Denafrips Pontus *15th* ?

audiostick

Possibly not, but I did no do a direct comparison of the Pontus II to the Venus II.....I already had the Iris/Pontus combination set up, and wanted to see if the Venus II beat it; and for me it did not. The friend that owns the Venus that I borrowed, did prefer the Venus over the Pontus in a heads up comparison.

Compare pricing: Denafrips Pontus II 15th $1,800 + Denafrips Iris $550 = $2,350; versus $3,060 for a Venus.....so for me not only was the sonic signature better, but the price difference is $700.

Now will that be the case for everyone certainly not, I have heard several who prefer the Venus II (including my friend).....and maybe if I was doing a Pontus/Venus comparison straight up, I might as well.

I also know several people have other brands of DACs and use the Iris (or the higher up Hermes) with their DACs.....particularly Musician and Gustard which have I2S inputs. Hope this helps a bit

@vthokie83 

I am using the Venus II and Hermes combination via I2s and it's pretty damn good. I also updated the firmware to the latest, I feel I am not missing out either. These DAc's are really good for the money. I like using the Hermes as the source switch as i have coaxial, USB and AES all connected and still take advantage of the I2s on the Venus.  I also have considered the Terminator and also the Lampizator Balic 4, maybe in the future. But I want to get a tube pre amp first.

Fred

I thought you had that combo, and glad to hear your experience. Good luck on the preamp, my new Aric Audio Motherlode XL has showed me how much a great preamp can tie a system together.

Seems like the noise has died off pretty quickly.  I remember when the 12th edition came out the rumbling went on for quite some time.  Also seems very strange that no “official” announcement about the 15th has been issued here or anywhere else that I’m aware of.  The last time Alvin jumped on things pretty quickly.  It’s been over a week since this first surfaced and the only response has been that everyone’s on a business trip, lol.

I have an "original" Pontus II (so no 12th or other numbers involved) and I very much enjoy it. Purchased it new a few years back and always felt it was a really good deal for the money.

But I don't think I will be purchase anything else from Denafrips in light of the constant stream of updates. It's hard to keep track of, and seems to tank the resale value of prior models. I fully realize that a DAC is a depreciating asset but even so, this behavior really accelerates the process. 

On the flip side, those shopping on the second hand market for a great DAC will benefit greatly from this. But I don't think that's a bragging point for Denafrips to be proud of. 

The situation reminds me of Audio GD if anyone is familiar with that brand. I was a big fan back in the day, but things went sideways when they started "upgrading" models every 9 months, and the naming conventions were absurd. I got off that train and never looked back.