[linux4ever]

Your observation is more related to analogue design than R-2R DAC implementation. To start with, R01 and RU6 are targeted to different user group, with different IEM and headphone matching in mind, and competence circuit will work out different solution given these requirements.

The DAC quality of R01 is definitely superior, given it use better resistors and adopted a hardware interpolation filter. The analogue circuit of R01 and RU6 is also significantly different, R01 is balanced amplification while RU6 is single-ended primarily.

Thank you for the technical details. It confirms what I'm hearing with both R01 & RU6. There are certain similarities when it comes to vocals, good holographic 3D staging etc. As is to be expected, R01 has more refined sound and the sound is pleasingly analog. R01's sound just captivates from the moment it is turned on. RU6 has its own take and is a different sound signature.

Pairing RU6 sound with a tube would an interesting combo and wouldn't be too warm. Interesting times ahead?

 

[emilsoft]

About 8 hours burn in on mine. Compared to Earmen Sparrow, the sparrow sound much cleaner, more direct and less etched - it's technically superior sounding. The RU6 in NOS has this etch/dirt which I'm struggling with a little now (i guess mostly in the treble), but it sounds larger, wider, with weightier bass and has natural, dense and pleasant mids. Usually I don't see massive differences with burn but this has many resistors so who knows.. i hope the etch can settle down a little - i will report after a good more hours. I also struggled with this slightly dirty sound etch with the Cayin N3 pro

Both tested with Sony IERM7 and ifi iusb 3.0

 

[ian91]

About 8 hours burn in on mine. Compared to Earmen Sparrow, the sparrow sound much cleaner, more direct and less etched - it's technically superior sounding. The RU6 in NOS has this etch/dirt which I'm struggling with a little now (i guess mostly in the treble), but it sounds larger, wider, with weightier bass and has natural, dense and pleasant mids. Usually I don't see massive differences with burn but this has many resistors so who knows.. i hope the etch can settle down a little - i will report after a good more hours. I also struggled with this slightly dirty sound etch with the Cayin N3 pro

Both tested with Sony IERM7 and ifi iusb 3.0

Dirty etch? Can you elaborate any further? Is it a harshness to the treble frequencies?

 

[abitdeef]

About 8 hours burn in on mine. Compared to Earmen Sparrow, the sparrow sound much cleaner, more direct and less etched - it's technically superior sounding. The RU6 in NOS has this etch/dirt which I'm struggling with a little now (i guess mostly in the treble), but it sounds larger, wider, with weightier bass and has natural, dense and pleasant mids. Usually I don't see massive differences with burn but this has many resistors so who knows.. i hope the etch can settle down a little - i will report after a good more hours. I also struggled with this slightly dirty sound etch with the Cayin N3 pro

Both tested with Sony IERM7 and ifi iusb 3.0

Damn etched/dirty treble! so your ears can discern technical superiority? That's damn impressive.

 

[Verificateur]

From signal handling point of view, high gain causes louder output, or extra volume, but they are not the same thing. Gain controls the input level of your amplifier, before the signal enter the headphone amplification stage (please refer to the functional diagram of RU6 in post #1). The higher the gain, the greater the amplitude of your audio signal is increased.

From sonic characteristic point of view, high gain in RU6 will offer 6dB extra headroom on the expense of higher distortion or compressed dynamic, the different is actually more noticeable at low volume. If you are unfamiliar about the concept of Headroom in audio engineering, there are lots of detail explanation on Google, but I offered two simple example here (HERE and HERE)

Thank you for the detailed response.
Trying to digest this info but may need some help — does this mean that it’s always better to use Low gain, and no benefit in using High gain, unless more volume is required on the RU6?

 

[emilsoft]

Damn etched/dirty treble! so your ears can discern technical superiority? That's damn impressive.

