I sold mine. From my earlier posts in this thread, I too went through a period of convincing myself that the micro-skips I was experiencing didn't worry me, but I found I was still wondering if/when they may happen, rather than focusing on the tunes. Plus I found that switching between the ARES II and the onboard DAC of my new Rotel Tribute CDP was a coin toss sound-wise, so I moved it on, hoping the new owner has a trouble free experience with whatever source they choose to use with it. I needed another stand alone DAC for some more inputs and settled on the humble Cambridge DacMagic 100, which offers only one less input than the ARES II, and is no slouch in the audio department for what you pay for it ........ and no micro-skips.
Anyone care to share what disc players they are using as a transport that don’t have the skip issue.? I’m wondering if it is the clock thing that my cheap oppo DVD player doesn’t have the best clock. It happens at least once on every cd. Maybe a Yamaha or marantz would not have that issue. I’m starting to feel like others and wish denafrips would come out with a fix. It’s a shame for a otherwise nice sounding DAC.
Just a single bit of evidence, of course, but I am using a Moon 260D transport, which is of very high quality, and have been affected.
It's a good question. Because Alvin has been so good with his customer service, I, and undoubtedly others, have been willing to be quite patient. But if, over the next two or three months, the issue has not been resolved, I expect some of that good will to begin to wear off.
I also sold my Ares and found there was not a noticeable difference between the Ares II DAC and the internal DAC of the CD11 Tribute. After selling the Ares, I bought a a Border Patrol SE-i DAC and if I try very hard, I "may" hear a slight difference in the bass between the 2. Same story for the internal DAC in my Cambridge CXN V2 streamer. For me, an external DAC has been somewhat of a waste of money. I continue to use the BP DAC just because I spent the money for it. I find it somewhat of an inconvenience as I have to physically switch the inputs on it to change between streamer and CDP. I also have the analog outs of both units connected directly to my amp so real easy to swap back and forth between external DAC and the internal DAC's.
Audiolab 6000 CDT. No issue, and it’s not expensive. I have had the USB buffer issue with a RPi4 but they’ve got a new firmware fix for that. Which I still need to install.
I also use the Ares II with the Audiolab 6000 CDT without any problems. It also works fine with the coaxial output from an Onkyo c7030. The latest firmware update fixed the crackling issue on certain loud CDs when using OS mode.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, 3 brand new samples of CDP & CDT were tried and all suffered dropouts/micro skips when the Denafrips was connected. The only thing I found that appears to have worked (not tested exhaustively enough to verify for sure) was a cheap Sony (£120) blu ray player. Previously my DVD & Blu Ray players/recorders were employed as Universal Players but I decided to venture into CD transports to reduce the “heavy lifting” and hopefully achieve improved SQ at the same time. The Sony player is of the 3D variety. Such players are becoming as rare as hen’s teeth so I have a second (new) sample of the same player boxed in reserve. The way things are going I might end up pressing the “old” Sony BDP into service as a dedicated audio player(!) :^D
I’m using a 20+ year old NAD CD player as a transport with my Ares II and have never had a micro-skip with that.
And which I just successfully installed, since I was in that mode and had time. I had already bought the USB cord that Alvin recommended. I was doubtful that the cord had much to do with it, but I had only one instance since installing the cord two months ago (or was that prior to the cord change?). There was another recent firmware update (late November) since I reported the issue, so I'm several releases advanced from the original version now. https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Hi-Speed-Ferrite-U023-006/dp/B008VOPCGY They now have a Mac OS compatible package and instructions, which is what was holding me back before. It does require one to run a terminal script to enable the OS to use the non-apple update package, and to use the terminal again to install the package. Even as a somewhat experienced user I was relieved to see this update complete.
You should be able to unload the Border Patrol pretty easily if you ever wish too. And yeah, the DAC in the Tribute certainly surprised me too. Whatever little tweaks they did with it's design did the trick.
I recently bought a used Bluesound node 2i to work as a streamer towards my Ares II, connected by Coax with Audioquest cable. At first I encountered the audio glitch, too. Every minute of playback around 2 glitches. Reading through different Forums I finally resent it the note to our you and updated the firmware and the problem is solved. Only later I learned why: the owner before me had entered a network share and this path was of course not valid in my system, I ignored it as the unit only serves as a Roon Endpoint. So the solution of the problem was 100% on Bluesound side, no Ares II to blame. Yes I wasn’t pleased with the sound quality I decided to get a better transport and bought a used Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra, because I can connect this gear via USB. But new problems arise with a new gear. While I can make a run the stream box with another DAC and I can run the Ares II with my smart phone plugged in at its USB input, they work fine but not together! The Ares II is simply not recognized by the Stream box (ALSA driver error). On page 57 of this thread I read that „Calvin and Hobbes“ does also have a Stream box and it obviously works fine together with the Denafrips DAC. How did you succeed to make them work together? I probably have to do a firmware upgrade on the Ares. The Pro-Ject Box is up to date.
I’m surprised at how many use an external DAC with disc players. I want absolute silence in my listening room. I listen to a lot of music with extreme dynamics where there are extended sections of near silence. Hearing a disc whizzing away in a player drives me crazy and instantly takes me out of the music. MacBook with SSD drives both internally and externally—->Pontus II via USB. Obviously no skips in this scenario.
I'm not sure what kind of disk players you have heard, but I've been using CD players (and now a transport) for many years, and have never heard anything of the sort.
that's interesting. i've never noticed my Rotel CD14 making any noise at all. now i'm probably going to...thanks!
Have you ever listened to one that is less than 30 years old, and/or cost more than a couple of hundred dollars? I'm not trying to be flippant – it's a serious question.
Thanks. By the way, sorry for the typos. „ finally resent it the note to our you“ makes no sense. It should read „ finally I resetted the Node 2i and…“ it seems you cannot edit your posts or only for a very short time.
Audiolab 6000cdt on coax, Bluesound Node on coax 2 (no settings messed with on the Node) and Tascam DA 3000 on aes. No skips at all on the Pontus.
