New Audio-GD DI-20?

[Summit]

The Audio-GD DI-20 has just been released and I think everyone is still waiting for their ordered ones. When the first batch is shipped am sure the Audio-GD fanboys will post their impressions here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/new-audio-gd-r7-r2r-7-r8-flagship-resistor-ladder-dacs.853902/page-372

[Summit]

On 6/24/2020 at 6:41 PM, zerung said:

Well! I got my DI-20HE.

 

The journey is to take out my Amanero USB module from the DAC, feed IIS directly. (Ironically the Amanero is now in this unit). I did not want to extract IIS from the server either......

So the Di-20HE. Which is now my 'Wow!' module.

The sound is here by the bucketful. The unit still needs to burn in.....Some of the sanding of the rough edges from an extremely organic presentation should be possible....It has to be said, that the sound is not fully settled.

Also at this time it is PCM192 Max (Roon>HQPlayer) to the 20HE, then SPDIF to my Lampizator. These (20HE) only do DSD via the HDMI/IIS-Which I will try once I find out the DAC HDMI pin assignment and I have a suitable cable.

 

I will also use the external clock and that should do more? 

 

In your signature the Ultra Rendu and Uptone Audio IsoRegen are strikeout. I guess it means that you use to have them and now you don’t. Did you test with and without the Ultra Rendu feeding the AUDIO-GD DI20HE and liked the sound better without the Ultra Rendu?

 

Also did you have any other DDC (like for example U-16, OR5 or Berkeley) before you got the DI20HE?

[Summit]

1 hour ago, zerung said:

@Summit The Isoregen is no longer effective. Nor the UR.

 

Headfi had the DI-20G bettering U16 and to me the only competition was Gaia. But cost of the HE was the big swing....I was also A bit swayed by Kingswa, the designer. He seemed like a maverick and may do something crazy....

I never took stock of Berkeley (OR OR5) either,  the specs was not for me (No ext clock or IIS) I am sure that product is wonderful?

 

The HE provides you the Happiness of a Computer/DAC combination.....assuming you don’t have the means to pay for Taiko Extreme.

 

Interesting that you like it better without the Ultra Rendu. With the DDC I have (OR5/U-16) gear upstream (Ultra Rendu and JCAT NET board) still matters.

 

I wonder if @Blake prefer to use his Gaia with or without the Ultra Rendu? 

[Summit]

2 hours ago, Confused said:

I run a Mutec MC3+USB.  With the Mutec, if you feed it DSD, the Mutec itself will convert the DSD feed to PCM, reclock, then output via S/PDIF.  This I understand, and Mutec claim this is how things must work, as you cannot "re-clock" DSD.

 

This begs a question.  If I am interpreting things correctly, the Audio GD DI-20 can accept DSD via USB, and output DSD via S/PDIF / AES/EBU.  The Audio GD DI-20 also has a 10MHz input, for something like a Mutec REF10 or similar.

 

Therefore, if you were feeding the Audio GD DI-20 DSD via USB, and getting the same DSD rate via S/PDIF output, I presume this is kind of a "pass through" mode, and the REF10 (or internal clocking) would effectively be doing nothing?

 

Is this right?  Does anyone have any insight into this aspect?

 

Max DSD 128 dop is possible from the S/PDIF output.

 

Some folks on Head-fi are using the Mutec Ref 10 together with DI-20HE.

 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/audio-gd-di-20.918123/page-68

[Summit]

On 7/26/2020 at 2:02 PM, Confused said:

Thanks for the link.  Plus, thinking about all this, the fact that the Audio GP can output DSD as DoP, whereas the Mutec MC3+USB cannot, I believe this answers my question in post #18.

 

Sorry my friend I do not think you are right in post no.18, there is no "pass through" mode in a DDC, and REF10 does what it does, ie works as a reference clock, no matter what output or format you use. The (reference) clock signal from REF10 is independent of whether the decoding is for PCM, DSD or DSD dop.

[Summit]

28 minutes ago, Confused said:

Actually, that is what I meant in post #21, although I could have been clearer in my post.. 

 

So to clarify, GD DI-20 can output DSD as DoP, and this can be "clocked".  The Mutec converts DSD (DoP or native) to PCM, and cannot output DSD in any form.

 

In post #18, I had not thought this through and was thinking of native DSD with respect to the GD DI-20, which in this case is irrelevant as it is DoP.

 

So some earlier miss thinking in post #18, but I think we are now actually agreed.  We are certainly agreed that I was not right in post #18!

 

Great, you confused me in these previous post 😄

[Summit]

I got my Audio-GD DI-20HE today. Let see how it sound compared to my Gustard U-16 and Offramp 5 after some burn in.

[Summit]

17 hours ago, Confused said:

@Summit - Good luck with your Audio-GD DI-20HE.  I shall be very interested to read your comparison.  I was very interested in the Gustard U16 because it (in theory) offered DSD output and 10Mhz clock input, which is what I am after.  However, after a little research I found that there are firmware issues with the U16, and basically it is not fully compatible with the sMS-200Ultra, which is want I want to use it with.  That said, I did read many subjective listening reports for the U16, and on this basis alone it seemed to be exactly what I am looking for, hence I will be very interested in how you think the DI-20HE compares.

 

I can offer you one early observation, the DI-20HE is a little larger than the U16, I am not sure if you had noticed this? 

 

Being serious for the moment, it is huge!  It makes the Gustard look like a toy.

 

Gustard sound like a toy in comparison 🤩