[PLGA]

Guys - it’s a wonderful time we live in.
Here was I looking at my system as pretty much endgame : my Mac mini plays into the R2R7 which connects via acss to my m8 into my beloved cans. Job done. Sounds amazing too.

Then just as I thought (and told my wife) that I can stop, I’m suddenly presented with this thread, from which I now have the following aspirations/chain to get excited about: my macmini > intona > Gustard > R2R7 > m8 ... Not only that but the macmini may also be hosting Euphony as an endpoint of the game changing Roon app.
Sheesh - it's a dream (although I have to find funds to continue this quest) and I do thank you guys for leading the way with such great insight and ideas.

Am I right in thinking the above chain would be an improvement in my case?
I do have a general question - being a bit old school I always adhered to the idea that the shortest path was often the best in terms of audio. Does the intona / Gustard addition to the chain make their additions worthwhile over the direct USB input on the R2R7 ? I’m certainly keen to check it out - but it's already running over $900 NZ.
And has anyone had experience with Euphony? Or is it verging on snakeoil.... I'm not convinced yet - and it's another $300 US ... Will have to pace myself - I'll keep you posted though!

Thanks again for all the great reading and inspiration. Cheers - Brent

I´ve got a pretty big improvement in sound on my R8 DAC with my Wyred4Sound USB Reclocker and then when I added a LPS to it.
I think the USB Amanero input on Audio-Gd DACs is one of their weakest parts.
In fact, I've just bought the Gustard U16 to use the I2S input. I will post my impressions as soon as I get it, in about 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[aljordan]

Guys - it’s a wonderful time we live in.
Here was I looking at my system as pretty much endgame : my Mac mini plays into the R2R7 which connects via acss to my m8 into my beloved cans. Job done. Sounds amazing too.

Then just as I thought (and told my wife) that I can stop, I’m suddenly presented with this thread, from which I now have the following aspirations/chain to get excited about: my macmini > intona > Gustard > R2R7 > m8 ... Not only that but the macmini may also be hosting Euphony as an endpoint of the game changing Roon app.
Sheesh - it's a dream (although I have to find funds to continue this quest) and I do thank you guys for leading the way with such great insight and ideas.

Am I right in thinking the above chain would be an improvement in my case?
I do have a general question - being a bit old school I always adhered to the idea that the shortest path was often the best in terms of audio. Does the intona / Gustard addition to the chain make their additions worthwhile over the direct USB input on the R2R7 ? I’m certainly keen to check it out - but it's already running over $900 NZ.
And has anyone had experience with Euphony? Or is it verging on snakeoil.... I'm not convinced yet - and it's another $300 US ... Will have to pace myself - I'll keep you posted though!

Thanks again for all the great reading and inspiration. Cheers - Brent

Hi Brent,
If you think your current setup sounds amazing, and if you have to come up with funds to make improvements, why not just enjoy your current setup as is until you can identify something particular you would like to improve upon. You are already happy with the sound, and your wife will be happy with your sound financial reasoning

 

[PLGA]

Hello Guys,
I'm having a pretty big difference in sound quality in my system between day and night.

During day time the system sounds very very nice, but during night time it sounds superb, amazing, incredible, I dont have enough accolades.

I have the Audio-GD R8 DAC, the Audio-GD Master 1 preamp and a Nord Acoustics Class D Power Amp (wich is a hell of an amp) and I think the most sensitive to AC Power noise/problems is the R8. I also have the Wyred4Sound USB Reclocker, but as it has a dedicated Swagman Lab Linear Power Supply, so I don't think it is the problem.

I also have the Bada 5600 Power Filter, three PS Audio Noise Harvester, DH Labs Power Cables and good connectors (Wattgate) on all the different parts of the system, but it seems to be not enough to better completely the AC Power deficiencies.

As anyone experienced the same and corrected it? How?

I prefer to keep the budget under 1.500 USD, so almost all of the Power Regenerators offered in the market (PS Audio, etc) cant be considered. What about the Dussun X800 Pure Power Supply Regenerator? Has anyone tried it or tried any Dussun product? There are a few pretty decent reviews of Dussun products on Internet, but not much.

I cannot install a dedicated Power Line for my system, I can only use the shared AC circuit.

Thank you!

 

[Chopin75]

I´ve got a pretty big improvement in sound on my R8 DAC with my Wyred4Sound USB Reclocker and then when I added a LPS to it.
I think the USB Amanero input on Audio-Gd DACs is one of their weakest parts.
In fact, I've just bought the Gustard U16 to use the I2S input. I will post my impressions as soon as I get it, in about 2 or 3 weeks.

Oh yah, I did not mention that I have the F-1 board inside the R2R7, all components now supplied by LPS, and the internal R Core PS from Audio GD. The Guatard
Should be even better as apparently it has a better clock. F1 (singxur xmos) has better clock than stock amanero. If the Guatard ess chip can be internally placed inside the R2R it may work even better? Less glitches?

