And are you googling for R2R DACs too?

[vivek_r]

I have successfully brainwashed myself into believing that only R2R dacs will work for me!

So I avidly google Yggdrasil, Spring Holi, Aqua, Totaldac (you know the brands, and for the last one I hope it will magically land at my place).

I disregard reviews of Benchmark 3, Mytek and all sigma delta DACs. Whatever is the nice thing being said about them. No logic beyond a point and not even heard these DACs.

My RATOC works well for me with its 1704 chip. You know how this hobby is though!! (Wonder if there is a cure for audiophilia! Hypnosis you reckon?)

What about you all? And please don’t cop out and say it’s the implementation that counts .

 

[reignofchaos]

Once you smell r2r blood, you turn into a shark .

 

[Kumar101]

The1704 is highly regarded and I too have have a DAC based on it so curious if R2R Ladder design would offer a significant upgrade - dont know too much about them or how they sound.

Would be very interesting to find out.

 

[square_wave]

If flesh and blood sound is what you are after, r2r is a vital link.

 

[bhagwan]

I use an Aqua Formula xHD.
Its great.
However, the price is not OK.
I personally like the dac from. PRC, the top line model at 2500. It seems to be excellent value...
If I had to buy a dac and an r2r, then the Chinese dac would be my preference...
That said, the Formula xHD, plays excellent. Just the price at 16500 is a non starter.
https://kitsunehifi.com/product/springdacgreen/
This is the product to focus on..

 

[dheerajin]

I use an Aqua Formula xHD.
Its great.
However, the price is not OK.
I personally like the dac from. PRC, the top line model at 2500. It seems to be excellent value...
If I had to buy a dac and an r2r, then the Chinese dac would be my preference...
That said, the Formula xHD, plays excellent. Just the price at 16500 is a non starter.
https://kitsunehifi.com/product/springdacgreen/
This is the product to focus on..

This Dac opens its wing only after 300 hours of burn in, earlier I laughed at this theory, but later I realized this myself and true..it is an excellent value product..

 

[Fiftyfifty]

@vivek_r why no denafrips?

 

[vivek_r]

Add Denafrips too! I think it was not as hot as now. Wow it’s more than a year since that post!

MHDT Orchid. New kid on the review block.

 

[audiopro]

Audionote 1865 analog devices. Punch punch.

 

[heliumflight]

I use an Aqua Formula xHD.
Its great.
However, the price is not OK.
I personally like the dac from. PRC, the top line model at 2500. It seems to be excellent value...
If I had to buy a dac and an r2r, then the Chinese dac would be my preference...
That said, the Formula xHD, plays excellent. Just the price at 16500 is a non starter.
https://kitsunehifi.com/product/springdacgreen/
This is the product to focus on..

Can it be purchased from Amazon.com or ebay?

 

[Dev.R]

Does it make sense to buy the latest dac with 24/192 , dsd etc, etc if I am using only Redbook CDs via a transport.
I am using a Theta Pro Gen5 dac. If I am upgrading to the latest R2R DAC , what advantage I would get over the older one. I will be using only Redbook CDs.
Cheers.

 

[Dev.R]

.

 

[oracle1974]

Can it be purchased from Amazon.com or ebay?

It is available on audio note India website in the pre-owned section . No affiliation with seller .

 

[arj]

Does it make sense to buy the latest dac with 24/192 , dsd etc, etc if I am using only Redbook CDs via a transport.
I am using a Theta Pro Gen5 dac. If I am upgrading to the latest R2R DAC , what advantage I would get over the older one. I will be using only Redbook CDs.
Cheers.

I would not think so. Am myself in this same boat with a Reimyo dac

 

[Deleted member 38504]

It is available on audio note India website in the pre-owned section . No affiliation with seller .

Most of the thing are not available. The website is not updated.

 

[jai1611]

Does it make sense to buy the latest dac with 24/192 , dsd etc, etc if I am using only Redbook CDs via a transport.
I am using a Theta Pro Gen5 dac. If I am upgrading to the latest R2R DAC , what advantage I would get over the older one. I will be using only Redbook CDs.
Cheers.

I would not think so. Am myself in this same boat with a Reimyo dac

For redbook format, R2R DACs are pretty hard to beat. If you want to try high res or DSD, then a change may be warranted. I'm fully in the R2R camp. Have the good fortune of having a DAC that supports high res/DSD despite using a 24/96 chip (Naim DAC) using some sort of internal downsampling.

A friend of mine recently moved from using vintage R2R chip based DACs (exclusively Analog Devices ones) to a Sabre ES9038. He tried a number of other modern DACs along the way but didn't stick with any till this one - his view is that this is the only chip which has some of the warmth of R2R while supporting all modern formats and having conveniences like digital volume controls. Having heard his DAC, I do agree that it sounds pretty good. May have something to do with the custom tube output stage he built for it.

 

[arj]

I have been hearing about R2R as well and have been often tempted by the Yggdarsil, but what held me back is the fact that Digital is continuously evolving and there will always be a new greatest every 1-2 years hence prefer to upgrade when the urge is high.

The Reimyo DAP-777 was at one time the best uses a proprietary Victor K2 processor and the design and collaboration of several japanese companies for the conversion, the power supply as well as the chassis and vibration management . It was also optimised for the HDCDs and K2 pressings which i have a couple of.

Since It plays both by CDs and digital via my Aries mini (which can downsample High Rez )rather well ..why break something which is not broken and sounds good.

I think Dev.R's theta is also something of a classic legend and something which some years back one of the rare dacs i would not have minded upgrading to ( like the Esoteric or dCS)

I guess iIl wait

 

[kartick]

I've mentioned it elsewhere on the forum on a couple of threads but do consider Monarch Audio's M22 R2R DAC.

 

[Deleted member 38504]

I'm sorry if this is off topic, but what exactly is a Redbook cd/dac? Can someone explain without too much technical detail.

Also, if I play a track on Spotify which is a low resolution track, and I connect my streamer to a DAC. Will the dac be able to convert this same low res track to a high resolution track?

Or am I off track?

 

[jls001]

I'm sorry if this is off topic, but what exactly is a Redbook cd/dac? Can someone explain without too much technical detail.

Also, if I play a track on Spotify which is a low resolution track, and I connect my streamer to a DAC. Will the dac be able to convert this same low res track to a high resolution track?

Or am I off track?

Redbook is the 'rule' or standard book that defines audio CD. Basically it defines bit depth of 16 bit, sampling rate of 44100 Hertz (among other things).