Anyone read Stereophile's Audio GD R7HE MK2 DAC review?

[antonio66]

So the world beating Acuhorn has been beaten. Pleased you are enjoying the GD dac.

 

[Psilonaught]

So the world beating Acuhorn has been beaten. Pleased you are enjoying the GD dac.

Possibly. I'll need to head to head them properly if the Acuhorn is able to be fixed. The board got damaged during a rewire procedure, extremely annoying. On its way to Soekris for repair.

 

[Psilonaught]

I had another listen to NOS mode, which is how the Stereophile review was conducted and I do possibly prefer it. OS is very slightly sterile sounding in comparison. OS is very 'hifi'.

I wonder if I should revisit OS mode at a later date with a more powerful NUC and try Hqplayer and DSD upsampling. Possibly in conjunction with a trial of the new Innous Pulsar.

Oddly I get loud pops between resolution changes in NOS mode however, which is a bit annoying. Need to look into that.

 

[Cable Monkey]

Pops at resolution change is an indication of an underdeveloped product. A player should send a muting signal between events like that and the hardware should respond. You could put a delay at those events. Roon allows you to do that in setup.

 

[Psilonaught]

Pops at resolution change is an indication of an underdeveloped product. A player should send a muting signal between events like that and the hardware should respond. You could put a delay at those events. Roon allows you to do that in setup.

Yes it's something the LinQ is doing. It also does it with my old Deltec NOS DAC. It's under warranty so Elite Audio are sorting.

Great to know Roon has a fix, does Audirvana, I tried different settings and it makes no difference?

 

[Cable Monkey]

I honestly don’t know about the LinQ or Audirvana. But when I did suffer this issue into an old DDC and DAC, upsampling everything at source was the answer. It was a logical decision. The DAC was a FPGA DSD machine that topped out at DSD128 and did a conversion for PCM. So I just re-sampled everything to DSD128 which earned me a couple of years of satisfaction before the bug bit again!

 

[Psilonaught]

popping fixed by setting upsampling of all frequencies to 96Hz

 

[MattyW]

Just ordered a R7HE Mk2 Friday afternoon….. It will be interesting to see how it compares with my Accurate Audio Ultimate D1000 (Rockna Wavedream copy). So far the D1000 has been the best I’ve experienced by a fairly large margin so I rather hope this can better it. The Stereophile review indicates a fairly triode like presentation in terms of imaging so I believe this may be even more to my taste than the D1000. King-Wa has advised that the 10Mhz input is word clock so it should be compatible with my dCS edition Afterdark Emperor Double Crown Trifecta OCXO clock, and I can set up my Soundaware D300REF to operate from the 25Mhz output so this will be an interesting experiment to say the least.

A little nervous s this is a lot of money for me so I’m really hoping for a nice sonic uplift from the D1000 though know I need to get at least 300 hours on it before I do any serious comparisons. The superior power supply implementation vs the D1000 hints at great things. I too prefer running the D1000 NOS, and also love a good NOS implementation of of TDA1540D or TDA1541. Just sounds far more natural to my ears.

EDIT: I misread Kingwas reply. It doesn’t support word clock. Seems I’ll need to source another clock at some point. Ah, such is life.

 

[Psilonaught]

Another blind purchase hero! The Accurate Audio looks nice, seen it a few times on AliExpress, that was quite a punt! I did similar with my Acuhorn that was pricey and had zero reviews or forum "chat".

Life is too short, if you want something, buy it!

By coincidence I've been in contact with AfterDark about the Trifecta OCXO, I'm planning on ordering the -118dBc version (triple crown) for my R7HE 2020 edition, so please do let me know how much audible impact the clock provides on your devise.

I'm planning on getting the LHY SW-10 switch and will slave both the DAC and switch to the AfterDark OCXO.

You will need 300 hours of break in on your new MK2, happy listening

 

[karlsushi]

Another blind purchase hero! The Accurate Audio looks nice, seen it a few times on AliExpress, that was quite a punt! I did similar with my Acuhorn that was pricey and had zero reviews or forum "chat".

Life is too short, if you want something, buy it!

By coincidence I've been in contact with AfterDark about the Trifecta OCXO, I'm planning on ordering the -118dBc version (triple crown) for my R7HE 2020 edition, so please do let me know how much audible impact the clock provides on your devise.

I'm planning on getting the LHY SW-10 switch and will slave both the DAC and switch to the AfterDark OCXO.

You will need 300 hours of break in on your new MK2, happy listening

If you're looking for an ethernet switch, you might want to try giving TheFlash a pm (don't think he's active on here, but he is still on pfm). He has just launched a new company selling audiophile quality network switches:

https://www.reikiaudio.com/shop/p/reiki-audio-superswitch-slave-mbwmz

Haven't heard one (and have no need for one since I just use a laptop, mostly off a hard-drive), so can't give any opinion on them either way, but they certainly look interesting.

