[capetownwatches]

I was refering to the original x-can. I am sure the following versions are as good or better. The original did not have the best pot. Audio-gd uses an rk27, and have generally very transparent volume control.

Aha! That would explain it. The V3 is a different beast, significantly upgraded from original.

Anthony Michaelson actually specified the highest grade volume pot for X-Can V3 specifically.
Says he didn't mind spending more in order to give the customer the best possible experience.

My kinda guy - builds gear with soul.

BTW, the pot on NFB11 and R2R11 is sublime too, no argument there!

 

[FredA]

Aha! That would explain it. The V3 is a different beast, significantly upgraded from original.

Anthony Michaelson actually specified the highest grade volume pot for X-Can V3 specifically.
Says he didn't mind spending more in order to give the customer the best possible experience.

My kinda guy - builds gear with soul.

BTW, the pot on NFB11 and R2R11 is sublime too, no argument there!

I really considered buying the V3 and even v2. They looked even better than the original. Love that sound (my friend owns a v1).

 

[spacequeen7]

*

 

[maheeinfy]

New to audio-gd world. Hoping to get some of the questions answered from this thread
1. Seems like NFB 11.28 went through several iterations. Is the current model 11.28 latest in the series? If there is going to be the next version of this, i would hold off for now
2. R2R11 seems like a new release. Does it mean audio-gd might update it as R2R11.1, R2R11.2 and so on ?
3. Are there any recommended upgrades to add to 11.28 when i order from them

TIA

 

[RojasTKD]

New to audio-gd world. Hoping to get some of the questions answered from this thread
1. Seems like NFB 11.28 went through several iterations. Is the current model 11.28 latest in the series? If there is going to be the next version of this, i would hold off for now
2. R2R11 seems like a new release. Does it mean audio-gd might update it as R2R11.1, R2R11.2 and so on ?
3. Are there any recommended upgrades to add to 11.28 when i order from them

TIA

1. NFB-11.28 is the most recent version (Since June 2017)
2. Yes they will likely update the R2R 11 at some point.
3. I'm not really sure, I think many find the upgrade options to not be a necessity.

These are fairly recent models and not likely to see another update in the immediate future.

 

[VilMo]

News from the Audio-gd Web site:

R2R 11 firmware update inform

Since 28th March, R2R 11 had the updated firmware .

The update for remove the "pop" sound while switch the music tracks in PCM mode in computer, and smoother the "pop" noise while switch between PCM and DSD.

The firmware update had not included mute design , so had not degrade or improve on sound quality ,just for the better user experiences.

If you don't care the "pop" sound while select the track, you don't want update the firmware.
The unit shipped later than 28th March , it don't want update.

 

[MelonHead]

Thanks VilMo for the good news.
If you don't find the firmware here is a link to it:
ISE 14.7 Windows 10
A registered account seems to be mandatory for the download.

 

[Tiflotin]

Thanks VilMo for the good news.
If you don't find the firmware here is a link to it:
ISE 14.7 Windows 10
A registered account seems to be mandatory for the download.

Is there a tutorial on how to upgrade the firmware on the R2R-11?

 

[gLer]

Is there a tutorial on how to upgrade the firmware on the R2R-11?

Yes, it’s on the AGD site. You need a Windows computer and an additional hardware dongle (that you have to buy yourself), along with the firmware file. Good luck!

 

[Tiflotin]

Yes, it’s on the AGD site. You need a Windows computer and an additional hardware dongle (that you have to buy yourself), along with the firmware file. Good luck!

Sweet thanks. Gonna order the dongle and give it a shot. Looks very straight forward.

 

[isoa4k]

Hello everyone! Now its been two months with my R2R11 and i have to say that i do love the sound and it pairs really good with my brand new LCD2. But i have some a big doubt that is making me uncomfortable...

I can hear some distortion in low frequencies when they play alone. It happens in some tracks that i do play on Jriver or Foobar with no process at all. Mostly FLAC at 44khz, 16 or 24bit. Using Asio Driver. Sometimes i hear that a deep bassline (electronic mostly, my genre, IDM, Ambient) distorts hearing unwanted high frequencies in the sound . I tried with both my LCD2 and my GMP 8.35D and i can hear and reproduce this defect on both units. What i also experienced is trying to play the same portion of the song trough my LG V20 phone wich has an ESS sigmadelta DAC and i dont hear this defect. I can hear the frequencies close to what i call "distort" (sorry about my lame description) but it doesnt "rattle" as with my R2R11. So now im wondering if this is normal due to the R2R nature of this dac/amp and higher THD levels or is that my unit has some kind of issue? Thanks for your reading and i hope you can point me out to a proper solution.

 

[spacequeen7]

Hello everyone! Now its been two months with my R2R11 and i have to say that i do love the sound and it pairs really good with my brand new LCD2. But i have some a big doubt that is making me uncomfortable...

