Great info! Given what you’re looking for my first thought was an R2R DAC and was gonna recommend the Pontus but you beat me to it. With your budget, and to borrow a phrase from Emeril, you can kick it up several notches by adding a DDC (like the Denafrips Iris) so you can take advantage of the DAC’s i2S input, which gives a very significant performance bump. For the streamer I’d recommend the Innuos Pulse Mini because, in addition to being a very good streamer (and a good step up from the Node), it comes with their Sense app that gets excellent reviews for both usability and sound quality and is continually being upgraded. And Innuos offers top-notch customer support as well. If it’s in budget I’d get a linear power supply for the streamer (good ones can be had for $200 - $300) as a good LPS will significantly up its performance. I believe all this can be had within your budget even new, so if you can get some of it used you should come in well under and have a pretty killer streaming setup. So glad you’re getting into streaming — it’s literally life changing. One last thing — go with Qobuz for a streaming service. Hope this helps, and best of luck.
Auralic Vega G2 or Denafrips Pontus II 12th + streamer?
I'm looking to add digital to my system as a supplement to vinyl (my main listening avenue), but I've been debating whether to go with a very capable combo unit like the Vega G2 or separates for some time. My main concern is longer term support re: various streaming service apps, etc that might make built-in streaming capabilities outdated in a few years in combo units.
I had a thought that maybe investing in a great DAC separate that will outlast changes in streaming tech where I could just upgrade separate streamers in the future if necessary might be a better approach, but I don't know.
I like the idea of keeping it simple with a combo unit a la Vega G2 or Hifi Rose or something, but I'm also not interested in anything that might be a brick in a couple years. Not interested in having the 'smartphone' experience of needing to upgrade every few years, especially at a multi-thousand dollar price point.
Having an excellent control app is 100% required for any streaming solution I consider as it needs to be very simple to use (will be controlled by family occasionally as well via an iPad most likely, which is mostly why).
I'd like to stick to under $5k total (used is fine). A used Vega G2 tends to sit at about $4500-5k on the market from what I've seen, so this would be the tip top end of what I could consider.
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Im comparing the Pontus 2 to my Orchid Dac right now. Pontus 2 needs alot of break in time. Been listening for a few days and needed to give my ears a break for a few days then go back and reevaluate. Both have there strengths amd weaknesses. Pontus 2 has alot of Clarity and no fatigue but the Orchid has great tone and not as clear. Will come down to which is more important to me |
@evank - what does the rest of your gear look like? Do you use tube amplification or SS? I was a little concerned with the Orchid given I'm going to be running it through tubes. I feel like it might get a little too warm sounding overall. |
@mmcgill829 im using a Schiit Freya + for a preamp.and the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Ultra for amplification |
That sounds like a very valid concern and may be a good argument for the Pontus, but in the end it’s all personal taste and system dependent. If I had tubes downstream I’d go with the Pontus, but that’s just me. |
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