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

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.
 

@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?