[realmassy]

My idea about DACs is they should sound as neutral as possible, without adding any colour, warmness and things like that, without loosing any detail of recording.
If you really want to smooth the sound, give a different a different sound signature to your system then use different headphones. My 2 cents.

 

[smeggy]

I want my dac to sound strawberry flavored with a little whipped cream. Will a diamond buffer give me that or do I need to add tubes to it that more yummy sound. No, scrub that, it would probably only sound good during Wimbledon.

 

[haloxt]

I recently suggested to Kingwa a change in the sound signature description of ref 8 and 9 but I think it is not an accurate translation (other than the weird wording, I wrote "warm side" rather than "a little on the warm side", I should've asked for clarification as to which he meant). If anyone's interested, I am thinking about doing a group project to try to do a grammar repair of audio-gd's English pages, this way people can stop me from making bad translations

. There's not all that much to translate since most of the tough technical parts have already been fixed by Kingwa's overseas friends and translators. But there are some hard parts left which require someone with an understanding of audio engineering, and people who have experienced the sound signature of audio-gd products.

Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio - Fixing up Audio-GD's English website

 

[noinimod]

Most of it is fine, to be honest. It might not make total sense in English but even when i read it in chinese, the meaning's not far off.

 

[IPodPJ]

Haloxt,
I offered to do that a long time ago for him and he declined. In fact, I did the entire RE1 page and he never put it up. You're wasting your time.

 

[FauDrei]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif I offered to do that a long time ago for him and he declined.

...in exchange for some audio gear IIRC...

 

[IPodPJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FauDrei /img/forum/go_quote.gif ...in exchange for some audio gear IIRC...

I originally said I would do his entire site for a trade, yes, but then when he said he couldn't afford that I offered to do it pro bono and started with the RE1 page. He expressed his gratitude and said he would use it but he never did, which is why I never did any more pages.

 

[Omega17TheTrue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobold /img/forum/go_quote.gif For me musical would mean to have the right flow and timing in the music. Otherwise it sounds not natural.

Maybe the Ref8 are better than the ref7 in this category as it use "high speed diamond differential output circuits"

I' m now hesitating between the two.

 

[noinimod]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omega17TheTrue /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe the Ref8 are better than the ref7 in this category as it use "high speed diamond differential output circuits" I' m now hesitate between the two.

No, it isn't necessarily better per se, just a different flavor. That was straight from Kingwa's mouth

 

[IPodPJ]

The Ref8 has a SNR of 116dB with RCA output, and the Ref7 has a SNR of 121dB with RCA output.

 

[Omega17TheTrue]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif The Ref8 has a SNR of 116dB with RCA output, and the Ref7 has a SNR of 121dB with RCA output.

So that mean he has more or less noise ? Do you have any other technical informations ? I notice on the pictures that the ACSS output has RCA ends, that strange..

If audio-gd don't release a musical pre-amp i might take the ref8 with the phoenix when i have the money.

 

[FauDrei]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omega17TheTrue /img/forum/go_quote.gif So that mean he has more or less noise ? Do you have any other technical informations ? I notice on the pictures that the ACSS output has RCA ends, that strange..

On A-GD's gear ACSS has always best s/n (no DAC output stage and no amp input stage), then you have XLR (balanced signals) and finally RCA (single ended signal) which has "lowest" s/n. But s/n ratio of 116dB is in any case quite enough believe me...

From my experience: transport on pause, RE-1 to Roc via RCA interconnects ("worst" possible connection) - with AT's quite sensitive W-1000 (balanced drive) you can barely hear slight hum just on 22nd and 23rd step of Roc's 23 steps attenuator. I rarely go up to 17-18 when listening to really loud rock. <Joda mode on> Dead quiet A-GD gear is. <Joda mode off>

It comes down to your music listening preference which is, in turn, hard to know because there is no elegant possibility to audition and compare A-GD's "neutral" and "warm" gear. I swear by their "neutral" flavor, but I'm also quite intrigued to hear their "warm" setup.

 

[oqvist]

Which DAcs is audio GDs neutral ones? The DAC19 is plenty warm and it´s supposed to be on the neutral side?

 

[haloxt]

ºÎÇ컪Ô*´´ÒôÏì

Each DAC is described as neutral or musical. The dac19 is not really "warm", by neutral audio-gd doesn't mean it is dry or sterile, just no embellishment. If you want a more dynamic sound and less warmth you could try different interconnects or adding a power conditioner (make sure it is designed for audio electronics and does not seriously increase line impedance).

 

[IPodPJ]

I asked Kingwa earlier which DAC he felt was better, and which he preferred more: the Reference 7 or the Reference 8. Here is his reply:

Dear Philip,
They are different flavors, so they can't compare.
If listen with voice, I like listen with the RE8, especial the female, RE8 can let the sound more beautiful.
If listen with violin,piano, the RE8 can bring out some Orphean distortion, some diamond owners feedback this is better than tube gear. but the RE7 can let the violin and piano sound like real.
If listen with classic, RE7 is better dynamic.
I like both, I think the RE7 is a pure girl, but the RE8 is a masked girl but still beautiful.
Kingwa