🔷 Airist R2R (Drop DAC)

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories [Official] DACs
41

no way MON
For the money(1.5× 789 =600+210 SU-8 or 350 R2R=810 or 950) I could almost get the RMA ADI 2 DAC but would miss a strong transparent AMP
At the moment I have easy to drive(660s/DT1990/Elegia/etc) Headphones but who knows what the future brings
I hope the R2R is available in a few months(october or November)

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42

I meant instead of returning it lol

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43

Oh now I understand
Haha

44

a few days ago I was able to cancel the april preorder for the DT 177x Go drop which should have been shipped end of september
Emailed the support and a few hours later recieved an answer that it is possible and they send me the money back

45

I would be glad to review it if you wanted to lend it to me!

46

Sorry bud it’s going up for sale. If no takers buy Monday then it goes back for a full refund at Drop.com.

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47

which other dacs you compared with?

48

Just realized this got reviewed by ASR a while ago. It ended up measuring poorly with a ton of distortion. So not surprisingly, Amir doesn’t recommend it.

Has anyone done some AB testing with a top performing DAC? I’m guessing the reason some people really like this DAC is because of that distortion rather than despite it.

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49

The whole reason this dac sounds good to be is because the more pleasing coloration this dac has. I also think it gives more depth and greater space to the sound. Think tube vs solid state amp for the changes.

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50

Well that’s what I figured. It’s the claim that this DAC also has superior detail that has me skeptical.

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51

I don’t agree with that, as I think its about average detail wise, but I actually think it might do a better job at recreating a spatial environment than some dacs in it’s price range

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52

I think that Amir and ASR’s members (I am one) do themselves a disservice by describing low noise & distortion gear as “high performing.” That is where the commendable data driven mission of ASR bleeds into the subjective. For some people, different flavors of distortion created by tubes or ladder dacs (often described as warm) is high performing. Then SINAD or noise vs power graphs aren’t as useful.

Anyway, ASR’s definition of high performance is “ultra clean.” If your goal is something else then you won’t find it usefulm

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53

Also a common thing I see in his reviews is that he has very limited listening tests and isn’t really able to discern the sound of some of the higher end products, I don’t know how many times I have said measurements aren’t everything

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54

No R2R Dac is going to measure well, it’s the nature of the beast.
You’d need resistors with accuracy that don’t exist to get perfect linearity from one.
That doesn’t make R-2R DAC’s bad, but ASR can’t see past the numbers.

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55

Yeah it is a real problem when people don’t realize ultra clean doesn’t always equal best. I like owning stuff that measures extremely well. But I’ve got nothing against tube amps or any other gear designed with coloration in mind. Amir is a real a zealot when comes to his numbers.
One of these days I will probably invest in a nice resistor ladder DAC so I can experience something different.

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56

Once I went to my nice R2R it’s hard to go back lol, love that thing

So much so that I’m looking at getting a dac that most people would find stupid lol

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57

Just how expensive is this new DAC your looking at? Isn’t your current one like 2000? lol

58

I may be looking at the MSB Premier DAC with the Powerbase and Femto 93 upgrades

anyways, I highly recommend the Spring2 KTE or the denafrips ares ii as those are top tier R2R dacs imo

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59

Is that MSB DAC w/ upgrades literally the most expensive DAC you could find? LOL

Meanwhile the $1000 Ares II is looking rather affordable. Do you have a preference over either?

EDIT: “The Worlds Finest DAC”

60

No, not really lol, but I was absolutely floored when I heard it in a setup. I think it beats my current studio dac for sure for me (Lavry Quintessence) which is super impressive to me. It’s one of those buy it for life things I guess. Also MSB has higher tier dacs, like 2 more.

I think it’s hard to beat the ares II for the price to performance. I prefer my spring2 KTE but it is significantly more expensive

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