Review and Measurements of Audio-GD R8

[Matias]

What analog.. 'stuffs' ?

AudioGd also had amplifiers, both speaker and headphones.

 

[xema]

What analog.. 'stuffs' ?

Like there preamps or poweramps?

 

[Veri]

Yup I'm with you, now

 

[Soniclife]

Ooh, and an ASR member of the year too.

It'll end up huge!

I don't like where this is going, remind me what the ASR safe word was again.

 

[TungstenC]

I don't like where this is going, remind me what the ASR safe word was again.

whispers *inaudible*...

 

[WolfX-700]

After this review and measurement was released, my friend who provided me with test equipment asked the manufacturer for the measurement results. Especially the difference between the measurement results and the manufacturer's announcement.

The manufacturer responded:

I will briefly translate the part about measurement:
They said that my previous measurements must be made in NOS mode. It is normal for NOS mode measurement data to be bad.
The (their) measurements are made with standard parameters and OS8's filter mode.
Continuous "adjustment" of the product during the production process may affect some measurement results. These "adjustments" are intended to be closer to "real and analog sounds"，and parameter changes will not be notified.

At the same time they said:
Changes in parameters (here should be interpreted as changes in measurement results caused by parameter adjustments) are "limited".

Alright, let's take another dashboard measurement in OS8 mode!

Okay, now we know what they call "limited"

Paste their measurements again to make everyone happy

Finally: Give Chinese readers a smile

 

[Human Bass]

The sad thing is that Currawong praises Audio GD stuff. Typical "well, if its expensive therefore must be better and more refined"

 

[maxxevv]

The reality is that people are often altered in their perspective by expectation bias.

And, it is possible too that he doesn't detect the poor measurement issues from the set he reviewed.

So, when it is not obviously shown to be broken, and with all the hyperbole around the brand, I'm not surprised that he gave it a positive review.
I would wager that he would say otherwise instead if he had never previous listened to one and that his only impression was from these ASR reviews.

 

[JohnYang1997]

audio-gd = FOS (you guess what that means)
full of you know what
我想起来2015那会羊驼和打架谈吹捧何庆华 然后图中整齐的内部电路 一排排的继电器。。。。

 

[WolfX-700]

audio-gd = FOS (you guess what that means)
full of you know what
我想起来2015那会羊驼和打架谈吹捧何庆华 然后图中整齐的内部电路 一排排的继电器。。。。

The inside actually looks really good. But in fact, if you pay attention to the details, it is indeed different from the high-performance circuit.

 

[bennetng]

audio-gd = FOS (you guess what that means)
full of you know what
我想起来2015那会羊驼和打架谈吹捧何庆华 然后图中整齐的内部电路 一排排的继电器。。。。

Chips are much more tidy, beautiful and advanced.

 

[Jimster480]

Another fail from this company.... its amazing anyone purchases their products...

 

[mykeldg]

wow, looks like they've dethroned Schiit multibits in this regard

seriously though--how does it sound? was it "musical" I read many counts of R2R dacs sounding more euphonic.

 

[pma]

The inside actually looks really good. But in fact, if you pay attention to the details, it is indeed different from the high-performance circuit.

This is wrong and quite usual mistake of audio manufacturers. SE signal should go through a coax cable, balanced signal through a twisted shielded cable.

How do they connect XLR pin 1?

 

[solderdude]

How do they connect XLR pin 1?

by the looks of it to the groundplane ?
Edit:
The blue wire is most likely connected to the chassis ?

 

[WolfX-700]

by the looks of it to the groundplane ?
The blue wire is most likely soldered on for test purposes ? I don't see that wire on the other pictures

It is a pity that I have sent the device back to its owner. From the pictures I took (not very clear), the other channel also has this wiring.

 

[omniweltall]

Good job. Promoted to home page.

I have found the same issue with Audio-gd measurements not matching the gear itself as shipped.

Never trusted them. I listened to their Master series amps but found them overrated as well. But at least better than their dacs.

 

[filo97s]

i'm still curious of their top end dacs like the master 7 singularity, really a lot of people in audio circles praise it and they even insult me when I told them that audioGD products are sh.t so...

 

[Rmeillat]

Am I the only one amazed at how gear such as this DAC can be shot down (and maybe rightfully so) without ever talking about how it sounds?! Since when stuff that measures well is the one that sounds best? I like the idea some hi-fi designers can make choices and take risk doing something counterintuitive just because it sounds better, sweeter, etc. If measurement was all there is to it, I'm afraid we'd live in a boring and sterile world.
Having said all this, I have never owned nor tried an Audio-Gd device so I have no opinion to offer on their product yet. But I sure have chosen gear that measured so-so and sounded beautiful. It's called psychoacoustics in fact!

 

[RayDunzl]

Am I the only one amazed at how gear such as this DAC can be shot down (and maybe rightfully so) without ever talking about how it sounds?!

I rejected a tire once because I could see it was obviously out of round when they put it on the balancer.

Didn't feel I needed to take it for a spin on the car.