DENAFRIPS DAC ---- Owner Impressions, Feedback, General Discussion, Questions and more....

Everyone is different but I have not read one review from 6 moons because they REQUIRE a manufacturer to purchase ad(s) prior to reviewing a product.

@ghasley 
You just dashed my hopes with that statement. I was hoping to find more information on the Wyred4Sound STP-SE Stage-2 which they reviewed favorably. The reason I was eyeing it because it is a passive/active design that has been praised in a couple of professional reviews and they said it has that clean sound like a TVC.

I understand your concern ghasley, but, based on that logic, the positive reviews for the Lavorgna-exalted totaldac and also Lampizator, Pass Labs, Metrum, Aqua, Allnic, Gryphon, Less Loss, SOtM, COS, and many others are all invalid.

While all of these manufacturers must be paying advertising fees to six moons since their products are all reviewed there, very few of them receive Blue Moon awards as the Terminator did. That must have cost Denafrips a fortune!

Stereophile, and thus its daughter publication Audiostream, have long been known to give preference to their advertising partners for review selection and even giving their paying partners second chance reviews when things go badly the first time. I think the Schiit Yggdrasil review shows what happens to manufacturers that buck the tide with John Atkinson.

Makes one wonder what Stereophile/Audiostream toes were stepped on to merit the drive-by hatchet job that Lavorgna did on the Border Patrol and Denafrips DACs in that sorry excuse for a DAC comparison.

Dave

@dlcockrum your 2 data points using the all positive reviews from 6 moons and the quasi negative review of the Schiit by Stereophole kindof proves the point. I’m not saying all of the reviews by 6 moons are invalid, they’re just all positive all the time. The measured problems JA observed in the Schiit are very real although if you like the sound you like the sound. Im certain the Denafrips is cool, many will buy and enjoy it. It will eventually be reviewed by reputable publications, I will read those with great interest.

The Audiostream reported observations of the 4 dacs seemed a reasonable outcome but I have heard none of the 4. I viewed their choice of the 2 totaldacs at 1-2 predictable but the way I read it the Borderpatrol became congested during the complex passages of that particular musical selection (which happens) but they seemed to believe the Denafrips had trouble during all of their musical choices. By any measure, the fact that the Borderpatrol hung with dacs at multiples of its price is impressive. A home demo will provide the answer. I look forward to the observations voiced by fellow Audiogoners.

Would really be fun to see the Soekris DAC1541 included in this conversation. It has volume control and is available at a reasonable price even though it's their top model.

I plan to set up a test run of the AXPONA demo comparing the 4 Denafrips DACs switchable in a real-time demo in Farmingdale NJ in early April time frame.  PM me if you can attend and be among the first to hear it.
Vinh Vu
Gingko Audio and Danacable