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
I'm puzzled how the Border Patrol SE using out dated chips can sound better by some compared to the latest R2R dacs?
Just plugged a Denafrips Ares II into my system and its an immediate noticeable improvement from my previous DAC:  the PS Audio Sprout100 internal DAC, which I was already impressed with over an older Peachtree Nova 220SE internal DAC.
I'd argue the space is doubled, highs higher, vocals clearer, bass lower.  I use a CD of Seal's 1991 album as my reference.
One unfortunate complaint however which I have yet to mention to Denafrips, is there is a somewhat minor but low hum from the DAC when plugged in.  For me, this is not acceptable.  It's apparent when plugged in and turned on.  I've testing with nothing else connected and in multiple locations around my home and I've testing multiple power cords.