[DACLadder]

The annual holiday promotion sale from Audio GD is on. 7.5% off.
http://www.audio-gd.com/En audio-gd.htm

 

[PLGA]

More hs here with the Tubulus Concentus I2S cable.

Music has never sounded so real and 3D on my system and I think anywhere to me. Great cable!

 

[OCC7N]

Does audio-gd have a newsletter?

I am using to much time on the site and waiting for new releases

 

[FredA]

Does audio-gd have a newsletter?

I am using to much time on the site and waiting for new releases

Kingwa does not like BS so...

 

[Jandu]

@Lickumms

.........ustars c19

Can you provide a bit more details on this unit?
Specifically, does it function like a RPi 4b when installing Volumio or MoOde? Or do you need to know Linux to work with it? Is the IIS compatible with the AGD DAC? Thanks

 

[FredA]

Can you provide a bit more details on this unit?
Specifically, does it function like a RPi 4b when installing Volumio or MoOde? Or do you need to know Linux to work with it? Is the IIS compatible with the AGD DAC? Thanks

I was only able to boot it with Volumio 3, not 2.The latest Moode booted as well. Haven't tried it, the UI sucks so much. Just a detail though, when self installing, you need to modify the OS config (/boot/userconfig.txt).

See the details in this google-translated manual I attached. . The internal micro-sd can be mounted to a pc and flashed from there. No need to take the lid off. I2s has many modes, see the doc. I think audio-gd is the default.

The config change is to enable usb audio. For the other outs, no need to do that. I haven't tried the other outputs, just usb.

 

[Jandu]

I was only able to boot it with Volumio 3, not 2.The latest Moode booted as well. Haven't tried it, the UI sucks so much. Just a detail though, when self installing, you need to modify the OS config (/boot/userconfig.txt).

See the details in this google-translated manual I attached. . The internal micro-sd can be mounted to a pc and flashed from there. No need to take the lid off. I2s has many modes, see the doc. I think audio-gd is the default.

The config change is to enable usb audio. For the other outs, no need to do that. I haven't tried the other outputs, just usb.

Thanks, very much for the details included. Never used a CM4 based RPi4. Really help.

I may try one with the OCXO included. Let you know if I run into any issues.

 

[FredA]

Thanks, very much for the details included. Never used a CM4 based RPi4. Really help.

I may try one with the OCXO included. Let you know if I run into any issues.

If you have a clock with available outputs, go with the ext. clocked version. Synching everything seems to pay off, at least in my setup with the di20he and he7 mkii.

 

[Jandu]

If you have a clock with available outputs, go with the ext. clocked version. Synching everything seems to pay off, at least in my setup with the di20he and he7 mkii.

Agreed, thanks for the suggestion.

My version of the R8He(1st gen) did not come with the ext clk input. So, there is no point for me to go ext clock. The likely C19 version that I am going with would be the OCXO clock version. Not sure if you only hook up you clock to just the C19 and DI20He and not to your DAC, what difference it would be compared to hooking up to all 3(C19/DI20He/Dac). If I get the pcm1704 DAC, I may go the clock route. That is if Kingwa does not come out with his version of clock first.

 

[FredA]

Agreed, thanks for the suggestion.

My version of the R8He(1st gen) did not come with the ext clk input. So, there is no point for me to go ext clock. The likely C19 version that I am going with would be the OCXO clock version. Not sure if you only hook up you clock to just the C19 and DI20He and not to your DAC, what difference it would be compared to hooking up to all 3(C19/DI20He/Dac). If I get the pcm1704 DAC, I may go the clock route. That is if Kingwa does not come out with his version of clock first.

The synching can possibly make the di20he and streamer more silent. If you go that route, you need to get a clock and cables... I have their u19 ddc too, with internal ocxo. I have an issue with the r2r 11 mkii. Scratching noise when skipping tracks of the 44.1 family. I don't have the issue with my nfb-5, so i don't think it's the u19 per say. It seems like a compatibility issue. The 48 family is ok.

 

[Presence]

Agreed, thanks for the suggestion.

