Denafrips Pontus II vs Venus II

@ozzy62   For me I am connected via AES/EBU from a CEC TL1x CD transport and via Coax from a dedicated streamer Cambridge CXN V2. ( Orchid AES/EBU and Illuminations D60 coax.)

I did not audition a Venus, but I do have a Denafrips stack that I adore (Pontus II DAC, Hades Pre-Amp, and Thallo Amp…..all true balanced with Morrow XLR cables driving a pair of Buchardt Audio S400 Mk II speakers. After all we’re broken in, I am in love with the music.

however, I have the Audiophile sickness and reached out to Alvin at Vinshine to see if he thought I could improve things even further. He suggested the Iris DDC feeding I2S to the Pontus, and pointed me to the British Audiophile video. So I have taken possession of said Iris, and will install in the next month after a couple of cables are broken in another 100 hours or so. I’m hoping there is a noticeable improvement can be made

When connecting the I2S from the DDC to either the pontus or the venus, are most of you using a USB or coaxial cable from your computer or streamer? Is one better than the other??

Sorry, not a coaxial from your computer 

@ozzy62 I described my setup in detail in this discussion already, so you can check that out if you want. The gist is that I’m using a dedicated network endpoint to stream via UPnP from a smartphone as a dedicated device for my streaming app(s). So, not a PC. I’ve used both USB and AES/EBU to connect to my reclocker, and in both cases it is a non-trivial difference and actually a profound upgrade over not using the reclocker. Reclocked with I2S to DAC sounds like a much higher tier DAC is in play. I’ve repeated this test many times over the last 9 months or so, and I always get a definite result. Alvin is exceptionally honest and modest about gear configurations and the products he sells, but in my case, even though I’m NOT using a PC and USB, he’s still greatly underselling it. Hope that helps!

@stevebohnii For my Bricasti M5, I’m using a pretty expensive AES/EBU cable and it clearly outperforms the USB connection from the same streamer to the same reclocker. The USB cable I have isn’t in the same price range, but I don’t plan to go back to USB even with a different cable because I don't think even a top tier USB cable could best my current config.