[Chopin75]

Thanks for the link Fred. Everything you guys stated appears true about the R7-10M! And seems to me to retrofit the standard R7 to external 10Mhz capability is just reprogramming the three parts mentioned - Altera DSP, Xilinx I/O CPLD, and the front panel MCU (may be replace the PROM). Pictures inside the chassis indicate same wiring and did not notice any new parts added. No soldering involved hopefully.

Kingwa explains the new FPGA (parallel processing) very well in the translated website. These are W-I-D-E parallel data buses. DSD is 64-bits wide for each the left and right channels! I2S dual 32-bit, S/PDIF dual 24-bit.
"The parallel mode only needs one clock to process the 32-bit data of the left and right channels, which greatly improves the processing speed and is less susceptible to clock stability. The IIS input data is immediately reassembled into dual 32-bit parallel data. The SPDIF signal is demodulated and sent to the next set of processing through dual 24-bit data. DSD data is also reassembled into dual 64-bit parallel data processing."

Input #3 BNC is the 10Mhz clock input. No longer functions as S/PDIF. (Later: May have to replace a resistor on main board to change impedance from 75 to 50 ohm. So don't put away the soldering iron).

The front panel really changes up and is new in the sense the button functions/numerical display have changed from the current product. But to select int/ext clocking you just set it on the new front panel. To retrofit may require some relabeling of the front panel button positions. But think I will not mess with that to keep the panel looking pristine. The front panel MCU change makes that all work.

Yeah, big changes coming to the R7 near you!

So it is correct that there is no hardware change or at least one does not need to change the front panel again to accommodate the Mck ? I am not thrilled about sacrificing the BNC though I only use that for my CD transport.

And I presume I can possibly clock 3 of the Audio R2R DACs together using this external Mck programming ? This would be perfect for M-channel 5.1 playback!

 

[Chopin75]

Has anyone experienced some static noise at times ? I occasionally have that. I just realized I forgot to block the Vbus of my USB and after blocking the Vbus the static noise seems to disappear. Forgetting to block VBus may account for the crappy PCM sound I am getting as well.

 

[JaMo]

To avoid doing any mod, something like this can be used:

https://www.soontai.com/IMPEDANCE-CONVERTER.html

It seems not to be needed.. On Usage page: ....

"..........Display 6: USB input.
(IN3 is a 50 ohm 10MHz clock input, which is selected by the following menu setting method.)
When the display is flashing, it can be used to change the digital setting."
/Jan

 

[JaMo]

No soldering involved hopefully.

It is probably a minor solder work involved by changes of a few parts on the digital board in the input 3 region. Kingwa is using 50 Ohms for this input.
Jan

 

[FredA]

It is probably a minor solder work involved by changes of a few parts on the digital board in the input 3 region. Kingwa is using 50 Ohms for this input.
Jan

Yep. That is my point with the impedance adaptor. Keeping the input at 75ohms.

 

[DACLadder]

So it is correct that there is no hardware change or at least one does not need to change the front panel again to accommodate the Mck ?

The front panel MCU chip will need replacing unless different FPGA firmaware is compiled that is more compatible with the current front panel buttons/ display.

 

[Jackula]

It's up:
http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R720/R720EN.htm
http://www.audio-gd.com/HE/R7HE20/R7HE20EN.htm

 

[guzz46]

Looks like NOS mode will still use series data process mode.

 

[DACLadder]

I contacted Kingwa to ask about R7 upgrade to 2020 model....

 

[Pappas3278]

Looks like NOS mode will still use series data process mode.

Can you explain what that means, for the laymen like myself?

 

[gk2013]

Can you explain what that means, for the laymen like myself?

No changes made to NOS Mode in the new model.
Oversampling Mode works in parallel mode.

Anyone looking at a 10mhz master clock already?

 

[Pappas3278]

I'm not clear what Kingwa is saying about i2S (IIS and HDMI-IIS). Can someone explain that a bit more too? And I still am not exactly sure why I "need" , or, in what scenario I would benefit from the 10MHz clock.

From the website.

"Support 10 MHz clock input.
The FPGA process data upgrade to parallel mode.
The IIS data is series transmit mode, every data must need one clock cycle to process or transmit, one frame data ( Include L and R data) must need 64 clock cycle to process or transmit, so the data has effect by the 64 clock cycles.
But the parallel data process and transmit mode only need one clock cycle can finish the process and transmit, so can avoid the effect of clock stability .
In R-7 (2020 version), the IIS input (Include USB and HDMI-IIS) has recombine become dual 32bit parallel data , and the SPDIF input after decoder, has recombine become dual 24bit parallel data, and the DSD input has recombine become dual 64bit parallel data.
The parallel process and transmit mode can improve the sound quality on the transparency and detail but still analog.
For the sound flavor design necessary, the NOS mode still keep the series data process mode."

 

[Chopin75]

Also is this 10Mhz clock going to work for the new parallel circuit only? Can u still run parallel without the external clock?
Can the external clock together with another DDC or other audio bridge or another audio -gd DAC?

 

[JaMo]

Hi guys,
The parallell processing is a much more efficient way to process the data stream. It is like "eating Your soup with a bigger spoon" if You like. It should go a bit more efficient and faster...Right? The FPGA and its support circuits in the R7-gears has a pretty powerful compute ability. Kingwa has optimized the codes to use it better and it will with the parallell prcessing get much more processing of the the data stream be done per time unit. (cycle). This should give us less problems with jitter and other disturbances. It is a spinn off from the thoughts behind the new DI which allows 10MHz input from an external XO.

The Parallell processing or not is a firmware choice.

The 10MHz-External XO input will need some more besides the Parallell-fw (solder work and upgrades of codes in a few places).Some of us will do it ourseives and some may order/exchange to new digitalboards and MCU's to get this full upgrade....

We don't yet know if and how Kingwa will allow us to upgrade or the costs for it.

The need..? No, not really. The gears are very well performing already but for some of us the evolution of these performers are exciting to be a part of .... It is usually a lot of testing involved but it is definately worth the efforts.

/Jan

 

[JaMo]

Also is this 10Mhz clock going to work for the new parallel circuit only? Can u still run parallel without the external clock?
Can the external clock together with another DDC or other audio bridge or another audio -gd DAC?

Yes, parallell prcessing fw.can run on both internal and external XO's.

Both the new DI and the R7 2020's can use 10Mhz input. It is an advantage to use the same time source. ( I don't know at this moment if a chain can be established between audio-gd-gears to relay the 10MHz pulse. It should be a nice feature though..)
/Jan