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


Thread for OWNER IMPRESSIONS, FEEDBACK, QUESTIONS, ETC. regarding DENAFRIPS DACs.

DENAFRIPS lists the following R2R DACs:

Ares, Pontus, Venus, and Terminator (in increasing price order).

"DENAFRIPS incorporated in year 2012, focus in developing high end audio equipment at a very affordable price. Throughout the years of intense Research & Development, and continuous improvement of the product lines, DENAFRIPS had finally settled with the current product range equipped with R-2R ladder DAC technology. The reason behind this is the designer strongly believe that R-2R DAC is the best way to reproduce music.

The name, DENAFRIPS, stand for:

D-ynamic
E-xquisite
N-atural
A-ttractive
F-idelity
R-efined
I-ntoxicating
P-ure
S-ophisticated

This mean a lot and it is the house-sound of all DENAFRIPS products." [Copied From Denafrips About Us section]
david_ten
@lalitk ,
its a studio grade AES cable that I'm using atm tbh. I've experienced with Gotham cable first, then the same guy who built my power amps sent sent me a german AES cable he terminated himself, also "studio" grade. both sound almost similar but I sensed more openness and slightly more controlled bass while using the German made cable, so I kept it.
I have tried an "audiophile" AES cable in my system (800 USD worth), it did sound a bit different, tonality wise but i couldn't tell which I do prefer even after experimenting for days. so I simply I sent it back. I'm certain different cables do sound different - even digital ones. but does more expensive always equal better? I don't think so. placebo plays a huge role. also those crazy price tags for cables makes us feel they are something to look up to even before we listen.
I have also tried some audiophile expensive analog interconnects from the same brand (2 pairs of XLR, worth 2000+ USD) vs my current Pioneer reference pair (roughly 270 USD for both - awesome XLR btw), and the difference was shockingly negligible. is such 1-2% enhancement worth such price difference? I think this money should be spent on a better component that makes a serious difference, such as a DAC, sever, Preamp, etc. sorry for such long answer but I could not resist to write down my view on cables :)))
@anwar 
I have been told that around 1000 hours the terminator should be fully broken in, but its possible that more hours would make things even better, I guess time would tell :)
with Aurender N10 via AES, only DSD64 is possible (DoP), due to bandwidth limitation of the AES cable. Aurender N10 is capable of playing native DSD up to DSD128, via USB, but by doing that you skip the n10's OCXO clock which is not recommended.
the Denafrips terminator can handle up to DSD256, via USB from a capable source. what I learned, its not the size of the DSD file, its the source which is playing it what really matters. DSD64 will sound better out of N10 via AES (or any of the n10's spdif out in general) vs DSD256 from a noisy laptop via USB.
some DACs accept twin AES input, like some DCS Dacs. with Aurender W20, which has dual AES out, with such setup you can play up to DSD128 (DoP) as each channel has the whole bandwidth of one AES cable. I was wondering out of curiosity if the terminator has the same capability, but these two AES inputs are simply for two different sources. in addition to that, I honestly don't see myself getting a 17k USD Aurender W20, like ever! its too expensive for a "source". but who knows :) 
in my humble opinion, DSD64 played from Aurender n10 to Terminator via AES sounds amazing to my ears, I cant imagine anything could sound better. but I have not heard many other high end server/dacs combos, so that statement is subjective. however I can say, there was no sharpness/ brightness that I heard its an attribute of DSD64 is present by any means... just bags of detail, a magical holographic presentation, and an expansive, huge sound stage with pinpoint accuracy. decent CD rips sound almost equally good. Tidal Steaming (depending on how good the recording is) sound very good as well! whatever you through at this combo, it sounds fantastic :)

I just spent an hour reading this thread, instead of working. I am interested in how people would connect the DT to a music server via the 12S connection. 

In my current rig I have a powerful desktop computer running ROON, my music server. I send the music bits via Ethernet to my Sonare microRendu and from there, via a USB cable, to my Benchmark DAC3L. This same approach would work for the DT via USB. 

If I wanted to add the DT to my system, how would I connect the DT via I2S cable? Is there anything that takes Ethernet music bits and converts to an I2S format that the DT understands?
@saleh84  Thanks for your wonderful write-up and sharing your impressions of the Terminator, etc. Very cool!
@yyzsantabarbara   Reach out to Alvin, who will be able to share the various I2S components paired with the Terminator. He'll also be able to provide the pin settings (should adjustments be required).

My personal preference would be to go USB into the Terminator OVER inserting an I2S convertor into the chain. For me, this defeats the purpose. I'd choose I2S direct only.

The other reason is around cabling. (Offhand, I don't recall where you fall with respect to cables) but there are far more options, and Quality USB options, than with I2S.
For those that may not know, there is a robust Facebook group for the Terminator. It's a great site to ask questions, especially if you frame them in Italian. : )