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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
772 posts
 
@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. 
luisma31
516 posts
 
@jaytor yes sir I agree
david_ten OP
5,480 posts
 
@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.
david_ten OP
5,480 posts
 
For those considering CD Transports, give the new Denafrips Avatar a look....

https://www.denafrips.com/avatar
mmoxley
1 posts
 
Alvin from Vinshine Audio is THE man! I purchased the Denafrips ARES II DAC earlier this year when it was on back order and Alvin communicated every week or so with an update on the production status and estimated shipping dates. It arrived professional packed (double boxed) in bullet proof foam enclosure.

Hooked it up to my Mac mini and it played straight away with no setup and just kept sounding better and better as it burned in. Definitely as advertised...very analogue sounding DAC. I also have a Benchmark DAC1 Pre USB as my reference which is a very neutral DAC so it was easy to hear the difference in my setup.

I switched it over to another system that used Windows 10 and could not get the USB input to play. I thought maybe the unit was defective, but it was ultimately user error :) Alvin took the time to walk me step by step and trouble shoot over the course of a few days via email until it was working perfect again. Not only did he help, but he taught me a bunch of things along the way with some articles he shared.

For the price and sound of this DAC and the support from Alvin at Vinshine there is no doubt this is the BEST VALUE in hifi audio. If you are on the fence, do not hesitate to do business with Alvin and try out the Denafrips brand. Was a five star white glove experience from start to finish!
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