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.