I recently got a new Terminator 15th. I have been "shopping" for my next DAC for over a year to replace my Venus II. I was being careful to get something I would feel was an upgrade and would be good enough to stop my desire for more, I cannot afford it anymore being retired with limited disposable income. I was interested a long time ago in getting a Terminator plus because I was curious about the ability to take advantage of the clock snyc feature with the Hermes I already have. I also own a pretty good I2s cable, the Tubulus Argentus so this seemed like the most logic step, but that $7600 price kept me from it. Once the Terminator 15th became available and is basically a Terminator + I became more serious about it. I contacted @audioman58 about one and decided to make the buy from him. I have been running it constantly since I got it with my Aurender N200 streaming Qobuz. I have 100 hours on it now. I bought Oyaide DB 510 clock cables because they get good feedback, they are not a compromise for this intended use. I am sure there are better clock cables but this will have to do for now, I spent all I can. I can say I am absolutely thrilled with this Terminator 15th DAC. It is exactly what I was hoping for and has the inherent Denifrips House sound but just a LOT better han the Venus II. I always felt the Venus II was good and it is, but holy cow this new DAC is just giving me what I wanted. Here are some of my notes in comparison to the Venus II I had. (I sold it before the Terminator arrived)
Terminator 15th
Realistic timbre to instruments and vocalists, just so real!.
Bass is deeper but more defined and textured,it surprises me how it jumps out so realistically
More holographic and airy around instruments and vocalists-I can hear them so easily now
clearer separation of voices coming from the background
Get up and Boogies, music has great drive and tempo
Realism, palpable, I can just listen for hours on end
comes from Quiet
soundstage bigger, hearing well outside the speakers now, deeper too
piano is so real
delicate overtones, reverberations and decays
smoother
So this is what I am hearing for now. My system is in my profile. i must say that with what I am done with cabling recently I am really hearing the changes i make now more easily. So FWIW this is my perspective. I was so very close to buying a T+A DAC 200 but this new pricing tipped the scales for me, I am happy with my purchase. I just prefer the R2R sound for me.