@jjss49 I appreciate your remarks, and I'm interested in anything we can point to that would make up that 10% difference. If possible, I'd like to go beyond "parts cost." What are those parts? What space is there in the tech assessment for creativity, or some kind of special "insight" into what makes something work, a little better...
Also, you make a 'aside' comment about cost of ownership. I looked on us-audio daught com and did not see a single Denafrips product for sale. On both the preceding website and e-bay, I did see numerous PS Audio products for sale, including the mentioned DAC and others. PS Audio (itself) appears to be selling the Direct Stream for about $5400 through us-audio. I also see a number of items that are sold used and also for significant reductions from the initial price, if $5400 is the original cost.
- one for $4100
- another for $3900
- one on eBay for $3795
- another for $2300 - is it old? it is upgradeable? 1 owner; originally bought for $4000. 9/10 condition.
So, lots of competition, and thus hard to keep a high price of re-sale.
Altogether, I'm not seeing a strong argument for a more expensive 'cost of ownership' in the Denafrips, although this might show up in one of their more costly products. My interest would not extend beyond the Ares ii, which looks to cost roughly $750 USD. I do not know the original cost of the units I've identified, but it appears that you lose more than the (entire) cost of the Ares ii in a resale situation with a PS Audio Direct Stream.
So, is that 5-10% improvement worth the expense? And that, of course, is an individually measured conclusion.
Perhaps there are other monetary considerations in the contrast, jjss49. You did point to upgradeability, which makes the $2300 option above more attractive. You did point to a broad group of bells and whistles, certainly not present in the Ares, although we don't expect a $750 unit to do it all. Interestingly, Topping DACs often see have to have quite a number of bells and whistles.
Also, getting back to the Bifrost 2, we see another unit that is upgradeable at the sub $1000 price domain. It has few bells, but does include a remote.
@djones51 mentions transparency. What does that term cover, in terms of the experience of a DAC? Does transparency mean the DAC will read all the musical information and present it all coherently, to the amp?
Schiit recently presented their MODIUS DAC, for $199, and it has the lowest distortion reading of any of their DACs. What does this mean, compared to the higher end offerings, the Bifrost, the Yggdrasil, etc. I've mostly seen raves of the Yggdrasil, so what is the specific tech that people are pointing to...? If it measures more distortion than the Modius, what is making it a better sound DAC, despite distortion readings...?
