musician aquarius r2r dac any good?

I have to say, problem #3 is probably specific to certain equipment. Why not work with iFi and Musician to see if there is a fix? Plus, if I’m hearing you right, the solution is simply turn the Aquarius off and on and then it works. Is that really so hard? While the Terminator Plus May be a bit better (soundnews.net rated the Terminator a 94 and the Aquarius  93) it’s a MUCH more expensive unit, and even more so if you need to add the Gaia. While I’d love to have a Terminator Plus too, for the price difference I think I could live with turning the Aquarius off and on, and that’s IF this is an issue with other equipment at all and IF that issue can’t be fixed with firmware update, etc.). Just some thoughts/perspective FWIW.

@soix

While I’d love to have a Terminator Plus too, for the price difference I think I could live with turning the Aquarius off and on, and that’s IF this is an issue with other equipment at all. Just some thoughts/perspective FWIW

100% Agreed.

@viethluu

With regard to issue three, I think it is system specific in my case. You can perhaps check with other people here who have the Aquarius.

My question is: why do you pick the terminator over the Aquarius if the terminator will be the slower DAC?

I don’t think Sandu meant that the T+ is slower than Aquarius, rather slower than other hi-end dacs. The T+ is in a different class than the Aquarius. I would choose the T+ as an upgrade because it is in the price range I could afford (willing to pay) buying used.

My impressions are based on Sandus´ reviews. If he is wrong with regard to the T+ then perhaps someone could correct him. However, you have a point, Sandu should have mentioned the dacs that were better than the T+.

"I’ve already covered quite a few R-2R ladder DACs by now, some of them were magnificent sounding like Denafrips Venus, Audio-GD R7 and Musician Aquarius. All of them had their pluses and minuses, but I feel that today’s unit terminates them all, climbing an aluminum throne as the best sounding DAC I had the pleasure of testing at my place."

"The amount of information that comes forward is staggering and as much as I liked the Musician Aquarius and that yummy sounding Rockna Wavelight, Terminator Plus goes a little higher, delivering a clearer, a punchier and a faster overall performance."

"Terminator Plus reigns supreme in here, closely followed by a Rockna Wavelight, Musician Aquarius, Audio-GD R7 and Denafrips Venus."

Again, for perspective, the Terminator + costs $8850, and if you add the GAIA it ups the total cost to $11,300.  The Aquarius costs like $3135 all in.  

@viethluu Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa - I meant to reference @auroravengeance who stated

 @arafiq  the Aquarius is basically a clone of Denafrips Terminator. Musician is an original brand created by the company that develops and manufactures Denafrips stuff in China, that is why Musician and Denafrips’ stuff look nearly identical. Denafrips is just a brand created by a distributor company in Singapore.

Denafrips is much more than a brand.  Their products as you agree are engineered at a higher level.  The Aquarius uses Femto clocks the Terminator OCXO and the Terminator has separate power supplies for the digital and analog sections.  I don't believe the parts in the Musician DAC's are better than Denafrips.

I had a Terminator and now a Terminator Plus with an Iris DDC.  The Terminator prefers the I2S input.

FWIW the prices quoted by @soix are Singapore dollars the US equivalent are $6460 for the TP and $1790 for the GAIA, my Iris was $ 550.  The Iris was less expensive than the Clock cables, less expensive than the power cord and less expensive than the HDMI cable I use with it.  For me it fixed the gremlins with USB.