Denafrips Ares ii

i have heard Joni Mitchell a number of times in concert and must say the Ares is the closest DAC i have heard in reproducing her voice.  it is also very dynamic sounding.  i can only imagine what their more expensive DAC's sound like.

I’ve never heard the Ares, but I own the Pontus II. I would say it’s every bit as dimensional as my previous MHDT Pagoda. Both are very fine dacs, but the Denafrips has slightly more detail and resolution while retaining the body of the Pagoda.

If pairing with the Node2i the Aries II using coax out has known issues

as stated by Alvin @ Denafrips and others.

I quite enjoy mine. Nice thing about Denafrips, you can almost always sell yours for what you paid, or more, if you should want to move up or try something else.

There are filter settings to take any ‘high frequency edge’ off. A couple different combinations that should suite most. One of the reasons I purchased the Denafrips was to get rid of that, as an ‘analog guy’, that was important. I think the Denafrips has no such issue, given the filter options you have.

I just picked up one used and it's sounding great.  Currently listening to it on NOS mode.

Curious if anyone has thoughts on the best input to use?

Given that the dig signal is stored in memory first b4 being processed , does it really matter if usb or coax is used?