[Whitigir]

So, today, I am so satisfied with my R2R7, and so I went ahead to replace my Ribbon cables from the I2S receiving board into the main board with Pure Solid Silver 22Awg. Yes, I can hear improvements into better clarity and layering. It didn’t change the signature of the R2R7 to be brighter or make it any less organic, or realistic at all. It is a very welcome tweaks.

 

[Ake_Y]

Hi all,

I just joined as a member here, but knew head-fi around 10 years ago.

Due to Audio-GD current discount, I would like to get my first full-size headphone amp and DAC from them.

I already decided to buy Master 9 for headphone amp since its technology is rather at its peak and the price is not as high as R2R-7.

However, I'm still hesitating between R2R-7 and R2R-1 ( with upgrading TCXO ) for DAC.

Normally, I listen to music from Audio CD, Spotify, and some DSDs. I'm not sure whether R2R-7 will overkill for those.

Also the price difference is around 3X ( $2580 vs. $840 before discount ) . I plan to connect DAC to my PC via USB for now.

I hope that you could give me some advices. Thank you.

 

[Whitigir]

For someone to price their products as AudioGD, ofcourse pricing will be a huge factor.

 

[ecapsretliab]

Hi all,

I just joined as a member here, but knew head-fi around 10 years ago.

Due to Audio-GD current discount, I would like to get my first full-size headphone amp and DAC from them.

I already decided to buy Master 9 for headphone amp since its technology is rather at its peak and the price is not as high as R2R-7.

However, I'm still hesitating between R2R-7 and R2R-1 ( with upgrading TCXO ) for DAC.

Normally, I listen to music from Audio CD, Spotify, and some DSDs. I'm not sure whether R2R-7 will overkill for those.

Also the price difference is around 3X ( $2580 vs. $840 before discount ) . I plan to connect DAC to my PC via USB for now.

I hope that you could give me some advices. Thank you.

What about the R-28? That looks ideal. One box solution and save some $.

 

[Ake_Y]

What about the R-28? That looks ideal. One box solution and save some $.

Initially, I was interested in DAC/AMP like NFB-27.77 because my budget was around $2000.

But, my friend suggested me to buy Amp and DAC separately because I could upgrade just AMP or DAC in the future.

 

[JaMo]

Hi all,

I just joined as a member here, but knew head-fi around 10 years ago.

Due to Audio-GD current discount, I would like to get my first full-size headphone amp and DAC from them.

I already decided to buy Master 9 for headphone amp since its technology is rather at its peak and the price is not as high as R2R-7.

However, I'm still hesitating between R2R-7 and R2R-1 ( with upgrading TCXO ) for DAC.

Normally, I listen to music from Audio CD, Spotify, and some DSDs. I'm not sure whether R2R-7 will overkill for those.

Also the price difference is around 3X ( $2580 vs. $840 before discount ) . I plan to connect DAC to my PC via USB for now.

I hope that you could give me some advices. Thank you.

Hi,

I have to agree with ecapsretliab on this.

I have my own R-28 w TCXO's on order. I have bought a lot of Audio-gd gears through the years and they are really good, all of them.

The R2R-7 is a masterpiece but needs/deserves a high competent context to show its best. The slight lower gears are still high performers. I have very good experience with the NFB-28's

and therefor I have been waiting for the R-28. (Same functionality plus the super single end headphone feature).

If You don't need all the inputs (also ACSS-input), I am sure of a successful music listening with the R-28 even on more difficult headphones (ex. HE-6..)

It is a money dilemma. Going high isn't wrong but it demands an all high chain and some tweaking to fully pay off.

Based on my experience with Kingwa's designed products, I am fully confident that the R-28 w TCXO's will be a sucess, not only in my home.

/Jan


ps. I use R2R-7 in my main speaker rig, R11 on my work and NFB-28.38 with headphones for TV and networkplayer (PiCoreplayer (Linux))

 

[FredA]

Yes, going to the top of the line required a lot of patience to optimize the the sound. Owning the r2r 7, i would prefer the master-9 as hp amp, but the nfb-1amp is a very fine amp. I also believe the r2r 1 or r-28 could be good enough if you are not into tweaking. That said, once you get your setup right, the r2r 7 is awesome. Took me 9 month. It's been mentioned often, the r2r 7 is picky with transport for whatever reason and with power quality.

