musician aquarius r2r dac any good?

I'm planning on getting the Audio GD DI-20HE DDC in a month or so.

It has been recommended by my UK dealer. 

@auroravengeance

Thanks for the link.

Coaxial supports less resolution than the USB and I2S. That is a deal breaker for many.

Regarding if the I2S was better than the USB, it depends on which interface was implemented better. For example the Holo Audio recommends using the USB, while Denafrips/Musician recommend the I2S.

I had this discussion on another thread (check below), I was then "certain" that the Innuos PhoenixUSB was the way to go because of the huge number of recommendations and positive reviews. However, after I got more feedback on the thread I realized it really depended on which interface the developer invested more in.

Note the Phoenix here refers to the Innuos PhoenixUSB.

Blake wrote

Posted September 22, 2020

I was hoping Srajan at 6Moons would compare the Phoenix, Gaia and some other D/D converters.

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/denafrips6/4/

While the review is not yet finished, in his review of the Denafrips Avatar, Srajan notes that he did compare the Phoenix, Gaia and through extrapolation to another review, the Mutec MC-3+ USB. While the comparison was not perfect in that he compared Phoenix going to the Terminator Plus usb input, whereas the Gaia was going in to the Terminator Plus I2S input (there was no way around this since Gaia doesn’t have USB output, and the Phoenix only has USB output), the ranking of best sonic performance was:

1. Terminator Plus + Gaia with the Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged upstream to the Gaia.

2. Terminator Plus + Phoenix

3. Terminator Plus + Gaia without Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged.

4. Mutec MC-3+ USB

Dante Rivera compared his Terminator USB vs I2s in this YT video. The I2s is best. However, this seems specific to the Denafrips DACs. For different DACs I think it depends on which interface is implemented best.

Both Koso and Chameleonracks have the Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC. They preferred the USB interface over the I2s. They used the USB interface in combination with the PhoenixUSB and Intona USB Isolator, respectively.

Here is a curved ball.

The Musician Aquarius/Pegasus DACs don't have a clock out for syncing like the Terminator. Therefore, " if " the ranking Blake wrote (below) were correct, then:

Aquarius/Pegasus + PhoenixUSB   (USB interface)

would rank higher than 

Aquarius/Pegasus + Gaia without its "clock in" feature engaged.  (I2S interface)

Oh dear lol

the ranking of best sonic performance was:

1. Terminator Plus + Gaia with the Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged upstream to the Gaia.

2. Terminator Plus + PhoenixUSB

3. Terminator Plus + Gaia without Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged.

4. Mutec MC-3+ USB

@auroravengeance Did you have to do anything to get the Douk to work with the Pegasus?  I have both but I get no sound when trying to use the Douk into the Pegasus’ i2S input.  Thanks for any tips. 

@soix I am using Windows 11 and the Douk is plug and play. I connected the Douk to my Pegasus using cheap AmazonBasics HDMI cable and it worked like a charm. The Douk will appear as XMos XS1-U8 on your Windows so make sure you select it as the system output. Roon infuriatingly does not use it by default and I have to manually enable it again after each Windows update. 

@tjag I used the I2s with my Pegasus and I had to say the difference with the USB input was minimal if any, but I still used it anyway because with the Douk I could actually adjust the volume in Windows. Without it I had to reach to my amplifier volume knob. With my Lab12 Dac1, the difference between with USB and Coaxial is more significant, probably the coaxial implementation is more well thought out.