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Denafrips Pontus II Clicks Or Static?

There have been some who have reported clicks or static occasionally with their Denafrips Pontus II DAC units.  And there is a test measurement review of the Pontus II 12th on the golden sound website talking about the following:

"When DACs oversample, they can sometimes encounter a situation where the reconstructed/interpolated waveform goes above 0dBfs (the maximum possible digital value)."

"The Pontus 2 is susceptible to intersample overs, and unfortunately, in a particularly bad way."

"The Pontus 2 does not clip, but instead when a sample value reaches above the maximum, it ‘wraps around’ to the minimum negative value, causing a huge sudden transient which will be very audible and may appear as crackling/popping."

Has anyone with a Pontus II encountered this anomaly when playing CDs?  If so, can you elaborate about that?  I am aware that the Pontus II can be firmware upgraded, so if this is an occasional issue, it could be eliminated with an upgrade.

 

 

fastcat95
m669326's avatar
m669326
330 posts
 

I like NOS better, anyway. If you were to try listening to upsampling, and NOS playing on your Pontus, you might feel the same, in which case the issue is moot.

atp001
15 posts
 

Yes, I have this problem with pops & ticks on both my Ares II and Pontus II.  I get a pop/tick concurring at an estimated frequency of 1-2 per hour of playback (it may be more frequent, possibly masked by music).  Currently trying to resolve the issue with Vinshine.

I have been troubleshooting this for about a year now.  What I can say at the moment is that the issue appears to be specific to the Denafrips units.  The issue exists on two different systems, regardless of whether all the connections are via RCA or XLR or whether the digital input is through optical, coaxial, or i2s (do not use USB).  The issue is present when playing both CDs, or PCM/DSD files.  Warming up the units does not resolve the problem.  I have no issues when I send the digital to another outboard DAC (using the same players, pre, amps), or when using the internal DACs of either of my two players.  NOS does not appear to solve the problem. 

I tried playing a -120db 1kHz test 'tone' thinking the low/silent background would help highlight the issue better, but after one hour of playback, I did not hear any pops/ticks.  I need to run this test some more to confirm.  I do hear the pops/ticks when playing test tones from the Stereophile Test CD3.

Anyone with insights or solved this problem?

 

fastcat95 OP
36 posts
 

atp001:

Are your ticks and pops loud, or more soft in nature?  What has the response from Alvin at Vinshine been like?

I had previously wrote to Alvin about the issue, citing a review of the Pontus II 12th at goldensound.com.

 

Denafrips needs to seriously address this issue.  In a recent video, Alvin has said that a firmware update will be coming this year. Hopefully this will be fixed soon; some people do not report problems with the ticks & pops.

 

atp001
15 posts
 

I would not characterize the pops/ticks as soft or loud, just audible and at music levels.

I have been communicating with Vincent in support.  He had suggested I try USB but I relayed that I am currently not using USB.  That was six days ago and he has not responded.  Not sure how that was relevant anyhow.  I would like the dacs to function properly using spdif.

 

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