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

@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?