As in the sparrow sounds less dirty with blacker background, faster transients and less blur in general in the mids/bass, treble is cleaner (cymbals shimmer and are clearly outlined whilst still sounding smooth and easy to listen to) etc etc. I was careful to say technically better, and not necessarily better sounding - I have to spend some time with it to decide this one, especially after burn in. The RU6 is showing some other qualities which are nice and not so prominent in the Earsparrow - wider soundstage, denser mids and more muscular punchy bass, so i have to take the overall picture and decide over time. The Sparrow is a tough one anyway, it's a freak dongle that reaches for the stars, competition is tough these days for new dongles

 

[emilsoft]

Dirty etch? Can you elaborate any further? Is it a harshness to the treble frequencies?

I say that with reservation as I'm still going through burn in so take this as 10 hour play point impression. It's not necessarily that the treble is exaggerated, but more of a dirtyness to it - if you have cymbal hitting hard for example, one a refined dac (or even the Earmen sparrow), it will be more of a case of making itself clear that it's loud but not annoying -where the RU6 just adds a touch of low fi grit to it, making the cymbal denser and more prominent CSHNNhHn. - where the sparrow is Cshhhhh.. that's a ridiculous example I know ... but anyway I'm hoping burn in will help a little. Maybe it's an R2R thing, maybe it's lack of burn in, or maybe it just is -I'm giving it more time

 

[abitdeef]

I say that with reservation as I'm still going through burn in so take this as 10 hour play point impression. It's not necessarily that the treble is exaggerated, but more of a dirtyness to it - if you have cymbal hitting hard for example, one a refined dac (or even the Earmen sparrow), it will be more of a case of making itself clear that it's loud but not annoying -where the RU6 just adds a touch of low fi grit to it, making the cymbal denser and more prominent CSHNNhHn. - where the sparrow is Cshhhhh.. that's a ridiculous example I know ... but anyway I'm hoping burn in will help a little. Maybe it's an R2R thing..

Odd harmonics, which is true to life. I haven't noticed any change but the treble sounds very clean and accurate to me and also the transients are very fast to my ears. Sparrow was nice but I liked the w2 and ru6 sound more. Will be interesting to see if you hear any changes after burn in.

And although the specs aren't sky high they're still good enough to keep things clean beyond the range of human hearing unless you're blowing your ears out.

 

[twister6]

Odd harmonics, which is true to life. I haven't noticed any change but the treble sounds very clean and accurate to me and also the transients are very fast to my ears. Sparrow was nice but I liked the w2 and ru6 sound more. Will be interesting to see if you hear any changes after burn in.

And although the specs aren't sky high they're still good enough to keep things clean beyond the range of human hearing unless you're blowing your ears out.

So, Sparrow is just a lot brighter and crisper in tonality?

 

[emilsoft]

So, Sparrow is just a lot brighter and crisper in tonality?

It's crisper, faster and more studio neutral i'd say, maybe a touch brighter but the treble is a little more refined/clean. This is out of it's balanced out

 

[abitdeef]

So, Sparrow is just a lot brighter and crisper in tonality?

I wouldn't say so but that all depends on who's doing the listening. I find the treble on the ru6 pretty forward, but nice and not sibilant.

 

[abitdeef]

So, Sparrow is just a lot brighter and crisper in tonality?

You've never heard the sparrow? The mids are definitely thinner. It's a nice little dongle and powerful. But to me it had a bit of a digital sound sig and the percived soundstage was smaller than say w2 or s1.

 

[emilsoft]

You've never heard the sparrow? The mids are definitely thinner.

Yep - the RU6 has the r2r mids - dense, wide, warm and prominent. The sparrow has studio neutral mids (flat). I dig the mids of the Cayin.

 

[emilsoft]

You've never heard the sparrow? The mids are definitely thinner. It's a nice little dongle and powerful. But to me it had a bit of a digital sound sig and the percived soundstage was smaller than say w2 or s1.

Did you use it out of its balanced out? Big difference there... more so than any other source I've tried (where it's mostly been about power)

 

[abitdeef]

It's crisper, faster and more studio neutral i'd say, maybe a touch brighter but the treble is a little more refined/clean. This is out of it's balanced out

Maybe the treble will settle down for you. I haven't noticed any changes after about 30 hours but they could be so subtle I didn't notice.