[Jackula]

Anyone use the Robertson ACSS cables? 24 gal solid silver. Certainly are very affordable compared to others...
https://robertsonaudiocables.com.au...nect-cable-for-audio-gd-mini-xlr-3-pin-female

Yeah I shared my impressions post on the previous page.

 

[Jackula]

Fred's impression of the Nimak sounds a lot like the old Invictus flagship. It is smoother and rounder in the mid-range and treble, as you all know I don't like smooth, and also a hint of warmth.

Robertson has better imagining, more air between instruments. More detail and nuances in the music, it is a more neutral cable that doesn't smooth out any details, due to this it is slightly thinner than Invictus.

Robertson doesn't enhance the music in any way which is what I prefer. 4.076 internal clock with Robertson is the most believable when I listen to piano (I grew up with a Yamaha but now own a 60k Petrof Grand, I'm familiar with how a many different piano sounds).

 

[FredA]

Fred's impression of the Nimak sounds a lot like the old Invictus flagship. It is smoother and rounder in the mid-range and treble, as you all know I don't like smooth, and also a hint of warmth.

Robertson has better imagining, more air between instruments. More detail and nuances in the music, it is a more neutral cable that doesn't smooth out any details, due to this it is slightly thinner than Invictus.

Robertson doesn't enhance the music in any way which is what I prefer. 4.076 internal clock with Robertson is the most believable when I listen to piano (I grew up with a Yamaha but now own a 60k Petrof Grand, I'm familiar with how a many different piano sounds).

Dubravko, the owner/designer thinks that his cable is comparable to a very expensive audionote.

 

[FredA]

The cable has only played for 3 hours, it is more transparent already.

 

[Jackula]

The cable has only played for 3 hours, it is more transparent already.

Let us know how you go at 100h, that's how long I was told to burn in my Invictus.

 

[FredA]

It sounds so full right now. It's already very very good.

For acss, inductance and cacitance have to be very low. It's part of Dubravkovs recipe. And the litz structure for coherence plus small enough conductors to prevent skin effect.

I forgot, the awg is 18 overall, so the RC of the cable is a very short time interval.

Dubravko said to give it 300h.

 

[Tassie Devil]

The layout of the ladder in the R2R 7 is very interesting. On some Dac i have examined lately, a greater number of resistors is used to make a sign magnitude ladder. Looks like Kingwa is using a trick to make a double 24 bit ladder out of only 72 resistors instead of 96. I don't know if other manufacturers use that trick but i find it very clever, if i understand how it works correctly.

I feel like i am going to buy one soon.

 

[FredA]

One of my early posts!

I now know the trick with the resistors. The da7 boards have components on both side. And the number of resistors is also a result of some being paralleled to increase precision.

 

[FredA]

Let us know how you go at 100h, that's how long I was told to burn in my Invictus.

One thing is already very clear for me, this cable makes music. The midrange is pretty awesome. The upper bass as well.

 

[PhMZ4]

I recently came across this R8 test from AudioScienceReview, posting those poor results...even catastrophic ones.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...review-and-measurements-of-audio-gd-r8.10149/

I cannot explain these bad Jitter, FFT and global THD values, as they do not concur with my listening experience with those gears.... any idea?

 

[Tassie Devil]

My R8 arrived here yesterday as a replacement to a Rick Schultz modded LKS DA-004, So of course I was anxious to compare them to see if there was an AQ improvement.

I fed the balanced digital input via AES into a CANFORD 3 way splitter so a signal could be fed simultaneously into the R8 & LKS for comparison. The output from the LKS was AES but from the R8 the ACSS cabling so comparing the two, fed into an Audio-gd Master 9, was a simple instantaneous change of input using the remote.

First impressions were surprising - absolutely NO change in AQ!! Switching inputs was without any accompanying clicks or pops so once levels had been matched (the LKS has a volume control) the comparison was simple. I was genuinely surprised to detect absolutely no change in audio signal as, from previous experience, all items do have specific signatures and that drives us nuts in giving the illusion the sound is improved when in fact it is only slightly different.

But then things deteriorated. All I heard from 192/24 and DSD formats was static. Then the R8 started to do the same on all formats so I made the assumption the R8 was faulty.

WRONG. Once the balanced digital from the Aries G1 bridge was fed direct into the R8 all formats played nicely.

