I've been on the fence for months on my DAC upgrade, so I bit the the bullet and put an order in for the Pontus II. This thread was a huge help, thanks to all.
Decided to test out my politeness theory and threw some heavy and dirty tracks at her: My verdict is - I can still air guitar the hell out of some stuff I rarely listen to. My air drums nearly knocked over my drink, however. Gotta tighten those up. Now, back to Metallica covering a medley of Rainbow tracks (Hardwired deluxe edition - Ronnie Rising Medley) Cheers
Arghhh. I'm testing out power cords with my Pontus II DAC tonight: Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty: $15 Shunyata Venom V14: $135 Audience F3 Forte: $150 Synergistic Research UEF Blue: $499 Yeah, you guessed it. The most expensive power cord sounds the best. The Synergistic Research cord sounds most transparent, most holographic, and with the biggest soundstage. Luckily, the Shunyata cord produces similar sonic characteristics and produces about 90% of the sound quality of the Synergistic cord at a far lower price. Best value goes to the $15 Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty cord that also has similar sonic characteristics as the Synergistic and Shunyata cords and produces about 80% of the sound quality of the Synergistic cord. The biggest disappointment was the Audience cord that seems to make the Pontus sound a bit smeared in resolution of details. Interestingly, these cords ended up in the same order of perceived quality for me when testing with the Ares II DAC but for a different reason. I hear a bit of harshness from the Ares and the Synergistic cord does best at tempering that harshness. In addition, the Synergistic cord adds a noticeable degree of transparency versus these other cords. As with the Pontus, the Shunyata cord was 2nd and the Tripp-Lite cord was third. These cords were less transparent and harsher in sound than the Synergistic cord. The combination of the Audience cord and the Ares DAC was unbearably harsh sounding to me so I didn't even try to listen to the Audience cord for long. Note: All cords were broken in by being connected to the DAC in operation for at least 100 hours. I was lucky enough to have the 3 expensive cords loaned to me by a friend & I got the $15 Tripp-Lite cord because I don't believe a more expensive product is necessarily better. I'll probably get a Shunyata cord for my Pontus unless I can find a good deal on a used Synergistic Research UEF cable.
https://www.denafrips.com/single-post/denafrips-hermes-ddc-is-the-icing-of-the-cake-in-my-system Credit: Happy customer: Tom, Norway
Thanks Alvin! My new Pontus II just arrived five minutes ago. You are a fast worker! Let the testing BEGIN! I have the ARESII broken in. Wiring is ready for instant comparos. I'll be back in a couple weeks after I get a handle on the SQ folks. I've been waiting to have this kind of fun discovering a REAL dac upgrade for probably 15 years. Until Denafrips all I could consider were things like the Berkeley Alpha Dac and it costs a lot. I was waiting for something that was more of a bargain. The ARES II is certainly that! and NOW. For the PONTUS II. Onward!
The Freya+ is on my shortlist to replace my current Audiolab amp. How well would you say it complements the Denafrips DAC? I haven't had a tube amp before so thought I might give one a go (and can't afford a BAT!)
It's my opinion that Freya+ is one of the finest audio values around. Because of its flexibility, it can adapt to just about anything feeding it, and toward downstream components. You can tube roll to tweak things that way - the stock tubes are neutral and quiet IMO - or you can go for maximum "wire with gain" and use Passive or JFET Passive. Ultimately I prefer the slight coloring and tonality in tube mode, as well as a bit of a bump in gain, but JFET passive mode is phenomenal. I think it complements Venus II very well. It's still transparent and detailed, but it has fantastic PRAT with the right tube compliment. I had a Benchmark DAC3L prior to Freya, attached to Venus. It was a very good if slightly uninspiring sound. But it was no sin of commission, just a slight sin of omission some of the transient attack and imaging of Freya+. I'm using a couple PSVane tubes, and some NOS Raytheons on the right side. The combo of bass slam and upper end detail is... well I have zero itch to change anything. It's definitely not a case of putting warm with warm, or etched with neutral. It's musical + musical. It can still be analytical in tube mode, but I think the passive modes are the most introspective. The tube mode is the most enjoyable, to me
That makes for interesting reading. I think you might have helped me narrow down my choice somewhat. Thanks. I'd be interested to hear what the Denafrips Athena sounds like too but there's not much by way of reviews out there. I'm not really sure whether or not to believe most reviews as you hardly ever read / watch one which isn't just a glowing report of whatever they are reviewing which all seems too good to be true. I don't believe every piece of hardware that is being reviewed is always great so if it isn't are the reviewers too scared to call it out in case they don't get sent any more of that particular manufacturer's products, or do they just not publish reviews of hardware that hasn't performed well...??