 

[Psilonaught]

If you're looking for an ethernet switch, you might want to try giving TheFlash a pm (don't think he's active on here, but he is still on pfm). He has just launched a new company selling audiophile quality network switches:

https://www.reikiaudio.com/shop/p/reiki-audio-superswitch-slave-mbwmz

Haven't heard one (and have no need for one since I just use a laptop, mostly off a hard-drive), so can't give any opinion on them either way, but they certainly look interesting.

Thanks. I already own an LHY SW-8

 

[MattyW]

Thanks. I already own an LHY SW-8

I’ve had great results with the Renolabs Ultimate Audio Switch also….. Muon Pro filter is wonderful on my Soundaware D300REF streamer

 

[Psilonaught]

I think you are in for a real treat with the R7HE. Just had probably the best night of musical reproduction through a hifi that I've ever had. Genuinely.

One of my favourite albums, Cinematic Orchestra at the Albert hall has always sounds a bit congested and muddled of my various systems over the years. Tonight it sounds like it was recorded in a studio. Level of clarity, naturalness and instrument separation is just a joy.

I can't imagine what a high quality master clock will do.

Could stay up all night but must go to bed now!

 

[MattyW]

I think you are in for a real treat with the R7HE. Just had probably the best night of musical reproduction through a hifi that I've ever had. Genuinely.

One of my favourite albums, Cinematic Orchestra at the Albert hall has always sounds a bit congested and muddled of my various systems over the years. Tonight it sounds like it was recorded in a studio. Level of clarity, naturalness and instrument separation is just a joy.

I can't imagine what a high quality master clock will do.

Could stay up all night but must go to bed now!

Have you heard a Rockna Wavedream in terms of comparison? I only ask as I'll be going from the Accurate Audio Ultimate D1000 which is already rather exceptional.... On the other hand the R7HE Mk2 is described as triode like with that lit from within quality and soundstage depth so I'm hoping it's a real improvement in those areas.... Otherwise the D1000 is itself already very very good. A slightly more tubelike quality would be welcome though. I'm really hoping this will be a nice improvement though massively more expensive with the added cost of external OCXO clock..... I want to hear it at its best though

 

[Psilonaught]

I haven't heard the Rockna but obviously it is a well respected unit.

As I mentioned earlier, I like the combination of quality solid DAC and the delicate tone of a DHT tube, as in my preamp. I've realised that having triodes in every single item is overkill and can lead to an overly coloured sound.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts once the AGD has 300 hours on it.

 

[MattyW]

I haven't heard the Rockna but obviously it is a well respected unit.

As I mentioned earlier, I like the combination of quality solid DAC and the delicate tone of a DHT tube, as in my preamp. I've realised that having triodes in every single item is overkill and can lead to an overly coloured sound.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts once the AGD has 300 hours on it.

I'm running all single ended gear..... Absolute Audio Labs ASL-1Z JFET pre and SIT-A15 VFET power amp. 15WPC of goodness paired with high efficiency speakers. Gorgeous sound. Tubelike in some respects, but nothing really sounds like a tube output stage to me but tubes. Should sound really very nice though. The system won't hold it back.

 

[ChemMan]

Life is too short, if you want something, buy it!

Absolutely, and so I did.

As I mentioned earlier, I like the combination of quality solid DAC and the delicate tone of a DHT tube, as in my preamp.

In your linked review he also mentions the Holo Audio May DAC. Just last week I took possession of its younger sibling the Spring 3 KTE. I bought it without hearing it and based it on a couple of other Wammer's opinions and reviews. This is not something I normally do, as I'm an experimenter/tester by nature. I could not be happier, and it's attached to my VTL integrated, not the same as your DHT tubes certainly, but valves nonetheless.

I'm playing the album you mentioned above (never heard it before) and it sounds as good as you described. Likewise, it's the absolute 3D-vertical-horizontal spacing of the instruments/players that makes it so special. And I'm using my old Node2 with Coax as the streamer. Just prior to the switch it was Matthew Halsal and it's like being in the room with them. This DAC has changed my entire paradigm about digital music and how it should be rendered.

 

[oldius]

So, just 2 hours a day of listening, every day, for three months, before it has 'burned in'. Personally, I would have forgotten what all my other equipment sounded like. What on earth does it have in it that it takes so long to reach its peak?

 

[Psilonaught]

So, just 2 hours a day of listening, every day, for three months, before it has 'burned in'. Personally, I would have forgotten what all my other equipment sounded like. What on earth does it have in it that it takes so long to reach its peak?

The unit has a vast amount of components that need bedding in but the main "issue" are the resistors in the ladder. These need breaking in. Remember, this isn't a sigma delta chip DAC.

All resistor ladder DACs require break in for this reason.

 

[Cable Monkey]

In order to experience break in you’d listen for a couple of hours but the device would be on, preferably with a source plugged in and playing 24/7.