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I get one too many pm's on DACs, and tend to type the same thing over and over again, so I figure I'll just write stuff down once:
Purrin, I am thinking about getting the Audio GD Master 7. Should I get this? What should I get? Is there anything uber or godlike?
Maybe. It depends upon your headphones, your amp, what kind of sound you like, how far you want to go, how much you want to ultimately spend? My view on DACs has changed significantly after being exposed to lot of vintage R2R DACs (Theta Gen V, Spectral SDR-2000, Sonic Frontiers SFD-1, Moth HyperDAC, PS Audio Ultralink, etc.) All of these DACs sound better than the Master 7. There is no single characteristic or attribute where the Master 7 beats any of these DACs (with the exception of the Moth or SFD-1 where the M7 may have a cleaner less muddy sound). Personally, I am willing to purchase these vintage DACs at less than cost of an AG-D M7 and take the risk that they die from old age in the next year or so.
In terms of modern R2R DACs, there isn't much choice; therefore by default the Audio-GD Master 7 has to be considered pretty good for the price. For the most part, I do not like PCM1704 based DACs (the bass can be syrupy and the overall sound too soft). The caveat with the M7 is that it requires the HDMI i2s input board and the Empirical Audio Off-Ramp 5 with HDMI i2s output to sound its best. The RJ jack Ethernet i2s connection works, but the sound quality becomes more cable dependent. (See DACLadder’s posts on HF.) The Off-Ramp 5 starts at around $1100. Audio-GD has recently released new USB firmware which significantly improves the stock built-in USB, but honestly without the OR5; I’d rather just get a Gungnir Gen 2 USB + Wyrd and save myself a thousand bucks.
I’ve said a lot of great things about the Master 7 on HF. Now I will pick it apart. I generally don’t listen to headphones much anymore and have moved on (or back) to speakers. Speaker listening has a slightly different set of priorities. Readers should take the speaker context into consideration. Each one of the criticisms below
already takes into account how the OR5 mitigates the inherent issues of the M7:
Moderate: Poor stage depth
Minor: Lack of macro-dynamics, slam, grunt, attack
Minor: Syrupy bass, i.e. “PCM1704 bass” for lack of a better term
Nitpick: Slight stridency
The Theta Gen V and Data III has since replaced the Master 7. I picked up a used Gen V and Data III transport for well less than two grand. The Theta utterly destroys the Audio-GD M7. The construction of the Gen V is superior. The M7 is made from separate metal panels screwed to each other which always feel like they are going come to fall apart. The Theta stages like a motherfucker. Immense depth, height, sense of venue, holographic imaging, etc. The Theta hits damn hard. The Theta has super clean taut bass that stops on a dime when asked to without lingering syrup. The tonal balance is neutral. The The
ta has better separation and layering. And despite only using four ancient PCM56 chips, the Theta is more resolving than the AGD with eight PCM1704 chips.
Thanks for explaining. So should I get the Audio-GD Master 7 with Off-Ramp 5?
No. Buy the Schiit Yggdrasil instead for a shitload less money and rely on its built-in USB. No USB converter is required. The same small group of guys behind the Gen V designed the Yggy. The Yggy is like the Gen V, except with even more bass slam, more holographic imaging, more precise, cleaner, with a blacker blackground, slightly more body, and a fuckload more resolving. Yggy uses the same formula but with new technology not available in 1990. We have better faster processors for DSP and digital filters and military grade R2R chips with better accuracy than sigma-delta chips employed on today's DACs.
I found a Ching-Dong brand USB converter for $99 on eBay. Will that work instead of the OR5?Are you a retard?
Will the new Audio-GD USB HDMI i2s converter be as good as the OR5?No idea. Magic eight-ball says "doubtful". Magic eight-ball could be wrong.
I found a used Audio-GD Master for a great deal, should I buy it?My first thought is "how the fuck should I know?" However, after additional thought, I think you should buy it if it's $1299.
