Changes in DAC Presentation - Need Advice


Hey all, I recently purchased a Denafrips Terminator II, and ever since I've noticed that some days the sound is sweet and natural, and other days it is forward and bright. I've even heard the sound change mid-song. Could this be due to fluctuations in my line voltage? Any other reason this may be happening?

System:

Mac Mini running Roon core

Sonore ultraRenu

Denafrips Terminator II

Pass XP-12 Preamp

Odyssey Audio Kismet Monoblocks

Focal Sopra 2

128x128topside3

@jjss49 So do I. I would add that having experience adding optical (going from microRendu to opticalRendu) was a big improvement in clarity, spaciousness and lower noise floor. Cheers,

Spencer

@sbank I replaced the ultraRendu with an opticalRendu and things have been pretty stable. Perhaps network noise was the culprit. Definitely now looking at replacing the Mac mini. 

Yes, the opticalrendu is wonderful network upgrade, recently upgraded from TPLink FMC to opticalrendu, plays on much higher plane.

 

As for Macmini. I've used three different macminis over the years, never had a single glitch with Roon. These things are network related if mini optimized as server, therefore, shutting down all those non-critical processes. You do have one major upgrade left to you with mini. Get Uptone MMK with Uptone JS-2, then use Thunderbolt out as ethernet bridge out, you'll have top flight server. Just doing the ethernet out from thunderbolt alone will be of great benefit.