@bogbeat
I just received a Denafrips Ares II this past Friday, and after two days with it, I’m really liking it a lot. It did not ‘blow my socks off’ initially, but the more I’ve listened to it, the more I like it. In my case the difference between my old DAC and the Denafrips seemed smaller than expected per the hype, initially, but I no longer feel that way after a couple days playing all types of music through it. It’s quite stunning actually in the subtle ways that add up to being a great DAC in many ways, the most important being tonality and making digital sources sound much more musical. Some say analog-like; perhaps, but as a vinyl addict, I’m not sure it competes directly with the magic of vinyl. But that in no way means I dislike it. I do, I’m impressed. It also creates a very nice detailed and spatial soundstage, but with very good definition.
The one thing I think the Denafrips has over the MHDT for you, (comparing it to the Peachtree), is that it has balanced outputs, as I noticed your Cambridge has balanced inputs. I don’t have balanced inputs to my pre, but wish I did, as I’ve read some owners of the Denafrips that say using the balanced connections raise it up another notch over using the unbalanced RCA connections. The other thing the Ares provides is switching between ‘no over sampling’ and ‘over sampling’. And two filters when you select ‘over sampling’. The MHDT, I believe, is strictly a ‘no over sampled’ DAC.
I considered an MHDT DAC myself, but not displeased with the Denafrips at all.
I just received a Denafrips Ares II this past Friday, and after two days with it, I’m really liking it a lot. It did not ‘blow my socks off’ initially, but the more I’ve listened to it, the more I like it. In my case the difference between my old DAC and the Denafrips seemed smaller than expected per the hype, initially, but I no longer feel that way after a couple days playing all types of music through it. It’s quite stunning actually in the subtle ways that add up to being a great DAC in many ways, the most important being tonality and making digital sources sound much more musical. Some say analog-like; perhaps, but as a vinyl addict, I’m not sure it competes directly with the magic of vinyl. But that in no way means I dislike it. I do, I’m impressed. It also creates a very nice detailed and spatial soundstage, but with very good definition.
The one thing I think the Denafrips has over the MHDT for you, (comparing it to the Peachtree), is that it has balanced outputs, as I noticed your Cambridge has balanced inputs. I don’t have balanced inputs to my pre, but wish I did, as I’ve read some owners of the Denafrips that say using the balanced connections raise it up another notch over using the unbalanced RCA connections. The other thing the Ares provides is switching between ‘no over sampling’ and ‘over sampling’. And two filters when you select ‘over sampling’. The MHDT, I believe, is strictly a ‘no over sampled’ DAC.
I considered an MHDT DAC myself, but not displeased with the Denafrips at all.