Well, now that Audio-gd has joined the R2R pool, I reckon there could be a dedicated thread since the Schiit and Denafrips guys have 'em too!
The R2R 7 thread is alive and well, and a few of us have even posted our musings on the little brother R2R 11 there, but now that the R2R 2 is out, so I figure if you've got questions, thoughts, or impressions on any of the above, let's drop 'em here.
For me personally, I've owned a few of the AGD items, including the NFB 11, 15.32, 10.33, and 29. A few months ago, I happened onto a FS thread for a like new R2R 11, the new entry level combo unit built on a ladder design.
To say I was impressed would be a large understatement. I know that the AGD stuff represents an excellent value in our community, but I wasn't prepared for the capability of that unit. Truth be told, it held it's own easily against my previous stack, $900 DAC feeding a $700 headamp.
Since I like to be informed on the design philosophy behind my favorite gear, I went to the manufacturer's website and lo and behold Mr. Kingwa had just released a mid-level R2R DAC that slides in between the flagship R2R 7 and R2R 11. I'm pretty sure the last time I paid full-price for a piece of gear was a few years ago, and based on my impressions with the little brother, I ponied up pretty quickly for the new R2R 2 and C-2 amp stack. Very unlike me!
The R2R 2 is a SE DAC built on 2 of the AGD DA-8 R2R modules. It can handle everything from redbook to DSD and can switch from NOS to OS modes at the push of a button, a feature only found on DACs coming in at a much healthier price point thus far. The C2 is the SE amplification equivalent from Mr. Kingwa, hitting higher than the entry level 11 gear, but not up to the flagship stuff.
I'm gonna slow down with impressions right here, but I'll tell you that I'm more impressed with this stack than the Gumby/Mjo2 stack along with most of the desktop gear I've had that retails under $1k individually. I know that's blasphemy around these parts, but that's how I hear it fellas!
