[Baten]

Happy to buy from you directly at your cost price + post if you're happy to send to Australia

I believe it's already sold to poster above.

 

[kumar402]

Drop is live
Go and buy if you want one. It will be shipped immediately

 

[kumar402]

My Airist R-2R DAC arrived on Thursday and I spent some time comparing it to my existing Schiit Bifrost Multibit this weekend. I used the original Cavalli Liquid Carbon amp with the MrSpeakers Aeon Flow Closed headphones for my listening. The first impressions on Saturday after having the Airist plugged in for a few hours was not that good - the bass and midrange were good but to my ears it sounded a bit bright with a rough treble. So I left it on overnight and tried again on Sunday and the result was much better. The bass is still deep and juicy, the midrange is open and natural and the treble is now much better - quite smooth and pleasant to my ears, and I'm very treble-sensitive. I think the Airist has a tiny bit more energy in the treble, and I think the midrange on the Bifrost is a tiny bit more open, which makes it easier to understand the lyrics in various tracks, but the difference is small. I don't think I would be able to tell the DACs apart in a blind test. However, after quite a bit of listening I prefer the midrange and treble on the Bifrost, so the Airist will be going up on eBay shortly. The surprise to me is that the DACs sound much more alike than I was expecting, so I really only need to keep one of them. YMMV, as always.

But isnt R2R DACs supposed to have a vary natural mid range with rolled off treble with some sacrifice on soundstage?

 

[Torq]

But isnt R2R DACs supposed to have a vary natural mid range with rolled off treble with some sacrifice on soundstage?

No, that’s more of NOS thing.

R-2R DACs, and especially discrete-resistor designs, can benefit from being warmed up and kept on.

 

[Th3Drizzl3]

now it shows as being shipped in august they must have already sold out of the ones they had leftover.

 

[alpovs]

Nevermind.

 

[kumar402]

No, that’s more of NOS thing.

R-2R DACs, and especially discrete-resistor designs, can benefit from being warmed up and kept on.

oh ya got confused. I assumed this DAC was NOS with R2R architecture.
My mistake

 

[Torq]

oh ya got confused. I assumed this DAC was NOS with R2R architecture.
My mistake

It's not obvious from the specs, and I'm going from memory, but from what I remember it does a 2x oversample prior to conversion.

So, effectively, the actual "DAC" portion sees an 88.2 or 96 kHz input.

 

[kumar402]

Does it mean it is NOS?

 

[kumar402]

now it shows as being shipped in august they must have already sold out of the ones they had leftover.

Ya , I guess the immediate ship option was active for 30 mins or so before it got sold out.

 

[Matthew Willims]

Ah well, have pre-ordered one

 

[ZaborgZaloog]

Will do! I’ve never heard an R-2R before so I’m excitied to hear the difference. I main a SU-8 so I’ll aim to compare it against that through my 789.

My ears are also treble sensitive, and I already consider the SU-8 to be slightly bright relative to my friend’s DX7s, so I’m interested to hear the dynamics of the RDAC.

I've got the same current setup with the R2R DAC otw!! We should definitely post our impressions when we get it.

 

[Baten]

Does it mean it is NOS?

It uses a FIR upsampling filter, but doesn't oversample. So it is NOS after upsampling. Does that make sense?

 

[ls13coco]

Be interested in hearing what anyone thinks of this who has used the Audio-gd R2r11 dac. I'm looking to get another as I have 5 amps and one dac once my 789 arrives. Torn between audio-gd r2r11 and this Airist dac, feeling a R2R would be nice to try. The reviews that mentioned small soundstage worry me.

 

[Fickle-Friend]

Snagged one of these last night, I shall mate it with the THX 789 AAA, what cans would you recommend to complete the set?