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Denefrips Pontus "burn in" period?

Hello all

 

Now there's a chance I may be a little premature with this, but I've received my Pontus 8 days ago and have had it running ever since, powered up, most of the time with signal going through it, and so far I'm a little concerned. I am aware that with this particular dac it is recommended to run it roughly 10 days before it really burns in, but being only a couple of days away, I can't say the sound has changed very noticeably. Matter of fact, when I A/B with my project S2 plus dac, and even my blue sound node internal deck, I can barely tell a difference! Does burning happen gradually? Is there all of a sudden a hallelujah moment where this thing starts kicking ass? Does anybody have more experience with this particular piece of gear? Current system is rogue audio ST100 amp, rogadio RP1 preamp, upgraded tubes, blue jean cabling, upgraded power cords on power amp and preamp. I had high hopes that this dac that has received so much high praise was going to blow my meager dacs out of the water, and so far not the case at all. I must say, the thing weighs a ton and looks gorgeous, but I'm getting a little concerned at this point that I may end up disappointed. Talk me off the ledge!

 

128x128jin78
lordmelton's avatar
lordmelton
877 posts
 

@jin78 It'll all be fine. Don't jump just yet. Most gear including cables need about a month to burn in. It'll be fine.

oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 

Yea give it every chance and THEN kill it..

I know nothing about that unit but some of the fancy rigs have teflon caps and silver clad wire/PTFE. All of that stuff can drive you nuts trying to get it Broken in. 

I've never been real to up date on DACs but gear in general, usually, the better the gear, the longer the break-in.  Especially big high voltage boutique caps. 500-1000 hours.. Cables that aren't at least, conditioned take a while to break in too. Copper with silver clad.  Copper plug, drop and walk.. All that can make a difference. 

Then there is the chance it's a pile.. I can make Yoko Ono sound like Barbra Streisand with my rig.

What you don't want is Barbra Streisand sounding like Yoko Ono.

chorus
976 posts
 

As you may know Alvin ships his DACs with 100 hours of burn in. This is a very cool thing. Not many makers do that. Now when orders back up could the 100 hours turn out to be 5 hours?

 

I bought the same DAC in December. I was traveling for the holidays 

so I loaned to a buddy to get some hours on it. 

 The instructions advise against turning it completely off.

Rather use the standby mode.

 

It it does not sound better than the the bluesound something  is very

wrong. Contact CS at Denafrips and let them review setup with you.

If it is defective there is a warranty. Use it.

jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 

op did not mention his speakers - he may well not have a system resolving enough to hear a meaningful difference

the pontus is very good, especially in terms of portraying an expansive soundstage and excellent tonality notable in its warmth and body -- though treble may have a touch of grain, even with an excellent source signal

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,360 posts
 

I had that exact amplification chain of RP1 and ST100 and compared 3 DACs - Qutest, Brooklyn DAC 2 and Bryston BDA3. The new DACs Qutest and Brooklyn 2 took around 200 hours to sound their best (closed in, murky and confused before they settled). I ended up with the Qutest.
But I digress…the point is the Rogue set up is more than resolving enough to highlight the differences between the DACs. Are your speakers up to the task though?
Give the Pontus 200hrs of run time. If no improvement then it is what it is. 
Few more things to take into consideration…

1. The best power cords should be on your source components (DAC, preamp)

2. BJC cables are decent but they’re not great. Something to consider as a potential area for improvement. They should still allow you to hear the difference. 

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