[sajunky]

R2R11 is not cheap and not nice, not gonna buy such a thing ever. I watched zeos review about it... it's very weird device.

YouTube review? .LOL.
You don't trust me, fine, but you didn't try, you have absolutely no idea...

BTW, Cheap, I used a wrong word. R2R11 is a solid and well built, but not expensive device delivering a natural, uncompromised sound. Show me better R2R NOS DAC with a discrete class A amplifier, preamp and a decent headphone amplifier at $350 (currently at $323; -7.5% Christmas sale), we can talk.

There is no better one. Actually there is nothing else present in this price range.
Not nice, agreed; meaning not specially attractive looking.
Do you want good looking? What do you do in the Ares thread in first place? Pegasus is for you.

 

[Lolito]

Talking ares is what i do, you are talking about audio gd, not me. But my opinion about that thing is the same, but still i dont like audio gd offering. I made my mind about separate dac and preamp/headphone amp. A schitt magnius or a topping a90 or my currsnt atom, they all take 2 analog imputs, for turntable or for a second dac. I really dont like audio gd, sorry. But hey, i am completely opened to test it, send me a private message and i send you my address if you ship it for free, no problem with that. Otherwise, i dont like that chinese piece of... Sorry, i will wip me for thinking like that, LOL!!

 

[sajunky]

magnius or a topping a90 or my currsnt atom, they all take 2 analog imputs, for turntable or for a second dac. I

Topping A90? .LOL.
Really bad choice: First it pairs poor with Denafrips due to the non-standard low input impedance. Remember that Denafrips DACs have a passive output (high impedance).

Secondly, it has design fault which cause spreading ground loops over your entire system. Better (in the same class) is L30 which is free of such defect and much cheaper. However I hear all around that Zen Can is much better amp than L30 for a little more. Go figure.

 

[Jjrg]

Seems like a great DAC. I wonder how it compares with DACs of the same price

 

[Lolito]

Topping A90? .LOL.
Really bad choice: First it pairs poor with Denafrips due to the non-standard low input impedance. Remember that Denafrips DACs have a passive output (high impedance).

Secondly, it has design fault which cause spreading ground loops over your entire system. Better (in the same class) is L30 which is free of such defect and much cheaper. However I hear all around that Zen Can is much better amp than L30 for a little more. Go figure.

Thanks for the information. I can not confirm or not those things, but I can believe topping not really worth to spend the big bucks, it has no reliability history.
Schiit Magnius then, not the best at all, but at least is cheap. Can combine an "analog" dac, with a "measurements nazi" delta sigma dac. LOL. I got a brand new subwoofer though, so I can already bother the neibours until well over new year, it is holyday season, right?

Would be great if brands like Denafrips were properly distributed in Europe "guitar" shops. Huge companies here. They all have RME already. Yes, it is the pro market. But with no shows coming, no testing... No audio shows until early 2022 is my expectation to be honest.

Can you explain better that problem with the Ares passive output? Nothing of that mentioned in Audio science reviews measurements, 4 at XLR.

 

[sajunky]

Would be great if brands like Denafrips were properly distributed in Europe "guitar" shops. Huge companies here. They all have RME already. Yes, it is the pro market. But with no shows coming, no testing... No audio shows until early 2022 is my expectation to be honest.

Can you explain better that problem with the Ares passive output? Nothing of that mentioned in Audio science reviews measurements, 4 at XLR.

Yip, it is sad. At least you can trust Ares reliability, then find headphone class A amp to get the most from R2R DAC, a nested feedback thingy like THX789, A90/L30 make sound artificially smooth, it is only good for DS DACs where microdetails, reverbation on a decay is already lost. For speakers it is a bigger investment I have Denon PMA-520AE, it is quite satisfactory. However you can stay with DS DAC if your favourite music is EDM, electronic production to annoy your neighbours like Calvin Harris. I am talking about presentation of acoustic instruments, if you care, think about.

Matching Ares output impedance important. A standard output impedance is less than 100 Ohms and input impedance is 47kOhms. It is doubling for a balanced connection. Ares gives 670 Ohms, you get a voltage divider on the input impedance (not critical), but any RC filter on the input will cause a high frequency roll-off that can falll in the audio range. In addition I am not sure how loading a ladder with low impedance is affecting linearity of the ladder. In other words you should match Denafrips DAC with a device having a standard input impedance.

 

[abickers]

Worth a try.

 

[VintageAudio]

Worth a try.

