[lostrockets]

anyone try contacting audio gd recently? emailed several days ago with no response

 

[FredA]

anyone try contacting audio gd recently? emailed several days ago with no response

Check your junk mail folder. I emailed Kingwa 3-4 days ago.

 

[Currawong]

anyone try contacting audio gd recently? emailed several days ago with no response

You should immediately get the auto-reply message if you email them. If not, then do the usual and check your spam folder. If you did get the auto-reply and don't get a subsequent reply from them, then try emailing them again. If you didn't get the auto-reply, then you may need to email from a different provider, or your email could possibly have had something in it that resulted in it being automatically filtered.

 

[Currawong]

Kingwa's merits are not recognized as they should. The best example is the di20/he. Not much publicity was done on it. It is a fantastic product. One that can improve the sound of the vast majority of dacs out there. When it came out, it was the best ddc out there under 1000$, perhaps the best overall. And perhaps still is. It is so good that it attracted all brands' fans.

Had it been a Schiit products, its praise would have sung very loudly. Stereophile would have instantly put it on its A+ list.

Kingwa could very easily transition to a company that makes Stereophile-listed products, with a couple of changes to how he does things, mostly cosmetic. But, that would likely mean everything would cost more. I got the impression he doesn't want to become too big, too fast though, and is happy growing at the pace that he is. That's a good thing, in many respects.

Your last sentence though... not true at all. Stereophile called the Yggdrasil "obsolete" because it doesn't do DSD. There's not really anything stopping Kingwa offering to send something to HR for review, for example, since he tends to end up reviewing the non-super-expensive R2R gear.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Kingwa could very easily transition to a company that makes Stereophile-listed products, with a couple of changes to how he does things, mostly cosmetic. But, that would likely mean everything would cost more. I got the impression he doesn't want to become too big, too fast though, and is happy growing at the pace that he is. That's a good thing, in many respects.

Your last sentence though... not true at all. Stereophile called the Yggdrasil "obsolete" because it doesn't do DSD. There's not really anything stopping Kingwa offering to send something to HR for review, for example, since he tends to end up reviewing the non-super-expensive R2R gear.

I can't remember whether it was TAS or Stereophile, but one or both don't review Audio-gd because there is no American distributor and some other technical justification. I remember reading an editorial reply to a reader comment on this topic. But that's wrong, there is an authorized American distributor. I can't remember if the other point is also satisfied or not.

 

[sajunky]

Stereophile review the most expensive equipment on the market, it is their policy to attrack people with deep pocket. They do a lot of consistency checks, to avoid mistakes, it is how they have built their reputation. I like their measurement tests approach and independent comments from a team and outside when there is a controversy. There is some bias from the technical team towards Delta-Sigma implementations, but it is compensated by listening tests team. We hear two sides strory. Sometimes they discover something strange conflicting manufacturers claim, then they will provide hints for those who can read, not telling straight by dropping a bomb. For an an example in Holo Audio May tests they pointed out a presence of digital filtering in NOS mode. A month before the same abnormal behaviour was visible on graphs in a Springs test, but hints were only given during the second test.

So far Audio GD builds its reputation on user recommendation, it result low prices. It is why I support Audio GD, it is the best I can do. The most professional review is found there, but it is for an outdated model.

 

[Currawong]

They do a lot of consistency checks, to avoid mistakes, it is how they have built their reputation

Like all the checks they did on MQA before calling it revolutionary? They were caught with their pants down over that.

But that is a whole other discussion, and OT.

 

[sajunky]

Like all the checks they did on MQA before calling it revolutionary? They were caught with their pants down over that.

But that is a whole other discussion, and OT.

It is a tough example. MQA cheat is quite complex, even they hired pseudo-science cooking up a new Nyquist theory and a hudge plot for taxing everyone from the chain, starting from artists to the end users. Stereophile is recently less vocal on MQA, but it is not their own withdraw, but due to the user protests. Users have still something to say, viva Audio GD!

