My Denafrips Aries 15th has too much mid -bass, anybody else??

I think you need to readjust your sub settings/placement.  I’d start with that and/or pulling your speakers further out. 

Never heard of "dinner fripps", is it dinner with Robert Fripp? Sorry, kidding :-)

Anyway. I generally feel that yes, Denafrips is NOT punchy or bright. It is R2R DAC that tend to sound more ’relaxed’ to my opinion. Perhaps you would prefer DAC based on ESS chip, they are definitely brighter. And Sony is brighter still, IMO.

Denafrips to ESS is like Pass to Krell.

@barfbag

It’s very easy to get seduced by reviews and assume that what others swoon over will do the same for you. In fact, this happened to me, recently, with a much more expensive DAC. However, I intentionally purchased it from a seller who offers a return/refund policy. I recommend you do the same. It's difficult to know how any component might sound in your room, in your system, without the opportunity to actually hear it for yourself. 

Agree with the above.  Experiment with speaker placement.  Don't forget to try different toe-in levels, this can very much affect the overall balance of the sound.  When speakers are toed in more, they will have more lively treble that may balance better with an overabundance of mid bass.  

Sony’s hifi division makes very high quality devices.

You were probably spoilt by the HAP-Z1ES.

Return the dinner frips and be happy with the Sony.

Audiophiles will only feel "elusive" if some guy builds crap for them working out of his garage. But, these bigger dogs like Sony, Yamaha, Technics, etc who’ve been around the block (engineering clout's on a higher notch) can easily make the garage manufacturers look like imbeciles. So, don’t ever feel bad about owning a Sony.

I’m a shocked that it have not experienced the system transformation ive heard so much about. I run a Sony hap Z1es and the internal dac sounds much punchier/ cleaner than the 15th

 

Ah yes, “dinner frips” the old auto correct off my cell. Anyhoo, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll play around a bit.

Speaker placement and adjusting gain / crossover settings on your sub are great advice and the first place to start.  Comments on the design difference between DAC’s are spot on, R2R will have a very different sound signature vs those with newer chip designs.  R2R’s sound signature is talked up as being much more analogue, tube, vinyl sounding.  It emphasizes the mids, lows and tends to be more gentle on the highs.  It’s often described as more “musical, warmer” but less analytic, “Hifi” sounding.  Synergy is key, if your system is already on the warmer side, your speakers roll off a bit on top and or are known to highlight the mids, the 15 might be too much of a good thing.  The fact you hear a noticeable difference is a great thing system wise, if you don’t have a system set up that could highlight differences in a DAC wouldn’t be all that noticeable.  Unsure of your equipment is room ready, if it is, sign up for the free trial, you can use their EQ software to tailor the sound, curve.  That would give you a really good understanding of what you might be hearing.  You can drop the mods / lows and juice up the highs, if that doesn’t provide a different sonic signature than something else is going on. The Sony is no slouch and it’s likely designed / engineered to deliver something closer to how the track was originally recorded, that might be what you prefer over the overall sound signature of R2R DAC’s.  

Good morning thanks for the advice, my Martin Logan sub has room correction built in which is a godsend, with that said it sounded pretty darn good before the $1,000 edition. I'll tinker a bit but looks like the 15th is going on this site for sale, and I will look to blow the cash elsewhere on the merry-go-round. 

@barfbag

No, you don’t need to adjust your speaker placement or anything else. If you’re content with the rest of your audio system, you simply need to further experiment with other/different DACs until you find the one that synergizes best with your audio system and best gives you the kind of sound that you’re looking for. Happy listening.

@mm1tt77 

Comments on the design difference between DAC’s are spot on, R2R will have a very different sound signature vs those with newer chip designs

Are you getting confused between the old resistance ladder designs and the much later R2R technology?  What DAC chip designs are newer than R2R?

I mostly listen to SACD and to me the most important thing about a DAC is that it natively handles Direct Stream Digital, which in theory means it just needs a low pass filter.  Each successive bit just says shift the output level up or down one.  No resistance ladder or R2R needed except when decoding Pulse Code Modulated input.

I recently ordered the dinner grips Pontus 15th..still waiting for arrival. I guess dinner grips is my androids auto correct. I finally gave in now that Denafrips has been around awhile to try their R2R.  I am quite curious if it is something I will like. I did spend extra for the Pontus as I was told it's a little more transparent/balanced than the Ares? Though the Ares gets a lot of love from users & reviewers. Your Sony may just be more to your liking or what you are accustomed to..& absolutely nothing wrong with that. 

Roon was a good recommendation here. I have an ESS chip dac, the RME ADI-2 FS. It has 5 bands of PEQ, 2 extra somewhat limited bands as Bass & Treble tone controls. You can pick the frequency & a limited Q for the bass & treble tone control. Has a loudness function that you can control what volume level it ramps down to..as well as a separate 1 to 9db for bass & treble for how high you want the loudness function to peak. The volume control is pretty outstanding too. 

It certainly isn't the best dac out there but it's extremely versatile if you want to contour the sound to your liking. I've used Dirac & MiniDsp devices on my 2ch digital system but in the end I preferred the overall sound from the PEQ functions of this device. It's definitely going to give you the more cleaner & balanced sound of a chip based dac. From my subjective point of view the RME puts the vocalists a little more out front, not the deepest soundstage but if I had speakers that needed adjustments in my room the PEQ made up for the RME's audiophile shortcomings. Everything is a compromise it seems. Even though I was told it makes no difference I always used a linear power supply with it..but I already had the extra power supplies.  I only mentioned this dac because I saw you mention your sub has some dsp functions. 

Good look with your Ares 15th sale. I'm sure someone will pick it up. People seem to love those dinner grips. 

@richardbrand confused, the DAC is a R2R latter design.  Nothing wrong with that many love the sound signature.  The design is an older design known for its natural, warm, analogue, tube like sound.  The Denafrips has the full suite of options, outputs, DSD but it’s still a R2R latter design at its core.  It’s not a DAC implementation using Delta Sigma designed chips. R2R DAC’s have a general sound signature, DSD does as well.  Pair the together, it’s not surprising that you hear the differences you do between the Sony and the Denafrips.  

I had the Pontus 15th in combo with their Iris DDC and really liked it.  The Iris was a relatively small added investment, icing on the cake.  Pontus was very lively, toe-tappingly musical with ample detail.  I was advised the DAC needed ample break-in, and initially left on with my streamer playing for a week (amp was off), which helped considerably.  Then I upgraded my streamer and wondered if Pontus was a bottleneck.  Sold the combo and have been on a DAC merry-go-round since; the next candidate arrives tomorrow.  The Pontus is hardly end-game, but the 15th is a nice piece, especially at that price point.

Thank you, I will leave it on and try to have some patience. May I ask the dac you purchased?

OP...Consider trying a Schiit EQ unit....If it doesn't fix the issue to your liking maybe the other parts of your system need evaluating. AND...Let's all consider dropping the use of the words "shocked" or "shock" when speaking of anything hifi...Please.