[BucketInABucket]

 
It exists on my lab bench, I will probably case it up once Soekris gets the rough edges off this thing, there is a new firmware update about to come out that may address the outstanding problems.
 
Sound quality is great for the cost but the operational quirks get in the way.

What kind of case are you thinking of?

 

[b0bb]

  What kind of case are you thinking of?

Probably something from Modushop or Hammond for the case and FrontPanel Express for the custom machining, anodizing and general finishing of the front and rear panels.
 
Modushop
http://www.modushop.biz/site/index.php?route=common/home
 
Hammond
http://www.hammondmfg.com/1455.htm
 
It depends to a large extent on the set of features Soekris delivers in next firmware update.
 
One of the promised features is to have dual mono operation, that is one R2R module per-channel operating in true differential mode, the current R2R output is single ended.
 
I bought 2x R2Rs for this purpose.

 

[jjacq]

I have an an ADCOM GDA700 paired with the Asgard for now while I wait for the Liquid Carbon. I really love how wide the soundstage is and it makes my LCD-X have more of its bass immersive, can be a bit slow to be honest but the X is fast enough that it's a good match. I recently had it serviced so all the capacitors are all new and it sounds really clean. I feel like I get more details over something like my AK100ii as my source.
 
What I'm hoping for is that the Liquid Carbon and my upcoming ETHER will both play nice with it and I also picked up the Gustard U12 for kicks but I don't really know how much of a difference that will do with my system. Especially since I don't really have 24bit music or anything. We'll see! I will eventually upgrade to the Multibit gungnir because I am really curious about the more modern offerings but I just love this analog feel it brings to my music. I'm really happy that the multibit gungnir is happening because that means I won't need to look for a Master 7 or Yggdrasil as an endgame balanced DAC.

I would strongly suggest scouring the used classifieds or eBay for something like this or those from Adcom, Parasound, EAD, etc. Love it!

 

[BucketInABucket]

 
Probably something from Modushop or Hammond for the case and FrontPanel Express for the custom machining, anodizing and general finishing of the front and rear panels.
 
Modushop
http://www.modushop.biz/site/index.php?route=common/home
 
Hammond
http://www.hammondmfg.com/1455.htm
 
It depends to a large extent on the set of features Soekris delivers in next firmware update.
 
One of the promised features is to have dual mono operation, that is one R2R module per-channel operating in true differential mode, the current R2R output is single ended.
 
I bought 2x R2Rs for this purpose.

Oh yes that's something that I'll love to have too. I think I might have to wait for this design feature to come up too!

 

[evillamer]

Some Insights into R2R:
 
Check this pdf:
http://ankaudiokits.com/DAC-RR2-Part1.pdf
 
As well as these articles:
 

I've been listening to the latest round of delta-sigma DACs—at substantial price points of more than $6000—and for reasons I don't completely understand, they sound alike, and quite different than the $1100 Monarchy N24 that I've had for the last ten years. The technologies are pretty different: the N24 uses the TI/Burr-Brown PCM1704 ladder/R-2R converter, passive current-to-voltage conversion, with zero-feedback vacuum-tube amplification. ...

The delta-sigma DACs I've been auditioning use a completely different architecture; delta-sigma chips from Crystal Semiconductor, Analog Devices, and the ESS Sabre 9018, along with all-solid-state electronics. Some of these use opamps, some discrete FETs and bipolar transistors, but they all have a common sound—what I'm beginning to think of as the "delta-sigma" sound.

What's going on here? I hear it in my iPod Touch driving Sennheiser HD580 headphones, I hear in my Marantz AV8003 pre-pro that I use for movies, and I hear it in the latest group of DACs. Yes, they all sound modern and up-to-date; smooth, pleasant, free of the grit-and-grain that plagued early digital, and play 88.2, 96, and 192 kHz digital with the greatest of ease. But there's something missing. I don't have any fancy audiophile words for it, but it's an absence of life, of sparkle, of that intangible sense of being right in the room with the performer.

If a singer in singing right at the ragged edge of their vocal range—and doing it intentionally to create a sense of tension—it is (much) less noticeable with DACs using delta-sigma chipsets. The impression of physical texture—a hand lightly brushing across the head of a drum, the sensation of wood and steel and weight from a grand piano, the odd and fascinating tonal meanderings of an oboe—is diminished or absent. In the highest-quality DAC with the ESS Sabre 9018 converter, it's subtle, and takes a quick comparison with the PCM-1704 DAC to hear the difference. In the most other delta-sigma DACs, the loss is not subtle at all, and the performers sound bored, like they're just phoning-in the performance. The nuances and over-the-top aspects are absent, replaced by a sort of monotone quality.

