty Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 The NFB 3 is about 85% performance of the NFB 2, I had the 2 until recently, a very good DAC for the money.
pete_mac Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 (edited) pete_mac, were you impressed with your NFB? Was is classy? A good buy? We read so much about our potential new toys that it's easy to get paralysed - I'm liking what I've read about the Meridian Director, too, especially for classical music (which is my "listen with eyes closed" fodder) but the gd-audio stuff impresses me with it's technology, upgradability, and apparent brilliant bang for buck. Jason Hi Jason, It was a nice upgrade over the onboard Squeezebox Touch DAC and excellent value for money. It was the DAC that dragged me aboard the audio-gd bandwagon, and I've been on it ever since with gradual upgrades through the ranks - NFB3, DAC19DSP, Reference 5 and now a tweaked DAC3SE with Ref 1 DSP digital board installed. I don't listen to classical music so I can't help with how the NFB3 sounds with this genre. I can say that I do prefer the sound of the PCM1704UK-equipped audio-gd DACs with guitars, pianos and strings etc (heck, with pretty much all music to be honest - more natural sounding to my ears) but the cheapest current PCM1704UK-equipped audio-gd DAC isaround $900. Personally, if you can snaffle a second-hand DAC19DSP and don't intend using the onboard USB, I'd recommend this every time over a NFB2/3. You'd be up for around $400-500 for one of these second-hand though, IF you can manage to prise it out of someone's hands. I do note that there have been several incarnations of the NFB3. Mine was the original model with the dual WM8741 DAC chips, through-hole construction using predominantly EVOX MKT caps for decoupling, a toroidal transformer, and the Tenor TE7022 USB chip. With the introduction of the NFB3.1, they switched to a mix of through hole and surface mount construction, with no through-hole MKT caps on the main board at all. They also introduced the TE8022 (which was plagued with driver software issues). Aside from the USB woes, it was a nice DAC. The NFB3.32 then saw the switch to the USB32 USB interface, whilst everything else remaining the same as the NFB3.1. The NFB3.33 saw the toroidal transformer being replaced with a R-core like the NFB2 series of DACs as per below: I've not heard any of the NFB3.1, 3.32, 3.33 or NFB3-384 (wich is a NFB3.33 with the 384khz TI5102 chips vs the Wolfson WM8741 chips) so I can't say for certain as to how they compare to the original. They should sound pretty darn decent though, and the upgrade to the R-core transformer is nice. Most significantly, if you intend connecting the DAC to a PC via USB, the new USB32-equipped models are apparently in a different league compared to the original TE7022 version. I believe that the NFB2 variants are certainly a bit nicer than the NFB3 variants, but you're up for an extra $150. The NFB3 variants are excellent value for money at the $350 price point. Edited August 18, 2013 by pete_mac 3
ceeceevee Posted August 18, 2013 Posted August 18, 2013 (edited) Wow. I have also been looking at the NFBs and I have been trying to decipher King Wa's site but pete_mac pretty much answered all my questions in a single post, including some I hadn't even thought of asking just yet! This forum is proving to be a goldmine of info :-) Edited August 19, 2013 by ceeceevee
jbpstereo Posted August 19, 2013 Author Posted August 19, 2013 Thanks for the great insight into how audio-gd does their thing, pete_mac! :-) I'll keep reading... Jason
stephennic Posted August 19, 2013 Posted August 19, 2013 Hi, Where can you buy a audio gd 3 for under $400 in Australia. Only the 15 series I can see for around the $300 mark. I have the 15.32 for special for $249 and now they are $300 or with tcxo $349. I ordered the tcxo low jitter clock from Kingwa. Its pretty impressive sound too. Cheers Steve.
pete_mac Posted August 19, 2013 Posted August 19, 2013 Hi, Where can you buy a audio gd 3 for under $400 in Australia. You can't... They are about $400 landed if you buy direct from Kingwa.
mloutfie Posted December 21, 2013 Posted December 21, 2013 Has anyone have any experience in comparing NFB 3 and NFB 1p? I'm interested to get one of them and wonder whether the 200 dollars difference is worth it.
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