2. digital
  3. 148850-117859

Denafrips Terminator vs other dacs

Hey everyone I have owned the denafrips Terminator in my system for approximately one year and am enjoying it. However I have not compared it to many other Dacs. the only one really being the Burson conductor SL 9018 and the hdv 820 and both of these were with headphones not speakers.
Initially when I was buying I was looking to spend around 4,000 and was deciding between the PS audio directstream and the Terminator and after lots of reading eventually settled on The Terminator.

So in this thread my aim is to get all the people who've either owned the Terminator or heard it to chime in on there impressions of it specifically compared to other dacs. Some of the other dacs I'm thinking of are the chord Hugo 2, tt2, Dave. The bricasti M1 SE. PS direct stream. Metrum pavane. Holo spring l3. And any other dacs that you heard that you have compared to the Terminator.

I realize that there are other threads that discuss the Terminator but I have not seen any that focus on comparing it to other dacs which is what I want this thread to be focused on.
Thank you so much.
smodtactical
smodtactical OP
982 posts
 
@thyname sorry I thought you were talking about Select dac.

For discrete dac wouldn't people necessarily recommend the separate power base? In which case it would be $20k. 

Without the power base is the discrete dac better than all other options in his price category?
thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
No @smodtactical --- the second power supply is less than $1,500. It already comes with one. if you add (let's say) the Renderer module for Ethernet streaming, it will add another $1995 to the price. So about $13K to $14K tops MSRP give or take. 

There is obviously the power base, for those who want it, but I did not get it. For me and my budget, the dual discrete power supplies are good enough
shkong78's avatar
shkong78
1,485 posts
 
@thyname

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/my-quest-for-a-new-dac-part-3-denafrips-terminator-r740/

DAC is dependent on system and personal taste.

The author implied that Ayre QX-5 Twenty sounds better than Terminator.

Comparison with the Ayre QX-5 Twenty

 

I still had this puppy on loan, so had to do this comparison. Well, there's a reason the QX-5 Twenty costs north of $9k. In many ways, the QX-5 was the amalgam of the strengths of the Terminator and the QX-8! It was even more refined and resolving than the QX-8, but with dynamics and low end oomph to match the Terminator.

 

Pay, and ye shall receive!



It seems that you owned Ayre QX-5 Twenty.

Could you give comparison between Ayre QX-5 Twenty and MSB Discrete Dac?

thanks in advance

Thomas

thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
I have the Ayre QX-5 Twenty up for sale now @shkong78 . That says a lot. Ayre was my favorite DAC for over a year, and I have tried many DACs.

The MSB does something to the music that I have a hard time to explain. It has a kind of "liquid" presentation, so musical, that I enjoy a lot. Without losing any of the "sparkle". Ayre is very detailed and high resolution, quite a good body, and dynamic, but for me, MSB is more enjoyable, with no "digital character" of any kind, that does not fatigue you, and yet, it does not lose any of the presentation.

Truth be told, when you get to that level, it's all a matter of personal preferences. I am pretty sure I could have been happy with QX-5 ever after, but again, the upgrade itch hit me pretty hard when I listened to the MSB at the dealer. I hope this helps, and I am sorry I cannot explain this better. It's hard for me to put words on how I hear
thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 
Oh, and as an owner of the Holo Spring KTE Level 3, which is also r2r tech like Denafpris and MSB, I can tell you that Ayre QX-5 Twenty was much better. So, it's not just matter of technology. It is more a matter of implementation of the technology
More to discover