I recently picked up a used Denafrips Ares II DAC and thought that I’d pass along my initial impressions.
I have not compared it to any other similarly priced DAC, so cannot make any meaningful comparisons on that front. It was, however, a clear step up from my Maverick Audio TubeMagic D2 DAC that I had upgraded with Sparkos Labs op amps along with rolling in a Western Electric 396A tube. Based on price point an improvement in sound quality is expected, but I wasn’t sure how much the op amp upgrade might be worth.
What finally sold me on the Denafrips Ares II DAC was its purpose built design. I like that it doesn’t have any preamp capability, headphone output, or even a remote. Their focus was on the sole function that I was looking for which is the digital to analog conversion.
Recognizing that it doesn’t automatically correspond to quality, I love that it weighs 3.5kg (7.7 lbs) and feels almost industrial in construction. The buttons have a solid quality feel as well. The LEDs are known to be small and hard to see from above (i.e. it’s hard to know if it’s on or off when standing above it), but from across the room you can seem them just fine and they are far less intrusive than the LEDs on any of my other electronics in the room.
Internally, the large transformer and field of capacitors (power supply) and resistors (DAC) really give the appearance of attention to detail.
I don’t have any particular experience to say that an R2R ladder DAC is superior, but I do like the concept of a discrete approach over a chip solution.
As a side note, I did try a Schiit Modi Multibit DAC and found it to be essentially indistinguishable from the tube output on my Maverick Audio DAC prior to the op amp upgrade.
If you’re looking for a purpose built DAC that screams of attention to detail and build quality, I’d suggest taking a look at the Denafrips Ares II.
I’ve really enjoyed the sound so far, but who doesn’t enjoy the sound of a new component that yields an improvement!
