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

[Psilonaught]

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-66-audio-gd-r7he-mk2-da-processor-page-2

I came SO close to buying one of these and am now regretting that decision. I always suspected this was one special DAC.

Worth a read.

 

[Psilonaught]

Isn't this still available ? For Sale Audio GD R-7 HE 2020 R2R DAC (price drop). I'd have thought 14 tops ?

Eh?

 

[Juancho]

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-66-audio-gd-r7he-mk2-da-processor-page-2

I came SO close to buying one of these and am now regretting that decision. I always suspected this was one special DAC.

Worth a read.

I really wouldn't worry about one rave review: been there done that! Particularly when he references the Tambaqui which was seriously under-whelming when I tried it for a week

 

[Psilonaught]

TBH the only DAC I can see myself replacing my Acuhorn with is a Dave + M Scaler but the Audio GD does look impressive.

This isn't the only review FYI. Hans Beekhuyzen also did a review.

 

[Juancho]

TBH the only DAC I can see myself replacing my Acuhorn with is a Dave + M Scaler but the Audio GD does look impressive.

This isn't the only review FYI. Hans Beekhuyzen also did a review.

I would love to hear a DAVE+ M Scaler. Lots of dough but lots of good feedback

 

[Psilonaught]

Just thought I'd dig out this thread as I now own an Audio GD R7HE.

The Stereophile review has it right with this vast, 20kg R2R dac. I am very impressed with the neutrality and clarity that the unit brings. Definitely a step up in terms of digging more information out of recordings whilst maintaining neutrality. Front to back staging is also the best I have personally heard.

The Stereophile reviewer mentions serious DACs in the review including the Bartók and I can now see what all the fuss is about.

Surprisingly I seem to prefer it's lowest oversampling setting over nos, which offers the right speed and attack without sounding "hifi" or bright.

Definitely one to shortlist at the £5-£10k range based on my ear.

Audio GD are finally mainstream?

 

[Lawrence001]

Nah they've been mainstream for me for a few years now, I've got 4 of their DACs, having owned a couple more in the past.

 

[Psilonaught]

Nah they've been mainstream for me for a few years now, I've got 4 of their DACs, having owned a couple more in the past.

Maybe "mainstream" isn't the right word. I do think there remains a persistent prejudice to the brand. Their website doesn't help!

 

[Lawrence001]

ASR and another website whose name eludes me seem to have a particular dislike of the brand. There is one particular potential bias with ASR I've read about that may partly explain it.

 

[StingRay]

ASR and another website whose name eludes me seem to have a particular dislike of the brand. There is one particular potential bias with ASR I've read about that may partly explain it.

Very biased site with misleading measurements.

 

[Psilonaught]

Maybe George might like to source a R7HE to review for everyone. They are available from Magna in Holland.

I like mine so much I now need to splash out on a 10mhz clock and decent AES cable.

I've tried PCM upsampling and DSD unsurprisingly I find unmolested PCM via AES to sound the most open and natural.

 

[Psilonaught]

ASR and another website whose name eludes me seem to have a particular dislike of the brand. There is one particular potential bias with ASR I've read about that may partly explain it.

I've just seen a more recent and extremely ugly ASR thread about Audio GD. Some of the comments are disgusting. Awful site.

 

[dave]

Thanks for posting. Interesting review, and as I live in a hole in the ground pretty much, it feels, these days, good to read about the creativity going on "on the surface", and not a tube in sight... Will have to put on hard hat and trawl through the ASR for any nuggets on how it works.
In slight bemusement about the internal regeneration. To my mind making the mains a sine wave is a complete red herring unless each down stream rectifier is accompanied with a substantial inductor, anyway, takes all sorts..

 

[karlsushi]

The DAC options around this kind of price point seem to be endless these days.

I too came across the Audio GD stuff in my search for a DAC in my second system here.

Do we assume the Acuhorn is going now then, or are you waiting to see?

I currently have a Sonnet Morpheus here on home demo which is another R2R design that people are buzzing about currently (Sonnet is essentially a new venture for Cees Ruitenburg of Metrum fame). His latest flagship is the Sonnet Pasithea, which is still reasonably-priced at £5k (all relative of course!).

I have created a separate thread about the Morpheus and will post some detailed thoughts in due course, but suffice to say it is not quite in DAVE territory, albeit it is an excellent DAC for the money (at £3.5k). It also has the added main attraction (for me at least) that you have no need for a separate preamp as it has a proper volume control straight off the DAC chips.

PS Audio DirectStream (recently launched a mark II) and Rockna WaveDream are the other 2 I have an ongoing interest in hearing at this kind of level and with proper internal volume control.

So many DACs, so little time...

 

[Hap Hazzard]

I have a couple of Audio gd products and they sound great, excellent build and very tidy inside.

I have read ASR reports before and obviously took no notice, I listen to products for myself not everyone else.

 

[Cable Monkey]

I've just seen a more recent and extremely ugly ASR thread about Audio GD. Some of the comments are disgusting. Awful site.

I wouldn’t worry about it. The site is driven by a quite specific formula. Oversee a bit of outrage and ride the wave of spectators coming to take a look. Measurists are particularly easy to drive into a frenzy and the model relies on fans of the slighted brand or product to drop in and take a look at what the fuss is about. Extra visitors = extra revenue. Amir plays his readership like a fiddle at a hoedown!

 

[Psilonaught]

So I've had a chance to properly play around with this behemoth over the last couple of days. I am using Audirvana and to my ears, leaving upsampling and all filtering off sounds better than either PCM upsampling or DSD conversion. I also prefer oversampling to NOS mode, but with x2 enabled on the OS, and not x4 or x8, which sounds too sterile.

