[PLGA]

I own a 2018 R8 and a 2018 R7-HE, and with the exact system (I have a well treated AC signal), the difference was smaller than I expected.

Both were connected with AES/EBU with my DI-20.

On the other hand, as the R7-HE has the last HDMI upgrade, with I2S connection the difference is bigger. Maybe some day I will upgrade the R8 to the 2021 version to compare them both having the same HDMI upgrade.

 

[FredA]

Kingwa just released the mkii Master-10 using the linear fidelity technology.

http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/Master10MK2/Master10MK2EN.htm

 

[Crow123]

Kingwa just released the mkii Master-10 using the linear fidelity technology.

http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/Master10MK2/Master10MK2EN.htm

I think it will cost me more to ship than to buy

 

[FredA]

I think it will cost me more to ship than to buy

Not so bad, shipping to South Africa is 375USd. I paid under 300$ to have my m3 shipped to Canada.

 

[sajunky]

Not so bad, shipping to South Africa is 375USd. I paid under 300$ to have my m3 shipped to Canada.

Well, it will go through a regime owned post office. You may get it in 10 month time or never. Courier shipping will cost a fortune, it is what was said.

Besides, South African power lines are very bad, I would rather chose a model with a normal transformers.

 

[FredA]

Well, it will go through a regime owned post office. You may get it in 10 month time or never. Courier shipping will cost a fortune, it is what was said.

Besides, South African power lines are very bad, I would rather chose a model with a normal transformers.

This uses are « normal » transformers.

Sorry to hear this.

 

[FredA]

Some observation on the importance of clean power, especially for clocks.

I use an isolation transformer for my streamer and Afterdark Eva clock. Lately, i acquired a step-up transformer to feed a European specced fm tuner i got. I plugged it to the isolation transformer. A few weeks later, i realized the step-up was buzzing quite a bit. Turning it off, the bass suddendly became firmer and deeper listening to the dac.

The conclusion is quite obvious: the clock has to be fed with the cleanest power possible and one should never underestimate the pollution that can occur from other elements connected on your power distributor, be it an isolation transformer or anything else.

 

[sajunky]

This is true. Once you achieve level of transparency, even small changes of power supply quality are immediately noticeable. I recently upgraded clocks on my Amanero board. I noticed immediately that a quality was unstable, especially during a night performance was suffering. It is like a pretty woman; needs more attention.

One night a LED bulb stopped working. I noticed that a replacement, a smaller wattage was much brighter, the old one perhaps was dying slowly for some time. Since then I can't complain on a DAC moods. Now is over 500 hours burning and quality is still improving. I should get this upgrade much earlier.

 

[FredA]

This is true. Once you achieve level of transparency, even small changes of power supply quality are immediately noticeable. I recently upgraded clocks on my Amanero board. I noticed immediately that a quality was unstable, especially during a night performance was suffering. It is like a pretty woman; needs more attention.

One night a LED bulb stopped working. I noticed that a replacement, a smaller wattage was much brighter, the old one perhaps was dying slowly for some time. Since then I can't complain on a DAC moods. Now is over 500 hours burning and quality is still improving. I should get this upgrade much earlier.

Yeah. The r2r 11 become more refined with this upgrade.

Generally speaking, clocks are much affected by power quality and the main reason why sound quality fluctuates in my experience.

 

[FredA]

Deleted. Wrong thread.

 

[Ninja Theory]

Hi is there anyone here who owns an R-8 MK2 and can share thoughts? I have always enjoyed Audio-GD products and am currently considering if I should save for the R-7 MK2 (in which case I could buy in 2022) or go with the R-8 MK2 for a bit (in which case I can buy now). My Audio-GD journey started with an R2R-11 a few years ago and I currently have the NOS11 being fed by the DI-20.

 

[Crow123]

Hi is there anyone here who owns an R-8 MK2 and can share thoughts? I have always enjoyed Audio-GD products and am currently considering if I should save for the R-7 MK2 (in which case I could buy in 2022) or go with the R-8 MK2 for a bit (in which case I can buy now). My Audio-GD journey started with an R2R-11 a few years ago and I currently have the NOS11 being fed by the DI-20.

Hi I have one. I wrote up a few of my thoughts earlier in thread. In short excellent dac the realism and sense of presence or atmosphere is excellent. Highly recommend

 

[sajunky]

@Ninja Theory. It is a feature difference. If you are going to upgrade to the external clock in future, your target is R7. If not, expect the same level of performance from the R8MK2.

I don't know what can really happen early next year, many things are not promising anything good.

Edit. I meant the latest R7MK2, not R7 (2021)

 

[Crow123]

@Ninja Theory. It is a feature difference. If you are going to upgrade to the external clock in future, your target is R7. If not, expect the same level of performance from the R8MK2.

I don't know what can really happen early next year, many things are not promising anything good.

This is actually the exact feedback Kingwa gave me when I asked. One more point is that the clocks in the r8mk2 are very good so I suspect the cost for noticeable upgrade will be high

 

[Ninja Theory]

Thoughts on the 2021 R27's DAC section with the upgraded clocks and USB interface? - seeing that it's an AIO with an R-8 DAC section (albeit I assume not the MK2). If this is a feasible option without too much compromise on the DAC section over the R-8 MK2 then it means I would not lose the Master 9 amp section option when I sell my NOS11.

I forgot to mention that in my Audio-GD journey I also had the R28 but I changed to the NOS11 because I found the R28's amp section rather flat, it just wasn't meeting my expectations (although I quite enjoyed its DAC section). Thankfully both the NOS11 DAC and amp sections were worthwhile upgrades from the R28 - moreso the amp than the DAC - and have kept me happy since (the R28 is basically an AIO R1 DAC / NFB1 amp).