Denafrips Pontus II Clicks Or Static?

A couple of related notes. While it is possible that the problem has finally been resolved, it was never apparent in the experience of all users, only (I would estimate) a relatively small percentage. So the fact that some users of the newest version have yet to encounter any problem, while encouraging, is far from being definitive.

Secondly, as I have mentioned previously, it would be odd for Denafrips to have found a (likely hardware) fix for the issue, yet make no mention of the fact if it was installed in this new version. Why would they not proudly – and loudly – announce a successful resolution?

The only reason that I can think of would be because it would alert unaware customers to the fact that the previous generations were vulnerable to the problem, and Denafrips does not want to engage in any expensive recall action.

One other interesting note. As I have also mentioned previously, Denafrips chose to basically ignore the fact that they advertised at least some of their previous DACs as having NOS capability, when that was false. Much like the skipping issue, I believe that the company ran an internal cost benefit analysis, and decided to gamble that most owners would either remain ignorant of the false advertising, or would not care much, as any sound differences were likely very small.

I mention the above because this appears in the marketing for the Pontus 12th:

Pontus II 12th is a true NOS DAC.

Now, that is obviously good news for those who have purchased, or will in the future purchase one of these units. But I would argue that it also confirms precisely what I have described, namely that the previous versions were not "true" NOS capable.

That the company was willing to falsely advertise at least some of its products, even after they were publicly exposed as not being NOS capable, is in my view very damning, and that behavior would give me pause in purchasing products from Denafrips in the future.

I would suspect that Denafrips would keep a low profile about having implemented a fix for the click and pop issue... for obvious reasons.  As to the NOS issue, and the fact that Denafrips now touts it as a TRUE NOS;  when I listen to the true NOS with my Pontus II 12th, it does not strike me as being nearly as "correct" as the slow oversampling filter (I realize that opinions may vary).  So, unless there were a recording that had some sort of unusual benefit from the NOS, I will just ignore the NOS issue. The NOS seems to do a slight blurring, and makes things sound more forgiving - which might be worthwhile with harsh sounding recordings.

FWIW, I have a Pontus II (non 12th).  I use mainly the Coax input and the I2S over HDMI input.  I do not use the oversampling modes. No clicks at all in the 6 months or so I have owned it.  True NOS or not, IMHO, this thing sounds wonderful, at least in the context of my system.  If I could wish for anything, it would be a slightly larger soundstage, although this is very source material dependent.

I have had my Pontus II nearly two years and have never experienced any pops or clicks. I run mine in NOS mode and use a Coax connection to my CD transport and Toslink to my streamer. I wanted to connect my Pontus simultaneously to both my McIntosh Integrated and my Topping headphone amp. Alvin at Vinshine stated that using both the XLR and RCA outputs simultaneously would seriously degrade performance. Alvin proposed a work around and sent me a design of a custom “Y” cable which connected to the XLR outs on the Pontus and split off into dual RCA connections to both amplifiers. I had the folks at Morrow Audio build this custom cable to Alvin’s design and it has performed flawlessly. I wanted to mention this performance degradation Caveat to anyone who wants to connect their Pontus to dual amps although it probably has nothing to do with this pop and click issue. I have been extremely happy with my Pontus and am very sorry to hear that this great product has been marred with this annoying defect.

I have been playing my Pontus II with the new FPGA firmware update for about a week now and I can confirm that the random pops/ticks I was experiencing are now absent.  This mirrors my experience with upgrading the firmware on my Ares II.  So it seems the issue was in fact software based.  Below are the changes associated with the new firmware as described by Alvin at Vinshine:

"Notes:
1. The FPGA firmware update is for all DENAFRIPS DACs with the latest FPGA BGA chip.
2. It does not apply to the older DSP (Amanero, released in 2017-2019). If you have a DENAFRIPS DAC purchased after 2020, in general, it is upgradable.
3. The firmware update fixes some bugs, and enhance the sound quality for all digital inputs
4. The firmware update changes the NOS response to what Vinshine Audio believes it's NOS (Raw, Staircase Waveform output for 44.1kHz / 48kHz)


Areas of Improvement:

• Improved Adaptive FIFO Buffer & Reclocking Architecture
• Reduced the effect of Buffer overrun/underrun due to the Source's Clock and the DAC's Clock differences
• Reduced Audio Latency
• *Eliminate Phase Difference between L/R Channels
• Optimised DSP to improve the sonic performance"

I have to commend Vinshine for being very responsive to the issues I was having.  Never did they claim this would fix my problem with certainty.  I think their stepped approach to troubleshooting this issue was appropriate and worked out me in the end.

So if this was a software issue, why is the issue not being reported by more people?  I don't have a good answer, but I tend to have very analytical tendencies.  When I listen to music, I listen equally to my equipment.  I would not be surprised if some Denafrips owners have the issue but haven't noticed because of the way they listen to music or perhaps to the type of music played.