Audio-GD R2R 11

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by dropadred, Nov 5, 2017.

  1. dropadred

    dropadred New

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2016
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Location:
    Slovakia
    Any love for the wicked?
    http://audio-gd.com/R2R/R2R11/R2R11EN.htm
    • S/N Ratio: 100db
    • Output Level: 10V RMS (HP), 5V Max (Variable), 1/2V RMS (Fixed, L/H gain)
    • Output power (HP):
    3500mW/25 ohm
    1800mW/50 ohm
    900mW/100 ohm
    300mW/300 ohm
    150mW/600 ohm​
    • Output impedance: 2 Ohm (All outputs)
    • Input Sensitivity: 0.5 Vp-p(75 Ohms, Coaxial), 19 dBm (Optical)

    What do you reckon? Seems they continue with a basically the very amplifier stage as forever, whether we talk NFB-15, NFB-11 and R2R 15 (not really known, but taking in an account Manga-Hifi prices it is a bit cheaper than R2R 11).
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2017
  2. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,607
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    NJ
    after two terrible experiences with an audio-gd amp and a dac on the loaner program....I think its safe to say SBAF doesn't have much love for Audio-gd products at this time.
     
  3. dropadred

    dropadred New

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2016
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Location:
    Slovakia
    I see, it seems unfortunate however. I have always had a huge respect before them, really bringing astonishing products (especially to our little market in EU), but yes, I agree, in the meantime I have checked NFB-1 thread as well as NFB-11.28 experiments and I can see why.
     
  4. stacksmasher

    stacksmasher New

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2017
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    3
    Location:
    Boulder
    Can you elaborate? What issues? Link to thread?


     
  5. k4rstar

    k4rstar Britney fan club president

    Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Jun 11, 2016
    Likes Received:
    6,942
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    AGD sucks. Stop pushing this garbage. Stop thinking that after many years of sucking, it will magically stop sucking. Kingwa has no f'ing clue how to write digital filters or design analog circuitry that sound like anything but insipid garbage. What makes you think he's capable of putting together modules of high quality precision matched resistors and writing code to correct for their inevitable errors and glitches, most of all at a budget?

    I am deeply sorry I ever bought a piece of AGD gear or wrote anything that would suggest to anyone else to buy it either. It taught me some valuable lessons at least.
     
  6. landroni

    landroni Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2016
    Likes Received:
    1,164
    Trophy Points:
    93
  7. jexby

    jexby Posole Prince

    Staff Member Pyrate Contributor
    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2015
    Likes Received:
    8,145
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Exit stage left....
    this would make a great SBAF front page banner.
    especially if google ad spiders were redirected to index it repeatedly for higher scoring on "audio gd" search terms.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2017
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    89,778
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
  9. Ray

    Ray Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    1,302
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    On the range
    IMG_7930.JPG To sum things up. This is the general consensus
     
  10. Scubadude

    Scubadude Almost "Made"

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2016
    Likes Received:
    332
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Pretoria, South Africa
    Anyone actually heard this?
     
  11. stacksmasher

    stacksmasher New

    Joined:
    Nov 6, 2017
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    3
    Location:
    Boulder
  12. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    89,778
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    @Torq heard their TOTL R2R 7 and still felt the old Master 7 was better. Let me find his notes.

    I'm not surprised. It's hard making discrete resistor ladders. Even Soekris and Metrum were quite dreadful their first time at it.
     
  13. dropadred

    dropadred New

    Banned
    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2016
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    8
    Location:
    Slovakia
    R2R-11 you mean? If so, yes, me. Now I even hesitate to say it loud! But even then, I might be just a lucky one with A-GD.

    However, it is vital to add, I have literally no idea how to identify problems with a device such this. I just listen and I do not even dare to start posting impressions. Still, one of the best AiO packages on the market for me (as all NFB's included) - I/O, input/output switches, fixed/variable output. Especially output switching is what would I kill for.
     
  14. conquerator2

    conquerator2 New

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2017
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    1
    Location:
    Czechia, Europe
    Shame though, this one is a winner in my book (coming off varied experiences with A-gd in the past as well).
     
  15. muckyfingers

    muckyfingers New

    Contributor
    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2016
    Likes Received:
    46
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Location:
    SoCal
    I got mine a few days ago and unless I use the “warm” jumper setting, I can’t tell the difference between it and the NFB-12.1 that I have as well.
     
  16. I got wonderful results with R2R-11 with almost everything from LCD-3 to HE400i to HD650 among others. im ordering their balanced amp.
     
  17. skem

    skem Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 1, 2017
    Likes Received:
    1,911
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Location:
    Charles River
    They claim to use an FPGA to correct their (low quality) resistors. How does that work? Is it that every ladder is measured against a standard and a custom filter built in the digital domain to fix the analog errors?? Sounds like a recipe for ring a ding ding ?
     
  18. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2015
    Likes Received:
    89,778
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Padre Island CC TX
    It can most certainly be done. The caveat is that the other parts of the DAC (power supply, output stage, etc.) which are just as crucial as the ladder, aren't another distortion component.

    See this: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.or...s-amethyst-dac-measurements.4589/#post-155644

    We can see that the Amethyst DAC, can most certainly be improved by an FPGA correcting the ladder errors (which I believe what is done with the higher line Metrum DACs). Looking at the triangle 6LSB wave, we can see how the errors manifest in a consistent and repeatable way (click on image below to zoom in to see the tiny kinks in the triangle), which is how a ladder DAC would behave.

    Amethyst - 6LSB triangle wave crawl. Waveforms successively overlaid each other using a different random color for each wave.
    [​IMG]

    Now FPGA is great and all that, but again, the underlying components need to be up to par. If it's just a random mess with no sort of consistency, than any kind of FPGA correction won't do shit.

    AGD S19 - 6LSB triangle wave crawl. Waveforms successively overlaid each other using a different random color for each wave.
    [​IMG]

    Now do I trust AGD to make sure the underlying components are up to par? With their TOTL stuff, maybe. Their lower line stuff - nope. This is based on history. No, I haven't heard their most recent discrete ladder DACs, but count me as skeptical.
     
  19. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2015
    Likes Received:
    6,840
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Home Page:
    I wish they would just keep to building amps.
     
  20. Scubadude

    Scubadude Almost "Made"

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2016
    Likes Received:
    332
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Location:
    Pretoria, South Africa
    Haven't heard this but I know three 11 R2R owners ... And all three love this as a DAC and amp. Now that is as unscientific a comment as it gets!
     
    Last edited: Mar 20, 2018

Share This Page