[maiieu]

Venus II vs Pontus II?

I would buy Pontus II & Hermes for the same price tag of Venus II.

 

[Benno1988]

I would buy Pontus II & Hermes for the same price tag of Venus II.

I see. The Hermes is a DDC?

Is the Pontus as good as the Venus?

 

[maiieu]

I see. The Hermes is a DDC?

Is the Pontus as good as the Venus?

Yes, the Hermes is a DDC.

IMO, the pontus is better value than the venus. And in the future you may upgrade the pontus to the terminator to pair with the Hermes.

 

[Benno1988]

What ouptu/input Hermes to DAC?

 

[maiieu]

What ouptu/input Hermes to DAC?

Hdmi i2s

 

[shafat777]

Yes, the Hermes is a DDC.

IMO, the pontus is better value than the venus. And in the future you may upgrade the pontus to the terminator to pair with the Hermes.

I agree wholeheartedly.

With the Hermes DDC, the Pontus 2 performs extremely well for its price. If you already have the Hermes, then get a pontus 2 and save some money for the Venus. However, as an overall package, the venus 2 gives better performance.

 

[Arion128]

Buying the Denafrips Ares 2 for those in HK

 

[SnookHaus]

I am looking to buy an original Denafrips Ares 1 if anyone has one they are thinking about selling.

 

[halo26]

Relative newbie, please bear in mind.
Which mode of the ares 2 dac MOST resembles the characteristic euphonic tube sound, which mode is most like Ss sound: Nos, os slow, os fast?


(I don't know if the genre of music affects the answer, but i listen to classical and some jazz)
PS. I mainly use the ares2 with an asgaard amp, which is ss

 

[godmax]

As a short long-term report after the V3.12.0 firmware update:
The known issue of the Ares II regarding the random out-of-sync USB buffer bug that caused noise and crackling (and only could be cured with play/pause or changing the buffer size in the driver control), seems to be finally solved! Never happend again with my Ares II after the update in Dezember.
Great job and product support from Denafrips and @alvin1118.

 

[]eep]

Relative newbie, please bear in mind.
Which mode of the ares 2 dac MOST resembles the characteristic euphonic tube sound, which mode is most like Ss sound: Nos, os slow, os fast?


(I don't know if the genre of music affects the answer, but i listen to classical and some jazz)
PS. I mainly use the ares2 with an asgaard amp, which is ss

Just leave it as is. That means NOS and slow roll-off.

Generally the steeper filters are the more they affect phase. So Nos and slow leaves the signal be as much as possible (regardless the discussion about what happens to the incoming signal, if it's 'not real Nos', it sounds very natural and un-exaggerated).

 

[GoldenSound]

Just leave it as is. That means NOS and slow roll-off.

Generally the steeper filters are the more they affect phase. So Nos and slow leaves the signal be as much as possible (regardless the discussion about what happens to the incoming signal, if it's 'not real Nos', it sounds very natural and un-exaggerated).

Both the slow and steep filter in the Ares 2 are phase-linear filters.

 

[halo26]

Thank you. I was under the impression that the slow/fast filter was only active in OS mode, and that in NOS mode the filters didn't do anything. Was i incorrect?

 

[GoldenSound]

Thank you. I was under the impression that the slow/fast filter was only active in OS mode, and that in NOS mode the filters didn't do anything. Was i incorrect?

That's correct.
In OS mode, you can pick between slow and fast filters.
In NOS, it uses a linear interpolation filter (not actually NOS but hey).

There isn't a 'correct' answer as to which is best. Best just to try all three and see which fits your prefs

 

[dermott]

Any comments on where Soekris DACs fall when it comes to performance against the Ares II (or Denafrips in general)? Build quality seems like Denafrips takes it easily, but what about sound? Would the Soekris 1421 compare to the Ares II? Would the 2541 best the Ares II but clearly fall short of the Pontus II?