[FredA]

I'll give that a go. I have the F-1 and the other day I saw the pins for the I2S, so once I find them again, I thought of rigging up a direct I2S connection, however I'm using an iUSB 3.0 to the inbuilt USB, which has been pretty good. I need to ask Kingwa if any of the other internal sockets are I2S inputs as I still have plenty of internal cables I can play with.

I my case, i used a female to male header. I did not solder directly to the F-1. And my cable is going straight out without socket but i do use the socket on the dac. I have the wyrd and intona to isolate the pc. Here is the pinout of the f-1:

 

[Currawong]

I moved my system around so I can change jumpers easily. I tried NOS mode. With no up-sampling, it is rather mushy-sounding, so I've been playing with the iZotope options in Audirvana Plus.

Those of you that have it, try the type C DSD upsampling filter to 128. That sounds absolutely wonderful, without the usual DSD dullness.

 

[FredA]

I moved my system around so I can change jumpers easily. I tried NOS mode. With no up-sampling, it is rather mushy-sounding, so I've been playing with the iZotope options in Audirvana Plus.

Those of you that have it, try the type C DSD upsampling filter to 128. That sounds absolutely wonderful, without the usual DSD dullness.

You mean in OS mode or NOS?

According to Kingwa, the default NOS mode is not as good but support more formats, by the way.

 

[Articnoise]

They might have not done all the burning. In the first 24 hours, it changed a lot. For instance, after 12 hours, it was BAD.

I listened to it at noon during my lunch break, and the soundstage was simply phenomenal. There was a level of precision in depth, left-right and up-down positioning that was way better than before.

Most DACs need 12-36 hours before sounding their best.

 

[FredA]

Tonight, after approx 150 hours of addtionnal burning (from the 300 hours done at the factory), my new r2r sounds quite phenomenal. Listening to Roberto Fonseca Yo, it's as if 2 new dimensions had been added compared to the M7. Besides splendid 3d imaging, background detail have become very clear. The reknown PCM1704uk is eating the dust of the new r2r dac board as far as resolution is concerned. At this point, it might still have a slight musicality edge over the r2r 7 however.

The sound of the r2r 7 is not perfect yet. I think the highs will get even more refined at some point, although their is not much room left for improvment. The bass attacks could be sharper as well. Otherwise, the bass is deep but not not as controlled as with the m7. Again with pll off. I think this should improve, the M7 has continued improving beyond 600 hours.

 

[FredA]

My concerns about musicality and bass slam are over. Even the piano attack have improved (had not even realized something was missing, but still) over the last 24 hours.

The r2r 7 is like an improved Master 7. Same character, only more competent at resolving everithing and smoother. My M7 was no slouch. My brother in
law ( a long-time audiophile with a great ear) heard it two weeks ago and was shocked by how good the soundstage was. The r2r is so much better, so much more resolving, i think he who would be speechless. As a bonus, the medium is also richer.

Tonight , i heard a perfect rendition of Vladimir Sidorov Musique russe and also very statisfying renditions of some of Bill Evans' best albums.

Kingwa told us that the r2r 7 exceeded all expectections on his presentation page. He was just being honest, as usual.

 

[enigmus12]

The reknown PCM1704uk is eating the dust of the new r2r dac board as far as resolution is concerned. At this point, it might still have a slight musicality edge over the r2r 7 however.

Well in all fairness, the Master 7 with the upgraded digital board is a whole different beast with all the attribute you are giving to the r2r 7 (I've heard both the standard Master 7 and mine upgraded during the same listening session). The right comparison should be between the S7 and the r2r 7 to juge about the DAC chips. Anyway, it seems that this new design is at least as good as the previous total DAC with 1704uk and that's saying a lot about it to me ! Thanks for your inputs !

 

[FredA]

Well in all fairness, the Master 7 with the upgraded digital board is a whole different beast with all the attribute you are giving to the r2r 7 (I've heard both the standard Master 7 and mine upgraded during the same listening session). The right comparison should be between the S7 and the r2r 7 to juge about the DAC chips. Anyway, it seems that this new design is at least as good as the previous total DAC with 1704uk and that's saying a lot about it to me ! Thanks for your inputs !

Indeed. I cannot be sure 100% about the dac module vs the pcm1704. It's only a logical deduction. But people that have heard both dacs in China have confirmed this. And as i said, the upgrade is big, even though i not use any reclocking (pll off). So you are left with the only technical differences being less parasite capacitance on the i2s input, a more powerful dsp and a more accurate output stage, compared to my old M7, besides the converters. My bet is the converters make a big part of the difference. I could be wrong but not likely.