 

[Chopin75]

I use euphony and has booted into my Macbook with great results. It beats Jmedia, audirvana easily. Improvement is greatest with Hi Res like DSD/DXD. Your Macmini must be pre 2018 to be bootable. Now I just use euphony with HDplex PC/LPS + pinkfaun USB bridge which brings it to another level. Interestingly I took out all the USB conditioners in the chain so now the PC is just connectes via a single USB cable to r2r7 as this sounds better! This confirms that shortest and simplest link may be best. I don’t even use Roon but play the files directly from my SSD. PM me if u want to know more ways to set up euphony.

Also if u are jusr using roon u can consider audiolinux which is much cheaper $50 or less. But it is hard to set up, needs to be a computer geek so I have not used it but heard it is amazing. It does not have its own media player and runs on RAM which supposedly is best way to run a music OS.

 

[FredA]

Guys - it’s a wonderful time we live in.
Here was I looking at my system as pretty much endgame : my Mac mini plays into the R2R7 which connects via acss to my m8 into my beloved cans. Job done. Sounds amazing too.

Then just as I thought (and told my wife) that I can stop, I’m suddenly presented with this thread, from which I now have the following aspirations/chain to get excited about: my macmini > intona > Gustard > R2R7 > m8 ... Not only that but the macmini may also be hosting Euphony as an endpoint of the game changing Roon app.
Sheesh - it's a dream (although I have to find funds to continue this quest) and I do thank you guys for leading the way with such great insight and ideas.

Am I right in thinking the above chain would be an improvement in my case?
I do have a general question - being a bit old school I always adhered to the idea that the shortest path was often the best in terms of audio. Does the intona / Gustard addition to the chain make their additions worthwhile over the direct USB input on the R2R7 ? I’m certainly keen to check it out - but it's already running over $900 NZ.
And has anyone had experience with Euphony? Or is it verging on snakeoil.... I'm not convinced yet - and it's another $300 US ... Will have to pace myself - I'll keep you posted though!

Thanks again for all the great reading and inspiration. Cheers - Brent

The u16 connected through i2s would bring a significant improvment. From the u16 thread, assuming the r-8 would have the same issue as the the r-1, you would have to upsample all signals to 352 or 384k. The u16 is not a fully mature product.

One thing you can do is to get a usbridge along with a couple of 5v lps and use it as a upnp endpoint connected through ethernet or use it as a standalone player. You need to have some hands on ideally with linux-based os ideally and hardware in general to configure it to use two psus. But the usbridge brings a lot of bang for the buck. Volumio is the most user-friendly sw option for the usbridge.

So you could go with something like

Mac mini (audirvana upsampling to 352/384) -> usbridge (as upnp endpoint ) -> u16 -> hdmi 2.1 cable -> r-8.

The intona is only useful when there is a ground loop with this setup. Most likely not needed. The usb output of the usbridge is of very high quality. Using an intona downstream will degrade it to some extent. But it will break a ground loop if one exists, so it could lead to a sound quality improvement.

 

[FredA]

That said, i tried to remove the intona from my setup. And i much prefer with it.

There is now a great alternative to the intona, which was mentioned in the r-28 thread. One advantage over the intona is there is socket to accept external power. The intona, and this other isolator, will sound much better when fed with a lps. There exists a cable you can get off ebay along with a lps to swap the power line on a usb connection to the intona..

Being connected at the output of the usbridge, my intona is fed high-quality dc.

 

[jimmychan]

I use RPi3B+ > Gustard U16 > R2R7 > M1 > M3 > B&W 803D3.

The i2s input beats all other inputs that I tried.

 

[JaMo]

I use RPi3B+ > Gustard U16 > R2R7 > M1 > M3 > B&W 803D3.

Nice! I am sure the B&W speakers sounds brilliant driven by that chain.

I use RPi3B+ > Gustard U16 > R2R7 > M1 > M3+M2's> QUAD ESL63's+Gradient SW63's and have no complains ; )

 

[ungawa]

I use euphony and has booted into my Macbook with great results. It beats Jmedia, audirvana easily. Improvement is greatest with Hi Res like DSD/DXD. Your Macmini must be pre 2018 to be bootable. Now I just use euphony with HDplex PC/LPS + pinkfaun USB bridge which brings it to another level. Interestingly I took out all the USB conditioners in the chain so now the PC is just connectes via a single USB cable to r2r7 as this sounds better! This confirms that shortest and simplest link may be best. I don’t even use Roon but play the files directly from my SSD. PM me if u want to know more ways to set up euphony.

Thanks so much for the PM offer - I will def take you up on this as I am very curious about Euphony. Roon is the first music library app I've literally turned away from Audirvana to embrace - and I can't find much fault with it so far.

 

[ungawa]

The u16 connected through i2s would bring a significant improvment. From the u16 thread, assuming the r-8 would have the same issue as the the r-1, you would have to upsample all signals to 352 or 384k. The u16 is not a fully mature product.

