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Auralic Vega G2 or Denafrips Pontus II 12th + streamer?

I'm looking to add digital to my system as a supplement to vinyl (my main listening avenue), but I've been debating whether to go with a very capable combo unit like the Vega G2 or separates for some time. My main concern is longer term support re: various streaming service apps, etc that might make built-in streaming capabilities outdated in a few years in combo units.

I had a thought that maybe investing in a great DAC separate that will outlast changes in streaming tech where I could just upgrade separate streamers in the future if necessary might be a better approach, but I don't know.

I like the idea of keeping it simple with a combo unit a la Vega G2 or Hifi Rose or something, but I'm also not interested in anything that might be a brick in a couple years. Not interested in having the 'smartphone' experience of needing to upgrade every few years, especially at a multi-thousand dollar price point.

Having an excellent control app is 100% required for any streaming solution I consider as it needs to be very simple to use (will be controlled by family occasionally as well via an iPad most likely, which is mostly why).

I'd like to stick to under $5k total (used is fine). A used Vega G2 tends to sit at about $4500-5k on the market from what I've seen, so this would be the tip top end of what I could consider.

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Showing 1 response by jaytor

jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 

I own a Vega G2 as well as a Terminator Plus. I'm using a Sonore Signature Rendu SE into a Denafrips Gaia as my streamer for the T+. 

I would not be concerned with the steamer becoming obsolete.  I think every steamer on the market is software upgradable. 

The Denafrips is a touch smoother with a deeper, wider soundstage, but the Auralic is no slouch. The Auralic is the more reliable steamer - never falters - while the Sonore has occasional pauses and sometimes just stops playing. 

I bought the Auralic for my bedroom system because I wanted high quality but a minimum of boxes. The one big advantage of the Auralic is that it combines a built in preamp with a high quality relay-stepped-attenuator. 
 

The Denafrips DACs have fairly high output impedance, so you will almost certainly need a preamp after the DAC. If you already have one (which I'm assuming you do), and don't mind the multiple boxes, then the Innuos + Pontus is probably the slightly better choice, particularly since you can further improve performance with a DDC. 

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