[Jandu]

DI20 did have the same 3 options back during Nov/Dec 2019. It was the DI20HE which does not have any clock choice.

 

[Tango Sierra]

Guys what do you thing about best connection between R7 dac and preamp?
Should it be good neutral xlr pair under 2500Euro ?
Or ACSS is the only way for the best? I dont know anything about good acss cables(

I had Audio Sensibility in Canada make me custom ACSS cables from his Statement line of cable.

 

[guilders]

I have just posted an ad for ACSS cables

 

[guilders]

@guilders I think you downloaded R2R 7 firmware. The R7 needs R-7_P2_DSDCLK and R-7_Parallel_DOP.

My unit is R2R 7HE and I have HDMI on IN4 and RJ45 on IN5

 

[exsomnis]

After my long-serving DAC-19 died at the end of a drawn out degradation in SQ, I got a Denafrips Ares II. I really have no clue why there's so much praise for it because it was utterly inferior to the DAC-19 in every way but worst of all in clarity. It did work decently with my less resolving speaker rig but with my Harbeth Super HL5+, they were just horrible. I then went on to an RME ADI-2 DAC FS, which lived up to the hype very well and gave me a new appreciation for Delta Sigma implementations. Clean, resolving and smooth but ultimately, lacking something I used to have. I could only go back to Audio-gd at this point. No Denafrips Terminator or Holo Spring or Lampizator.

So after the torturous build wait, I received delivery of my R7 2020 last Tuesday and haven't had much sleep since. Neither have my immediate neighbours. The poor sods.

What I was first amazed by was the finesse and refinement of the micro details. The leading and trailing edges of instruments were in tight focus and the soundstage was immense. Where previously a horn was on the same plane as the main mix, it was now appropriately placed at the back. I could point at it. Everything had a place and it was right. Oh my rig now sounded properly high end. Textural and vivid. Holographic.

I remembered NOS mode and turned it on. What I enjoyed about the DAC-19 so much was the organic, analog sound that felt natural and inferred a strong sense of clarity. The R7 presented all this but with significantly higher resolution throughout the frequency bands, combined with superb instrument separation and the ability to unravel complex passages effortlessly. NOS seemed to not work as well on some tracks though - instruments sounded a little disjointed and not well integrated on them. Reminded me of the awful original NOS mode on the DAC-19 - for me that was best left at 4x OS. I'm looking forward to investigating and testing other OS modes on the R7.

The singers have returned to the room. They're standing between the speakers. They're singing for me again. Lifelike midrange is a key trait of my speakers but vocals have not been as sweet and real, as they were with my DAC-19 and now the R7. Of course, this is genre dependent and works particularly well with simple ensembles. And curiously, low recording quality tracks that were unbearable for me to listen to before are now perfectly fine. Though that will likely change with time I think, as I adjust to this higher overall level of fidelity.

There's so much more I want to spill out but I have to get back to work. Suffice to say, this has been my most satisfying gear purchase of the year so far.

 

[jimmychan]

@exsomnis
Congratulations! Its a big step up form DAC-19 to R7 2020.

 

[sajunky]

Damn poor DAC19, but it is worth to fix it. Don't toss it away. I can cover shipping costs.

 

[exsomnis]

@exsomnis
Congratulations! Its a big step up form DAC-19 to R7 2020.

Thanks! It's a massive step up from the DAC-19. And I have to say, a big step up from the RME ADI-2 as well. It has easily exceeded my expectations. I've heard the Master PCM1704UK DACs and the first King Wa designed chip DACs but that did not prepare me for this.

Instruments are so live, clear and palpable...again with that killer soundstage and decay.

Damn poor DAC19, but it is worth to fix it. Don't toss it away. I can cover shipping costs.

I hoard my audio gear, so no worries about that. It isn't entirely dead though, it will turn on and play music. But it now tends to sound muddy, a bit vague and has an uneven frequence response, sounding too warm in the midrange and too thin in bass. The frustrating thing is that if I leave it unplugged for a few weeks and turn it on after that, it seems to sound alright. And after several hours, it starts to act up again. Though even if it's good for the startup period, it still doesn't quite sound as good as it used to.

Is that something fixable? Bad caps or flaky clock oscillator or something like that?

 

[sajunky]

I hoard my audio gear, so no worries about that. It isn't entirely dead though, it will turn on and play music. But it now tends to sound muddy, a bit vague and has an uneven frequence response, sounding too warm in the midrange and too thin in bass. The frustrating thing is that if I leave it unplugged for a few weeks and turn it on after that, it seems to sound alright. And after several hours, it starts to act up again. Though even if it's good for the startup period, it still doesn't quite sound as good as it used to.

