Questions to Denafrips Terminator Plus owners (the break-in)

I’m thinking about matting the terminator with my aurender N100. I’m worried since you need to use USB did you end up with a good match? 

@tortor - I'm interested in these footers. Where did you buy then from?

@vonhelmholtz The good thing is that if you are smart in selecting components, you don’t have to worry about spending more because you’ll be content with the system and not feel the need to change things.

There's also a significant point of diminishing returns for an exponential increase in cost. I think for most, a well done but not crazy expensive system that gives you 90% of what a much more costly one would provide is something you could happily live with and not feel like you're missing out.

Good to hear all turned out to your liking, but this audio thing is sure a money pit.

@vonhelmholtz No mate, I’m still around! Actually it has been several months since I started this thread, and I made quite a lot of changes (more like additions) to the system. Now I believe I tuned it to my liking.

As of now, I still have the T+, and these are the changes:

- Adding the Hermes

- Getting 2X Synergistic Research’s Atmosphere X BNC cables to sync the clock with the T+

- Adding an I2S cable - Tubulus Concentus which sounds so so good

- Replacing power cords from wall to isolation transformer, and from isolation transformer to the Hermes DDC, to ones with more agreeable tonality.

- Lastly, adding HifiStay isolation to my streamer / network switch / amplifier / DAC (shown in pic below). I couldn’t believe isolation feet would make such a big difference.

All these costed me around 6 grand but the system now sounds much more to my taste.

EDIT to add that... of course, even without all those changes, putting 200+ hours on it helped smoothen the tonality quite a bit, and two components that made biggest changes are power cord to the DDC and isolation feet to the DAC.

I've had mine now for about two months. I found that after a week of use and leaving it on 24/7, it smoothed out a fair amount. That was the most significant change in my opinion, after that it was consistent. And the improvement over the Venus 2 it replaced was very noticeable from day one.

Looks likes OP registered one very negative review and rode off into the sunset.

I can report that running the DAC overnight with music playing (amps off) dramatically improves sound.  After two days, it's pure magic. Break in necessary, but easy.  Vinshine said 1000 hours, so I'm sure it gets better from here. I think the initial 30-50 hours is the biggest jump.

csr78, make sure you have tested the I2s configurations, there is a Youtube vid on the Vinshine site to explain how to mate the Gaia to the DAC. Set the Gaia first then test different settings on the DAC until it sounds good. This may be the problem. Good luck! I have a Hermes waiting to be mated with my Venus II when I get back home from FL in 2 weeks.

Did the dac every break in and sound better? I just got a T+ and Gaia to replace my Terminator 1, and the midrange and vocals are loose and sound wrong. There is also a high pitch harshness.  However the mid high detail and spacial separation is better.

tortor
Denafrips Terminator Plus,
I really don’t like the sound. whilst I can hear some more details