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Denafrips DAC owners - how did ownership compare with the hype?

Shuggie said:
My Denafrips Venus DAC gets physically unplugged at the end of every day, and plugged back in the next day. It has not missed a beat.
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Good to know. Maybe I just have a lemon. I really like the company and the unit, but I fear my unit will keep having this problem over and over.
 
CSR78 said:
According to the warranty, I'm responsible for shipping both ways to SC for repair. I've inquired about trading it in as a lemon. Last time they replaced the entire power supply.
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I keep thinking about going down the Denafrips route but potential shipping charges if a repair is required, is a deal breaker.
 
Willow Tree Audio are the UK importer/distributor for Denafrips Audio and we are a dealer for Denafrips and Kinki Studio Audio.
 
leroyd said:
I keep thinking about going down the Denafrips route but potential shipping charges if a repair is required, is a deal breaker.
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I got my Ares 2 from Willow Tree Audio, OK may cost more than direct from Singapore but they are in Bury St Edmunds which is only 25 miles away from me so any issues and I can take it to them. Iain at Willow Tree is a good guy to deal with.
 
Stew B said:
I got my Ares 2 from Willow Tree Audio, OK may cost more than direct from Singapore but they are in Bury St Edmunds which is only 25 miles away from me so any issues and I can take it to them. Iain at Willow Tree is a good guy to deal with.
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Sadly buying from the UK is out of the question due to Brexit. Duty, taxes etc are prohibitive in this regard. In the past I have bought a considerable amount of kit from the UK, have always got good value and the people I have dealt with were top class. Those days are over:(. The Denafrips EU distribution base is in Bulgaria.
 
I'm quite late to the Ares 2 hype, a mix of only recently having my mood turn back towards music and hi-fi along with YouTube deciding to bombard me with videos about it. Got to say my curiosity is piqued because it seems different to to my previous/current collection of DACs, which is Beresford (ages ago early one), Dacmagic, Lavry DA10 and currently in my main system the internal DAC in a CA CXN v2. Generally I've found that moving between DACs didn't make much difference, a slightly different top or bottom end, possibly more "separation" but sometimes so small I'm not sure my brain is making things up. What a lot of the reviews for the Ares 2 claim is a very different presentation to Sigma-Delta DACs but is it enough to give your systems a different feel?
 
To me the difference seems to be that R2R does just sound more analogue and natural. I think that as you go up the range you get more resolution and detail. Probably, the delta sigma DACs do it the other way where as you go up the range they sound more convincingly analog.

Edit. It’s not a huge difference. Definitely a marginal gain, but if you have a great amp and speakers with good integration into the room then the little tweaks can add up.
 
Until this afternoon we had on an Ares II > ATC SCA2 > Kinki Studio EX-M7 > Acoustic Energy AE509 > JL Audio Fathom f212 v2. Time after time and regardless of associated components these Denafrips Audio R-2R ladder DAC's sound so natural and dynamic. This is music.
 
This would be to drop between the CXN v2 and a SIA2-150 driving SCM40 speakers, something to ponder for a little later in the year I think, really getting back into music at the moment and it's doing my mental state no end of good to switch off from the world.
 
Musicraft said:
Until this afternoon we had on an Ares II > ATC SCA2 > Kinki Studio EX-M7 > Acoustic Energy AE509 > JL Audio Fathom f212 v2. Time after time and regardless of associated components these Denafrips Audio R-2R ladder DAC's sound so natural and dynamic. This is music.
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What source was used? I'm mulling over CD transports to go into a Pontus 2. I will use my Saturn R as a starter, but long term that would feel like overkill and sacrilege.
 
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Neil P said:
What source was used? I'm mulling over CD transports to go into a Pontus 2. I will use my Saturn R as a starter, but long term that would feel like overkill and sacrilege.
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A Creek Evolution 100CDP. Fwiw, we've also used Esoteric CDP's featuring their VRDS NEO transports and the Ares II, Pontus II and Terminator II DAC's have taken the Esoteric CDP's in their stride. Therefore in comparison a Saturn R will be a walk in the park for the DENAFRIPS Audio DAC's.
 
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Jay’s Audio CDT2 mk3 and Venus II is where it’s at for me. The P8 isn’t getting much of a look in now!
 
Musicraft said:
A Creek Evolution 100CDP. Fwiw, we've also used Esoteric CDP's featuring their VRDS NEO transports and the Ares II, Pontus II and Terminator II DAC's have taken the Esoteric CDP's in their stride. Therefore in comparison a Saturn R will be a walk in the park for the DENAFRIPS Audio DAC's.
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Just to clarify I meant it would feel wrong to have half the saturn (the dac half!) unused, mainly from a financial point of view.

So were you using the Esoterics as transports into the denafrips? Did the denafrips improve the sound, or just not lower the SQ?
 
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JTC said:
Jay’s Audio CDT2 mk3 and Venus II is where it’s at for me. The P8 isn’t getting much of a look in now!
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Yep it's a tossup between Jay's (possibly a mk2 to start) or the new PS Audio strata CD transport which is due end of this year (hopefully). I'm determined to use a hdmi is2 connector!

I just need to test whether saturn>denafrips gives as good SQ as saturn on its own.
 
Can’t speak highly enough of the Jay’s though I haven’t heard the PS Audio. FWIW I might be a damned fool but I’ve ordered a fancier HDMI to find out for myself if there the differences in SQ some claim between HDMI cables used for i2s are real or not. No difference, they go back :)
 
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