[buson160man]

 I have been thinking about upgrading my desk top computer sound system.I do
not use my computer for listening to music but I do like to use my computer to watch netflix and dvds.I presently am using the non-descript computer speakers that came with my computer and would like to upgrade the sound system for bettter sound.I would also like to upgrade the movies sound quality as well with a better dac/preamp and possibly headphone amp combination unit.I have a limited budget so my choices may not be numerous.I have picked up through head-fi that the audio-gd company offers a lot of performance and flexibility in this area for very reasonable prices.I plan to use the unit as a dac/preamp for a powered speaker system which I am also considering to upgrade the performance of my computer audio system.The one I am thinking about is the emotiva airmotiv 5 specifically.I am concerned about the audio quality of my computer sound card which I am totally ignorant of the one supplied with my computer.In the past I was satisfied with them because at the time I only used them for whatever one uses them for when they surf the web.You tube,etc.
  But I am recent to netflix I do watch it a fair amount on my computer using my desk top audio system and I am no longer satisfied with my computer audio systems audio quality.
  After reading about the audio-gd products on head-fi and on their website they have two models which are pretty close in price that look to be possible candidates for my computer audio system.I have never heard any of their products and would like any opinions about the two models.One the nfb 10.32 and the other the nfb 11.32 .I presume they both sound quite different because in part the dac they use.I have heard the oppo player though only briefly which usues the ess sabre dac.I also own and use as my primary listening source in my headphone based audio system a onkyo sacd/cd player that uses a wolfson wm8742 chip which I find very easy to listen to and which leans to the musical side of the fence sonically speaking.
  I would like to get good resolution but also given the audio sound qualties of movies I want something that is very listenable and has a low irritation factor given the near field listening of a desk top based system.
  I was hoping someone has compared the two audio-gd products and would give me there opinions likes and dislikes about htese models.I would also like to know what your sound prefernces are.Are they more towards neutralilty or more towards musicality.
 Any input would be appreciated.

 

[steve2151]

The NFB-11 is more comparable to the NFB-12 and NFB-15 than the NFB-10. The NFB-10 is balanced dac/amp that is about 4 times the size and can swing 3.5x as much power. It's definitely an update over the NFB-12, which I used to own.
 
The price tag on the NFB-11 is higher than the NFB-12 and NFB-15 due to the 32/384 usb connection and implementation of the Sabre chip instead of the Wolfson. Power supply, casing, and features are the same. I spoke with Kingwa when ordering my NFB-12 about 18 months ago, and he mentioned that the Wolfson chip would be more musical and the Sabre more revealing. Soon after that, the NFB-11 was discontinued for a while due to usb jitter issues.