The silver ones sound better! ;)

To answer my own question from Sept. 17, there is no audio delay when using the optical input from a TV to the Ares 12th-1. In fact there is not even a bit of echo effect when both the TV and the Ares are producing sound, so there is no delay in case anyone was wondering.

Congrats on your new Ares! Mine sat in Guangzhou, China for 2 days waiting for a FedEx pickup. The next day it was in Oakland, CA, next day Portland, OR, Sunday nothing happened, and then delivery to my small Oregon town on Monday. Sometimes shippers take an extra day just to get stuff to my...

I'm using the default which I think is OS fast. I was so excited to get the Ares and try it out that I didn't even think about OS/NOS. I've got some old Stones "Factory Girl" on now. Before that The Notting Hillbillies sounded fantastic, before that Shaggy, and some classical. I have quite an...

My silver Ares 12th-1 arrived via FedEx today just 8 days after I placed the order. I had some new Blue Jeans XLR cables ready to plug into my Parasound Halo amp and got it plugged in and fired up pretty quickly. I used Audirvana software on my Mac mini to play CD rips from my own library via...

Ares 12th-1 ordered. I fell asleep on the couch last night, woke up after midnight and went into a sort of automatic mode. I got up and got my credit card, placed the order and went to bed. A "thank you" email from Alvin was waiting for me this morning.

I never heard this before today but I found it on Qobuz and added to my favorites. Thanks!

I might just do that. Then use the Ares for USB music with the Oppo disc player on coax unless I upgrade it to I2S with that kit that some Oppo-heads are doing.

The video review is "Denafrips Ares II R2R DAC Review - Do R2R DACs really sound better?" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66wb3D_kaCM&t=1s and seemed like a positive review to me until you read some of his replies to comments where I get the impression he doesn't especially like R2R DACs...

2/3 second audio delay! Really? I did a lot of homework on which DAC to buy, and until this morning I was ready to order the Ares 12-1 but then I watched one more Ares II review on YouTube. A comment to the review stated that the Ares cannot be used for gaming or media because it has a 2/3...

That's a lot of fancy looking data, but how does it sound? Did anyone actually listen to both models and report the results yet?

My Yggy is the single most expensive audio component I have ever purchased unless you count a pair of speakers at $2k apiece as a single component. I don't have money to burn but I do need a balanced passive preamp with remote, and a balanced power amp for the speaks. So after those two...

  I just got my Yggy yesterday on Veteran's Day (Soapbox alert: a USA holiday and paid vacation day for government workers, not veterans). It was cold to the touch but I plugged it in and played with it immediately. My first reaction was that the sound was very harsh but after about 1 to 2...

Since we're fixing stuff, Yggy's manual still has a typo on the YGGDRASIL CONTROLS page: number 6 on the right page is still a 5. I expect perfection from you guys! 

Head-Fi confessional and future product request:   Almost all my listening is through speakers, mostly because my wife and I like the same music and she feels left out if I don't have the speakers on, plus they sound really good so I don't mind at all. I'm still using an older, good quality AV...