Mine arrived 1 hour ago. Hooked up via Coax to my Bluesound Node 2i. Starting the burn in process and I am already noting a difference b/w the Bluesound and the Pontus II. Waiting for my PI2AES to come and try that one out. Thanks to all the contributors to this thread and to Alvin and the Denafrips Team! Bob
node2i to pontus ii is how i will be using it as well so super curious to know how big of a difference there is.
I tend to be an optimist in that I think most of what's available today, by and large, is REALLY good. That we can buy a transparent, simple yet excellent bit of passive preamp kit like Saga+, or step up to a balanced version with more tube goodness in Freya+ for under $1k USD - it's astounding. And I get that there are better things out there still (Cary, Aric Audio, plenty of stuff I don't even know about). That, plus the fact that audio fans, critics, and reviewers just seem to not want to cannibalize their own hobby - it leads to mostly favorable reviews of just about everything. I'm sure there are duds but they seem like the exception. However, I did have a dud preamp (to me) in the last 6-7 years. I tried out a Parasound P6, I believe it was. Loved all the features and flexibility it offered but just abhorred the sound. I think I was using a Bel Canto preamp up to that point and I could not wait to switch back. But beyond that one thing, I've probably had 7 or 8 other line stages - all bought used except for Freya+ - and have been some version of excited about all of them. I've found for me and my system, it's about getting the I/O I want, and then having a tubed and passive mode to tweak it to my tastes works as well as anything I can afford. I've love to hear some of the higher end Cary preamps that have praise heaped on them around here, but I just have a mental block at dropping that much money on a preamp. I'm sure they're worth it, just not to me.
Well, I will you know. Love the Node 2i and will be comparing. The Pi4 route is new to me and still researching/learning. If anybody, here is using a similar setup, I would appreciate your advice/help!
awesome! I find the node2i internal dac sufficient for some stuff on tidal but hit or miss most of the time (sounding too thin for some stuff or more narrow sound stage) in a way. I'll also output my cd6006 to the pontus ii as well.
Denafrips - UK purchase options... There appear to be three routes: - Vinshine Audio's site (import) - Willow Tree Audio (official UK stockist) - Shenzhen Audio (import) Are there any UK forum members able to share their experiences about importing from Vinshine? Shipping costs seem to be included in the prices shown on their website but any info from UK purchasers about additional costs for import duty, handling fees and UK VAT would be very useful ("EU VAT" doesn't apply since the UK left the EU). The obvious option is to stick with UK to UK (i.e. Willow Tree) as the purchase would be covered by UK consumer law and any product / warranty issues would be easier to deal with. However, a rough calculation suggests purchasing from Vinshine may be significantly cheaper; hence the search for real world info. Just to note, I tried to find out about import duty from the UK tax authorities (HMRC) but they have been utterly useless as has their website. As indicated in previous posts, I'm looking at the Pontus II.
Sorry I'm still trying to understand this - what exactly does the Pi4 do to 'bridge' PC and DAC? And how does it need to be configured?
Have you tried emailing Willow Tree and ask for a price offer? I suggest you try that first if you didn't allready.
The Pi comes into play as a bridge for Roon (a Roon Bridge) or HQ Player (referred to as a Network Audio Appliance, I believe, aka an "NAA"). I've seen some folks who are using Macs for HQ Player processing, but if you're doing all your playback there and digitally outputting to a DAC, then you may not need anything "in between." Both Roon and HQ Player recommend having a device that is NOT a mac or PC connected directly to a DAC due to electrical noise concerns. The Bridge (Roon) or the NAA (HQ Player) can be a Raspberry Pi and it can fill the role of being the device between those pieces and a DAC. From my listening tests on both fronts, I agree that putting the Pi in place works best, instead of directly connecting to the DAC. I don't use Macs or Audirvana so couldn't comment on whether or not they could use or benefit from a setup like I use. Ultimately, the software, system, and how you've configured things are what dictates various hardware needs. My setup seems vastly different from yours and so will not be laid out or function like yours does.
Thanks. So the bridge seems to be a Roon/HQ Player-specific thing. Regardless, since I play most of my content from the computer, probably it will help getting a DDC. Very tempted. Has anyone used a DDC with a computer and noticed an improvement in sound quality?
