[David A Silva]

The best and simple way to understand if your dac or system sounds right is with the way you use the volume control. If the music you hear makes you to increase the volume, the system works fine. If you decrease the volume something is wrong and cannot easily be corrected with dsp equalization because of negative effects in transparency and dynamic range. An additional problem with the new firmware is that it makes you separate your music to good and not so good. When the dac plays well, you plug it in and forget it. This is achieved with the original firmware, at least in my case.

@ivez , Σας ευχαριστώ!

 

[medon]

...

Thanks. I am content with the overall tonal balance, I'd just like a 3db lift in the lowest octave. I don't know what the old firmware sounded like. Is it just the lower octaves or is it a warmish tilt into the midrange and treble? I don't think I want the midrange much warmer than it is...

Well... I feel the old firmware is fuller, richer in the mids, and most people would probably describe it being warmer.
Bass is less precise, more groovy - don't know if that makes any sense.
A simple bump in low end gain it is not, I'd say.

 

[kengt]

Well it's been about 14 days (330 hrs) since I plugged in my new Pontus II 12th Anniversary - came with the new firmware - sounds wonderful. With songs like those from Dua Lipa the bass is very robust and tight, with many albums from the 80s n 90s the bass is a bit thin. Is that what everyone is chatting about between the old and new firmware?

 

[Sun Table]

I've gone back to the 12GA too. It's a touch warmer and fuller than the 16GA, which is a shame as the 16 offers incredible midrange tones.
After living with the v1.0 Pontus for a few days I'm still experiencing a little too much sibilance.

@ms10 A bit off topic for the Denafrips FPGA firmware thread, and for the forum headphone focus, but I wanted to thank you for initiating the tangential discussion of Duelund cables. Following this discussion, I purchased Duelund 12GA speaker cable, and couldn't be happier. ... well, maybe I could be? It has sent me down the rabbit hole of tinned copper wires generally and NOS Western Electric options, some of which are now on the way as power cords and interconnects. Regardless of how that plays out, I am super-appreciative of your mentioning Duelund. I respect the opinions of those who choose to own Denafrips DACs (shout-out to this thread), owning Denafrips DACs is obviously a deliberate audio decision in part informed by their rightly praised warm sound. The Duelund/tinned copper speaker cables are precisely complementary with that desired sound.

I hope you have been able to sort out your ongoing sibilance issue. I did recently find swapping out some power cords (with otherwise lovely sonic signatures) reduced sibilance I had not attributed to those cords. System synergy is certainly complicated....

 

[Egill23]

Has anyone tried the update for the Terminator (2020) that was released a while ago? I tried to flash it but got an error message in the flash program and it would not proceed.

 

[prima186]

Has anyone tried the update for the Terminator (2020) that was released a while ago? I tried to flash it but got an error message in the flash program and it would not proceed.

Egill23 san​

Have you done a temporary disabling of driver signatures in Windows 10?
An error will occur if the signature is not invalidated.

 

[Egill23]

I did do the disabling of the driver verification when I installed the configuration driver. But do I need to do it before the flashing proceedure too?
This is what I did, more or less: I installed the newest USB driver on the laptop, restarted, installed the configuration driver after disabling Windows driver verification, restarted again. I then plugged in the USB cable from the laptop into the Terminator and plugged in the power to it again. I set it to USB-input and checked in device manager on the laptop that it was detected and also checked the USB program that it was the current one. I played some music too from the laptop (Foobar wasapi) to test it - all good there. After setting the Terminator to standby and pressing "Mode" twice or so the "USB HiRes Audio f-20 configuration" came up in Device manager and then I went to the unzipped folder (Terminator_FPGA_EP4CE22F) and ran the "Update MCU and FPGA" bat-file. The flash process in the command prompt started but after a few seconds it stopped with the error message "Error 044: CPLD or FPGA update fail. Failed please try again" I tried it again and also redid the whole usb driver-configuration file-connection to the dac thing, but still got the same error.

 

[Chodi]

I did do the disabling of the driver verification when I installed the configuration driver. But do I need to do it before the flashing procedure too?
This is what I did, more or less: I installed the newest USB driver on the laptop, restarted, installed the configuration driver after disabling Windows driver verification, restarted again. I then plugged in the USB cable from the laptop into the Terminator and plugged in the power to it again. I set it to USB-input and checked in device manager on the laptop that it was detected and also checked the USB program that it was the current one. I played some music too from the laptop (Foobar wasapi) to test it - all good there. After setting the Terminator to standby and pressing "Mode" twice or so the "USB HiRes Audio f-20 configuration" came up in Device manager and then I went to the unzipped folder (Terminator_FPGA_EP4CE22F) and ran the "Update MCU and FPGA" bat-file. The flash process in the command prompt started but after a few seconds it stopped with the error message "Error 044: CPLD or FPGA update fail. Failed please try again" I tried it again and also redid the whole usb driver-configuration file-connection to the dac thing, but still got the same error.

