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Denafrips Terminator vs. Venus

I was wondering if any members (non Denafrips dealers) have had first hand personal experience listening / living with these two DACs from Denafrips. The Terminator is universally acclaimed while Venus is much less talked about. I understand physically the Terminator has 2 transformers and better chassis separation.

I found a page on the Denafrips' site with two Youtube videos for comparison, but can't hear a difference through headphones. Anyone been able to compare them back to back in the same system?
divertiti
bultaco
61 posts
 
I just found this thread after reading a couple of reviews on the Terminator. If anybody following this could help me, I consider myself an audiophile, but I have no clue how to use this device, yet I'm interested in buying it.
I have never downloaded music or "streamed".

What I'm thinking is; adding this to my Oppo to make it sound even better. Could that be done?
celander's avatar
celander
1,502 posts
 
Which Oppo player do you have? If it’s a recent Oppo, then you should have a digital output for external connection to a DAC. And yes, an external DAC will likely improve the SQ of your Oppo. 
bultaco
61 posts
 
@celander 

Thank you for your reply. I have the BDP-95. I will need to look at the back of it to see if it has the external connection. It sounds pretty good as is, but you know how this hobby is...
bultaco
61 posts
 
@celander 

On the back panel there is a section called: Digital Audio,
and it has optical and coaxial connection ports.
 It also has an Ethernet LAN port and "external storage E-SATA" port.
adg101
1,057 posts
 
@bultaco
Not knowing the rest of your system I’m not sure you need to jump to a $4K DAC to improve your Oppo BDP 95 as you can do it for a lot less. If you’re interested in the Denafrips line, my guess is the Pontus or Ares will be a substantial improvement. I have an Oppo UDP 205 and my Cambridge 851c is a better machine for red book playback. 

I run my Bluesound Vault 2 through my Cambridge and am interested in the Denafrips units as well as an upgrade, just not sure with my modest system the Terminator makes sense because of the cost. For me the Pontus, maybe the Venus makes more sense. Definitely drawn to the price of the Pontus. The DAC in my Cambridge destroys the DAC in the Vault so might jump to the Venus as the Cambridge is no slouch.
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