[Mix80]

I asked Kingwa multiple times and he always messaged back.

I contacted Kingwa - but his answer did not help me.
He does not know why the AES port is not working, and believes that there are no problems on the board and all components are in place.
He does not answer my questions for clarification.
In my opinion the AES line cannot work without a signal ground and a balanced line connection.

 

[FredA]

I contacted Kingwa - but his answer did not help me.
He does not know why the AES port is not working, and believes that there are no problems on the board and all components are in place.
He does not answer my questions for clarification.
In my opinion the AES line cannot work without a signal ground and a balanced line connection.

The gounds pin (pin 1) needs no connection. The 2 others should not be connected to a resistor but directly to the small transformer. If the circuit is OK as Kingwa says, and if you showed him that pic, it most likely is, there is an issue with your aes/ebu cable or source or a compatibility issue with the dac.

 

[OCC7N]

If by hungry you mean power hungry, then it is more to do with amps rather than the DACs that you've listed above.. (if I understood you correctly)

My HE9 Mk 2 controls Susvara pretty well (30-40 out of 100, knowing that after 60 the power chart goes parabolic). Susvara is power hungry but different in the sense that you don't need high volume to hear everything clearly.. the clarity at low volume is very good too (if it makes sense). When I contacted Kingwa, he stated that HE9 Mk2 is capable of driving Susvara to its full potential.. at this point I have no doubt this is the case..

Yeah Its for one I know who wants a good AIO solution, he wants to be able to run all headphones.

But Im just curious if anybody had compared the sound…is it R8 + Master 9 in one?

 

[OCC7N]

I contacted Kingwa - but his answer did not help me.
He does not know why the AES port is not working, and believes that there are no problems on the board and all components are in place.
He does not answer my questions for clarification.
In my opinion the AES line cannot work without a signal ground and a balanced line connection.

Are you connecting between 2 AGD products?

 

[Mix80]

The 2 others should not be connected to a resistor but directly to the small transformer

That's just the point, I only have one pin from the AES connector tracked on the transformer. This is pin number 3, I tracked pin number 2 to an empty area with a resistor, then the signal does not pass, but from this area it should get into the transformer.
My question is, if anyone has a detailed photo or information on the resistor, please give its value. Perhaps there is just a jumper, but I don’t have it either. I need to know how to fix DAC build error in production.
Kingwa really doesn't like to admit mistakes in their products, And writes frank nonsense to me.
For example, the fact that Pin1 should be connected to the chassis ground, But the fact that it is not connected is, from his words, also normal.
Or about the resistor -

It is the input impedance resistors .
The product is built by the auto machine , that is all units of the same product has not mistaken on the parts assemble . All units of the product must have the same performance.
Kingwa

And at the same time, there is no resistor in this place ... Well, how is it?

Are you connecting between 2 AGD products?

The signal source must be a Mutec MC3+ Smart Clock USB, its output is absolutely AES-compliant, this was confirmed to me by Kingwa.
I tried different cables, all of the standard 110 Ohm impedance. Studio and just high-quality cables.
The fact is that the crackling starts when the AES input is on as soon as I plug the cable into the DAC.
It doesn't even have to be plugged into the signal source, although if I plug in the cable, the tone of the crackle changes a little, but it still remains deafening.

 

[OCC7N]

1. Do you have other inputs than AES connected....spdif and usb etc`?
2. If no try a firmware reset.

 

[Mix80]

All other inputs work, I had a DI2HE i2S input worked with it, I constantly use the USB input directly from the source, and the SPDIF and Toslink outputs worked fine with the Mutec MC3+. Only with AES input is a problem.

It's definitely not about the firmware because the signal circuit of one of the lines of the balanced digital signal is obviously broken. I need a resistor value that is missing on my board.

 

[FredA]

That's just the point, I only have one pin from the AES connector tracked on the transformer. This is pin number 3, I tracked pin number 2 to an empty area with a resistor, then the signal does not pass, but from this area it should get into the transformer.
My question is, if anyone has a detailed photo or information on the resistor, please give its value. Perhaps there is just a jumper, but I don’t have it either. I need to know how to fix DAC build error in production.
Kingwa really doesn't like to admit mistakes in their products, And writes frank nonsense to me.
For example, the fact that Pin1 should be connected to the chassis ground, But the fact that it is not connected is, from his words, also normal.
Or about the resistor -


And at the same time, there is no resistor in this place ... Well, how is it?


The signal source must be a Mutec MC3+ Smart Clock USB, its output is absolutely AES-compliant, this was confirmed to me by Kingwa.
I tried different cables, all of the standard 110 Ohm impedance. Studio and just high-quality cables.
The fact is that the crackling starts when the AES input is on as soon as I plug the cable into the DAC.
It doesn't even have to be plugged into the signal source, although if I plug in the cable, the tone of the crackle changes a little, but it still remains deafening.

1. Check with a meter that pin 2 and 3 connect to the pimary ends of the transfo. If not, check the weldings.
2. If the connections in 1 were mssing, there is no way you would get this garbage noise just by plugging a cable in. Which in itself is quite strange but you could be catching noise.
3. Playing dsd has limitations over Spdif in general, have your tried pcm?
4. Are the bnc and rca in fine (with the same di) ?
5.. Was input 1 selected?
6. Hve you tried aes/ebu out of the di20he?

