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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
luisma31
516 posts
 
+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, 👍

luisma31
516 posts
 
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_squires
16,732 posts
 
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.
erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
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
luisma31
516 posts
 
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.
Hi Erik:
We are saying kind of the same thing.
You will buy the terminator for the PCM stage no doubt about it, that is " the whole raison de’etre " as you put it.

My own opinion for other factors.
If you also have DSD recordings the DSD stage is very good as well and you don’t have to go from DSD to PCM, how good is this DSD vs PCM stage is a matter of preference, I don’t use it and I have said elsewhere in these forums that PCM sounds better than DSD and got controversial. Honestly I don’t take sides, so I told them do whatever rocks your boat.

When I was referring Erik that you (I should have said "could" not "would") get not only for the R2R (English is not my native language) I meant because other parameters (not specifically the DSD section)

Using silly bulk numbers reasons to get the Terminator
  1. Resistor ladder for PCM conversion - 60%
  2. Power supply quality, shielding and design and placement of components - 20% (Other DAC’s you usually have to power these with LPS’s and such to get very good benefits meaning extra cost $600 - $2000 for a good LPS, the built in PS on the Terminator is very good, you don’t need to spend extra on power supplies)
  3.  Filters used - 10%. These are very good, with native PCM redbook content the OS feature plays wonderful, the filters are the hand of the designer and have their own magic, I experimented this specifically with Euphony Stylus Player.
  4. DSD conversion - 10%.The SDM conversion is very good (specially with the good power supply embedded in the hardware), if you have native recordings again you don’t need to go through the PCM conversion, or DoP etc. just direct DSD, up to 1024 which is nice although not very usable for limitations on content and conversion software.

I understand for you topic 1. the PCM conversion will weight possibly 100% or 90% making the decision, I am just trying to see it in more "general" / "big picture" terms.If you want a good SDM DAC go for an RME ADI, will cost half the price (without an LPS) but it won’t offer many of the "special" features the Termy does.
And besides let’s be realistic, how many here are using Tidal / Qobuz PCM streaming vs Native DSD users? i would say 95%?
Yeah exactly your point (and mine) Erik ...
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