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

That makes no sense to me.

That is a good (although very direct and raw) remark. I totally agree but you could have added @erik_squires "even more if the source content is native PCM"

This is the way I understand it. Big part of the cost of the Terminator is the good quality and numerous resistors it uses. When you send content to the DAC it will do a lot of things, depending on the input used, buffering and reclocking etc, based on the source content will start the upsampling and digital to analog conversion on one of these two paths, if the content is PCM will be processed over the ladder of resistors and if it is DSD will be processed over the Sigma Delta stage with custom programmed FPGA.

IMO if you have native source content on DSD format well sending direct DSD bypassing the resistor ladder would be possibly advisable. On the other hand if you have PCM (from Tidal, Qobuz) then you could be better off sending PCM to it.

Erik's point I think is you could get a cheaper DS DAC if you prefer DSD (for some reason) and forget about the ladder part.

As said above My preference with the DAC would be sending "converted" (I don't like the term upsampled as I feel it is grammatically incorrect) PCM to max resolution with NOS, but (again) I for some time used a different player (not Roon) sending native Tidal with no conversion and the OS feature engaged and it sounded wonderful, could say different but comparable. After playing much with computers, software and suffering the effects of EMI/RFI I came to realize that if you don't have the time to tweak or if you just want to enjoy digital content with a simplier yet refined digital chain that's where you would be using the Terminator at its best

Please note just like I have my own preferences everyone else in this forum have their own, and I respect that, it is your ears, your perception and your money.

If I am making a false claim above by all means chime in and correct me

+1 @erik_squires . I was thinking the same thing. But it’s his ears and his money. If he likes the sound better that way, that’s his choice.

You nailed it @jaytor, in three lines what I used more than 30, 👍

If I may add, I said above big part of the cost were the resistors but I could add the final analog conversion electrical stage it is excellent as well as the digital filters used in the conversion. This is a very complete product which you would get not only for the R2R section, that's what I'm trying to say.

Erik's point I think is you could get a cheaper DS DAC if you prefer DSD (for some reason) and forget about the ladder part.

Kind of. As I understand it, the whole raison de'etre of the DENAFRIPS line of DACs is the discrete R2R ladder, no? Conversely, the whole point of DSD is to simplify the reconstruction circuit to a switch and capacitor with an output filter.

Also, yes, I've heard Roon's DSD upsampling, and at least on my system it sounds brighter and harder, not better while soaking up CPU time on the server.

But it's his ears and his money. If he likes the sound better that way, that's his choice.

@jaytor No doubt, I'm just confused here, it's like buying a fancy French chef's knife to chop wood.

This is a very complete product which you would get not only for the R2R section, that's what I'm trying to say.

Huh.  If they say that the DSD conversion sounds better, it certainly invites me to price shop for a DAC that spent the same amount in the DSD output but not the PCM.

Buy what you will, but if you are going to run them this way, make sure you compare this way as well.

Best,

E