I can hear some distortion in low frequencies when they play alone. It happens in some tracks that i do play on Jriver or Foobar with no process at all. Mostly FLAC at 44khz, 16 or 24bit. Using Asio Driver. Sometimes i hear that a deep bassline (electronic mostly, my genre, IDM, Ambient) distorts hearing unwanted high frequencies in the sound . I tried with both my LCD2 and my GMP 8.35D and i can hear and reproduce this defect on both units. What i also experienced is trying to play the same portion of the song trough my LG V20 phone wich has an ESS sigmadelta DAC and i dont hear this defect. I can hear the frequencies close to what i call "distort" (sorry about my lame description) but it doesnt "rattle" as with my R2R11. So now im wondering if this is normal due to the R2R nature of this dac/amp and higher THD levels or is that my unit has some kind of issue? Thanks for your reading and i hope you can point me out to a proper solution.

I'm pretty sure it's the file /recording you listening to and not R2R11 ,I start picking up distortion in few tracks-Flack files/also bass heavy DUB/electronic music (some of them are very poorly done) but it turned out to be the recording ,compared to my Schiit Modi=>DarkVoice 336Se=>HD650
Edit; BTW ..Flack or DSD file it doesn't mean it will be distortion free file ,I have some DSD files that you can't find anything in them and some that are not that great same goes for Flack

Edit; you can install this extension for Foobar 2000 ,it's much easier to locate and repeat

 

[MelonHead]

Hello everyone! Now its been two months with my R2R11 and i have to say that i do love the sound and it pairs really good with my brand new LCD2. But i have some a big doubt that is making me uncomfortable...

I can hear some distortion in low frequencies when they play alone. It happens in some tracks that i do play on Jriver or Foobar with no process at all. Mostly FLAC at 44khz, 16 or 24bit. Using Asio Driver. Sometimes i hear that a deep bassline (electronic mostly, my genre, IDM, Ambient) distorts hearing unwanted high frequencies in the sound . I tried with both my LCD2 and my GMP 8.35D and i can hear and reproduce this defect on both units. What i also experienced is trying to play the same portion of the song trough my LG V20 phone wich has an ESS sigmadelta DAC and i dont hear this defect. I can hear the frequencies close to what i call "distort" (sorry about my lame description) but it doesnt "rattle" as with my R2R11. So now im wondering if this is normal due to the R2R nature of this dac/amp and higher THD levels or is that my unit has some kind of issue? Thanks for your reading and i hope you can point me out to a proper solution.

I have the LG V20 as well. Even-though I'm satisfied with the capabilities of the phone when I'm away from home, I find the R2R 11 even better in every aspect. I'm leaning to agree with what spacequeen7 mentioned. The R2R-11 shows you unforgivingly the failures of the not well engineered recordings.
My Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro is decent but definitely isn't among the best headphones but I can hear these distortions with some sub-par quality albums/tracks. On the other side I don't find any problem even with bass-heavy albums if they were well-recorded.
One more idea: there is a small chance that your R2R-11 collects digital noise from your laptop/computer over the USB connection which can result a distorted sound character.
What kind of music do you listen to? Maybe I can download some tracks if you name a few among the problematic tracks and try by myself.

 

[iamjaymo]

Hello everyone! Now its been two months with my R2R11 and i have to say that i do love the sound and it pairs really good with my brand new LCD2. But i have some a big doubt that is making me uncomfortable...

I can hear some distortion in low frequencies when they play alone. It happens in some tracks that i do play on Jriver or Foobar with no process at all. Mostly FLAC at 44khz, 16 or 24bit. Using Asio Driver. Sometimes i hear that a deep bassline (electronic mostly, my genre, IDM, Ambient) distorts hearing unwanted high frequencies in the sound . I tried with both my LCD2 and my GMP 8.35D and i can hear and reproduce this defect on both units. What i also experienced is trying to play the same portion of the song trough my LG V20 phone wich has an ESS sigmadelta DAC and i dont hear this defect. I can hear the frequencies close to what i call "distort" (sorry about my lame description) but it doesnt "rattle" as with my R2R11. So now im wondering if this is normal due to the R2R nature of this dac/amp and higher THD levels or is that my unit has some kind of issue? Thanks for your reading and i hope you can point me out to a proper solution.

Same thing happened to me. It ended up being a Schiit Sys amp/source switcher causing the distortion. Soon as I took it out of the chain. All good.

It took me a whole lot of work to ID the issue. Could be something you didn’t anticipate causing the problem ...just a thought.

 

[RojasTKD]

News from the Audio-gd Web site:

R2R 11 firmware update inform

Since 28th March, R2R 11 had the updated firmware .

The update for remove the "pop" sound while switch the music tracks in PCM mode in computer, and smoother the "pop" noise while switch between PCM and DSD.

The firmware update had not included mute design , so had not degrade or improve on sound quality ,just for the better user experiences.

If you don't care the "pop" sound while select the track, you don't want update the firmware.
The unit shipped later than 28th March , it don't want update.

I'm a little confused especially regarding this line:

The firmware update had not included mute design , so had not degrade or improve on sound quality ,just for the better user experiences.

I assume "had" here means "it dosen't" include a mute design and not, "it didn't" (pas tense) but does now. But not sure, is there or isn't there a mute feature incorporated?

Coming from an older 2014 NFB-11 I much rather have the "pop" (misnomer it's more like a small click) than the mute.

Either way I'll probably not bother as the small "click" doesn't bother me and don't want to bother with getting the dongle.