Buying Fiio k11 r-2r. Anyone have Massdrop Airist comparison?

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories DACs
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Hey guys, I found a K11 R-2r on sale for $160. I’ve wanted to try an r-2r dac for years, but could never find one in my budget. I still kick myself for not buying the Massdrop airist r-2r before it stopped selling. I’ve found a few used ones for a bit more than this and was wondering if anyone has compared the 2? Is the MD Airist r-2r better, and if so how much? I mainly care about the dac on the Fiio. I’m also interested in the ifi zen dac v3 comparisons.

The only reason I’m concerned is several reviews commented on how great it was for the money, but lacked some detail.

Thanks in advance for any help!

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Personally, from all the R2R DACs I’ve tried, pretty much all of them in the sub $1000 range are pretty lackluster. I know people will disagree with me, but imo, R2R DACs can’t really compete until you’re hitting the ~$2000 range. I’m sure the K11 R2R is probably just fine as a blind buy being so cheap though.

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Thanks for your input! I’ve heard others say the same thing. Maybe one day. My current dac is my 5 year old smsl su-8, if that tells you anything about my budget. It still works fine, but I’ve been wanting something more lush sounding for a while.

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I don’t thenk there are many Airist’s around these days, probably better looking at k11 vs k11 r2r :wink:
imo more of a difference going from d/s to r2r at a similar price than going from a $200 to $1000 d/s dac but depends on your preferences/chain

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I was thinking something similar myself. I agree with you on the d/s front. The only reason I even thought about the zen dac 3 was because of the burr brown chip. Ive never heard one. Only akm, sabre, and a few super low end ones. I just heard they typically sound smooth comparatively. However I figured if I wanted something truly different i should try a totally different dac type.

You’re right, there arent many MD Airists still around, but I see them used sometimes ranging from $225-300ish (225 is rare, 275 is about average).

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zen dac 1/2 were slightly warm but nothing compared to something like a cayin ru6 lol

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Interesting, the reviews that I saw favored the K11 r-2r over the ru6. Hopefully they were right.

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tempted to get one myself, if they could’ve squeezed at least a 4.4mm line out on there… lol I’ll probably wait for a higher end one (they did say they are open to making more models if it’s popular)