 

[FredA]

Kingwa could very easily transition to a company that makes Stereophile-listed products, with a couple of changes to how he does things, mostly cosmetic. But, that would likely mean everything would cost more. I got the impression he doesn't want to become too big, too fast though, and is happy growing at the pace that he is. That's a good thing, in many respects.

Your last sentence though... not true at all. Stereophile called the Yggdrasil "obsolete" because it doesn't do DSD. There's not really anything stopping Kingwa offering to send something to HR for review, for example, since he tends to end up reviewing the non-super-expensive R2R gear.K

You are right. Kingwa would have to send a unit to Stereophile. And pay for advertising or i don't know what. Anyway. The di20/he is not obsolete in any possible manner, just so that things are clear with that regard.

I guess you get my overall point that what Kingwa does is special. I would pick the r2r 11 over a Schitt stack any day of the week for the reasons I stated : better value and tweakability. You don't have to agree.

 

[FredA]

It is a tough example. MQA cheat is quite complex, even they hired pseudo-science cooking up a new Nyquist theory and a hudge plot for taxing everyone from the chain, starting from artists to the end users. Stereophile is recently less vocal on MQA, but it is not their own withdraw, but due to the user protests. Users have still something to say, viva Audio GD!

First and foremost, the dac has to convert the bits properly. Especially with timing. Kingwa mastered timing during the last few years. As other cies did. This is way more important than MQA.

The lastest r7 firmware changed the tonal balance of the DAC. Ever so slighlty. But i had to change speaker cables and pre to come back to a sound i like. So tweaking/optimizing a system is an essential part of the game. We always shoot for the best possible sound. You have to develop a sixth sense.

Kingwa is constantly doing r&d. To stay competitive and because he loves it. And he always finds a way to impress us. Cheers to him!

 

[gimmeheadroom]

First and foremost, the dac has to convert the bits properly. Especially with timing. Kingwa mastered timing during the last few years. As other cies did. This is way more important than MQA.

The lastest r7 firmware changed the tonal balance of the DAC. Ever so slighlty. But i had to change speaker cables and pre to come back to a sound i like. So tweaking/optimizing a system is an essential part of the game. We always shoot for the best possible sound. You have to develop a sixth sense.

Kingwa is constantly doing r&d. To stay competitive and because he loves it. And he alway find a way to impress us. Cheers to him!

And we should note, Kingwa's gear works perfectly fine with MQA. The DACs don't support it, but the DI-20(HE) do, everything is bit perfect. So it doesn't have to be one or the other.

 

[FredA]

And we should note, Kingwa's gear works perfectly fine with MQA. The DACs don't support it, but the DI-20(HE) do, everything is bit perfect. So it doesn't have to be one or the other.

I don't know much about MQA. It's the flavor of the day it seems. It must help with selling new equipement. Good to know that the di20 can handle it though.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I don't know much about MQA. It's the flavor of the day it seems. It must help with selling new equipement. Good to know that the di20 can handle it though.

MQA seems to be about compressing music in a way that on the surface is similar to some other codecs from the past that use psychoacoustic science to know what bits to throw away. For instance, Sony's ATRAC variants they used on minidiscs did that. And they sounded much better than the bit depth and sample rate would suggest on paper.

MQA is different to all these schemes as far as I know, because it is both lossy compression and high res. In the past, none of the codecs tried to do both at the same time. So with MQA you can have a lossy, compressed file served at 24 bit, 48 KHz that expands to 24/352. And there is yet a third variable in the equation in that for a while, redbook downloads from certain manufacturers had a digital watermark to prevent sharing/theft and some people could hear that. I could hear it on piano cuts. The MQA versions didn't have that. So, somebody was making sure the MQA version sounded better than those redbook files. I read that this has stopped however.

Anyway, regardless of the smoke and mirrors and regardless of the fact that MQA was an ingenious idea in 1975 and just hard to explain or justify in 2022, the music does sound very good overall. One good example is Elton John's Captain Fantastic album which I bought when it first came out and listened to it at least a thousand times over the years- the MQA version is a stunning, perfect recreation of the analog feeling of that album on vinyl. I have never heard better.

