[kid vic]

Looking to upgrade from my Beresford Caiman Dac (long overdue); I want a DAC with great instrument separation, wide-ish soundstage, strong bass coherent to the whole signature and good detail. No headphone or XLR out necessary. Mainly used for USB and maybe with my Denon DVD-3910 (HDMI out, coaxial or optical); is the Audio GD R2R 7 worth it over the R2R 2 for me? If I can find an LKS MH-DA004 for between the prices of those two DACs is it worth it? Any sub $1,500 R2R dacs worth considering? I'm more than willing to buy used.

 

[FredA]

Looking to upgrade from my Beresford Caiman Dac (long overdue); I want a DAC with great instrument separation, wide-ish soundstage, strong bass coherent to the whole signature and good detail. No headphone or XLR out necessary. Mainly used for USB and maybe with my Denon DVD-3910 (HDMI out, coaxial or optical); is the Audio GD R2R 7 worth it over the R2R 2 for me? If I can find an LKS MH-DA004 for between the prices of those two DACs is it worth it? Any sub $1,500 R2R dacs worth considering? I'm more than willing to buy used.

The r-7 pretty much fits you description. Also consider the r-8, which is in the sweet spot price-wise. There are plenty of other dac worth considering from Denafrips, Schiit, LKS, Soekris, etc.. And Sabre dacs from audio-gd. The hdmi input is not compatible with that of your receiver by the way.

The strong points of the r-7 are:

1. great soundstaging,
2. grainless, glareless sound
3. Highly configurable sound
4. Excellent resolution
5. Great dynamics
6. Competent with any genre

As for the comparison vs the r2r-2, there should be a significant improvment with microdynamics and soundstaging going with the r-7. You need a high-end setup to really benefit from it however. The r-7 , r-8 and r-1 can be configured from the front panel, which is a a big plus.

 

[kid vic]

The r-7 pretty much fits you description. Also consider the r-8, which is in the sweet spot price-wise. There are plenty of other dac worth considering from Denafrips, Schiit, LKS, Soekris, etc.. And Sabre dacs from audio-gd. The hdmi input is not compatible with that of your receiver by the way.

The strong points of the r-7 are:

1. great soundstaging,
2. grainless, glareless sound
3. Highly configurable sound
4. Excellent resolution
5. Great dynamics
6. Competent with any genre

As for the comparison vs the r2r-2, there should be a significant improvment with microdynamics and soundstaging going with the r-7. You need a high-end setup to really benefit from it however. The r-7 , r-8 and r-1 can be configured from the front panel, which is a a big plus.

Any comparison to the Ayre QB-9?

 

[FredA]

@Wynnytsky i have a vague souvenir you mentioned Ayre at some point? Can you answer this? Where have you been, by the way?

 

[norrest]

For support dsd_native on linux, we need another Amanero firmware
https://github.com/lintweaker/xmos-native-dsd/issues/12
2005be
But i don't see tries to install it at this thread (

 

[FredA]

For support dsd_native on linux, we need another Amanero firmware
https://github.com/lintweaker/xmos-native-dsd/issues/12
2005be
But i don't see tries to install it at this thread (

I have the amanero working with my rpi. But for it to work, i have to use my two usb repeaters (wyrd + intona). I have not tried with just one of the two...

 

[Wynnytsky]

@Wynnytsky i have a vague souvenir you mentioned Ayre at some point? Can you answer this? Where have you been, by the way?

wow what is this thread? Is the old one still going? And when did the names change to r7 and r8?

Any comparison to the Ayre QB-9?

The QB9 placed things in space like I've never heard before. Not in a general area, but in an exact spot. But I forever marveled by it's technical ability and never fell into music the way I do with the r2r7. Soon after flashing R7_V2A1.jic I felt no need to tinker further. I fell off headfi and returned to rolling wires, preamps, and amps.

 

[FredA]

wow what is this thread? Is the old one still going? And when did the names change to r7 and r8?


The QB9 placed things in space like I've never heard before. Not in a general area, but in an exact spot. But I forever marveled by it's technical ability and never fell into music the way I do with the r2r7. Soon after flashing R7_V2A1.jic I felt no need to tinker further. I fell off headfi and returned to rolling wires, preamps, and amps.

Good to hear from you, man. Hey, those monoblocks are monsters! Awesome stuff!

 

[motberg]

Good to hear from you, man. Hey, those monoblocks are monsters! Awesome stuff!

+1 wow!
...if you do not mind, what preamp did you settle on ?

 

[FredA]

Looks like a deHavilland ultraverve 3 pre. Is it @Wynnytsky ?

 

[kid vic]

wow what is this thread? Is the old one still going? And when did the names change to r7 and r8?


