Received my Denafrips Venus 15th

@brbrock  I've owned the Denafrips Venus II before the Terminator 15th for 3 years. My Legacy  Wavelet II also has an internal DAC. I have become accustomed to the R2R sound in comparison and prefer it. I wanted to take advantage of the clock sync feature between my Hermes that I had already mated to the Venus II via I2s before. The Terminator 15th was an easy choice and end game DAC for me. I now have it mated to the Hermes and the BNC Clock cables for the clock sync.

Thanks everyone for your excellent advice. I really appreciate you taking the time to write out your suggestions and comments. I think I like the idea of adding better streamer first. I see Innuous does both does Qobuz and Deezer which are 2 of my music services. Is there any streamers that would also include Amazon HD on addition to the other two?
 

My advice would be to switch to Qobuz — IME the sound is much better and you can do a free trial.  And going with Innuos is a great choice not only for sound quality but also for their outstanding Sense app that will make you miss the Wiim not one bit and likely be a big improvement — some users have even dumped Roon for Sense, which is high praise indeed.  Innuos also offers excellent customer support if needed.  Don’t forget about trying a DDC in the future though as it could well give you a very significant and cost-effective performance boost.  Best of luck. 

zaxx40

Please let us know where you go from here, I'd be interested in hearing about it

Well everyone I thought before i jumped in with an expensive streamer i would try a little experiment. My Venus 15th has the ability to output it’s clock signals. I know these clocks are not the top of the Denafrips  lineup but they must pretty good if they gave us the clock out option. 
 

Really having the itch to try I2S I decided to look at the Denafrips Streamers. They have there budget Arce and the Arcas. Apparently a more expensive version in also in design stages. The Arcas is supposed to sound better than the Arce from what I have read. 
 

I think the Arcas has similar clocks to my Venus 15th.  I wondered if the Arce could sound close to the Arcas if I used the Clocks out  of my Venus 15th 

Needless to say I ordered the Arce and received it today. I had ordered 75ohm bnc cables from Bluejean cables for the clock out and A short HDMI cable for the I2S connection. 
 

The Arce is a very solid little unit and looks great. 
 

i configured both the Arce and the Venus for the clocks and I2S connections. Enabled the Arce in Roon and knowing you have to be careful with the original I2S connection(testing to make sure configs are correct) i decided to try AESBU connection because I am impatient and wanted to see if a streamer could make a difference. 
 

Wow is the first listening impressions I experienced from the very first song. Clarity, air and sound stage improvements were huge. 
 

I will be trying the I2S connection on another day. For now I am going to enjoys my new sound. 
 

I have to wonder if the Arcas would make a greater improvement or is Arce going to be on par utilizing the Venus clocks?  Maybe an Arcas for my Venus ii is in my future. 😀