[Whazzzup]

Far better? Well that’s a red flag for me. Either there was other rig changes, confirmation bias, or just plane subjective preference. No offence. Course I’d love to a/b in my system. I find differentiation of dacs subtle at best controlling for loudness, quality of analogue components etc...

 

[S Crowther]

Far better? Well that’s a red flag for me. Either there was other rig changes, confirmation bias, or just plane subjective preference. No offence. Course I’d love to a/b in my system. I find differentiation of dacs subtle at best controlling for loudness, quality of analogue components etc...

Of course everything is subjective. I have both DACs. I lived with the TT for about 2 years and then bought the terminator about 3 months ago. No other rig changes. I always play the TT through a head amp as I do not like the sq from the TT direct. Of course the terminator must go through an amp.

 

[jmpsmash]

Any reason you use AES instead of USB? Are you driving it from computer a streaming device / transport?

I guess I need to spend the time to do the experiment.

I compared AES and coax vs USB, driven from a Auralic Aries Femto.

USB is better, while AES and coax are not close.

The soundstage is more coherent, instruments fills in and positioning is better, tonal balance is better. AES is too bright (to my surprise), the instruments was trapped by the speakers.

USB overall sounds more natural and realistic.

This is from playing full scale orchestral music, so there are a lot of things going on and also occupies the whole tonal range.

 

[johnzz4]

I compared AES and coax vs USB, driven from a Auralic Aries Femto.

USB is better, while AES and coax are not close.

The soundstage is more coherent, instruments fills in and positioning is better, tonal balance is better. AES is too bright (to my surprise), the instruments was trapped by the speakers.

USB overall sounds more natural and realistic.

This is from playing full scale orchestral music, so there are a lot of things going on and also occupies the whole tonal range.

Too many variables.. depending on which cables I’m using, the USB or AES can sound brighter. I have the Aries G2 and the AES seems more transparent, but USB seems to have a slightly deeper soundstage. I don’t know whether to chalk this up to the Terminator inputs or Aries outputs. In my experience, they’re pretty close.

 

[jmpsmash]

Too many variables.. depending on which cables I’m using, the USB or AES can sound brighter. I have the Aries G2 and the AES seems more transparent, but USB seems to have a slightly deeper soundstage. I don’t know whether to chalk this up to the Terminator inputs or Aries outputs. In my experience, they’re pretty close.

agree. YMMV. as always.

 

[johnzz4]

agree. YMMV. as always.

I do find it interesting that the USB is so well implemented on the Terminator. That’s certainly not always been my experience. Most of the reading I’ve done over the years suggests that AES should be superior. I also like how clocking is done at the DAC with USB, and in AES, it gets sent from the source. Seems like a trip down the AES cable wouldn’t help with jitter - overly simplistic, I know.

 

[vassils]

I do find it interesting that the USB is so well implemented on the Terminator. That’s certainly not always been my experience. Most of the reading I’ve done over the years suggests that AES should be superior. I also like how clocking is done at the DAC with USB, and in AES, it gets sent from the source. Seems like a trip down the AES cable wouldn’t help with jitter - overly simplistic, I know.

The Terminator uses Amanero for USB, which is arguably the best off the shelf USB card on the market. To my ears better than XMOS. It does reclock the signal and may sound better that SPDIF/AES in some cases (source dependent).

 

[vassils]

I am curious - has anybody else here replaced a Terminator with another DAC? I bought a Terminator and was amazed by it for about six months, until a friend of mine brought a $1,200 DAC with the Analogue Devices AD1865 R2R chip. I was absolutely sure the Termi would be all over my friend’s little DAC with this ancient DAC chip. But to my biggest surprise, that was not the case. I realized what a “musical” DAC really sounds like. For those of you who think the Terminator is a musical DAC, try a well implemented tube DAC with the AD1865 chip. I ended up selling the Terminator and went that road.
With all the raving reviews about the Terminator, people really expect that it outperforms anything on the market below $15K. At least that's what I thought. Well, I just wanted to mention that’s not really the case. And it's a lot about personal taste.
Actually, I was all over the forums reading raving reviews just before I bought the Termi and while I had it. There was only one bad review by one of the editors of AS (AudioStream). I was so obsessed by the Terminator, that I started hating the reviewer who posted that review. Now, after all the euphoria is over, I think he was right, and had a very objective opinion. On the other hand, another reviewer of AS loves it and uses it as his reference DAC.
For those of you who are wondering - my advice is to give the Terminator a try but keep your mind open. And try a well implemented Analogue Devices AD1865 DAC if you can. I am sure that's also a matter of personal taste, but if musicality is your priority, you should definitely give it a try.

