Musician pegasus DAC or Denafrips Aries 2

Musician is a spin off of the Denafrips line of DACs. I read an article on it a while back when a reviewer did some research and refused to review the Musician.

It appears that the owner of Denafrips was given an offer he couldn't refuse and while building DACs for the Denafrips line sold by Vinshine, he made the same devices for Musician. They even had Denafrips name inside them for awhile. They capitalized on all the work Vinshine did and ran with it.

It was contentious and the people behind Musician created a "history" of their audio journey and denigrated Denafrips in the local press. Seems that Vinshine took the high road and wouldn't comment further on the matter. 

All the best,
Nonoise

I had read that Musician was an OEM supplier for Denafrips and decided to launch their own line of DACs. 

The Musician company may be one you want to be careful of   Apparently, they don't just lend a product for review to youtube reviewers, they give them the DAC to keep.  That's way outside the norm.  Perhaps that helps to explain the nothing-but-platitudes reviews I've seen.   Also, one reviewer could not get any support when their DAC misbehaved.

Meanwhile, Vinshine, Denafrips' distributer has gotten nothing but praise here and elsewhere.

I suggest you do some serious research before sending your money away.

As for the Pegasus being on the level of the Pontus, I don't know what @soix is smoking.  There seems to be a lot of smoke regarding this brand.

As for the Pegasus being on the level of the Pontus, I don’t know what @soix is smoking. There seems to be a lot of smoke regarding this brand.

Ok @melm, fair enough. I can just tell you that my Pegasus works fine, sounds excellent, and is built like a brick sh*thouse. Perhaps you can explain to us — specifically — what build quality and sonic characteristics make the Pontus superior? Have you even heard the Pegasus? Read the review on Soundnews.net and others. Either they’re all smoking something or they’ve trashed they’re credibility. As a reviewer myself, I know reputation is everything and that’s not worth ANY free product (and yeah, I got some free stuff but wouldn’t give a positive review for it), but you may not understand that. What reviews have you written/published? Know of what you speak before you try to trash a manufacturer or reviewer. Come on. Pony up. What’s your basis for any of your assertions? Writing crap online with no justification is one thing, but when you have real accountability as most professional reviewers have, well, it’s a bit more involved. So please, regale us with your evidence and/or actual listening experience to support what you’re asserting.  Otherwise, your post is worthless. 

I want to hear all aspects about both DACs built, service, who to buy from, and most imp. sound quality. Not interested in hearsay. I have read about both products. Made in the same manufacturing building, not unusual for China. compared to this and that. Also about reviewers been paid for a good article. Maybe @soix can chine about that. But what interest me more is real experience and comparisons. And BTW I'm using my Node 2i as streamer vs replacing the Node with a streamer/DAC unit.