[DACLadder]

It's great to know that Kingwa is always working on building great products that offer us many options. This is my first Audio-GD product and I am very happy that I purchased it.

Have no desire to upgrade either. My head is still swimming from upgrading my three Audio GD DACs in the past few months.

Quite happy with my DACs.... even the 2013 M7(S). All sounding better than ever! I’m sure there will be further tweaks to come especially firmware.

 

[anroj]

Have no desire to upgrade either. My head is still swimming from upgrading my three Audio GD DACs in the past few months.

Quite happy with my DACs.... even the 2013 M7(S). All sounding better than ever! I’m sure there will be further tweaks to come especially firmware.

I don't think there are any upgrades I could do to the R8 for now. I'm sure there will be a firmware upgrade coming out soon that I'll want to try out.

 

[Jackula]

The R8HE has been marketed to the Chinese market for awhile. Kingwa said he only makes HE products for his flagships, so this means he considers both the R7 and R8 his flagships.

Btw, there is a class A power amp coming out soon that is more musical (and less neutral) than his Master 3 amp. But it won't have ACSS, only XLR. If you're running long cables like me (i.e. 40ft), ACSS is still the better option.

 

[PLGA]

Hello guys, one question.
I have the Gustard U16 feeding via I2S the R8 and I've found that setting the Syn to zero (0) sounds "a little" more analog that one (1).
The difference is small and it could be placebo, but I think Im not mistaken.
The firmware used is V3A and the R8 has new DA boards and Accusilicon clocks.
I understand one option uses the clock of the U16 and another one uses the one in the R8, am I correct? Wich is one and the other? Are there another technical differences?

 

[DACLadder]

Audio GD A1 Amplifier... 125W/ ch. transistor amp. Never before noticed this product in line up.

http://www.audio-gd.com/Master/A1/A1EN.htm

 

[DACLadder]

@PLGA V3A and TDA Syn use the I2S MCLK to lock a PLL onto the incoming I2S signal. TDA Asy does not use MCLK and has an asynchronous process for aligning incoming data.

When using V3A or TDA Syn the input 'syn' controls to PLL lock bandwidth for individual I2S inputs. 'Syn' = 0 (default) is the highest bandwidth. 'Syn' = 1 is lower bandwidth and is for marginal I2S sources. If your I2S playback has noise, static, and dropouts then 'Syn' = 1 may help. The lower bandwidth PLL does not sound as good by a small amount.

There are technical differences between these latest SW versions that I don't fully understand. So I trust my ears.

 

[517269]

Kingwa is very talented and always finds a way to impress us. In this case, i wonder what he will say to someone asking which sounds best between r8he and r7. It is an unusual marketing strategy.

From Kingwa -
"I am consider if R7 is 100%, R8 is 95%, R7HE is over 200% if other devices in the system are enough good.
The people who went to our listen room compare the units, R7 and R8 they usually need 1-2 minutes to know the different.
R7HE to R7, just few seconds."

 

[PLGA]

@PLGA V3A and TDA Syn use the I2S MCLK to lock a PLL onto the incoming I2S signal. TDA Asy does not use MCLK and has an asynchronous process for aligning incoming data.

When using V3A or TDA Syn the input 'syn' controls to PLL lock bandwidth for individual I2S inputs. When 'Syn' = 0 (default) is the highest bandwidth. 'Syn' = 1 is lower bandwidth and is for marginal I2S sources. If your I2S playback has noise, static, and dropouts then 'Syn' = 1 may help. The lower bandwidth PLL does not sound as good by a small amount.

There are technical differences between these latest SW versions that I don't fully understand. So I trust my ears.

Thank you Scott.

Quite clear explanation.

 

[517269]

I interpreted from Kingwa's email that the R8HE would be 190-195%....

 

[jimmychan]

So it seems R8HE is better than R7 by a big margin from the above observation.

 

[FredA]

So it seems R8HE is better than R7 by a big margin from the above observation.

No so obvious IMO. But having two products selling for the same price and competing directly is quite unusual. So the question will be asked about which one sounds better. And why keep both. The r7 does not run hot, which is one differentiation. This and the quantity of settings and number of inputs.

 

[jimmychan]

From Kingwa -
"I am consider if R7 is 100%, R8 is 95%, R7HE is over 200% if other devices in the system are enough good.
The people who went to our listen room compare the units, R7 and R8 they usually need 1-2 minutes to know the different.
R7HE to R7, just few seconds."

If R7 =100%, R8 = 95%, R7HE > 200%
Then R8HE is possible > 190%

 

[FredA]

If R7 =100%, R8 = 95%, R7HE > 200%
Then R8HE is possible > 190%

The grid is so polluted with high-frequency noise, getting good sound has become tough, while 30 years ago it was so much easier. 3G, 4G, 5G. All this for what?

 

[Jackula]

If R7 =100%, R8 = 95%, R7HE > 200%
Then R8HE is possible > 190%

HE variants aren't twice as good, they are 5% better than their non-HE variants on average (depending on time of day). So it's more like:

R8 = 95%, R7 = 100%, R8HE = 100%, R7HE = 105%

That 5% is near indistinguishable to a first time listener, but if you're already experienced with the non-HE sound, the HE version will be a big jump for you.

 

[FredA]

HE variants aren't twice as good, they are 5% better than their non-HE variants on average (depending on time of day). So it's more like:

R8 = 95%, R7 = 100%, R8HE = 100%, R7HE = 105%

That 5% is near indistinguishable to a first time listener, but if you're already experienced with the non-HE sound, the HE version will be a big jump for you.

To each his own scale. It is all very subjective. The law of diminishing return. Based on sound quality, i would say the r7he is worth twice what the r7 costs.. Some would say 4 times. Depends on how good the power grid is in your location and other power-related considerations.

Have gou a/b-ied them all?