One thing you can do is to get a usbridge along with a couple of 5v lps and use it as a upnp endpoint connected through ethernet or use it as a standalone player. You need to have some hands on ideally with linux-based os ideally and hardware in general to configure it to use two psus. But the usbridge brings a lot of bang for the buck. Volumio is the most user-friendly sw option for the usbridge.

So you could go with something like

Mac mini (audirvana upsampling to 352/384) -> usbridge (as upnp endpoint ) -> u16 -> hdmi 2.1 cable -> r-8.

The intona is only useful when there is a ground loop with this setup. Most likely not needed. The usb output of the usbridge is of very high quality. Using an intona downstream will degrade it to some extent. But it will break a ground loop if one exists, so it could lead to a sound quality improvement.

Awesome thoughts thankyou - I doubt I'll be waiting long before ordering the U16, though I think I'll stick to the Mac Mini for now - that said, I can see the advantages of the usbridge and lps'. So much exploration to do!

 

[FredA]

Awesome thoughts thankyou - I doubt I'll be waiting long before ordering the U16, though I think I'll stick to the Mac Mini for now - that said, I can see the advantages of the usbridge and lps'. So much exploration to do!

A raspberry also beats a mac mini for just 80$ or so for a starter kit. Something you can try without breaking the bank.

 

[motberg]

Hello Guys,
I'm having a pretty big difference in sound quality in my system between day and night.

During day time the system sounds very very nice, but during night time it sounds superb, amazing, incredible, I dont have enough accolades.

I have the Audio-GD R8 DAC, the Audio-GD Master 1 preamp and a Nord Acoustics Class D Power Amp (wich is a hell of an amp) and I think the most sensitive to AC Power noise/problems is the R8. I also have the Wyred4Sound USB Reclocker, but as it has a dedicated Swagman Lab Linear Power Supply, so I don't think it is the problem.

I also have the Bada 5600 Power Filter, three PS Audio Noise Harvester, DH Labs Power Cables and good connectors (Wattgate) on all the different parts of the system, but it seems to be not enough to better completely the AC Power deficiencies.

As anyone experienced the same and corrected it? How?

I prefer to keep the budget under 1.500 USD, so almost all of the Power Regenerators offered in the market (PS Audio, etc) cant be considered. What about the Dussun X800 Pure Power Supply Regenerator? Has anyone tried it or tried any Dussun product? There are a few pretty decent reviews of Dussun products on Internet, but not much.

I cannot install a dedicated Power Line for my system, I can only use the shared AC circuit.

Thank you!

I had a very similar problem where it got to the point I would only listed at night... my guess is very noisy mains power in my apartment block.
Using the Audio GD HE-350 for the preamp (Master1), DAC (NOS7) and DDC (prior Tanly, now SU16) stabilized the sound so day and night are basically the same... my amp (Master 3) is running through a Yulong Sabre P18.
A friend was using isolation transformers similar to this and he was very happy with the results... I have one also for a tube buffer and seems to work very well in that application.
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?sp...ibWIx&id=525409946023&ns=1&abbucket=11#detail

 

[Stefano74]

Hi, does anybody here use matrix spdif 2 with an audio gd r2r dac?

I have an R1 and recently bought the matrix 2 to connect via i2s (hdmi); I am facing a strange issue, while it works perfectly with NOS mode, I get no sound when dac is switched to OS (dead silence).

I raised the issue on the other audio gd thread and found a user with R2R1 with similar issue; it would be interesting to collect feedbacks on other dacs (R7, R8, R28, etc..), to better understand if the problem is on the matrix or on the dac...

Thanks for your help..

 

[UsoppNoKami]

I´ve got a pretty big improvement in sound on my R8 DAC with my Wyred4Sound USB Reclocker and then when I added a LPS to it.
I think the USB Amanero input on Audio-Gd DACs is one of their weakest parts.
In fact, I've just bought the Gustard U16 to use the I2S input. I will post my impressions as soon as I get it, in about 2 or 3 weeks.

I tried to maximise the USB potential with the following chain:

Matrix X-Fi PCIe USB card powered by iFi iPower external power plugged into my Furutech eTP-80 power board -> iFi Mercury 3.0 cable -> iFi Nano Galvanic 3.0 -> Furutech GT2 USB cable -> AGD Amanero USB. Sounded pretty clean, no ground loop, no more AC noise through my tube amps. I have a dedicated power pull from the DB for my audio stuff, switch-less Furutech NCF-50 wall socket, NCF filters on Furutech power cables and the abovementioned power board.

Then I went and bought the Singxer SU-6 and hooked up my Master-11 Singularity via RJ45 I2S and my R2R-R1 via HDMI I2S. I left the USB chain feeding the Singxer the same. Cables: The Chord Company C-Stream CAT7 cable (0.75m), and Wireworld Ultraviolet 7 HDMI cable (0.6m).

With the change to I2S, audio background is darker than my maxed USB setup, the sound dynamics have more heft and punch to them, very clean and lovely smooth sound from both DACs.

Would heartily recommend everyone interested in this to switch to I2S if you are able to.