Looking for a DAC to pair w/ Jay's transport mk2

Denafrips is a bargain, it plays well above its price. I bought Venus but then upgraded to Terminator.

I'm very pleased indeed with my Denafrips Pontus Gen 15, if that's any help. I posted a review of it in this forum on 11/13 which you may find useful. It plays extremely  well indeed with my Shanling ET3 CD transport, and I expect your Jay's Audio transport will be a significant step up from the Shanling. However, this newest iteration of the Pontus plays more like the previous Venus DAC, emphasizing clarity and detail. It doesn't lack for musical appeal, but earlier versions of the Pontus were, by all accounts, quite a bit warmer sounding, if a bit less refined. 

@larseand 

One advantage going with a Denafrips DAC -- it would allow you to take advantage of I2S connections. 

The comments by @cooper52 are consistent with other comparisons I've encountered regarding the differences between the Pontus 12 and Pontus 15.  

Keep in mind that many tube DACs these days are not that warm. Many are voiced to accentuate upper mids and highs. LTA Aero is one example. Of course, "warm" is relative.  You'll have to listen to some to discover what pleases you. The Canadian ANK tube DACs have a reputation for more overt warmth and they offer a trial period/return policy. You might take advantage of that to see if you really want to go in that direction. You could also check TMR to see if they have any used tube DACs in stock. Be aware that you'll have to pay a restock fee with them. My 2 cents. 

@cooper52, with the Denafrips Pontus 15th and the Shanling ET3 CD transport did you have to configure the internal pinout settings of the Denafrips Pontus 15th when using the I2S cable? Or did you have to use a custom I2S cable? Also what I2S cable do you use? I am planning on getting a Revelation Audio Labs ’Prophecy’ CryoSilver™ Reference  HDMI I2S Digital Link cable and don't know if I should get a custom build or not.  Thanks.

@tyray   If you send Brad the pinout for your DAC he will design it accordingly. That’s what I did. It’s in their Denafrips online manual. Mine is done and ships Tuesday. I will be selling my Tubulus Argentus.

@fthompson251, thank you for the quick response. I’ve decided to go with the Denafrips Pontus 15th dac over the Laiv Harmony DAC and sent Brad the Denafrips Pontus 15th dac manual’s pinout specs.

You should enjoy both! I ma using Brads umbilical cable now and it's great!

I just heard the Aero Linear Tube DAC at a fellow friend from my area. Very smooth clear sounding DAC. Take a look and demo one.

Haven’t heard it, but the Laiv Harmony DAC looks interesting.

@fthompson251, last night I emailed Brad and asked him to forego the custom build and I went back to my original request for his stock I2S cable. And he was very gracious and told me no worries and he’ll send it to me this week.

I know sometimes Brad may be somewhat tardy on getting cables to a customer but whatever voodoo/hoodoo he puts in his cables, they surely sound like no other cables I’ve come across in my years of doing this audio thing we do at a fair price outperforming cable costing much more. I became a loyal customer when he built me some phono cables. Their performance was outstanding and they got better as they burned in. 

The Denafrips Pontus 15th Dac seems to be a fantastic cost/performance dac but I had my issues with it’s non PS Audio I2S standard cable pinouts.

@cdc I also really like the Laiv Harmony Dac and the Laiv Harmony (micro) µDDC with it’s not one but two I2S puts, one input and one output which I think would work well with my Shanling ET3 Transport with it’s PS Audio standard I2S output.

Why not first try an HDMI cable? Same connector. 
If going from an ET-3 to a PSAudio pin layout.

Shanling pin 15 is for mute but Mute is null and void on the Shanling. Not an option

Pin 16 is for DSD 

On the PSAudio layout Pin 15 is DSD and pin 16 is mute  

I ordered a Blue Jean hdmi cable and will disable pins 15 & 16  

Don’t care about DSD  

Want to hear how the cable performs. Meets all the latest standards  

@hbarrel, yeah I don’t care about DSD cd’s (SACD) either. I’m just a used cd crate digger and could care less about an uber priced cd. I’ve got thousands of cd’s boxed up as I’ve been a phono head for some years now and like so many of us did some years ago sold our cd’s or albums, I did not, I held on to them.

I’m really curious to see the Laiv streamer when it comes out too. 

Here’s correspondence I got from Soon from Laiv about the Laiv pinout mode intelligent auto-configuration and passed the specs on to Brad:

Dear Tyray,

Good Day!

You can use Laiv mode for the I2S connection with the Shanling ET3. We have many customers using the Shanling ET3 with our Harmony DAC via I2S and getting great results.
 

@tyray i think you need to convert the .png to a jpeg. 
I could not let myself spend a large sum of money on a data transfer cable. 
$20 for 1m of blue jean best hdmi. 
Don’t like it I am out $20 not hundreds. 
the data transfer rate between a usb and a hdmi are the same. 
 

@hbarrel, Hey - to each his own. You count your blessing that you haven’t succumbed to that dreaded audio disease of up-grade-itis.  On my end, I can read my previous post just fine.

Also, my hifi rig is not computer based, but more old school and I’ve sold my Eversolo DMP-A8.

I see you have the LTA Aero DAC, I’m really enjoying my LTA Microzotl 3 preamp and am curious if you’ve upgraded your stock tubes of your LTA Aero DAC?   

If you could stretch a bit here’s a Lampi Big7 that’d likely do what you’re looking for.  Best of luck. 

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650201052-lampizator-big-7-gen4-dac/

Sorry to take so long to respond to your question, Tyray--just haven't checked in here for a while. In fact, I had no trouble at all with the I2s HDMI connection between the Pontus and the ET3. Just plugged it in with a Pangea Audio HDMI cable I happened to have on hand, and everything worked seamlessly. 

@tyray   The voo doo is real. I just got done listening to the RAL I2s after a solid weeks + of nonstop burn in. It's quite a ride as it breaks in but man the rig is sounding so "right" now. It replaced a Tubulus Argentus wich was good but the RAL is better.

Lol! Good to hear! I stumbled across Tubulus cable about 2 weeks ago maybe? From another gon member mentioning that brand, and noticed I’ve seen purple looking cable somewhere else before?...If you get my drift...