Hello,
Can I have some opinions on the topic 'R7 vs R8' and whether you should get the 'HE' versions when you have an external power regenerator?
It is said that the R8 vs R7 is very close sonically and I can't decide whether I should go for the R7 or save some money with the R8. (Read the last 40 pages but I only found one comment that you don't need 'HE' if you have external power regenerator)
Thank you!
I have the R8 and I should get a used 2018 R7-HE next month or so. I will post my impressions then.
Today I don't have a power regenerator, but I do have a dedicated AC line + a Holton DC Blocker + a Audioquest Niagara 1200 power conditioner + DH Labs Red Wave power cables.
Nevertheless, I expect at least a noticeable upgrade in sound quality vs the R8. If not, it would be pretty disappointing.
The difference between a r7 and r7he is not subtle. I use no power conditioning with my r7he. I use conditioning only on the external clock, streamer and di20he, namely an isolation transfo. I only do with the di20he cause it make sense that all three be connected to the same unit, to avoid dc offsets.
The same goes for the master1 vs an HE1 or HE9. Much blacker background. More analog.
The r7he is better than a r7 combined with an external regenerator according to Kingwa, not miles better though. The r7 has only a small sonic advantage over the r8. If you want to use an external clock, it's only possible with the r7/he. The dac that has the best perfomance/price ratio it the r8he. If you don't need the external clock input, it's the dac to go for instead of the regular r7.
I asked the same question to Kingwa a few months ago and he had an opposite answer when using a regeneator. In this case a PS Audio P10. See my earlier post for reference. He recommended the R7 over the HE model calling it unnecessary in this situation.
I asked the same question to Kingwa a few months ago and he had an opposite answer when using a regeneator. In this case a PS Audio P10. See my earlier post for reference. He recommended the R7 over the HE model calling it unnecessary in this situation.
He probably meant the r7he was not so much better than the r7 with a high-end regenerator. Meaning the return on investment was better with the r7 in that case (Kingwa will not recommend upgrading for small upgrade in general). Because Kingwa always said the r7he on its own was better than the r7 fed by the he350.
The r7he has a regenarator especially tuned for the application. And is the only device fed by the regenarator. The level of isolation between gears is hard to match with a di20he/r7he/he1 setup.
Someone on this thread, if I'm not wrong, had the chance to compare the R8-HE vs the non-HE R7 and he said he had a hard time picking one over the other.
If I recall it right, he said the R8-HE had may be lower noise floor, but the non-HE R7 had more analog flavor.
It applies to the other good brand HiFi grade power regenerators too, but not to the power conditioners which are more common. It is a matter of understanding a difference between two on one side and not making archtectural errors on the other.
Individual power regenerators are more costly and don't result in better SQ, but give a freedom of choice, more convenient connectivity options. By example: Do you want to plug your PC (typical USBsource) to a power regenerator? A DAC (or DDC) with power regenerator gives a solution. And in most cases is sufficient as DAC being a most critical place on the HiFi gear, requiring a top protection.
Hi guys,
Just want to share some of my experience on Audio-gd and also need some help & advice from you guys.
Few weeks ago I was planning to do a major upgrade for my audio system, and my current setup is He6se + Teac NT-505 + Krell Kav-250a. After doing some research I had narrow down my options to either Denafrips Terminator Plus + Athena or Audio-gd R7He + He9. When checked on Audio-gd website I realised there is a Audio-gd distributor around my area, just few km from my location. I contact the distributor and try to make an appointment for audition, but due to the Covid-19 lockdown (I am Malaysian) the distributor reluctant to allow my visit, but he offer me home demo for his H7He + He9 until Chinese New Year, and this is the 3rd day of those equipment with me. Below is my experience with the best settings that suits for my taste.
R7he + He9 with xlr:
I am totally disappointed. The new Audio-gd was not better than my existing setup, even worse is those bass attack, those omphs from my old setup was gone.
R7he + He9 + Krell Kav-250a with xlr:
Everything do get better, and bass do get better too but still not up to my expectation yet, at least not enough to convince me buy the new set.
R7he + He9 + Krell Kav-250a with xlr & activate Dolby Atmos music profile:
These setup totally blow me out of the water, when I playing music from YouTube, everything are so 3D, stringed instruments is layering with decays and so life like, bass more punch and layering too. These is totally better than what I expected. I did try my existing setup with Dolby Atmos, but couldn't get the same result as Audio-gd.
But these setting do come with 1 drawback, it seems only work on YouTube, everything go back to normal if I am running ROON + Tidal. ROON seem didn't bother Dolby Atmos at all even though Tidal do have Dolby Atmos tracks/videos. And I don't see why I still keep Tidal if YouTube is better than Tidal with these setups.
My questions are:
1. Have anyone try on Dolby Atmos with R7He and get good results as me, or just because of my taste only?
2. Could anyone who is familiar with KingWa, ask him whether able to write new FPGA code that is similar to Dolby Atmos for R7he, which allow user to activate or de-activate by themselves?
3. Does #2 request able to do just with firmware update, or totally need hardware changes? This question will affect my decision for buying the new sets now or wait until the next version of R7he.
Do you test 2021 version of R-7HE? Consider to add DI-20HE for testing, it would be interesting to hear your experience. I can't comment on a Dolby Atmos.
Do you test 2021 version of R-7HE? Consider to add DI-20HE for testing, it would be interesting to hear your experience. I can't comment on a Dolby Atmos.
The distributor only have 2020 version on hand, and his DI-20He demo unit just taken by another customer.
I can't imagine what can it be with full set Audio-gd with Acss link.
The distributor only have 2020 version on hand, and his DI-20He demo unit just taken by another customer.
I can't imagine what can it be with full set Audio-gd with Acss link.
I thought rather of using I2S output of Di-20HE. Digital ACSS output is better than AES, but external clock connection is still needed in such case for the best results. I will read more about Dolby, but I don't like excess of bass in Home Theatre. Interesting story. Do Krell have a CAST input? Kingwa can make ACSS compatible with Krell, you need to ask for.
@ymlee. Have you tried other 2-ch DACs instead of the R7-HE? They will all sound dry and 2D compared to the Atmos simulator. You may just like the Atmos sound which is all about ambience and 3D space. Try a different brand DAC for a test but think they will give similar results.
The R7 or similar DACs do not have the processing capability to synthesize Atmos space. Just a simple FPGA.
And since you have a Krell amp can you connect Krell CAST to HE9 ACSS output? Instead of XLR. Same with R7HE to HE9 use ACSS. The dealer should be able supply cables. Much more dynamic/ lower noise. And best bass using the DI-20HE over I2S. The dealer has those as well. You are fortunate to be able to audition before purchasing. We all wish we had that luxury!
@ymlee. Have you tried other 2-ch DACs instead of the R7-HE? They will all sound dry and 2D compared to the Atmos simulator. You may just like the Atmos sound which is all about ambience and 3D space. Try a different brand DAC for a test bit but think they will give similar results.
The R7 or similar DAC does not have the processing capability to synthesize Atmos space. Just a simple FPGA.
And since you have a Krell amp can you connect Krell CAST to HE9 ACSS output? Instead of XLR. Same with R7HE to HE9 use ACSS. The dealer should be able supply cables. Much more dynamic/ lower noise. And best bass using the DI-20HE over I2S. The dealer has those as well. You are fortunate to be able to audition before purchasing. Wish all wish we had that luxury!
I agree to the above, but those who like lot of bass will be not happy. It is because ACSS has a lower gain than CAST in Krell. It is said on the website that Kingwa can make a custom version on request of Krell owners.
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