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

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 ...

@david_ten and @alvin1118

David and Alvin, I did not mean to derail this thread onto a separate PCM / DSD / other DACs discussion, just stating my opinion.

@luisma31 - yes, I agree that having a good DSD section along with the excellent R2R PCM functionality makes the Terminator an excellent "complete" solution no matter your content type.

While I have very little DSD content in my own collection so I haven't done a lot (read none) of A/B testing of DSD content, it makes sense to me to keep PCM as PCM, and DSD as DSD, since this DAC does an excellent job with both. 

I did experiment with converting PCM to DSD just for grins (and since this seems to be a big part of PS Audio's approach), but I preferred the results sticking with PCM. The DAC does a very good job with standard Redbook material (with no alteration before the DAC), but I slightly prefer the sound using Roon to do power-of-2 upsampling. 

@jaytor yes sir I agree

@luisma31  Good discussion. My position (coming from a guy who only used the Terminator 'native' / NOS PCM) is that having options is better than not having them AND that this hobby is 'the better for it' when  we get to explore and choose what works best for us.

In that spirit, I look forward to @73max 's findings and his ultimate preferences.