All this is very puzzling. The Canford splitter had been used here for years without problems but, as you can see from the accompanying diagram, is now replaced by a powered 4 way splitter. Maybe the LKS was happy with a reduced signal from the Canford but the R8 was not. I'm in touch with Kingwa at Audio-gd about that because I want to be able to compare the R8 to the LKS as before. If necessary I'll drag out the Henry Engineering powered splitter to do that, but currently, I do not think the R8 is any better than the modded LKS DA-004. If that is the case I believe we might have finally reached the stage of being able to get top level DACs at reasonable prices.

All report on further progress after some lengthy listening today - I'm retired so can do that .

 

[sajunky]

One of my early posts!

I now know the trick with the resistors. The da7 boards have components on both side. And the number of resistors is also a result of some being paralleled to increase precision.

Not only. It also decrease resistance of solder joints and increase reliability. As for a sign magnitude, a single DA-8 board is also sign magnitude (I think), driven by the same CPLD. A pair (per channel) is used in a balanced ladder configuration R-1/R-28 for total 4.

Thanks for the comment, photos don't show both sides. Did you see also drivers chips or only resistor network?

 

[FredA]

I recently came across this R8 test from AudioScienceReview, posting those poor results...even catastrophic ones.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...review-and-measurements-of-audio-gd-r8.10149/

I cannot explain these bad Jitter, FFT and global THD values, as they do not concur with my listening experience with those gears.... any idea?

The opposite is also true. Some of the best measuring dac are not so good at the listening test.

The only instruments that can determine how good sound is from a human perspective are a pair of ears.

Another consideration is if you are making a linearity test on a dac whose ouput stage is designed not to be perfectly linear, it will measure badly. But one has to know that ultimately, very few loudspeakers out there give much better than 1% distorsion over the audio range.

Resolution is not a simple matter of linearity. As for jitter, when you get holographic imaging, you know your dac is on the right track. Whatever the measurements.

 

[Tassie Devil]

I recently came across this R8 test from AudioScienceReview, posting those poor results...even catastrophic ones.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...review-and-measurements-of-audio-gd-r8.10149/

I cannot explain these bad Jitter, FFT and global THD values, as they do not concur with my listening experience with those gears.... any idea?

Yes, I saw that and discounted it. I dislike any postings that are completely negative and have nothing positive to say. That site has been disparaging of other products in the same manner - unimpressive and, to me, ultimately unreliable.

 

[FredA]

My R8 arrived here yesterday as a replacement to a Rick Schultz modded LKS DA-004, So of course I was anxious to compare them to see if there was an AQ improvement.

I fed the balanced digital input via AES into a CANFORD 3 way splitter so a signal could be fed simultaneously into the R8 & LKS for comparison. The output from the LKS was AES but from the R8 the ACSS cabling so comparing the two, fed into an Audio-gd Master 9, was a simple instantaneous change of input using the remote.

First impressions were surprising - absolutely NO change in AQ!! Switching inputs was without any accompanying clicks or pops so once levels had been matched (the LKS has a volume control) the comparison was simple. I was genuinely surprised to detect absolutely no change in audio signal as, from previous experience, all items do have specific signatures and that drives us nuts in giving the illusion the sound is improved when in fact it is only slightly different.

But then things deteriorated. All I heard from 192/24 and DSD formats was static. Then the R8 started to do the same on all formats so I made the assumption the R8 was faulty.

WRONG. Once the balanced digital from the Aries G1 bridge was fed direct into the R8 all formats played nicely.

All this is very puzzling. The Canford splitter had been used here for years without problems but, as you can see from the accompanying diagram, is now replaced by a powered 4 way splitter. Maybe the LKS was happy with a reduced signal from the Canford but the R8 was not. I'm in touch with Kingwa at Audio-gd about that because I want to be able to compare the R8 to the LKS as before. If necessary I'll drag out the Henry Engineering powered splitter to do that, but currently, I do not think the R8 is any better than the modded LKS DA-004. If that is the case I believe we might have finally reached the stage of being able to get top level DACs at reasonable prices.

All report on further progress after some lengthy listening today - I'm retired so can do that .

With most high-end dac, sound quality is dependent on the quality of the spdif signal. Using a signal of inferior quality will tend to affect the sound more than the dac itself... Just my personal experience.