 

[Ake_Y]

Hi all,

Thank you for your comments. From those, I decided to drop R2R-7. I'm not into tweaking. Therefore, my choices are narrowed down as below

1. R-28 w/TCXO ( $1080 ) : It has more feature than combo NFB-1AMP + R2R-1 w/TCXO ( $1325 ), like "Built in super single ended output mode". Between R-28 and NFB-1AMP + R2R-1, I think R-28 would be a better choice.

2. Master-9 + R2R-1 w/TCXO ( $2270 ) : I'm still keep this combo choice because of flexibility to upgrade only DAC in the future. This combo should be different from R-28 in terms of Amp section. However, the price difference ( around $1200 ) is quite steep.


Is it worth to spend $1200 more for the combo? Please advise. Any other suggestions are also welcomed. Thank you very much.


Note : Originally, I would like to include NFB-27.77 w/HDMI ( $2100 ) as the third choice, but I could not find any reviews of this product.

 

[doak]

I see little to no mention of the Audio-GD unit that's caught my interest: the DAC onlyR2R-2.
I've no use for balanced outputs and this one also better fits my pocketbook.
Would much appreciate hearing from someone with experience of this one (opinion/commentary also welcome).
Audio-GD R2R 2
http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R2R2/R2R2EN_Custom.htm

 

[ecapsretliab]

Would much appreciate hearing from someone with experience of this one (opinion/commentary also welcome).

Note the number of ladder boards... I think the R2R-1 is a scaled down R2R-7 while the R2R-2 is a scaled up R2R-11.
I could be wrong... but I don't think single ended use disables half the ladders, it's only the output stage that is halved.
How this relates to performance? Not sure, I'd like to know as well.

 

[doak]

Below is a photo of the interior of R2R-1.
Looks to me that is has similar if not identical DAC complement as R2R-2.

 

[FredA]

Maybe Kingwa will consider using super capacitors combined with a hnping supplies.

Below is a photo of the interior of R2R-1.
Looks to me that is has similar if not identical DAC complement as R2R-2.

The r2r 2 uses only 2 da-8 boards as opposed to 4 for the r2r-1 but the measured performance is only slightly inferior.

 

[Astral Abyss]

Below is a photo of the interior of R2R-1.
Looks to me that is has similar if not identical DAC complement as R2R-2.

R2R-2 has 2 DA-8 modules
R2R-1 has 4 DA-8 modules and balanced XLR outputs.


EDIT: @FredA beat me to it.

 

[FredA]

Hi all,

Thank you for your comments. From those, I decided to drop R2R-7. I'm not into tweaking. Therefore, my choices are narrowed down as below

1. R-28 w/TCXO ( $1080 ) : It has more feature than combo NFB-1AMP + R2R-1 w/TCXO ( $1325 ), like "Built in super single ended output mode". Between R-28 and NFB-1AMP + R2R-1, I think R-28 would be a better choice.

2. Master-9 + R2R-1 w/TCXO ( $2270 ) : I'm still keep this combo choice because of flexibility to upgrade only DAC in the future. This combo should be different from R-28 in terms of Amp section. However, the price difference ( around $1200 ) is quite steep.


Is it worth to spend $1200 more for the combo? Please advise. Any other suggestions are also welcomed. Thank you very much.


Note : Originally, I would like to include NFB-27.77 w/HDMI ( $2100 ) as the third choice, but I could not find any reviews of this product.

If you think long term, i prefer the master-9 with the r2r-1. The master-9 is an end-game amp. It's more neutral and better at everything. You can keep it for a long time and be satisfied.

 

[doak]

R2R-2 has 2 DA-8 modules
R2R-1 has 4 DA-8 modules and balanced XLR outputs.


EDIT: @FredA beat me to it.

Educate me please.
I see two DA-8 boards at center right in both the R2R 1 and 2 DACs. These boards appear to be identical.
Are the boards possibly stacked in the R2R-1?