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DENAFRIPS DAC ---- Owner Impressions, Feedback, General Discussion, Questions and more....

Thread for OWNER IMPRESSIONS, FEEDBACK, QUESTIONS, ETC. regarding DENAFRIPS DACs.

DENAFRIPS lists the following R2R DACs:

Ares, Pontus, Venus, and Terminator (in increasing price order).

"DENAFRIPS incorporated in year 2012, focus in developing high end audio equipment at a very affordable price. Throughout the years of intense Research & Development, and continuous improvement of the product lines, DENAFRIPS had finally settled with the current product range equipped with R-2R ladder DAC technology. The reason behind this is the designer strongly believe that R-2R DAC is the best way to reproduce music.

The name, DENAFRIPS, stand for:

D-ynamic
E-xquisite
N-atural
A-ttractive
F-idelity
R-efined
I-ntoxicating
P-ure
S-ophisticated

This mean a lot and it is the house-sound of all DENAFRIPS products." [Copied From Denafrips About Us section]
david_ten

Showing 12 responses by georgehifi

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
I have to admit I'm now in the 'amazed' camp in terms of how impressed I am with it's continued upward (performance) mobility and how well it continues to scale.

All traits of R2R Multibit dac conversion with PCM.
We were really led astray when they stopped making them because of cost. And in place introduced far cheaper to make 1 bit, bitstream, Mash, ect ect ect  all Delta Sigma dacs and able to convert sacd and dsd.

I think sacd came out not long after the demise of R2R dacs that couldn't convert it.
Was this more a marketing exercise to get rid of expensive to produce R2R and introducing cheaper Delta Sigma???

Cheers George  
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Winner for: "High-value true-balanced pre /power combo"
Very weak on giving any specs for the amp, even on the Denafrips website. Doesn’t instill much confidence .

No input impedance
No output impedance or damping factor
No 4ohm wattage ability or 2ohm, ect ect ect.

Can’t tell from this if it’s a pussy that can only drive easy load speaker or a lion that could drive say Wilson’s.

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
smodtactical
  I am thinking either R2R7HE or Terminator. Any opinions?
Terminator has proven itself in many forums, and up against the much more expensive PS Audio here's a video on the three way shootout.
https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/253642-denafrips-terminator-3-dac-shootout-video/
Where the Audio GD  R2R7HE is quite new, and if looking at the guts is any indication, it "could" be a rip snorter.
 https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/254028-another-audio-gd-r2r-dac-the-r2r-7he/

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
bluewolf
Thanks for your kind words on the Lightspeed, I noticed you have the dual mono version, good choice as you can perfectly centre the sound stage image regardless of speaker position or room abnormalities.
Battery is even better again for the Lightspeed, I recommend this Lithium-Ion rechargeable one, you can get up to 2 weeks listening in between a recharge, it has the blackest back ground (as if your system has switched off in between notes/tracks)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Portable-DC-12V-2In1-Rechargeable-8000Mah-Li-ion-Battery-Pack-US-EU-UK-Adap...

Long time ago an amp that used Nelson Pass Class-A circuit used battery, which was highly regarded call the NEW-Class-A CD33 or something.

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
@bluewolf 
I am using your very nice Lightspeed in my Rey Audio Kinoshita speaker system
Wow, that's a pretty esoteric looking second system, what are the Acoustical Systems battery amps and their input impedance. I can't find anything on them?

 https://cdn.head-fi.org/a/10109613.jpg

david_ten @bluewolf  Your write-up and system and music photos look terrific!
Ditto on this.

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
bluewolf

Did you try coming out the Omnigon's tape out into the Lightspeed then into the poweramp.? So you only use the Omingon's phono stage?.

As that's what my other TAD customers do with their Lightspeed's and their phono preamps, they say this way the sound is to die for, much more transparent and dynamic, with a black ground, so black you think the systems switch off in between notes and silent passages..

Cheers George   
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
bluewolf
And my speaker system features a Lightspeed Attenuator. Thank you George aka @georgehifi !

Hi bluewolf, had a look at your very nice system in your bio, and can't see where your using my Lightspeed Attenuator, this would be the 3rd set of  Pioneer Tad's it's being used with that I know, have you done some changes to it and not updated your pic?

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
milpai

Interesting DAC. I have followed this thread for a few days now. So was wondering what’s up with the guys at Audiostream. They compared 4 DACs and found the Terminator to be "confusing". Because Denafrips don’t advertise in their rag?


To me when a system get really good at resolving, it a bit like big screen tv’s. The flagship tv models are magnificent with HD input but are worse than the same size low end model with SD input.

Same to me goes for audio, the better the component the better it is on great recordings, but they sound rubbish on bad recordings.
It’s like the other not so great component, throws a ban-aid on the music to equalise good from bad recordings like the low end tv above does.

This statement from the reviewer kind of say that to me.
" The Denafrips won the award for the most confusing DAC as you never knew what you’d get from a recording when played through it!
Read more at https://www.audiostream.com/content/great-dac#6OCdCOe5RwkRDQJ9.99 "


Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
rja2,007 posts03-10-2018 2:50pmWould really be fun to see the Soekris DAC1541 included in this conversation. It has volume control and is available at a reasonable price even though it's their top model.

+1 for that, seeing they're both doing R2R discretely in a similar fashion.
And the DAC1421 is even better value again same as the 1541, if you don't need xlr at 850eu.  

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
+1 on your questions to Alivn shadorne, looking forward to his answer.

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Deleteted
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the Denafrips Terminator and other models use the  Danish "Soren Kristensen" Soekris Engineering R2R Dac board??

http://www.soekris.dk/

Cheers George
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