 

[yates7592]

---

 

[Thenewguy007]

I am curious - has anybody else here replaced a Terminator with another DAC? I bought a Terminator and was amazed by it for about six months, until a friend of mine brought a $1,200 DAC with the Analogue Devices AD1865 R2R chip. I was absolutely sure the Termi would be all over my friend’s little DAC with this ancient DAC chip. But to my biggest surprise, that was not the case. I realized what a “musical” DAC really sounds like. For those of you who think the Terminator is a musical DAC, try a well implemented tube DAC with the AD1865 chip. I ended up selling the Terminator and went that road.
With all the raving reviews about the Terminator, people really expect that it outperforms anything on the market below $15K. At least that's what I thought. Well, I just wanted to mention that’s not really the case. And it's a lot about personal taste.
Actually, I was all over the forums reading raving reviews just before I bought the Termi and while I had it. There was only one bad review by one of the editors of AS (AudioStream). I was so obsessed by the Terminator, that I started hating the reviewer who posted that review. Now, after all the euphoria is over, I think he was right, and had a very objective opinion. On the other hand, another reviewer of AS loves it and uses it as his reference DAC.
For those of you who are wondering - my advice is to give the Terminator a try but keep your mind open. And try a well implemented Analogue Devices AD1865 DAC if you can. I am sure that's also a matter of personal taste, but if musicality is your priority, you should definitely give it a try.

Which DAC was the one with the Analogue Devices AD1865 R2R chip?

BTW wasn't the AudioStream review overly positive? Where was the negative review by the editor?

 

[vassils]

Which DAC was the one with the Analogue Devices AD1865 R2R chip?

BTW wasn't the AudioStream review overly positive? Where was the negative review by the editor?

I would rather not mention other DAC models here, as I think that's off topic, and it all comes down to a personal taste at the end. My post was mainly an attempt to find out if any other Terminator owners replaced it with something else. I did not buy the $1,200 DAC my friend brought either. But that was an eye opener for me. PM me if you really want to know more details.

Yeah, there was a great review on AudioStream and a DAC shootout by Michael Lavorgna, where the Termi did not have very good feedback. I really hated Michael Lavorgna for his almost negative comments .

 

[peteg]

I've had my Terminator for a while now and was overjoyed with the sound but like any audio equipment I have to live with for a while to really get a grip on the sound.

After the terminator settled down after 700+ hrs (usb input) it was time to optimize my system to get the most out of the dac. What I settled on was using the Is2 input with a modded singxer SU-1 with ultracap LPS-1 power supply and AQ vodka hdmi cable to the terminator.

The sound I'm getting now is a level+ from my first critical listening I had, every category has improved from subtle to huge (like soundstage/depth). This will be my dac for a while, I don't see me changing it out for something "better" (not different) if I want to upgrade for better sound it will come from upgrading something else in the system. So for me: 1000+ hrs and the best I2s input source you can find.

As for Michael Lavorgna comments, it made me very confused to the point I thought we were not listening to the same dac (things that make you go Hmmm).

 

[Thenewguy007]

That's a great stack you got there.

What's the amplifier you have? Any high end cables you're using with your equipment?

 

[peteg]

That's a great stack you got there.

What's the amplifier you have? Any high end cables you're using with your equipment?

Most cables are DIY, with some info on the net you can make some damn good cables (not cheap parts). My amp now is a Diy Icepower 1200AS2 x2 that I'm using now but I have a Moon W-5 and Nord NC500 (going to upgrade to Rev-D input buffer soon) that I swap in & out every once in awhile.



My DIY amp.

 

[jmpsmash]

If you are into class d, I recommend Nuprime ST10. I notice it manages to maintain the incredible amount of detail that the terminator extracts from the source material. I tried nc400/500 and both are unable to do it.