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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
jaytor's avatar
jaytor
766 posts
 
Alvin told me that DACs shipped since Nov 2019 already have this new board. This upgrade applies to DACs purchased before Nov 2019. 

Over the last couple days, my Terminator seems to have jumped in sound quality. Maybe it's just the music I've been playing, but it is really sounding nice.

And I haven't noticed any hiccups in the past couple of days (listening all day while I work from home). Perhaps it was only specific recordings which were causing the problem, but I think I'm going to stick with my Bryston streamer for the time being. 
Post removed 
alvin1118
131 posts
 

My FAQ response:


Good to hear from you. Hope all is well with you.

Lets call this latest DSP as BGA-DSP. It has various improvements over the previous one offered before Nov 2019:


- Intel Altera Cyclone IV FPGA with more IOs

- Improved PCB layout

- Improved components, i.e. ERO caps from Germany


Here's my take:

1. If you own and are happy with the current DSP board now, you do not need to upgrade. The high res support (PCM1536/DSD1024) and functions are exactly the same compared to the BGA-DSP.


2. But as all audiophiles, we are OCD, we are perfectionists, we like to try new things. That's the fun part of our hobby. The BGA-DSP is inexpensive (we subsidised heavily on the DSP board offer), it could be fun to play with it. We certainly need more toys at this strange time since we have unusually more time at home :)


Please stay safe, take care!


Many thanks.


Regards,

Alvin Chee

www.vinshineaudio.com
david_ten OP
5,480 posts
 
BGA-DSP Board Install Guide:

https://www.denafrips.com/single-post/2020/05/06/Guide-BGA-DSP-Upgrade?utm_campaign=9b01618a-f87c-41ab-98ad-b179a5f16465&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&cid=6a6bbfad-aefa-4c9d-9edc-f0321a709747


dgarretson
2,603 posts
 
I see the new Denafrips digital-to-digital products accept clock inputs around 45mhz. Any idea why they chose these rates? The most commonly used rate in audio studio master clocks is 10mhz, as well as multiples of 44.1 to 192khz. Also, can the multiple outputs on these products be used simultaneously? In my system it would be useful to operate USB and AES/EBU outputs simultaneously-- one to a DAC and the other to a digital recorder.
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