After a while, I kind of get used to this sound—the audiophile virtues of clarity, dimension and smoothness are certainly all there with the best of the high-end DACs—but then switch back to the Monarchy using the Burr-Brown PCM-1704 DAC and go "AH!". All the vividness and tone color suddenly returns, and the performers, instruments and hall-space sound real again.

After several weeks of this, I started to wonder. What's going on here? Is this just me? Have my tastes gotten so idiosyncratic I've completely departed from the mainstream of audio? Well, no.

Karna [his wife] hears the same thing too, just not using the high-falutin' audiophile language I use. She thinks my setup (with the Monarchy N24) sounds "live", like a performance right in front of you, while the others might be "accurate" as audiophiles understand it, they don't sound "live"—they sound canned, electronic, recorded, not real. She thinks—and I have to agree 100% - that audiophiles have it all wrong with this obsession with "accuracy". The so-called "accurate" systems almost never sound "live"—they mark all the tick-boxes on a checklist, but they just don't sound like real performers playing real instruments in a real space. 

 
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue65/dac.htm
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue66/dsd.htm

 

[b0bb]

  Oh yes that's something that I'll love to have too. I think I might have to wait for this design feature to come up too!

Soekris released a new set of features with the latest firmware. Looks like balanced dual mono is now possible
 
Revision 0.99 firmware have the following bug fixes / improvements / new functions:
* PLL Clock Sync at sample rate change cut down to less than 0.2 second
* Isolated Serial port now works, note that port is at 3.3V cmos level
* Serial Port now interrupt driven, no character loss at high speed
* Volume Control now is -80db to +10 db, and phase bug fixed
* Volume Control also now have zero crossing detect
* Power Off plop can be reduced to 1/3 by adding a single 27K4 resistors, see picture attachment
* FIR1 filters doubled in size, so max 2032 coeff @ 44K/48K, 1016 @ 88/96K, 508 @ 176/192K, 127 @ 352/384K
* You can now select four sets of filters, named Linear, Mixed, Minimum and Soft.
* FIR1 coefficients are now 1.31 format, filters should be good down to around -150 db
* Stock filter now have improved deemphasis filter
* Input Source Select bug fixed
* New mode setting: Normal, Inverted, Balanced Left, Balanced Right
* The tiny bug on signal saturation on -full scale fixed
* Should now be possible to do balanced and crossovers by parallel the inputs and connecting the isolated serial ports together, more details to follow.
 
DSD is next major feature on the list. This would be the first R2R DAC with built in DSD conversion.

 

[BucketInABucket]

  Soekris released a new set of features with the latest firmware. Looks like balanced dual mono is now possible
 
Revision 0.99 firmware have the following bug fixes / improvements / new functions:
* PLL Clock Sync at sample rate change cut down to less than 0.2 second
* Isolated Serial port now works, note that port is at 3.3V cmos level
* Serial Port now interrupt driven, no character loss at high speed
* Volume Control now is -80db to +10 db, and phase bug fixed
* Volume Control also now have zero crossing detect
* Power Off plop can be reduced to 1/3 by adding a single 27K4 resistors, see picture attachment
* FIR1 filters doubled in size, so max 2032 coeff @ 44K/48K, 1016 @ 88/96K, 508 @ 176/192K, 127 @ 352/384K
* You can now select four sets of filters, named Linear, Mixed, Minimum and Soft.
* FIR1 coefficients are now 1.31 format, filters should be good down to around -150 db
* Stock filter now have improved deemphasis filter
* Input Source Select bug fixed
* New mode setting: Normal, Inverted, Balanced Left, Balanced Right
* The tiny bug on signal saturation on -full scale fixed
* Should now be possible to do balanced and crossovers by parallel the inputs and connecting the isolated serial ports together, more details to follow.
 
DSD is next major feature on the list. This would be the first R2R DAC with built in DSD conversion.

That sounds amazing, I edit: bought another DAM1021-2 to compliment the one I have on the way. Commence the balancing!

 

[PCWar]

I absolutely love my Taurus, M22B with my HD800s. The new caps and new 800 are finally starting to burn in, even without my Draug 2 Cable, the SQ is excellent. Listening to Fritz Reiner and the CSOs Bartok Concertos, the soundstage depth is incredible, instruments are in their own space, really starting to understand the HD800 love. Really wish I had the M22B when I had the HEK in the house.

