[newabc]

My regular DI-20 has burned in for over 300 hours. I think in these hours, the internal clock used over 200 hours.
My headphone setup: the source (SPDIF RCA output) => (RCA input) DI-20 90/98 (SPDIF acss BNC output) => (BNC input) DAC (acss output) => (acss input) C-2 => K702/Q701
3 Audio-gd gears from DI-20 to C-2 is being used here.
Two SPDIF coaxial cables are based on Canare L-5CFB and its RCA/BNC plugs, 75ohm. ACSS cables from Audio-gd, too.

My impression: musicality, positioning, imaging, airy feel are much much better than directly connecting the same source to DAC by SPDIF. Easy to feel the singer's emotion. First time I can feel the singer is calm, elegant and self-confidence when she is singing in a song. Even I can feel a string of a string instrument was plucked in which direction. And correct and rich background details are there.

The performance of DI-20 is continually improving.

 

[FredA]

My regular DI-20 has burned in for over 300 hours. I think in these hours, the internal clock used over 200 hours.
My headphone setup: the source (SPDIF RCA output) => (RCA input) DI-20 90/98 (SPDIF acss BNC output) => (BNC input) DAC (acss output) => (acss input) C-2 => K702/Q701
3 Audio-gd gears from DI-20 to C-2 is being used here.
Two SPDIF coaxial cables are based on Canare L-5CFB and its RCA/BNC plugs, 75ohm. ACSS cables from Audio-gd, too.

My impression: musicality, positioning, imaging, airy feel are much much better than directly connecting the same source to DAC by SPDIF. Easy to feel the singer's emotion. First time I can feel the singer is calm, elegant and self-confidence when she is singing in a song. Even I can feel a string of a string instrument was plucked in which direction. And correct and rich background details are there.

The performance of DI-20 is continually improving.

FIY, the internal are staying powered on and are always outputting a sigal as long as the unit it turned on, so they burn-in even when you use the external.

 

[FredA]

I am at day 11 now. The popping noise i had every 3 minute with the external ocxo has gone away i am starting to hear what the DI-20HE can do. And it can do a lot.

This morning, i compared the 4 combinations of i2s/bnc and external/internal

Here are my observations:

1. bnc, with either internal or external clock is indistinguishable, nice sound
2. I2s: the sound is more raw, more direct, the external giving a better bass and perhaps more air.

So external/i2s has taken the lead after 260 hours. The sound is as real as it gets right now. Also, i flashed the latest fw on the r7he (DOP) last night, which has to be taken into account.

 

[newabc]

By comparing the SPDIF cables built by MPS X-7(with MPS plugs) and Canare L-5CFB(with Canare plugs), I think 75ohm and a solid conductor core are more important than the materiel of OCC/OFC and whether it is silver-plated or not in digital signal transmission of a coaxial cable. And of cause, lower gauge is better. (L-5CFB is 18awg.)

I think there will be somebody who want to try a affordable, solid and low wire gauge conductor core and true 75ohm video cable on the SPDIF acss output. Belden has silver-plated 14awg 4731R and 4731P, and 16awg 4794R. They are not OCC or OFC, just low gauge and silver-plated solid copper. And they are designed to transfer 4K and 8K video signal(based on Belden's flyer).

Still cannot find the video cable based on Belden 4731R/4731P, but found some based on 4794R from this head-fi thread, cheaper than amazon.com's third party seller:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-blu-mk-2-the-official-thread.831343/page-170

 

[DACLadder]

Give the DI about two weeks to start showing what it is consistently capable. Some variation in sound in first 0 -12 days. I've only had power apply 24/7 for about 10 days (240 hrs). And running internal clocks until I can get better external OCXO power supply.

 

[newabc]

My regular DI-20 may meet a similar problem of DI-20HE in the burn-in process.

I powered off the source, DAC, headphone amp and external clock and left the DI-20 on with internal clock only for one night. In the next morning, I found headphone amp(C-2) should raise the volume from 30 to 35 to get the same voice volume as the last evening with the same song. And the soundstage shrank. A similar problem like DI-20HE after 300 hours burn-in.

Then I kept the source feeding the DI-20 and closed DAC and headphone amp for over-night. Now C-2 volume returned to 30 but still cannot get the same impression as before. I will try to keep the source feeding DI-20 with or without external clock for 200 hours more to see what will happen.

By the way, 2020 Olympic is coming and 8K video will become standard quality at that time. We will see the BNC or RCA 75ohm cables based on 14awg coaxial cables like Belden 4731R/4731P will appear on the market in 2020. I just ordered a BNC/BNC cable based on 16awg 4794R.

 

[FredA]

My DI has 310 hours done and it sounds splendidly this morning as it was last night. Still on external/i2s. Parallel mode, serial to me is clearly not as good. Not suprising as i think Kingwa developped it cause he was left unsatisfied with what he could get with serial. That is a lot of effort he put in the DI. He was on a mission, to use a cliché.

The DI is a fantastic music-making unit. It has such ease in the whole spectrum, it bring fullness and coherence to a level that make other units i had before look like toys, as i said already. It brings out the best out of those tricky old records like Billie Holiday's. And the recent records become jaw-dropping in some instances.

 

[rsbrsvp]

Just received my DI-20HE.

First impression- TERRIBLE..... My Shiit Eiter at $99 blows it away. The DI sounds muffled and dead. The Eiter- open, crisp and transparent.

I certainly believe in burn in but I thought they burn in 300 hours in the factory before shipping.

I'll run it overnight and see my impressions tomorrow.

 

[FredA]

Just received my DI-20HE.

First impression- TERRIBLE..... My Shiit Eiter at $99 blows it away. The DI sounds muffled and dead. The Eiter- open, crisp and transparent.

I certainly believe in burn in but I thought they burn in 300 hours in the factory before shipping.

I'll run it overnight and see my impressions tomorrow.

Cold out of the box, many reported it is a disappointment. Don't worry.
The factory burn-in is likely just 100 hours. It needs another 300.

 

[FredA]

Listening to Chet Baker's Baker's Holiday. This album is a perfect exemple of vintage material that can sound like sh.. if your setup is not up to the task. Real treat with the HE combo.

 

[DACLadder]

And when you get to the 300 hr mark experiment with power cables. My guess Kingwa doesn't ship a plastic power cable for a very good reason.

Internal clocks are going have a lot of variation in sound as they run in.

 

[PLGA]

Has anyone played flawlessly Tidal MQA with the DI-20 (HE version or not)?

I havent done a lot of test, but I get random and frequent noise (similar to pink noise) playing MQA, upsampled or not with Audinirvana+. It works perfectly with Tidal HiFi 44.1 kHz PCM, upsampled and not by Audinirvana, but I have trouble with MQA. I havent tried yet DSD or PCM Hi Res.

My SOtM SMS Ultra Neo is feeding the DI-20 with USB and from the DI-20 to my R8 DAC there´s a 2.1 protocol HDMI cable.

Any thoughts?

 

[FredA]

And when you get to the 300 hr mark experiment with power cables. My guess Kingwa doesn't ship a plastic power cable for a very good reason.

Internal clocks are going have a lot of variation in sound as they run in.

One good point with the internal clocks, using an external one gives a big advantage in the beginning.

 

[rsbrsvp]

I am hearing some static background noise on every song. Is this what is called "pink noise" or is it a problem?

If it is pink noise- will it go away with burn-in?

 

[JaMo]

I am hearing some static background noise on every song. Is this what is called "pink noise" or is it a problem?

If it is pink noise- will it go away with burn-in?

Not to worry, it is most likely the noise I had during the earliest hours of burn in. It will disappear... just let it run powered on.
/Jan