Using these settings and feeding it via my Aqua LinQ via AES, the sound is really incredible. A couple of observations:

• The level of detail is a step up from my Acuhorn /Soekris R2R dac. It is like "watching" the music through a window that was slightly hazy and which has been cleaned
• Instrument positioning is superior and the best I have heard. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it is because I can "see" the players in different vertical and horizontal planes between my speakers, which makes the performance seem so "real". It is quite an experience with 7-foot tall speakers I can tell you...
• Piano is easily the best I've heard. All keys sound very real with zero sheesh, and also the keys have a real weight. Upper piano is perfect, and that is a real litmus test for a quality dac IMO
• Bass detail is the best I have heard
• Midrange tone is also perfect for me, and I don't miss the 45 triode layer the Acohorn added because ultimately that dac wasn't as neutral and still sounded ever so slightly digital on piano, no amount of triode tube goodness could mask that
• Oddly I find I am listening to a lot of small-scale classical music through this dac

As you can tell I am totally blown away by how good this sucker is. It also makes me realise that I don't need to have triodes in every bloody component! I already have directly heated triodes (45) in my preamp and 48 DHTs in my power amps.

I actually appreciate the higher resolution that the solid state R7HE provides.

How I need to buy an expensive 10Mhz OCXO and then wait for the Mk3 R7HE to be released and try that!

 

[karlsushi]

So I've had a chance to properly play around with this behemoth over the last couple of days. I am using Audirvana and to my ears, leaving upsampling and all filtering off sounds better than either PCM upsampling or DSD conversion. I also prefer oversampling to NOS mode, but with x2 enabled on the OS, and not x4 or x8, which sounds too sterile.

Using these settings and feeding it via my Aqua LinQ via AES, the sound is really incredible. A couple of observations:

• The level of detail is a step up from my Acuhorn /Soekris R2R dac. It is like "watching" the music through a window that was slightly hazy and which has been cleaned
• Instrument positioning is superior and the best I have heard. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it is because I can "see" the players in different vertical and horizontal planes between my speakers, which makes the performance seem so "real". It is quite an experience with 7-foot tall speakers I can tell you...
• Piano is easily the best I've heard. All keys sound very real with zero sheesh, and also the keys have a real weight. Upper piano is perfect, and that is a real litmus test for a quality dac IMO
• Bass detail is the best I have heard
• Midrange tone is also perfect for me, and I don't miss the 45 triode layer the Acohorn added because ultimately that dac wasn't as neutral and still sounded ever so slightly digital on piano, no amount of triode tube goodness could mask that
• Oddly I find I am listening to a lot of small-scale classical music through this dac

As you can tell I am totally blown away by how good this sucker is. It also makes me realise that I don't need to have triodes in every bloody component! I already have directly heated triodes (45) in my preamp and 48 DHTs in my power amps.

I actually appreciate the higher resolution that the solid state R7HE provides.

How I need to buy an expensive 10Mhz OCXO and then wait for the Mk3 R7HE to be released and try that!

All makes interesting reading, so thanks for this.

Can I just ask where you bought it from? I couldn't find any UK dealers in my search which put me off as no option to get a demo. The nearest option seemed to be Magna Hifi in the Netherlands, which I suppose is no better than going direct to Audio GD now we've disconnected ourselves from Europe.

 

[DomT]

So I've had a chance to properly play around with this behemoth over the last couple of days. I am using Audirvana and to my ears, leaving upsampling and all filtering off sounds better than either PCM upsampling or DSD conversion. I also prefer oversampling to NOS mode, but with x2 enabled on the OS, and not x4 or x8, which sounds too sterile.

Using these settings and feeding it via my Aqua LinQ via AES, the sound is really incredible. A couple of observations:

• The level of detail is a step up from my Acuhorn /Soekris R2R dac. It is like "watching" the music through a window that was slightly hazy and which has been cleaned
• Instrument positioning is superior and the best I have heard. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it is because I can "see" the players in different vertical and horizontal planes between my speakers, which makes the performance seem so "real". It is quite an experience with 7-foot tall speakers I can tell you...
• Piano is easily the best I've heard. All keys sound very real with zero sheesh, and also the keys have a real weight. Upper piano is perfect, and that is a real litmus test for a quality dac IMO
• Bass detail is the best I have heard
• Midrange tone is also perfect for me, and I don't miss the 45 triode layer the Acohorn added because ultimately that dac wasn't as neutral and still sounded ever so slightly digital on piano, no amount of triode tube goodness could mask that
• Oddly I find I am listening to a lot of small-scale classical music through this dac

As you can tell I am totally blown away by how good this sucker is. It also makes me realise that I don't need to have triodes in every bloody component! I already have directly heated triodes (45) in my preamp and 48 DHTs in my power amps.

I actually appreciate the higher resolution that the solid state R7HE provides.

How I need to buy an expensive 10Mhz OCXO and then wait for the Mk3 R7HE to be released and try that!

Thanks for the write up. Good to have detailed feedback on listening sessions.

 

[Psilonaught]

All makes interesting reading, so thanks for this.

Can I just ask where you bought it from? I couldn't find any UK dealers in my search which put me off as no option to get a demo. The nearest option seemed to be Magna Hifi in the Netherlands, which I suppose is no better than going direct to Audio GD now we've disconnected ourselves from Europe.

bought from a forum member. I have the R7HE, NOT the Mk2, although i understand the differences are subtle.

I would prefer to buy from Magma, personally, but buying direct from AGD is what a lot of folks do I believe.