Best dac under $2500 - comparing build quality and technologies


I have been in the  Audio field for over 4 decades and have owned some pretty exclusive audio gear 
I was listening to a 3 years old R2R dac the R7 from AudioGD a 20 year old company which won several awards  which is not known much in the U.S yet  ,This New R8-MK2 is better still.
it is  very well built using 3 R core transformers rarely seen unless spending $$. Their latest and best value is the New R8 mk2 dac. This dac just came out late April 2021 ,over a year went into the redesign the Owner stated this unit has several advancements vs previous designs , and runs much cooler for less money then  the previous R7 but better ,their is also a mk2 R7 also as well as a Flagship R7 HE with power regeneration,which I wanted but could not afford .The dynamics and realism is what sets this apart it’s massive power supplies and over 130k uf 
of capacitance is more then most amps has a lot to do with it I will be getting my dac next week and put side by side with  very well know competitors  it was noticeable better  in several areas , and it has 7 sonic adjustments all FPGA based 
4- non over sampling ,including a vinyl mode, and 3 over sampling  other dacs just a minor OS option 
you literally can Taylor the sound to your audio system .it weighs 26 lbs ,Underwood Wally is now the U.S distributor and service center  . I will give a full rundown once I have logged a week or two on it ,2 R- core transformers go to the pure class A  analog output section, the 3 rd transformer -digital is now fully servo controlled and runs much cooler and much better specifications . Check out link below.
http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R8mk2/R8mk2EN.htm
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Showing 2 responses by jjss49

many many dacs out there, new and old, with varying designs

many can sound excellent, in the right system

it is about understanding your use case, your preferences and system synergy

sometimes the differences in sound can be rather subtle (heard only in very good systems) - examples
-- audio mirror vs mhdt vs doge
-- chord vs rme
-- ps audio ds vs ayre vs w4s

sometimes they can be rather stark
-- chord vs denafrips vs audionote

the dac is the voice of the digital front end, so it is all about finding the right one with the right presentation to make the music sound right to you (assuming you have a credible, low jitter streaming source) - one illustration is that many solid state very hifi sounding systems can be transformed by using a dac with a well voiced tube output stage...
Question for all. Is Schiit multi bit an r2r design?


yes they use leftover adapted medical industry oriented r2r chips to do the d-a conversion

so they are r2r but on a chip, not using discrete resistor ladders (not that that is a positive or a negative necessarily)