The QB9 placed things in space like I've never heard before. Not in a general area, but in an exact spot. But I forever marveled by it's technical ability and never fell into music the way I do with the r2r7. Soon after flashing R7_V2A1.jic I felt no need to tinker further. I fell off headfi and returned to rolling wires, preamps, and amps.

Would you say then that the QB-9 is more of a technical monstrosity and the R7 is a purely musical affair? I assume the R7 is more forgiving of source quality? Do you have the two for direct comparison at the moment or can you provide your memories of sound coherency, bass extension and soundstage of the QB-9? Hoping you had the DSD version

 

[Chopin75]

Looking to upgrade from my Beresford Caiman Dac (long overdue); I want a DAC with great instrument separation, wide-ish soundstage, strong bass coherent to the whole signature and good detail. No headphone or XLR out necessary. Mainly used for USB and maybe with my Denon DVD-3910 (HDMI out, coaxial or optical); is the Audio GD R2R 7 worth it over the R2R 2 for me? If I can find an LKS MH-DA004 for between the prices of those two DACs is it worth it? Any sub $1,500 R2R dacs worth considering? I'm more than willing to buy used.

The other day I tried NOS1 + dither on my R2R-7, and it has real amazing instrument separation on the dense orchestral music, and super wide sound stage! It may have the widest soundstage of all the NOS modes. I am still using V2 Smooth, not the new V3.

 

[gLer]

The other day I tried NOS1 + dither on my R2R-7, and it has real amazing instrument separation on the dense orchestral music, and super wide sound stage! It may have the widest soundstage of all the NOS modes. I am still using V2 Smooth, not the new V3.

Do you know if dithering is an option on the R-28? I don’t see it as an option. Is it built in or left out?

 

[Wynnytsky]

Looks like a deHavilland ultraverve 3 pre

yup - it's been good to me so far. This one had teflon vcaps in it.

I am still using V2 Smooth, not the new V3.

oh snap -- where can I download the v3 flavors?

Would you say then that the QB-9 is more of a technical monstrosity and the R7 is a purely musical affair? I assume the R7 is more forgiving of source quality? Do you have the two for direct comparison at the moment or can you provide your memories of sound coherency, bass extension and soundstage of the QB-9? Hoping you had the DSD version

I didn't have high expectations for the QB9 because it used the lowly Sabre 9016, but it broke the mold - I can only imagine what Ayre's 9038 DAC would sound like. Dirac Live DSP has me limited to PCM192 so I can't do a DSD assessment. My one friend was enjoying the QB9 so I recommended it to another friend who using an r2r11 I recommended to him. He said he loved the upgrade. But months later he inquired on possibly upgrading his source again. Also the friend who loaned me his already listed his for sale -- his reason was because it's USB input was finicky of his older computers and there are no spdif/i2s inputs on the QB9 so he couldn't just use a Singxer.

A component isn't a winner unless it holds your attention, and you hold onto it, and that assessment takes weeks or months. A surprisingly good sniff test is hifishark.com. QB9s are flooding the for sale and sold tabs. Search North America for r2r7 and you'll find one HE sold on head-fi, so either no one's buying them, or they're buying and not falling out of favor.

 

[kid vic]

I didn't have high expectations for the QB9 because it used the lowly Sabre 9016, but it broke the mold - I can only imagine what Ayre's 9038 DAC would sound like. Dirac Live DSP has me limited to PCM192 so I can't do a DSD assessment. My one friend was enjoying the QB9 so I recommended it to another friend who using an r2r11 I recommended to him. He said he loved the upgrade. But months later he inquired on possibly upgrading his source again. Also the friend who loaned me his already listed his for sale -- his reason was because it's USB input was finicky of his older computers and there are no spdif/i2s inputs on the QB9 so he couldn't just use a Singxer.

A component isn't a winner unless it holds your attention, and you hold onto it, and that assessment takes weeks or months. A surprisingly good sniff test is hifishark.com. QB9s are flooding the for sale and sold tabs. Search North America for r2r7 and you'll find one HE sold on head-fi, so either no one's buying them, or they're buying and not falling out of favor.

I'm argumentative by nature so I feel compelled to contend part of your statement.

The QB-9 has been out longer than the Audio GD R2R line which increases its likely hood of being resold; also, Ayre has physical distributors worldwide while Audio GD is only available through online sales (and maybe through a few brick and mortars in china). Sennheiser headphones end up on used sites at an alarming rate, yet some people have had theirs for decades, it's just a byproduct of wide spread availability. It's kinda like comparing the amount of used Audezes to used ZMF headphones.
The QB-9 seems to get alot of reviews stating it is pleasant, uncolored and technical so maybe your friend just wanted excitement.

Thanks for your thoughts though. Anyword on coherency and bass response while I still have your ear?