Denafrips Pontus II Clicks Or Static?

Yes, I have this problem with pops & ticks on both my Ares II and Pontus II.  I get a pop/tick concurring at an estimated frequency of 1-2 per hour of playback (it may be more frequent, possibly masked by music).  Currently trying to resolve the issue with Vinshine.

I have been troubleshooting this for about a year now.  What I can say at the moment is that the issue appears to be specific to the Denafrips units.  The issue exists on two different systems, regardless of whether all the connections are via RCA or XLR or whether the digital input is through optical, coaxial, or i2s (do not use USB).  The issue is present when playing both CDs, or PCM/DSD files.  Warming up the units does not resolve the problem.  I have no issues when I send the digital to another outboard DAC (using the same players, pre, amps), or when using the internal DACs of either of my two players.  NOS does not appear to solve the problem. 

I tried playing a -120db 1kHz test 'tone' thinking the low/silent background would help highlight the issue better, but after one hour of playback, I did not hear any pops/ticks.  I need to run this test some more to confirm.  I do hear the pops/ticks when playing test tones from the Stereophile Test CD3.

Anyone with insights or solved this problem?

I suppose that it I were not focused on listening to the music I might not always notice the pops/ticks.  In that sense, one might say they are soft.

I would not characterize the pops/ticks as soft or loud, just audible and at music levels.

I have been communicating with Vincent in support.  He had suggested I try USB but I relayed that I am currently not using USB.  That was six days ago and he has not responded.  Not sure how that was relevant anyhow.  I would like the dacs to function properly using spdif.

Pops/ticks are present on all recordings and they are not repeatable.  The level does not appear to be correlated in my case.

I have been provided new firmware by Vinshine.  I will post my findings once that change is implemented and tested.

I am happy to report, to my surprise to be honest, that the firmware update appears to have fixed the problem with my Ares II.  I have listened to about ten hours of music since the update and have not heard any pops/ticks.  Although I feel it may be a little early to make any definitive conclusions, what I can say is that before the update i was invariably getting 1-2 pops/ticks per hour of playback.  So for now, the pops/ticks are no longer present.  

As whipsaw and fastcat95 had elaborated, I also thought the issue would be hardware related.  However, no pops/ticks are emitted when the dacs are idle nor when playing a low level test tone, suggesting the issue is signal dependent to some degree.  So maybe a firmware fix makes some sense?

I should get from Vinshine a firmware update for the Pontus II soon.  Let's see what happens in this case.

I have been playing my Pontus II with the new FPGA firmware update for about a week now and I can confirm that the random pops/ticks I was experiencing are now absent.  This mirrors my experience with upgrading the firmware on my Ares II.  So it seems the issue was in fact software based.  Below are the changes associated with the new firmware as described by Alvin at Vinshine:

"Notes:
1. The FPGA firmware update is for all DENAFRIPS DACs with the latest FPGA BGA chip.
2. It does not apply to the older DSP (Amanero, released in 2017-2019). If you have a DENAFRIPS DAC purchased after 2020, in general, it is upgradable.
3. The firmware update fixes some bugs, and enhance the sound quality for all digital inputs
4. The firmware update changes the NOS response to what Vinshine Audio believes it's NOS (Raw, Staircase Waveform output for 44.1kHz / 48kHz)


Areas of Improvement:

• Improved Adaptive FIFO Buffer & Reclocking Architecture
• Reduced the effect of Buffer overrun/underrun due to the Source's Clock and the DAC's Clock differences
• Reduced Audio Latency
• *Eliminate Phase Difference between L/R Channels
• Optimised DSP to improve the sonic performance"

I have to commend Vinshine for being very responsive to the issues I was having.  Never did they claim this would fix my problem with certainty.  I think their stepped approach to troubleshooting this issue was appropriate and worked out me in the end.

So if this was a software issue, why is the issue not being reported by more people?  I don't have a good answer, but I tend to have very analytical tendencies.  When I listen to music, I listen equally to my equipment.  I would not be surprised if some Denafrips owners have the issue but haven't noticed because of the way they listen to music or perhaps to the type of music played.

@whipsaw 

With respect to the topic of this post and the issue I personally experienced, the firmware appears to have corrected the problem.  Thus logically, it was a software related issue.

Now, regarding other aspects of the sound quality that you are speculating about, the Ares II and Pontus II have received almost unanimous acclaim for their sound quality.  If the new firmware improves (at least objectively) on that sound, then I'm happy for it.

@stevebohnii 

I suppose I was lucky in that I communicated my issue with Vinshine just as they were preparing to announce the new firmware update.  So I got early access.  If the sound has improved in any other way, I have not noticed. 

@stevebohnii 

I did get a sense that the sound improved on the Ares II with the new firmware (separation, imaging).  Was that due to expectation bias, I cannot say.  Unfortunately my sound memory is poor.

@whipsaw 

Yes, my observations are anecdotal at this time and my statements were meant to reflect my personal experience only.

I'm not following your logic.  If a firmware update 100% corrects an underlying hardware problem, doesn't that hardware problem no longer exist?  Isn't software written to accommodate the underlying hardware?  Is the Cisco explanation mutually exclusive with a software patch that could correct the perceived hardware limitation?  Is the architecture of the Cisco device relevant to the Denafrips DACs?  Maybe an electrical/software engineer can help answer these questions.