 

[FredA]

Also, show.a better pic to Kingwa. He will tell you right away if something is missing.

 

[Mix80]

Thanks for the advice.
I may not be a repairman, but I can check the circuit.
Using a multimeter, I traced the signal to the transformer only from pin number 3.
Pin number 2 is not traceable to the transformer I have written about this many times.
There is no reason for the interface to work without this connection, it is broken in a place where a resistor was not mistakenly installed.
I ask someone to send me either a detailed photo or the value of the resistor that stands in the place where I have only an empty area for it.

In my photo it is very detailed and you can see that the resistor is ABSENT!

A transformer that passes a signal through only one half just generates an unwanted signal in the second half.

This is not a DSD or PCM stream format issue. The crackling starts as soon as the 1st input of the DAC is turned on and any cable is plugged in (all cables are absolutely 100% working).

I have had experience repairing Audio GD products. Once I had a regenerator in DI20HE out of order and Kingwa recognized the problem only after the expert opinion of the service center in which its products are repaired. The second defect was very insidious and consisted in the fact that my R7HE 2018 lost contact with the master clock, while showing that it was connected. Also on this DAC, I ran into the problem of noise at the i2S input until the signal source gives the first data. Kingwa later patched this defect with firmware, never acknowledging the problem.
I have had many devices from this master in my hands, so I know both their qualities and their problems.

Now the only question is whether someone will decide to help in my problem and open the lid or search the archives for high-quality photos of the insides, or we will continue to talk about what cannot be, because AGD is not mistaken.

 

[FredA]

Thanks for the advice.
I may not be a repairman, but I can check the circuit.
Using a multimeter, I traced the signal to the transformer only from pin number 3.
Pin number 2 is not traceable to the transformer I have written about this many times.
There is no reason for the interface to work without this connection, it is broken in a place where a resistor was not mistakenly installed.
I ask someone to send me either a detailed photo or the value of the resistor that stands in the place where I have only an empty area for it.

In my photo it is very detailed and you can see that the resistor is ABSENT!



A transformer that passes a signal through only one half just generates an unwanted signal in the second half.

This is not a DSD or PCM stream format issue. The crackling starts as soon as the 1st input of the DAC is turned on and any cable is plugged in (all cables are absolutely 100% working).

I have had experience repairing Audio GD products. Once I had a regenerator in DI20HE out of order and Kingwa recognized the problem only after the expert opinion of the service center in which its products are repaired. The second defect was very insidious and consisted in the fact that my R7HE 2018 lost contact with the master clock, while showing that it was connected. Also on this DAC, I ran into the problem of noise at the i2S input until the signal source gives the first data. Kingwa later patched this defect with firmware, never acknowledging the problem.
I have had many devices from this master in my hands, so I know both their qualities and their problems.

Now the only question is whether someone will decide to help in my problem and open the lid or search the archives for high-quality photos of the insides, or we will continue to talk about what cannot be, because AGD is not mistaken.

Kingwa would tell you. I guess you are not in good terms. I will check if i have a pic.

 

[Mix80]

Believe me, I have a very long history of communication with Kingwa (more than 200 letters in the last 5 years). I bought many of his products for my system and offered them to my friends, knowing that in terms of price and sound quality, this is the best solution. I don’t understand what happened, earlier, although not immediately, he began to help and listen to criticism or suggestions, but now he is simply silent or writes strange excuses (it’s hard to assess otherwise).

 

[FredA]

Believe me, I have a very long history of communication with Kingwa (more than 200 letters in the last 5 years). I bought many of his products for my system and offered them to my friends, knowing that in terms of price and sound quality, this is the best solution. I don’t understand what happened, earlier, although not immediately, he began to help and listen to criticism or suggestions, but now he is simply silent or writes strange excuses (it’s hard to assess otherwise).

There can be variations in how an aes/ebu in is implemented. With the simplest one, pin 2 and 3 go to the transfomer's primary. If this is the basic design, the most likely cause is either you miss a jumper or you have a bad solder on pin 2. Check if the two pad that are without a component connect to the transformer and pin 2. If so, a jumper could be missing there. But again, try to get an answer from Kingwa.

 

[FredA]

It is easy to test the xlr connector soldering with a meter. Start there.

 

[tumpux]

Just wanna add that based on my experience sometimes the AGD quality control is not the best for a company that sells directly to the consumer. I have a Master 9 preamplifier that has a female 4 pin XLR connector in the right ACSS output channel instead of a male 4 pin XLR. Just in the right ACSS output channel, the left ACSS output channel is using the correct male 4 pin XLR.

Anyway the issue was resolved with AGD sending me the correct XLR connector so I can replace it myself instead of sending the unit back to China, but the point is it shows that their quality control procedure was not including checking that all the functionality is working before sending the unit out. In my case, you don’t even need to check the ACSS output connection to find the problem. You can see it visually that the right ACSS channel has a different connector from the left channel.

I can see why the AES input connection issue like this could pass their QC process. It’s not part of their QC process at all. I believe the majority of AGD consumers never use the AES input in their DAC or use the ACSS output in their preamp.