Just about to pull the trigger on Pontus 15th ...

Audiophool "grass might be greener..." is uncurable. 

Use it when you REALLY start opening the wallet WIDE$$$.

Denafrips is solid. I use the Gen 1 Ares, but I'm an LP disciple anywho.

Just looks like hyped up marketing of the CNC case/build. Does look nice though.

Move the thread to digital.

Thank you, @tablejockey.

Looks interesting.  Seems like Denafrips would be a safer bet given the positive reviews and you can buy it on Agon.

Laiv's website says they will calculate duties, but you probably have to go through checkout to figure out what that is.  Vinshine prices seem to be quite a bit higher. 

I have a Pontus II 12th Anniversary. It’s the best sounding DAC I have had.

Like @2psyop i enjoy my Pontus II 12th immensely.  I would buy it again.  Not having heard the Laiv I would still purchase the Pontus 15th over it given my experience.

Vinshine prices seem to be quite a bit higher

That was in Singapore dollars.  Singapore dollars S$1349 / US$994.  In terms of duty, if the U.S. tariff takes effect, Denafrips will likely be the first to react. I recall Denafrips started collecting a 20% tariff but soon removed it. It is still not being collected, but could be reinstated any time.

That make sense. I thought it was odd that he was charging $3700 for the Laiv Harmony. 

I ordered the Pontus 15th from Denafrips HQ in February with beliefs that the unit would ship at end of February. I also asked them for a 5% discount for basically paying for a pre-order. Savings of $100 so I ordered the Remote. Unit still hasn't shipped. 

I emailed the other day complaining of the extended delay of shipping & increasing tariff prices/tax. They of course apologized & mentioned that they would not be asking me for any additional funds for shipping to the US. I'm not sure if the shipping company will be sending me an extra "tariffs bill". 

I pondered between the Pontus & original Laiv dac for quite awhile. I came to the conclusion that without the ability to hear either of them up front I should just go with the cheaper of the two. The reviews & demand of the 15th are good enough that I felt I could resell the Pontus without much loss if it doesn't work out for me. In the end though both dacs & including the smaller Laiv are probably all very good for the money. Probably all an easy resell as well. 

@lanx0003 

I have the Pontus ll and I love it.  The full sized Liav DAC is somewhere between the Aries ll and the Pontus ll.  The uLiav is much closer in sound to the Aries ll in both sound and price.  If you have the budget,  I’d go for the Pontus 15. It’s using most of the parts from the Venus 12th and it’s a very nice improvement over the Pontus ll.

All the best.

I was nervous about buying the Denafrips long before the threat of tariffs. I just didn’t have as much confidence with buying from China a product that (for me) was the most expensive DAC I purchased to date. I have owned Benchmark, Schiit, and other lower cost DACs before but the Ares was getting a lot of positive customer feedback. The company did not disappoint me yet and the R2R configuration gave me the most organic, natural presentation of music. I just bought an analog setup and spent north of $5000, The streamer I have combined with the Pontus sound just as good as my $3500 turntable, $1500 cartridge and $1000 preamp. Also the Pontus feeds a CD transport and that sounds very natural as well across the frequency spectrum. That’s my experience.