Been burning in and listening more, if it improves at this rate, I feel the comparison to the Terminator will be one-sided
I won't put up any more Terminator impressions until I can do a proper comparison.
Comparing to my AMR DP-777 (over US$5K brand new), initially, I thought the R7HE was missing some resolution, but after listening more I found out those details I missed are still there. In the AMR the micro-details are more forward and exaggerated, the R7HE is more natural in micro detail, micro dynamics and decay. I still think the AMR is great for detail junkies and a more euphonic sound, but the R7HE simply sounds more "real". For those who aren't aware, AMR is a high-end audio company based in the UK, they are the parent company of ifi - stuff like ifi Pro iCAN has trickle-down tech.
After playing around the settings more, I discovered the f/r options are TDA off/on. So far my favourite setting has been TDA off, OS at 0X and lets Roon do the oversampling (power of 2). That might change as burn-in progresses. What is the difference between NOS and OS @ 0X? They sound different to me.
@Jackula Random pops can occur with oscillators that are burning in. I assume your use the u16? It can have issues with the latest fws like randomly playing pink noise upon startup. Also, ask Kingwa which fw your have. The two best fws are dsdclk and tda_asy3. With the u16, tda_asy3 is more stable. The synch setting is not available with the latest fws as they are fully asynch.
I would give the acss connection a try at some point but start with xlr and DI for both. Acss is part of audio-gd so it has to be evaluated too. Of course, the acss cable Kingwa sells is a simple canare cable, so just an honest cable, nothng exceptional.
I'm using the USB input at the moment with an ISO Regen v2 + LPS 1.2. My other transport is the Audiophilleo + PurePower. In my old setup the ISO Regen sounded better and using both together puts too much stress on the USB port. With the R7HE I don't have the space to fit the Audiophilleo and barely have enough room for the ISO Regen, I'll need to move the whole rack out and that's not easy since it's spiked to the floor.
I worked out the random pop issue and it's a software one, after installing the Amanero driver, it stopped popping.
I was planning to use my NUC to burn in the DAC while I'm sleeping, but my NUC isn't seeing it even with the drivers installed.
The Master 2H monoblocks hum and is audible across the room, not sure if it's caused by DC offset, my old PrimaLuna had toroidal transformers too but I guess the ones in the Master 2H are much larger and would be more affected by DC. Same hum from both monoblocks, can't be a coincidence.
EDIT: Kingwa did send me the firmware version overnight, I missed it: R720_parallel_DOP