My Denafrips Aries 15th has too much mid -bass, anybody else??

I think you need to readjust your sub settings/placement.  I’d start with that and/or pulling your speakers further out. 

Never heard of "dinner fripps", is it dinner with Robert Fripp? Sorry, kidding :-)

Anyway. I generally feel that yes, Denafrips is NOT punchy or bright. It is R2R DAC that tend to sound more ’relaxed’ to my opinion. Perhaps you would prefer DAC based on ESS chip, they are definitely brighter. And Sony is brighter still, IMO.

Denafrips to ESS is like Pass to Krell.

@barfbag

It’s very easy to get seduced by reviews and assume that what others swoon over will do the same for you. In fact, this happened to me, recently, with a much more expensive DAC. However, I intentionally purchased it from a seller who offers a return/refund policy. I recommend you do the same. It's difficult to know how any component might sound in your room, in your system, without the opportunity to actually hear it for yourself. 

Agree with the above.  Experiment with speaker placement.  Don't forget to try different toe-in levels, this can very much affect the overall balance of the sound.  When speakers are toed in more, they will have more lively treble that may balance better with an overabundance of mid bass.  

Sony’s hifi division makes very high quality devices.

You were probably spoilt by the HAP-Z1ES.

Return the dinner frips and be happy with the Sony.

Audiophiles will only feel "elusive" if some guy builds crap for them working out of his garage. But, these bigger dogs like Sony, Yamaha, Technics, etc who’ve been around the block (engineering clout's on a higher notch) can easily make the garage manufacturers look like imbeciles. So, don’t ever feel bad about owning a Sony.

I’m a shocked that it have not experienced the system transformation ive heard so much about. I run a Sony hap Z1es and the internal dac sounds much punchier/ cleaner than the 15th

Ah yes, “dinner frips” the old auto correct off my cell. Anyhoo, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll play around a bit.