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Cen. Grand DSDAC 1.0 (vs Pontus II)

Hi guys, 

I made an enquiry with a distributer here in the UK, with a view to ordering the Pontus II. However, he's thrown me a curveball by recommending the Cen. Grand DSDAC 1.0 - another Chinese brand, making FPGA based DACs with PCM to DSD up sampling (from what I can make out). There isn't a lot out there on the interweb - reviews, sound character, presentation etc, much of anything really. 

The distributor claims, or suggests that to him the Cen. Grand is "better" than the Pontus II; I've asked him to qualify and elaborate on this, but in the meantime,  thought I'd ask here to see if anyone has direct experience of this brand/DAC. Just for reference/context, the Cen. Grand DSDAC 1.0 is the Standard version at £2500 (the distributer has offered me 10% discount, so £2250).

Thanks in advance 👍

128x128painter24

Showing 3 responses by soix

soix
8,807 posts
 

@pindac You’re kidding right?  You pull the Pontus outta the box and compare it to DACs that have already been broken in and you think your initial impressions are worth anything???  Go home and come back after the Pontus has at least 100 hours on it, otherwise your first impressions are utterly useless and possibly even misleading.  

soix
8,807 posts
 

Congrats and 🤞🤞🤞things just keep getting even better!  You really couldn’t have chosen a more different design/philosophy from the Denafrips, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat so be interested in your thoughts going forward.  If you ever get the chance to demo a Pontus ll (or Musician Pegasus that’s very similar) it’d be very interesting to hear your impressions. 

soix
8,807 posts
 

Forgive my descriptions, I'm a bit rubbish describing what I'm hearing, and the above is my best effort at approximating what I am hearing/experiencing 😜

No way man — you did a GREAT job describing what you’re hearing and I feel like I know exactly what you’re hearing and it sounds fantastic!  I wish more reviewers were as clear and plain-spoken as you are.  Many times I read entire reviews and still don’t know what the damn review sample really sounds like.  Argh!  You give me a few sentences and I feel like I know EXACTLY what this DAC sounds like and it sounds quite impressive, and I hope it just keeps getting even better for you!

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