[1note]

Good review and beautiful systems ,.The Jays Audio CDT3 looks very interesting however many ask who in thier right mind would use CDs any longer ,...
Well that’s OK with me those that have different opinions and preferences,
I have listened to DSD high rate streaming through a friends expensive computer audio base system which took some time getting use to listening with familiar music .
His Dac an Empirical Audio product was over twice the price of the DenafripsTerminator and with no cd sacd player I brought mine over . His Wilson Audio Alexandria speakers energized every cubic foot of air in his room and something very interesting to the both of us was discovered with a plain 44.1 16 bit cd by Tonian Labs , Drums & Bells .
He could not find a better sounding percussion recording anywhere in his collection of HI-Res downloads , many came close but not close enough to this more realistic percussion recording .

What is so special about this recording you ask and some reading this may roll thier eyes and smirk over a redundant sample rate , well it was very disturbing to my friend whom one time said to my face that I need to advance my audio system and dump my analog playback system and get rid my sacd player and discs .

Hi Loose-Leaf, Thank you for your kind words. I very much appreciate your story on your CD experience.

Mainaman, I understand many think that the CD is inferior to the best new digital technologies. 4 years ago I put together 2 systems, an analog and the best digital I had heard which was a CD ripping system, to pick my number 1 system. The digital system was not commercially available, a no brand designed and handmade by a digital design wiz and only for a few friends. I knew one of those friends and got the magic nod. The heart was his DAC with 60 NOS computer chips and no digital filtering and a massive separate PSU with several hand-wound silver transformers. It also included a New Old Stock (“NOS”) Apple notebook, his design and built USB interface playback card, NOS Japanese switch, NOS Network-Attached-Storage and NOS Apple router, each with his hand-wound silver wired transformer power supplies and his silver-wired cabling. It cost $40k for all this playback equipment and this did not include his CD ripping equipment. It was the best digital I had heard, but the analog system I put together blew it away for me in many aspects including, realism, naturalness and most importantly, detail. I then sold the digital system.

This experience, together with some respected comments every now and then from a variety of quarters that excellent CD playback has surprised people as to how good it can be even compared to hi-rez like Loose-Leaf, together with analog being my number 1 source, my having space constraints in all 3 systems for adding streaming, and the excellent results I am now getting from the Jay's CDT-3 MK2 and Terminator (surpassing my memory of that $40k system by the way) have left me content to enjoy the Terminator fed by the CDT-3. Until people hear a Terminator fed by a CD player as good as the Jay's Audio CDT-3 MK2 and playing any of a number of excellently recorded CDs, they do not know how good CD playback can be. The excellence of the CDT-3 MK2 / Terminator combo really took me by surprise. I had no intention of buying two sets, but after I had heard this combo I could not go back to what I had been listening to before either in my speaker system or headphone system.

 

[Loose-Leaf]

Hi Loose-Leaf, Thank you for your kind words. I very much appreciate your story on your CD experience.

Mainaman, I understand many think that the CD is inferior to the best new digital technologies. 4 years ago I put together 2 systems, an analog and the best digital I had heard which was a CD ripping system, to pick my number 1 system. The digital system was not commercially available, a no brand designed and handmade by a digital design wiz and only for a few friends. I knew one of those friends and got the magic nod. The heart was his DAC with 60 NOS computer chips and no digital filtering and a massive separate PSU with several hand-wound silver transformers. It also included a New Old Stock (“NOS”) Apple notebook, his design and built USB interface playback card, NOS Japanese switch, NOS Network-Attached-Storage and NOS Apple router, each with his hand-wound silver wired transformer power supplies and his silver-wired cabling. It cost $40k for all this playback equipment and this did not include his CD ripping equipment. It was the best digital I had heard, but the analog system I put together blew it away for me in many aspects including, realism, naturalness and most importantly, detail. I then sold the digital system.

This experience, together with some respected comments every now and then from a variety of quarters that excellent CD playback has surprised people as to how good it can be even compared to hi-rez like Loose-Leaf, together with analog being my number 1 source, my having space constraints in all 3 systems for adding streaming, and the excellent results I am now getting from the Jay's CDT-3 MK2 and Terminator (surpassing my memory of that $40k system by the way) have left me content to enjoy the Terminator fed by the CDT-3. Until people hear a Terminator fed by a CD player as good as the Jay's Audio CDT-3 MK2 and playing any of a number of excellently recorded CDs, they do not know how good CD playback can be. The excellence of the CDT-3 MK2 / Terminator combo really took me by surprise. I had no intention of buying two sets, but after I had heard this combo I could not go back to what I had been listening to before either in my speaker system or headphone system.

