Denafrips Pontus II Clicks Or Static?

I suppose that it I were not focused on listening to the music I might not always notice the pops/ticks.  In that sense, one might say they are soft.

No issue on my Ares I.

I am very familiar with the issue, and it ultimately caused me to sell my Pontus II. I now use an admittedly much more expensive Aqua La Scala DAC, but would likely have continued with the Pontus were it not for that issue and the way that it has been handled by Denafrips.

This has now been a known issue for at least a couple of years, and no, as far as I know, there is no software/firmware fix. So I believe that the company made a calculated decision to engage in damage control, rather than offering a hardware fix, which would have been expensive, assuming that they have the knowledge to execute such a fix.

There was also what I consider to be an effort to obfuscate, or deflect blame, by floating the suggestion that it was only happening with certain transports. I had the issue with a Moon 260DT, which is a high-class machine, and in any case, the Pontus is responsible for the problem, as it should obviously work smoothly with all transports.

The review at goldensound talked about digital levels that went to or over the 0dB level causing problems with the Pontus. Regarding the clicks and pops; do they happen with certain disks, or just ANY disk (regardless of the level of recorded peaks)?  Can the clicks and pops be repeated using the same disks?  Are there disks where there are no clicks or pops?

This issue needs to be kept in the forefront of both Vinshine and Denafrips in the way of a firmware update that would eliminate or reduce the problem.  Alvin at Vinshine has mentioned a firmware update in one of his most recent videos.

Pops/ticks are present on all recordings and they are not repeatable.  The level does not appear to be correlated in my case.

I have been provided new firmware by Vinshine.  I will post my findings once that change is implemented and tested.