Thanks for posting. Of course we will "want" to believe that this makes a difference if we try these tips with our ears...I'm wondering if someone would be able to measure before and after the turning to see if there is actually a difference.

Maybe a job for Archimago?

 

[gto88]

interesting, but I can't correlated the mechanical to electrical, yes, the pcb stress from the tight screw is a good point, but
how does a relax pcb affect the sound is a mystery to me if one can hear difference.

 

[VintageAudio]

interesting, but I can't correlated the mechanical to electrical, yes, the pcb stress from the tight screw is a good point, but
how does a relax pcb affect the sound is a mystery to me if one can hear difference.

Could it have something to do with physical connection of the solder joints having better/worse contact? I mean when you have a loose cable connector it can cause intermittent sound problems..

Also the 2nd video seems to have some relationship to resonance. People spend money on acoustic feet, thick, heavy cases. I dunno, seems plausible, but as we know many companies capitalize on pseudo-science mumbo jumbo to sell expensive accessories.

In this case, it doesn't really cost anything, just a tweak.

Would still love to see some scientific test to validate the theory.

 

[daytrader]

So who's got one and what are you running your filter setting on, NOS or OS? And if OS, slow or sharpe roll off? I’m sure the filter setting is system dependent and obviously personal preference but I’d still like to hear from others and their thoughts on filter choice?

I've tried them all since having it and keep going back to NOS even when I know I'm missing some top end sizzle. I'm currently running the Ares II in my Stax 700Ls / Stax 007tII ”ear speakers”. Sounds wonderful. Oh yes, and I’m trying my hardest to stop reading Pontus review!

 

[ksorota]

Been running the Ares II for about two weeks now and have preferred the NOS mode.

My setup includes MacMini m1, Denafrips (Iris-new), Ares, Freya S, Vidar to HE6 and I could not be more happy with the sound.

The AresII is very engaging and a nice pairing with the HE6. The resulting sound sig is smooth and detailed..and it just draws you in. I just installed the Iris today and will need some more time to give thoughts, but upon first listen it produces a clear increase in space around the notes and soundstage is both wider and more clear. Its not one thing i can pinpoint, just a more airy feeling overall on an already airy DAC.

Alvin pointed out that if I buy the Iris that I should start looking towards the Pontus...as much as I want to say I do not need to upgrade he then proceeded to send me some glowing reviews. The savings will start building now and sometime next year maybe I will get to add one to my setup. The Ares II is a fantastic DAC and it supplanted my Bifrost MB w/unison. Comparing the two is tough now since its been a few weeks, but I think the Ares II just matches up better with HE6 than Bifrost.

 

[daytrader]

Been running the Ares II for about two weeks now and have preferred the NOS mode.

My setup includes MacMini m1, Denafrips (Iris-new), Ares, Freya S, Vidar to HE6 and I could not be more happy with the sound.

The AresII is very engaging and a nice pairing with the HE6. The resulting sound sig is smooth and detailed..and it just draws you in. I just installed the Iris today and will need some more time to give thoughts, but upon first listen it produces a clear increase in space around the notes and soundstage is both wider and more clear. Its not one thing i can pinpoint, just a more airy feeling overall on an already airy DAC.

Alvin pointed out that if I buy the Iris that I should start looking towards the Pontus...as much as I want to say I do not need to upgrade he then proceeded to send me some glowing reviews. The savings will start building now and sometime next year maybe I will get to add one to my setup. The Ares II is a fantastic DAC and it supplanted my Bifrost MB w/unison. Comparing the two is tough now since its been a few weeks, but I think the Ares II just matches up better with HE6 than Bifrost.

Thank you for your comments, it is very engaging in NOS mode as it kept drawing me back to reset those damn little buttons. LOL
I’m also happy to hear I’m not the only one with Pontus fever. Alvin is a super nice guy, I‘ve found him very responsive and great with customer service! BTW, don’t even look at the Venus reviews if you can help it, as they say “it will just take you further down the rabbit hole”.

 

[PopZeus]

Ugh, I've had nothing but freezing and crashes when I take the Ares II off of standby. Has anyone else had any issues with the USB implementation with Mac OSX?

 

[ksorota]

Ugh, I've had nothing but freezing and crashes when I take the Ares II off of standby. Has anyone else had any issues with the USB implementation with Mac OSX?

Yeah i have this problem also on my m1 mac mini. Happens reliably every time i hit standby, so now I do not hit it.

luckily the mac reboots quickly! Still annoying however.