 

[enigmus12]

I have not heard a R2R 7 but as I said if it only sounds as good as a S7 it will be already great (meaning that the r2r module can compete with a notorious factory chip). It seems that it sounds even better so that's clearly impressive.

About the listening session I got, I've try both Master 7 stock and one with Singularity digital board (a Singxer Su1 feeding them on HDMI i2S, pll off). I was not expecting any difference this way but the result is exactly the difference that you are saying with your r2r vs Master 7 (that's why i said that, no offense intended).

Back to the topic, nobody wants to try the new Schiit Eitr feeding a S7 or a R2R 7 ?? I'm very curious of the result, back in the days the Master 7 was clearly better on I2s but with the new digital board perhaps it could compete !!

 

[FredA]

I have not heard a R2R 7 but as I said if it only sounds as good as a S7 it will be already great (meaning that the r2r module can compete with a notorious factory chip). It seems that it sounds even better so that's clearly impressive.

About the listening session I got, I've try both Master 7 stock and one with Singularity digital board (a Singxer Su1 feeding them on HDMI i2S, pll off). I was not expecting any difference this way but the result is exactly the difference that you are saying with your r2r vs Master 7 (that's why i said that, no offense intended).

Back to the topic, nobody wants to try the new Schiit Eitr feeding a S7 or a R2R 7 ?? I'm very curious of the result, back in the days the Master 7 was clearly better on I2s but with the new digital board perhaps it could compete !!

They don't seem to mention which clocks they use but they seem to imply galvanic isolation built in. For 179usb, it looks like a bargain. But again, they don't mention the clocks. And no i2s out, so i am out.

 

[enigmus12]

They don't seem to mention which clocks they use but they seem to imply galvanic isolation built in. For 179usb, it looks like a bargain. But again, they don't mention the clocks. And no i2s out, so i am out.

The Schiit Eitr is providing full galvanic isolation with linear supply, good regulators, and the reclock process that you can found in the Yggdrasil (if i read right). First user reports say that it's very good (beating the SU1 even if it's hard to know how the I2s compete here). Some measurments have been made by atomicbob that also made measure of several DDC and the results are clearly way better. I love the way Schiit marketed this saying no more usb cable headache etc... because as a scientist it was making no sense to me ^^ and the fact is that the customer returns are saying the same.

About the I2S, we are used to think that's the better input for our DAC by the way Audio-Gd have designed it's old products but I don't have a clue if it have any superiority at all vs coax now (because of the new digital board of Audio-gd).

 

[FredA]

The Schiit Eitr is providing full galvanic isolation with linear supply, good regulators, and the reclock process that you can found in the Yggdrasil (if i read right). First user reports say that it's very good (beating the SU1 even if it's hard to know how the I2s compete here). Some measurments have been made by atomicbob that also made measure of several DDC and the results are clearly way better. I love the way Schiit marketed this saying no more usb cable headache etc... because as a scientist it was making no sense to me ^^ and the fact is that the customer returns are saying the same.

About the I2S, we are used to think that's the better input for our DAC by the way Audio-Gd have designed it's old products but I don't have a clue if it have any superiority at all vs coax now (because of the new digital board of Audio-gd).

Maybe with pll off and using an excellent spdif cable... My point is you will always loose a bit of quality in the reclocking, assuming the original signal is perfect as far as timing is concerned.

 

[enigmus12]

About the settings (PLL and High exact mode), did you notice that the way to enable/disable are reverted since the Master 7 ?

I mean that (from what i understand) :
* To be in High exact mode you should have no jumper on BYPASS (whereas it was a mandatory jumper in M7).
* To desactivate the PLL you should have no jumper on PLLEN (whereas you should put one to disable it before...).

Am i misreading ?

 

[FredA]

About the settings (PLL and High exact mode), did you notice that the way to enable/disable are reverted since the Master 7 ?

I mean that (from what i understand) :
* To be in High exact mode you should have no jumper on BYPASS (whereas it was a mandatory jumper in M7).
* To desactivate the PLL you should have no jumper on PLLEN (whereas you should put one to disable it before...).

Am i misreading ?

Whatever is it shipped with is pll on and high exact mode on. So if i remember well, the bypass jumper was not there when i opened the hood nor the pll jumper. I just added a jumper on the pll pins.

I don't think the bypass jumper changes anything with pll off (jumper on it).

 

[decapitate85]

Does any of you had the chance to compare it with Denafrips Terminator? I'm looking forward to sell my master 7 to buy r2r 7, but I saw even the denafrips which seems to be promising.