The Tidal desktop app does the first unfold so you don't even need MQA hardware. I have a few MQA DACs and they expand as fully as intended and the music sounds great. But the app does quite a fantastic job even without an MQA capable DAC. Whether it is better or worse than Redbook or a file at the same rate I do not know, because to my knowledge, none of the streaming services tell you exactly which master you're listening to. So it's hard to do an apples to apples comparison.

Tidal Hifi Plus is very cheap here, even cheaper than Deezer Hifi, and Qobuz is not available. Tidal is bitperfect on Windows, Android, and I think Mac, while Deezer Hifi has no bitperfect desktop app. It does run bitperfect over my node 2i though. So anyway, for me, Tidal makes financial sense and also sounds great. If Qobuz will ever show up, if it is priced acceptably, I would subscribe to that also. I'm very happy with Tidal and there is no way it can be called a scam for the price and service and music catalog. And there are still a lot of Redbook albums in the catalog.

 

[sajunky]

I'm very happy with Tidal and there is no way it can be called a scam for the price and service and music catalog. And there are still a lot of Redbook albums in the catalog.

Scam lies in a deeper (less visible) layer. From yourself you can find out that when MQA version is available, the original CD source is withdrawn. Artist have protested against how music submision is working in favour of MQA. Other artists claimed that Tidal owners (who are incidentally also artists) receive inflated statistics on an expense of less known artists. A classic conflict of interest.

Today MQA receives less coverage, Tidal was acquired by a large consorcium, they know how to repair a damage, but conflict of interest has not been removed. It is how it works: scammers (MQA) build a business with fraudsters.

I don't deal with fraudsters, even they are offering benefits. There is only one positive effect of MQA. Attention had been taken to bit perfect transfers, service provider added watermarking is less common and CD quality content is now available on different platforms.

 

[Pharmaboy]

I've owned a total of 5 Audio GD products over the years; I currently own 2. Each is/was IMO a winner in its category, typically outperforming competing products at the same approximate price-point. I've never had a failure or even a moment of uncertainty about the operation of any of these items.

I'm been plugged into the audiophile world of STEREOPHILE & TAS for ~45 years. It's hardly surprising Audio GD doesn't tick all the boxes that typically get gear noticed by audiophile press:

• As we know, Kingwa prioritizes clever/innovative design, solid parts selection, function and sound over appearance. His gear isn't bling-pretty ... it doesn't even pretend to be anything more than functional and good-sounding
• I'm not sure about this, but I doubt he spends big money attending shows, sending review units to anyone who would accept them, and paying for press reps to visit his factory
• Most of all, he's associated with Chinese audio, which only infrequently ascends to the higher runs of the audio ladder (for a multitude of reasons too lengthy to go into here)

AGD has a distributor in the U.S., but from what I can see they carry only a limited selection of AGD gear. I asked them for a quote on the R2R-11 MK2, and what I got was considerably higher than what I ultimately paid to buy it directly. I've had far better luck with AGD's big EU distributor, Magni HiFi, a real class operation So net/net, AGD's distribution, at least in the U.S., is not as highly evolved as other offshore brands that compete in the audiophile or headphone audio spaces.

I suspect Audio GD has penetrated the headphone audio market to a greater extent than the audiophile market, but the company's profile is still somewhat inconsistent, lower than headphone audio players like Focal, Schiit, DCA, ZMF, etc.

My unsophisticated analysis of all this concludes with 3 comments:

1. Audio GD makes excellent gear, far above average in sound and operational quality
2. The company seems to sell more gear by word-of-mouth and sonic reputation than via marketing
3. And Audio GD is run by one of those talented, go-it-alone audio types who doesn't stampede with the headphone audio herd.

I'd love the meet Kingwa to check this out for myself, but from a distance he impresses me as someone who feels no need to raise his personal profile, get quoted in the audio press, or give away branded trinkets at shows. His main thing appears to be designing and building iconoclastic audio gear.

I'm definitely a fan of Audio GD...