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Cen. Grand DSDAC 1.0 (vs Pontus II)

Hi guys, 

I made an enquiry with a distributer here in the UK, with a view to ordering the Pontus II. However, he's thrown me a curveball by recommending the Cen. Grand DSDAC 1.0 - another Chinese brand, making FPGA based DACs with PCM to DSD up sampling (from what I can make out). There isn't a lot out there on the interweb - reviews, sound character, presentation etc, much of anything really. 

The distributor claims, or suggests that to him the Cen. Grand is "better" than the Pontus II; I've asked him to qualify and elaborate on this, but in the meantime,  thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has direct experience of this brand/DAC. Just for reference/context, the Cen. Grand DSDAC 1.0 is the Standard version at £2500 (the distributer has offered me 10% discount, so £2250).

Thanks in advance 👍

128x128painter24
sns
3,222 posts
 

I too just discovered this dac the other day, Power Holdings in USA has it on Black Friday sale at present. May be perfect time to purchase as loss leader, may be trying to gain foothold in North American market. Haven't seen a single review.

fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,604 posts
 

Sure looks like the same process as Ted Smith's at PS Audio.

Chinese? What do ya know?

painter24's avatar
painter24 OP
287 posts
 

Yep, I think I'll swerve Cen. Grand for now; just not enough to go on. The distributor says he's sold a few of the higher tier versions after taking them to a clients home, and the units have stayed with the client. 

There is a Chinese site, looks like the equivalent of ASR, with measurements of the DAC; Google Translator mangled what was written, but what was legible wasn't very flattering. But there weren't any listening impressions given, only measurements. 

This may well be a hidden gem, just like Denafrips DACs were to begin with, but I'm not going to risk it. The distributer has offered 7 day return if I don't like it, but that's not a lot of time to see if I can live with a DAC, what with work, dogs, life etc so I'm opting for the tried and tested Pontus II

lordmelton's avatar
lordmelton
877 posts
 

Seems like a rip off of PS Audio's Direct Stream and now Direct Stream Mk II DAC.

The Cen Ultimate version of this DAC is $5.3k so not much reason to buy it when you can get trade ins off buying the PS Audio DAC, on any components.

PS Audio and Cen both upsample everything including PCM to DSD, personally I don't think upsampling is necessary with today's DACs. YMMV.

sns
3,222 posts
 

It was $4.7K when I looked.

 

Without any reviews, likely very few will take the risk, especially as price rises. I believe I was first to take risk with Musetec 005 her in US, turned out well. I'd be more tempted if 005 wasn't producing at such high level, it seems to have never ending resolving and harmonic development capabilities.

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