musician aquarius r2r dac any good?

I have the Musician Aquarius and it has a beautiful smooth sweet sound. I don’t have experience with other dacs to compare it to. I bought it based on the recommendation of Sandu Vitalie of Soundnews. Later Sandu Vitalie’s top recommendation was the Terminator Plus, although his Cons list is interesting:

• Not the most detailed sounding unit in its stock form
• Not the fastest sounding unit in its stock form
• If you want to squeeze the absolute best out of it, Denafrips GAIA is a must-have upgrade

Three things irritating in the daily usage of the Aquarius:

1- It has no remote.

2- The led lights are the size of pinheads making them impractically small to see in daylight.

3- The last issue is probably specific to my streamer. I have an ifi streamer connected to the dac through USB. When I power up my system Tidal detects the ifi streamer, but when I press play there is no sound. I have to restart the Aquarius, press play again then I get sound. This happens every time.

I bought the Aquarius new because I was in a hurry and didn’t want the Pontus. If I could do this all over again, I would go for a used Terminator Plus or a used Aqua La Scala MKII Optologic even though I would pay about 2k more. It is worth it the dac is the heart of the system.

@viethluu

With regard to issue three, I think it is system specific in my case. You can perhaps check with other people here who have the Aquarius.

My question is: why do you pick the terminator over the Aquarius if the terminator will be the slower DAC?

I don’t think Sandu meant that the T+ is slower than Aquarius, rather slower than other hi-end dacs. The T+ is in a different class than the Aquarius. I would choose the T+ as an upgrade because it is in the price range I could afford (willing to pay) buying used.

My impressions are based on Sandus´ reviews. If he is wrong with regard to the T+ then perhaps someone could correct him. However, you have a point, Sandu should have mentioned the dacs that were better than the T+.

"I’ve already covered quite a few R-2R ladder DACs by now, some of them were magnificent sounding like Denafrips Venus, Audio-GD R7 and Musician Aquarius. All of them had their pluses and minuses, but I feel that today’s unit terminates them all, climbing an aluminum throne as the best sounding DAC I had the pleasure of testing at my place."

"The amount of information that comes forward is staggering and as much as I liked the Musician Aquarius and that yummy sounding Rockna Wavelight, Terminator Plus goes a little higher, delivering a clearer, a punchier and a faster overall performance."

"Terminator Plus reigns supreme in here, closely followed by a Rockna Wavelight, Musician Aquarius, Audio-GD R7 and Denafrips Venus."

there is “Mercury Streamer” that is about to come out, converting ethernet directly to i2s. That product has the potential to destroy all DDC competition in the market. 

There is already the Mano ULTRA mkIII Farad Music Streamer and it is not that cheap at $1000 (without taxes).

I highly doubt it will be easy to beat a dedicated quality DDC.

The Singxer SU-6 is already highly praised. GoldenSound wrote this:

Overall, the Gaia is a great DDC with perhaps the most comprehensive feature set of any I’ve tested.

Those wanting the absolute best performance should still look to the Singxer SU6.

Still the SU-6 was beaten by the Phoenix. In the Musician Phoenix DDC Review Sandu Vitalie wrote:

Musician Phoenix ($1699) VS Singxer SU-6 ($750)

When Phoenix replaced it, I have felt a massive intake of fresh air, like I opened windows towards my music. Micro-details hopped on board and I could better see the contour of the notes compared to the SU-6.

Leading edges appeared by a tiny bit sharper and I could easier follow their trail from inception to decay.

With Phoenix, the key word was focus, as it was moving the spotlights towards the smallest nuances and what was already impressive on SU-6, felt by a hair clearer on the Phoenix.

In my case, Phoenix changed the fate of three high-performance DACs, some were only marginally improved, while others felt like listening to higher tiered versions of themselves.

Besides repelling all types of noise and improving the pace, rhythm and timing, Musician Pegasus became highly energetic, Chord Dave a lot smoother and relaxed than ever before and Aquarius a lot clearer and 3D sounding.

@viethluu 

In the Musician Phoenix DDC Review Sandu Vitalie compared the I2S vs USB on the Musician Aquarius DAC.

II. Musician Phoenix + Musician Aquarius via I2S

The audible difference wasn’t only immediate and apparent as it was with a Singxer SU-6, the difference was actually bigger to my expectancy levels.

On its own, Aquarius is a mighty fine sounding DAC, certainly up there with some of the nicest R-2R DACs I’ve tried to this point, but when locking the signal via I2S from the Phoenix, there was a serious jump in resolution and ultimately, dynamic range.

I would never call the Aquarius as muddy, grainy or soft sounding via USB, but it felt that way when I started my comparisons. 

I2S is better than USB in the Aquarius.

Check this

The Chinese gods are laughing in the skies 😂

This is the Gaia

And this is the Phoenix

The good part is that the Gaia is available on the used market for about $1500.

@auroravengeance

Thanks for the link.

Coaxial supports less resolution than the USB and I2S. That is a deal breaker for many.

Regarding if the I2S was better than the USB, it depends on which interface was implemented better. For example the Holo Audio recommends using the USB, while Denafrips/Musician recommend the I2S.

I had this discussion on another thread (check below), I was then "certain" that the Innuos PhoenixUSB was the way to go because of the huge number of recommendations and positive reviews. However, after I got more feedback on the thread I realized it really depended on which interface the developer invested more in.

Note the Phoenix here refers to the Innuos PhoenixUSB.

Blake wrote

Posted September 22, 2020

I was hoping Srajan at 6Moons would compare the Phoenix, Gaia and some other D/D converters.

https://6moons.com/audioreview_articles/denafrips6/4/

While the review is not yet finished, in his review of the Denafrips Avatar, Srajan notes that he did compare the Phoenix, Gaia and through extrapolation to another review, the Mutec MC-3+ USB. While the comparison was not perfect in that he compared Phoenix going to the Terminator Plus usb input, whereas the Gaia was going in to the Terminator Plus I2S input (there was no way around this since Gaia doesn’t have USB output, and the Phoenix only has USB output), the ranking of best sonic performance was:

1. Terminator Plus + Gaia with the Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged upstream to the Gaia.

2. Terminator Plus + Phoenix

3. Terminator Plus + Gaia without Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged.

4. Mutec MC-3+ USB

Dante Rivera compared his Terminator USB vs I2s in this YT video. The I2s is best. However, this seems specific to the Denafrips DACs. For different DACs I think it depends on which interface is implemented best.

Both Koso and Chameleonracks have the Holo Audio Spring 3 DAC. They preferred the USB interface over the I2s. They used the USB interface in combination with the PhoenixUSB and Intona USB Isolator, respectively.

Here is a curved ball.

The Musician Aquarius/Pegasus DACs don't have a clock out for syncing like the Terminator. Therefore, " if " the ranking Blake wrote (below) were correct, then:

Aquarius/Pegasus + PhoenixUSB   (USB interface)

would rank higher than 

Aquarius/Pegasus + Gaia without its "clock in" feature engaged.  (I2S interface)

Oh dear lol

the ranking of best sonic performance was:

1. Terminator Plus + Gaia with the Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged upstream to the Gaia.

2. Terminator Plus + PhoenixUSB

3. Terminator Plus + Gaia without Terminator Plus "clock out" feature engaged.

4. Mutec MC-3+ USB