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Showing 1 of 96 reviews about:
Massdrop x Airist Audio R-2R DAC
Inkey
53
Sep 9, 2019
checkVerified Buyer
Good Dac
Not Flat, bass elevated, trouble elevated. You buy this dac if you dont plan on using an EQ, hook directly up to AMP and enjoy. Built well, sounds good, no balanced :(
4 stars for not being balanced out. That should be a given now. It was probably to save on cost.
Recommends this product? Yes
Chalkballs
7
Sep 9, 2019
InkeyBecause this is an R2R dac, for it to be balanced it would actually require twice as many resistors and essentially double the cost of the dac, these aren't built like traditional delta sigma dacs, the denefrips ares II that's on drop currently is a good example, far more expensive for balanced. However, signal is signal, if you're doing a short cable run to a headphone amp, SE is no problem.
Inkey
53
Sep 10, 2019
ChalkballsWell you do get more power out of balanced. I agree XLR unless its for long runs or more power, its just a gimmick, single ended is fine.
My Schitt Dac was 1250$, that has balanced out and 2 single ended outs. Proves your point exactly.
My theory is, if these amps have XLR in, why not use it. That's if you can afford it, you dont need it for great sound.
rastus
1391
Sep 22, 2019
InkeyBut... that is exactly the point,, it was sold w/o balanced out. Then, as you even state “you dont need it for great sound”, so to nick a star for missing something not in a specification, not advertised as such, not required, not really kosher...
Then you compare the Airist with a Schiit dac at 3 1/2 times the cost, that has balanced out, but do not state that it performs higher,, what is the point again?
(Edited)
Inkey
53
Sep 27, 2019
rastusYou want balanced for more power and I swear it makes things sound wider, I just dont see the point and selling the dac without balanced, the THX and the Cavalli amp are both balanced. They made the the dac irrelevant or they made the amp irrelevant depending how you look at it.
I got the Dac to run with single ended amps. If I have balanced in on my amp im going to use it, it adds more power. The Schitt Dac is worlds better in build guilty, sound, features, almost everything is better about the dac. You wont notice the difference if you are running cheap headphones with cheaper interconnects on a cheap amp streaming youtube. You hear the difference in DAC's with better headphones on the better amp, playing Master on Tidal or Flac files.
The R2R dac outputs to hot and doesn't play nice with some amp's such as the X7s or the Magni, Vali 2 or the THX IMO. It only played nice with the CTH amp I have.
rastus
1391
Oct 4, 2019
InkeyI asked Andrew Mason about the Airist R-2R being too "hot" for the THX, did not jive, got a response from a member, just limit the gain.
The more I read about this amp, the more impressed I am.
"Balanced" out sounding better; you are hearing what dual mono brings you, lower noise, crosstalk and cleaner 'mono' signal output.
(Edited)
jaffe
272
Nov 14, 2019
Inkeyyou keep saying that balanced gives you more power in reference to interconnects; this is simply absurd. a balanced cable or differential signal is not related to balanced headphone output. totally different concept.
(Edited)
Inkey
53
Nov 21, 2019
jaffeBalanced does give you more power out. What are you talking about? You are confusing me.
heysplangy
344
Dec 19, 2019
InkeyI think you are conflating balanced headphone and balanced interconnect.
Inkey
53
Dec 24, 2019
heysplangySorry do you mean, that I mean, that the Amp gets more power in?
The DAC typically outputs 4 VRM balanced, vs 2 VRM on single ended. You get more power when you run balanced out of a dac into the AMP, you do. 4 VRM vs 2 VRM, typically.
Inkey
53
Dec 24, 2019
heysplangyYes the balanced in from your dac to your amp gives your headphone output a higher gain. Connect your RCA and your Balanced outs from your DAC to your AMP, switch between the two, you will see you have more gain in the volume.
Inkey
53
Dec 24, 2019
rastusAt the end of the day its a poor Dac, old tech resulting in very high distortion. I switched to a real dac and the improvements were substantial. I would recommend you look at the measurements of this DAC, its SINAD was horrifying. Its all marketing that's selling this product.
heysplangy
344
Dec 24, 2019
Inkeyyes, you were being kind of unclear in your original explanations.
BTW what's this "real" DAC that you've switched to?
Inkey
53
Jan 2, 2020
heysplangyI hooked it up to rme adi-2, this dac is clean, sure its 1200 bucks but hey you pay to play. However, my schitt dac for 100 bucks sounds worlds cleaner too compared to R2R. I tested between the 2 dacs and the schitt dac has more dynamic range with far less distortion. There is a reason why R2R dacs are no longer made, the are not as good when compared to delta sigma. If R2R was better everyone would still make them and we wouldn't have delta sigma dacs on the market.
(Edited)
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