You are one of many that have had this experience with that error code on Windows 11. Check the Denafrips driver in Windows to see what it shows. I did the update for my Ares II and thought it had failed. Then checked the information in the driver and found it was successful. Sonically after I tried my Ares II it was obvious that the upgrade was successful. That Windows error code does not mean that it failed (Windows has many information codes). Check the driver you may find that it all worked out. The actual flash only takes seconds. It is very quick depending on the computer you may be using. If the Denafrips driver shows the upgrade then you are good to go.

 

[Egill23]

Thanks, I just checked the driver and it does say "Denafrips USB v3.12 I T22F3.6" so it should be flashed with the 3.6 driver. I got tricked by the error message and Denafrips saying it could take 5 minutes to complete. I was more like 5 seconds for me.

I have been doing a lot of changes to my system lately with cables and dampening and it has improved a lot, but I my sound memory of how it sounds is not so sure anymore because of it. I will try and evaluate any changes today anyhow.

 

[joseG86]

Thanks, I just checked the driver and it does say "Denafrips USB v3.12 I T22F3.6" so it should be flashed with the 3.6 driver. I got tricked by the error message and Denafrips saying it could take 5 minutes to complete. I was more like 5 seconds for me.

I have been doing a lot of changes to my system lately with cables and dampening and it has improved a lot, but I my sound memory of how it sounds is not so sure anymore because of it. I will try and evaluate any changes today anyhow.

It is not instant, in fact firstable it will sound great (my case) then after a while you will realize there's something missing and you might be goin' back (my case as well)

I hope you love it!

 

[David A Silva]

Follow up, new Pontus II/12. About 400 hours on the DAC now. A pad roll on my headphones did the trick. Switched from Auteur LS solid to Universe LS solid on my ZMF VC. Bass is now perfect and the midrange/treble has a small warm tilt. Sound is now perfectly to my liking.

 

[PoMarantz]

O.K. In the waiting-lull for the next firmware I got itchy and ordered a Beatechnik LHY SW-8 Network Switch!

 

[Riccioli30]

Follow up, new Pontus II/12. About 400 hours on the DAC now. A pad roll on my headphones did the trick. Switched from Auteur LS solid to Universe LS solid on my ZMF VC. Bass is now perfect and the midrange/treble has a small warm tilt. Sound is now perfectly to my liking.

News from Alvin.

“The latest firmware for the DENAFRIPS Pontus II DAC is now available and ready to use.

Please use the link and password that were previously provided to download the latest FUT (v1.4).

-----------------------------------------------------
v1.4 (May 15, 2023)
-----------------------------------------------------
Standardise Pontus firmware to v1.x
Fine-tune the sound quality in the mid-range and lower octave of the bass, to achieve a balanced, organic, analog-like sound signature that is characteristic of Denafrips
Dual-Wired AES/EBU Supports DSD128, PCM384 with DENAFRIPS Hermes, Gaia DDC”….
….
I did not understand if it is also good for P/2/12. It may be because, as Vinshine told me, it's specific to the P2 only. I'm not a geek so I hope others try it and then I'll think about it
….

 

[joseG86]

News from Alvin.

“The latest firmware for the DENAFRIPS Pontus II DAC is now available and ready to use.

Please use the link and password that were previously provided to download the latest FUT (v1.4).

-----------------------------------------------------
v1.4 (May 15, 2023)
-----------------------------------------------------
Standardise Pontus firmware to v1.x
Fine-tune the sound quality in the mid-range and lower octave of the bass, to achieve a balanced, organic, analog-like sound signature that is characteristic of Denafrips
Dual-Wired AES/EBU Supports DSD128, PCM384 with DENAFRIPS Hermes, Gaia DDC”….
….
I did not understand if it is also good for P/2/12. It may be because, as Vinshine told me, it's specific to the P2 only. I'm not a geek so I hope others try it and then I'll think about it
….

Thank you so much, downloaded and gonna try it in a few mins

In my case I downloaded v1.4 (P22F1.4) based on FGPA ep4ce22f and shipped after 7th Oct 2020

 

[PoMarantz]

This time I am waiting for the feedback from others BEFORE implementing this latest firmware offering.
I have been so pleased with the sound of my system after reloading the original firmware that came on my Pontus II!