Mola Mola Tambaqui or Denafrips Terminator Plus?


I need to pull the trigger, but there’s no opportunity to audition them. So far my thinking is:

Terminator Plus $6,700
+ Good reviews, lots of them
+ DAC only, no budget wasted on volume control, remote, etc.
+ Buy direct from distributor, no dealer mark-up
+ Tambaqui is 40% more expensive
- Less well-know Chinese manufacturer

Tambaqui $9,500
+ Good reviews, but fewer than Terminator Plus
+ Relatively cheap in my market
+ Very reputable manufacturer
- Sold through dealer network, increased mark-up
- Comes with volume control, pre amp, ethernet, bluetooth and remote which I don’t use

I’ve considered the dCS Bartok, but the Tambaqui seems to beat it while being 30% cheaper.

I listen to Tidal through a Roon Nucleus. Two channel, no headphones.
Amp: Dan D’Agostino Momentum Integrated. Speakers: Focal Stella Utopia Evo.

Anyone heard both? Any help with this decision is much appreciated.

P.S. In the next few years I’ll try to audition a more "end game" DAC to match the rest of the system. For now it’s Tambaqui or Terminator Plus.
robert1976

Showing 3 responses by luisma31

From
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/any-thoughts-on-denafrips-terminator-plus

I had Termi and Plus side by side. Ran both with a Gaia. Clocks connected on plus. I found the plus was slightly more full sounding, maybe, just maybe, ever so slightly “colored” for my taste compared to the Termi. I also found an almost indiscernible loss of delicacy in quiet passages. This was very subtle, and would not be noticed unless playing side-by-side on very select music...my foolish harp. I wanted to like the plus better, I just didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, the plus is outstanding. Just a matter of personal taste and system synergy. Price was not a deciding factor. The Terminator plus went to a new home and I kept the Termi. (For reference, I’m running high-end Levinson separates/monos and BW 802D3s. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but certainly a revealing system). Maybe I’ll wait for the next incarnation. Then again these are getting very very pricey. Probably deservedly so, but the PLUS and GAIA combined are slowly approaching the stratospheric prices of the likes of Mola Mola. I absolutely love my Termi with the GAIA. I think I’ll sit tight and see what the future brings. Competition may eventually bring down the prices of Mola Mola and such closing the price gap. Strikes me that such technology may be cheaper to implement than R2R soon. Who knows. I have not heard the Mola Mola...yet. 

Note there is a new Terminator II (not plus) Avaliable now, someone on another thread preferred the T II (for his specific reasons) to the +.
If you have the money you won't go wrong with the +

@jaytor

I don't think 73max compared the Terminator II with the Terminator Plus but I could be wrong

 You are correct, there is no mentioning of the T2, my bad I mixed up both.
But I thought it was particularly interesting from his comment that he tested both Gaia + Terminators and was close for him, you on the other hand have a different but yet valid perspective which validates the obvious that the + sounds better than the non plus model, I missed your earlier post with your comments, allowing enough time for the caps to break is important.

I can only speak for the Terminator (original model) which later I upgraded with the second DSP board. Note I preferred the Amanero board sound over the upgraded board during its first few firmware iterations, then around October 2019 the firmware update (think it was 3.3.2) was released and that improved the sound of the new board over the old Amanero. At some point I am planning to get either the 2 or the + but that's onhold for me now.

In other words, the R2R boards and clock modules that test the best are sorted for these DACs. Whether that's worth the extra ~$2K I can't say. I haven't heard the T2
Yeah this is a good topic, I think it could, this is all related with production batches, resistor drift and linearity and the such which is all related for these ladder resistor DAC's.