My Denafrips Aries 15th has too much mid -bass, anybody else??

@barfbag

It’s very easy to get seduced by reviews and assume that what others swoon over will do the same for you. In fact, this happened to me, recently, with a much more expensive DAC. However, I intentionally purchased it from a seller who offers a return/refund policy. I recommend you do the same. It's difficult to know how any component might sound in your room, in your system, without the opportunity to actually hear it for yourself. 

Agree with the above.  Experiment with speaker placement.  Don't forget to try different toe-in levels, this can very much affect the overall balance of the sound.  When speakers are toed in more, they will have more lively treble that may balance better with an overabundance of mid bass.  

Sony’s hifi division makes very high quality devices.

You were probably spoilt by the HAP-Z1ES.

Return the dinner frips and be happy with the Sony.

Audiophiles will only feel "elusive" if some guy builds crap for them working out of his garage. But, these bigger dogs like Sony, Yamaha, Technics, etc who’ve been around the block (engineering clout's on a higher notch) can easily make the garage manufacturers look like imbeciles. So, don’t ever feel bad about owning a Sony.

I’m a shocked that it have not experienced the system transformation ive heard so much about. I run a Sony hap Z1es and the internal dac sounds much punchier/ cleaner than the 15th

Ah yes, “dinner frips” the old auto correct off my cell. Anyhoo, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll play around a bit.

Speaker placement and adjusting gain / crossover settings on your sub are great advice and the first place to start.  Comments on the design difference between DAC’s are spot on, R2R will have a very different sound signature vs those with newer chip designs.  R2R’s sound signature is talked up as being much more analogue, tube, vinyl sounding.  It emphasizes the mids, lows and tends to be more gentle on the highs.  It’s often described as more “musical, warmer” but less analytic, “Hifi” sounding.  Synergy is key, if your system is already on the warmer side, your speakers roll off a bit on top and or are known to highlight the mids, the 15 might be too much of a good thing.  The fact you hear a noticeable difference is a great thing system wise, if you don’t have a system set up that could highlight differences in a DAC wouldn’t be all that noticeable.  Unsure of your equipment is room ready, if it is, sign up for the free trial, you can use their EQ software to tailor the sound, curve.  That would give you a really good understanding of what you might be hearing.  You can drop the mods / lows and juice up the highs, if that doesn’t provide a different sonic signature than something else is going on. The Sony is no slouch and it’s likely designed / engineered to deliver something closer to how the track was originally recorded, that might be what you prefer over the overall sound signature of R2R DAC’s.