2. amps-preamps
  3. 1282360075

Audio-gd

I want to solicit feedbcak from others using Audio-Gd products. For background purposes, I can say that my inclination has mostly been towards tube based gear. I recently have owned numerous ARC preamps, SP-3A, LS-15, LS-25 MKI, LS-5 MKIII, REF II MKII. In addition I have owned BAT preamps (a couple VK-3, VK-50SE) McIntosh C26 and C100 solid state and C11 tube. In ancient history I have tried numerous SS items, Marantz 3300, 3600, 3800, Apt Holman and Dynaco PAT-4.

Most recently I have tried the Sino offerings, YS-Audio and through a positive experience with a recent DAC purchase, Audio-Gd.
The sum of my accumulated aural knowledge has always led towards tubes.

Recently I replaced a Benchmark DAC with an Audio-GD Ref I DAC. Based on the improvement I heard relative to the Benchmark, I decided to try Audio-Gd's top of the line pre-amp, C3-MKIII.

After allowing for a full 30 day break-in period (very impotant), I have been astonished by the quality of the A-GD sound. It is much more coherent than my tube gear without sacrificing any warmth or mid-range tonality.

Having tried a range of components. from low to high-end, I wonder if others have tried similar comparisons. Based on the build and sonic quality, I am incredibly impressed.
warrenc
mcondon
223 posts
 
Audio-gd has a large following on the headphone-related audio forum Head-fi, both for its headphone amps and its DACs. Supposedly Audio-gd provides very good customer support, even though they are based in Asia (Hong Kong?). The only downside has been that their headphone amps tend to run very hot and some feel they have inadequate heat sinks.

I have read nothing about their preamps or power amps, either on this forum or anywhere else, except for your comment. That means resale value will suffer. My experience is that this is the case with all China-branded equipment (Eastsound, for example). It seems inexpensive relative to other new components but you can pretty much forget about ever selling it used.
vongphat
6 posts
 
I bought the Audio GD NFB-7 and had it for a month now. I am very happy about my purchase especially from a quality price point of view. I have in my system the Esoteric X-01 with upgraded silver fuses and the sound is very close in terms of quality. This is very encouraging and I am considering buying their preamplifier-amplifier combination. Are you still happy Warren about your purchase and what is your current system?
sutrisna
1 posts
 
AGD runs hot bcs based on class A. It uses electric energy more than its produce (output) bcs the current keeps flowing eventhough no signal (idle). I use a small fan to cool down my DAC, player, pre & amp bcs sound distortion more increase in high T. I bought AGD DAC ref 7.1 around 2 mths ago. Im very happy with it. If I had $ I probably prefer Total DAC(made in France). Its design is more straight forward & simpler. It based on very precise resistors (for satelite/ aerospace) & it has no oversampling BUT the $ is > US$ 3 k ! It's basic only (it has no preamp for its output). I bought AGD bcs using 4 DAC per chnl (!!), its audio circuits & PSU are fully discretes/ no IC, no caps on audio signal, active clock (!!), class A, NFB (no feedback). I've heard the different between IC opamp Vs discrete (all transistors assembled). The quality of sound from discrete opamp is better thn IC one.
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