Is that something fixable? Bad caps or flaky clock oscillator or something like that?

Mosfet transistors typically fail with a partial or repeated break down, but it could be also a capacitor. Any type of capacitor. Email Kingwa, he is always very helpful and may have troubleshooting suggestions. But don't attempt to repair yourself if you do not have good electronic experience. This type of failure in not easy to diagnose, it needs a wizard type of a technician.

 

[Chopin75]

After my long-serving DAC-19 died at the end of a drawn out degradation in SQ, I got a Denafrips Ares II. I really have no clue why there's so much praise for it because it was utterly inferior to the DAC-19 in every way but worst of all in clarity. It did work decently with my less resolving speaker rig but with my Harbeth Super HL5+, they were just horrible. I then went on to an RME ADI-2 DAC FS, which lived up to the hype very well and gave me a new appreciation for Delta Sigma implementations. Clean, resolving and smooth but ultimately, lacking something I used to have. I could only go back to Audio-gd at this point. No Denafrips Terminator or Holo Spring or Lampizator.

So after the torturous build wait, I received delivery of my R7 2020 last Tuesday and haven't had much sleep since. Neither have my immediate neighbours. The poor sods.

What I was first amazed by was the finesse and refinement of the micro details. The leading and trailing edges of instruments were in tight focus and the soundstage was immense. Where previously a horn was on the same plane as the main mix, it was now appropriately placed at the back. I could point at it. Everything had a place and it was right. Oh my rig now sounded properly high end. Textural and vivid. Holographic.

I remembered NOS mode and turned it on. What I enjoyed about the DAC-19 so much was the organic, analog sound that felt natural and inferred a strong sense of clarity. The R7 presented all this but with significantly higher resolution throughout the frequency bands, combined with superb instrument separation and the ability to unravel complex passages effortlessly. NOS seemed to not work as well on some tracks though - instruments sounded a little disjointed and not well integrated on them. Reminded me of the awful original NOS mode on the DAC-19 - for me that was best left at 4x OS. I'm looking forward to investigating and testing other OS modes on the R7.

The singers have returned to the room. They're standing between the speakers. They're singing for me again. Lifelike midrange is a key trait of my speakers but vocals have not been as sweet and real, as they were with my DAC-19 and now the R7. Of course, this is genre dependent and works particularly well with simple ensembles. And curiously, low recording quality tracks that were unbearable for me to listen to before are now perfectly fine. Though that will likely change with time I think, as I adjust to this higher overall level of fidelity.

There's so much more I want to spill out but I have to get back to work. Suffice to say, this has been my most satisfying gear purchase of the year so far.

Is your R7 burned in by now? However even with burned in, I find it takes several days to warm uo whenever u switch mode, meaning, if u play NOS for a while and switch to OS it won’t sound that good until 4-5 days later or longer and vice versa. And if u switch to DSD it also takes numerous days to warm up. That may be why most of us stick with one mode as switching to another mode gives worse SQ than it really is

 

[Pappas3278]

Is your R7 burned in by now? However even with burned in, I find it takes several days to warm uo whenever u switch mode, meaning, if u play NOS for a while and switch to OS it won’t sound that good until 4-5 days later or longer and vice versa. And if u switch to DSD it also takes numerous days to warm up. That may be why most of us stick with one mode as switching to another mode gives worse SQ than it really is

Isn't "switching" to DSD done via software? If it can be done via hardware, please tell.

 

[DACLadder]

The R7/R8 DACs support direct DSD decoding. No software is involved to convert DSD to PCM.

@exsomnis Congrats on the R7HE 2020. The R7HE is going to have much more low-level resolution and crisper highs versus the DAC-19. It is very interesting that today Kingwa introduced the limited edition DAC19.20

http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/DAC1920/DAC1920EN.htm

 

[Chopin75]

Isn't "switching" to DSD done via software? If it can be done via hardware, please tell.

IT automatically plays DSD, but. via a different set. of circuits (not via the R2R)

 

[sajunky]

IT automatically plays DSD, but. via a different set. of circuits (not via the R2R)

This is correct. DSD decoding do not require a big array of resistors, just 5 or 6 bits. Whether it is different set or a part of main ladder, I don't know.

 

[DACLadder]

DSD is a separate circuit on the DA-7 DAC boards.