My version of the R8He(1st gen) did not come with the ext clk input. So, there is no point for me to go ext clock. The likely C19 version that I am going with would be the OCXO clock version. Not sure if you only hook up you clock to just the C19 and DI20He and not to your DAC, what difference it would be compared to hooking up to all 3(C19/DI20He/Dac). If I get the pcm1704 DAC, I may go the clock route. That is if Kingwa does not come out with his version of clock first.

Kingwa was kind enough to offer an "in-the-field" external clock upgrade for the first and second releases of the R8HE for about $60 or so.
It included a new front panel display that displays sampling rate and provides the optioning for internal/external clock, a BNC connector that replaced the coax input, a cable assembly and a new FW load supporting 10Mhz clock input to the reconfigured coax input [now BNC].
It's not an easy-peasy upgrade, but a few people that I'm aware of who never picked up a soldering iron before have also done the upgrade successfully.
I have a post of my experience of the external clock upgrade on this thread from a few years ago.
In terms of performance, even with USB and IIS [which I use] there was a slight sharpening of focus but not nearly as much as adding external clock to my SingXer SU-2 DDI.
Other users have reported similarly great results with their DI-20/HE as well.

Another consideration regarding improvements after the 1st production release of the R8HE is the DA-7 DAC boards which used 92 resistors vs. the transition to the DA-7 MKI which has 140 resistors per ladder. I had the first unit in the US - it was possibly only a few months after that that AGD transitioned to the MKI version.
There was a significant refinement in all areas going from DA-7 to the DA-7 MKI. I can't comment on any changes or SQ improvements between MKI and MK2.
If you have the pre-MKI DA-7 DAC boards, I would recommend upgrading those first. FWIW.

 

[Jandu]

Kingwa was kind enough to offer an "in-the-field" external clock upgrade for the first and second releases of the R8HE for about $60 or so.
It included a new fro....

@Presence:

Thanks for the update.
I am one of those who is lagging quite a bit behind in terms of technology. Still running vacuum tubes stuff. The R2R DAC was quite a jump for me. Unlikely that I would venture to take apart the R8He, but good to know that it is possible. I am quite happy how my system sounds, just wonder if there is an easy way to upgrade my server/player which currently uses 2 RPi4s. @Fred mentioned that there is improvement going from RPi4 to c19, that was why I posted the question.

Have to say that I like your amplification set up. At one point of time, I was thinking about going that direction. I ended up going 3.5 Watts from vacuum tubes into higher efficiency speakers.

 

[falcon70]

@Presence:

Thanks for the update.
I am one of those who is lagging quite a bit behind in terms of technology. Still running vacuum tubes stuff. The R2R DAC was quite a jump for me. Unlikely that I would venture to take apart the R8He, but good to know that it is possible. I am quite happy how my system sounds, just wonder if there is an easy way to upgrade my server/player which currently uses 2 RPi4s. @Fred mentioned that there is improvement going from RPi4 to c19, that was why I posted the question.

Have to say that I like your amplification set up. At one point of time, I was thinking about going that direction. I ended up going 2.5 Watts from vacuum tubes into higher efficiency speakers.

My R8 (2021 version) external clock upgrade was made by MagnaHifi. As I remember the fee was about 120 EUR + shipping.
The result is convictioning, a common clock with R8 and DI20HE, a step above.

 

[Presence]

@Presence:

Thanks for the update.
I am one of those who is lagging quite a bit behind in terms of technology. Still running vacuum tubes stuff. The R2R DAC was quite a jump for me. Unlikely that I would venture to take apart the R8He, but good to know that it is possible. I am quite happy how my system sounds, just wonder if there is an easy way to upgrade my server/player which currently uses 2 RPi4s. @Fred mentioned that there is improvement going from RPi4 to c19, that was why I posted the question.

Have to say that I like your amplification set up. At one point of time, I was thinking about going that direction. I ended up going 2.5 Watts from vacuum tubes into higher efficiency speakers.

I bet those 2.5Watts sound quite spectacular!

 

[Jandu]

I bet those 3.5Watts sound quite spectacular!

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-74-elekit-tu-8900-kit-amplifier
It is one of these with the 2A3 tubes.