[sheldaze]

Looking forward to your comparison of Ares vs Mojo since I have Mojo and can use that as a reference. Thanks!

Same here, I have Mojo too. Sorry I discovered the thread yesterday and I am halfway through it...

There does not appear to be much activity from @vexus who only seems to have been active for four posts between March and May this year.
You might want to ask @TimeLord who has had extended home listening time with the Ares, and owns the Mojo.

 

[ilcg1]

What kind of difference that you notice between them?

To me Ares definitely goes deeper in bass. Also, the overall timber has less digital glare (not hat Mimby had a lot of it, but Ares sounds more analog like). Overall the differences are subtle, but noticeable after longer listening sessions.
I haven't received my xlr interconnects yet, so these impressions are based on single ended connection (not sure if balanced will make any difference).

 

[Aradea]

Really like my Ares and I'm wondering how much better is Pontus. The difference between Ares and Mimby is not day and night, however it's there.

Hmm.. can you tell me more on the differences between the Mimby and the Ares?
I am seriously considering replacing my Mojo with the Ares. But it is quite disheartening to read that Mimby to Ares is not quite a significant upgrade.. especially considering the price diff

 

[AmusedToD]

I had both the Mojo and the Ares. IMHO, no contest there, the Ares is the better DAC. Mojo is great for headphones as a dedicated amp/DAC, but in a proper stereo setup - the Ares wins hands down. The bass is deeper and better controlled (this is where the major difference is), the soundstage slightly deeper and there is far less digital hardness, it's just more relaxing to listen to it for longer periods. Never tried it with headphones though. Perhaps the soundstage is slightly taller on the Mojo (especially the high frequencies appear to be positioned lowered in space on the Ares), but that's about it. Both DACs produce about the same width of the soundstage. However, the overall sound coming out of the Ares is fuller, meatier, but at the same time more relaxing. The Mojo is thinner and lighter on its feet, and more "digital" sounding.

Keep in mind the Ares is like a chameleon, it completely transforms after a week or so of constant use, it really does need proper burn in and the improvement is very audiable.

 

[ilcg1]

Hmm.. can you tell me more on the differences between the Mimby and the Ares?
I am seriously considering replacing my Mojo with the Ares. But it is quite disheartening to read that Mimby to Ares is not quite a significant upgrade.. especially considering the price diff

In this hobby price difference doesn't say much as you know. Speaking of Chord, I had both mojo and Hugo and preferred mojo regardless the price. I never tried them on speakers though as I primarily listen to headphones.

I had Bifrost Multibit (actually had it twice) and I couldn't hear the difference that will convince me it's better than Modi MB. If you want the best budget (value to money, "punches 5x it's price" etc.) dac on the planet - go with Mimby.

Now, Ares to me is definitely better than Mimby, but the differences, as they always are between two good dacs on headphones, noticeable, but not huge (again it depends on the ones definition of huge - to me after I've got my first external dac/amp the differences were there, but overall not huge).

After long listening sessions to me timber on Ares is better than on Mimby and overall Ares was more enjoyable to listen.

Sorry, I'm not the best to describe all the nuances and didn't do critical listening for the sake of writing the review. Hope this helps.

 

[Aradea]

@AmusedToD and @ilcg1 Many thanks for both of your feedbacks!
I am thinking of revamping both my semi desktop and portable setup. Considering to get a better DAC for my semi-desktop to feed my HD800 since I am currently using the mojo as a DAC only for it. As for portable I use, I guess I can just use a good sounding mobile phone and plug my iem into it (no stacking again)

 

[vexus]

Sorry, I saw the post too late.

As previously said, the bass on the Ares is much better controlled than on the Mojo. The mids are very similar and the heights are crispier on the mojo but with some glare. I preferred the Ares much more and have sold the mojo since.

 

[TPSRA]

Hi @PitBul34
Did you do a direct comparison between Ares and LKS DA004?
I have the Ares (before this thread exist) and now I'm really interested in DA004.

 

[JoeDoe]

Hey there ares owners, I'm currently auditioning an ares, coming from an Auralic vega and I'm curious to know if any of you blokes has experience with both also. Trying to decide whether the Vegas additional capabilities warrant the extra cash I have sunk into it as a 98% red book listener. Head amps are MAD Ear+ and Taurus MK2.

 

[Aradea]

Hey there ares owners, I'm currently auditioning an ares, coming from an Auralic vega and I'm curious to know if any of you blokes has experience with both also. Trying to decide whether the Vegas additional capabilities warrant the extra cash I have sunk into it as a 98% red book listener. Head amps are MAD Ear+ and Taurus MK2.

Wow I am curious to know your opinion later on when you're finished trying out the Ares.
If I'm not mistaken the Vega is over $2000 in price and I'd love read your comparison on both

 

[ajreynol]

Anywhere in South Florida I can listen to one of these? I'd really like to compare it to my new 2Qute, but waiting for it to arrive from over seas is beyond my time table.

 

[macan]

Sorry for long silence, forced to work long hours for contract job. I'm back now into the search of DAC.
I saw these photos in the website, hey this Ares looks really good. Pardon me i did not read the whole of this thread, is Ares a good performer for the money ?

 

[jcn3]

Sorry for long silence, forced to work long hours for contract job. I'm back now into the search of DAC.
I saw these photos in the website, hey this Ares looks really good. Pardon me i did not read the whole of this thread, is Ares a good performer for the money ?

there are 67 pages regarding the performance of this dac -- please take advantage of the investment that so many people have made to this thread.

 

[IlluminatiTri]

Ok, so I've been reading through the thread and can't quite figure this one out. I keep seeing conflicting things (to my eyes they're conflicting, maybe I'm misunderstanding).

I recently got the Ares, and I installed the XMOS drivers from the Denafrips website. However, using JRiver 23, I can only set it to bitstream DSD over WASAPI in DoP format. I thought there was native DSD support over ASIO? I am unable to do anything but DoP, though. Is there some key thing you have to do after installing the XMOS driver? Is there a setting in JRiver that I'm missing? Or does it really only do DoP?

Any replies/help would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[rudra]

No native support of DSD over ASIO. it is DoP only.