You'll love the draug2 balanced. It made a noticable difference with the Taurus especially soundstage and separation.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Some Insights into R2R:
 
Check this pdf:

http://ankaudiokits.com/DAC-RR2-Part1.pdf

As well as these articles:


http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue65/dac.htm
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue66/dsd.htm

Great post, the Author from Positive Feedback captured what I have been experiencing perfectly.

I wonder if the R2Rs ability to capture micro and macro dynamics is part of their superiority in tone, as well as percieved realism?

 

[Wildcatsare1]

You'll love the draug2 balanced. It made a noticable difference with the Taurus especially soundstage and separation.

Thanks, I am really looking forward to adding the Draug 2 to my HD800s. It made a huge difference with my HE560s!

 

[Wildcatsare1]

Hey All,

Wanted to provide a link to a sister thread started by a great modder and Russian tube expert rb2013

http://www.head-fi.org/t/740362/lite-dac60-pcm1704-r2r-tubed-dac-mod-project/0_100

 

[vlach]

Some Insights into R2R:
 
Check this pdf:

http://ankaudiokits.com/DAC-RR2-Part1.pdf

As well as these articles:


http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue65/dac.htm
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue66/dsd.htm

Great post. It's good to know the Monarchy Audio NM24 which I purchased used for $600 can compete with the best. It's been said somewhere you'd have to spend $5k to better it.

 

[rb2013]

  For a modern option, try the Soekris DAC boards with added modules!
 
http://soekris.com/products/audio-products.html

As a huge R2R fan - here is the link to the thread I started on the Soekris DAC
http://www.head-fi.org/t/754547/the-soekris-r-2r-dac-technical-details
 

Ah, sorry to hear that! Enjoy it as best you can I suppose!

Also, I totally agree about the more natural tonality of R2R DACs. Looking forward to gungnir/bifrost multibit!

Nice shootout!
 

  I absolutely love my Taurus, M22B with my HD800s. The new caps and new 800 are finally starting to burn in, even without my Draug 2 Cable, the SQ is excellent. Listening to Fritz Reiner and the CSOs Bartok Concertos, the soundstage depth is incredible, instruments are in their own space, really starting to understand the HD800 love. Really wish I had the M22B when I had the HEK in the house.

A couple of great articles that explain the different DAC designs and some pluses and minuses of each:
http://www.mother-of-tone.com/conversion.htm
http://funwithaudio.blogspot.com/2012/01/today-in-electronics-everything-is-made.html
 

  The Soekris R2R is a module, other bits like powersupply and digital audio interface needs to be added.
 
Heres is mine.

 
The smaller top board is the Raspberry Pi serving as the digital audio interface, in this example it is configured as a networked audio player.

More great info on the Soekris DAC build project - https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/building-soekris-r-2r-dac/
 

Hey All,

Wanted to provide a link to a sister thread started by a great modder and Russian tube expert @rb2013

http://www.head-fi.org/t/740362/lite-dac60-pcm1704-r2r-tubed-dac-mod-project/0_100

Thanks!  Just absolutely loving this heavily modded R2R PCM1704 DAC!  Rivals my 6X more expensive APL
 

For me it's all about the tone - and this baby has it in spades!  Rich, natural, totally unfatiguing tone.

 

[vlach]

Monarchy Audio NM24:

 

[rb2013]

Monarchy Audio NM24:

Sweet unit!  Built around a Lite DAC 60 as well.  Using the 24 bit PCM1704K.  Looks like he adds another board for volume control and pre-amp section.
He stays mostly with the stock caps (but using decent, but not great red box Wima's in place of the blue box Rifa's - for couplers).  He also replaces the R-Core with toroidal transformers - this is curious to me - as R-Cores are known to be much better at electrical noise filtering then toroidal.  Toroidal better at delivering dynamic current - which in a DAC not as important (like an amp).  He possibly does this for the added current needed in the pre-amp.
 
Here was my Lite DAC60 before extensive mods:

 
 
I have a really well designed (and sounding) integrated that uses both.  R-core for the Pre-amp stage and dual large torodials for the power stage:

 
 
He also changes the circuit to allow using it as a pre-amp as well I believe.  Has the true (not a just a tube buffered opamp) tube output stage.