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Denafrips Ares ii

I am considering a Denafrips Ares ii dac and have a few questions that I am hoping owners of this dac can answer.

1 What is the cost of import taxes and/or fees?

2 Is it as dimensional as a tube dac?

3 Two reviews thought the highs were edgy. What has been your experience with the treble on this dac?

My system:
Unison Research Triode 25
Audio Physics Classic 10
Bluesound Node 2i
Cambridge Audio CXC
Paradigm Seismic 10
Black Ice Audio DSD

Thanks


mtloriginal

Showing 3 responses by vsrrr

vsrrr
13 posts
 

@j_andrews 
Curious if you've tested digital RCA vs. USB going from your iFi Zen Stream to your Denafrips DAC?

Which cables did you use? Did you notice any difference?

 

vsrrr
13 posts
 

@j_andrews  Interesting!

And would you say that

1. iFi ZS > USB > Iris DDC > SPIDF > Ares DAC
sounds noticeably better than
2. iFi ZS > SPIDF > Ares DAC?

Since the iFi ZS has both USB and SPIDF outputs, my thinking was to use option 2, since using the SPIDF would completely avoid the jitter issues inherent to USB (as far as I understand).

I’d be super curious to learn if you get better results from your iFi ZS and Ares by removing the USB and Iris DDC and simply using a good SPIDF cable. I suspect you will!

vsrrr
13 posts
 

Honestly this review and comparison makes me think you heard a damaged Ares or had problems elsewhere in your system.

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