That is interesting , I never warmed up to digital playback not until I had a Esoteric player however even then I couldn’t devote an entire listening session to digital playback . Analog playback is not easy to get really great results though I no longer use analog my memory of some of the truly great recordings and great pressings are close with digital playback now , well my opinion.
I’m getting close to retiring and in preparation we down sized our home and the decision was made to sell off my record collection ,table and associated components and go strictly digital . However I do miss analog playback at times though I don’t miss the fuss and maintenance .

You sparked my interest and now I am giving serious concideration to purchasing a JaysAudio CDT-3 Mk2.

 

[Loose-Leaf]

Hi Loose-Leaf, Thank you for your kind words. I very much appreciate your story on your CD experience.

Mainaman, I understand many think that the CD is inferior to the best new digital technologies. 4 years ago I put together 2 systems, an analog and the best digital I had heard which was a CD ripping system, to pick my number 1 system. The digital system was not commercially available, a no brand designed and handmade by a digital design wiz and only for a few friends. I knew one of those friends and got the magic nod. The heart was his DAC with 60 NOS computer chips and no digital filtering and a massive separate PSU with several hand-wound silver transformers. It also included a New Old Stock (“NOS”) Apple notebook, his design and built USB interface playback card, NOS Japanese switch, NOS Network-Attached-Storage and NOS Apple router, each with his hand-wound silver wired transformer power supplies and his silver-wired cabling. It cost $40k for all this playback equipment and this did not include his CD ripping equipment. It was the best digital I had heard, but the analog system I put together blew it away for me in many aspects including, realism, naturalness and most importantly, detail. I then sold the digital system.

This experience, together with some respected comments every now and then from a variety of quarters that excellent CD playback has surprised people as to how good it can be even compared to hi-rez like Loose-Leaf, together with analog being my number 1 source, my having space constraints in all 3 systems for adding streaming, and the excellent results I am now getting from the Jay's CDT-3 MK2 and Terminator (surpassing my memory of that $40k system by the way) have left me content to enjoy the Terminator fed by the CDT-3. Until people hear a Terminator fed by a CD player as good as the Jay's Audio CDT-3 MK2 and playing any of a number of excellently recorded CDs, they do not know how good CD playback can be. The excellence of the CDT-3 MK2 / Terminator combo really took me by surprise. I had no intention of buying two sets, but after I had heard this combo I could not go back to what I had been listening to before either in my speaker system or headphone system.

One Note I think we are on the same wave length preferring the same medium anyway I thought to pass along something you should find interesting if by chance you are not aware .

Recording engineer and owner of AIX Records Mark Waldrep has published a very interesting book titled A user guide to better sound available on his web site RealHD-Audio.com
A couple of years ago I attended one of Marks seminars and I walked away with a much better perspective of digital playback in all its forms and a fan of his web site .,.

 

[1note]

Hi Loose-Leaf,

Thank you for the recommendation of Tonian Labs "Drums & Bells" CDR. I have contacted Tony and ordered a copy. I very much look forward to hearing it. And thank you for the reference to AIX Records Mark Waldrep's web site RealHD-Audio.com. Very interesting. It has given me a new perspective on MQA which Stereophile and TAS have been raving about. I look forward to reading and learning more from his site.

I am sorry to hear about your moving away from vinyl but I do understand downsizing (I should be doing the same but have been doing the opposite) and I do understand how much attention vinyl requires to get good results. I would love digital to surpass vinyl. It would be so much easier. I spent my first decade in hi-fi (no digital then) in total ignorance of cartridge alignment and decades thereafter trying to understand it and trying to find the tools to get it right. A few years ago my prayers were answered and I finally found tools that I can get my alignment done properly with, Acoustical Systems SMARTractor.

All the best and happy listening.

 

[Loose-Leaf]

The timbre, tone and dynamics of Tonian Labs percussion recording is the most realistic and believable recording I have listened to so far , if only all recordings were this spectacular. I did speak to Tony Massian of Tonian Labs what unique recording components he used to capture such a realistic sounding recording he replied the components were nothing speacial though he did use mic’s he modified for the sessions , he went on to say that he has over $250,000 invested in microphones alone and that is key ingredient . Apperently Tony has a Jazz release however no word on its release .

It seems the least popular people in the audio industry I am attracted to or at least to find out why that is and sometimes the truth is revealed , Mark Waldrep of AIX is a great example .

I recognize your Fidelity Research arm , I loved that arm and used it with mm and mc cartridges however that alinement device looks fantastic , I have never seen anything like it .

Anyway I look forward to your comments of the Drums & Bells cd .

 

[natemact]

Just noticed there's a used one that just popped up on CAM http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649439394-denafrips-terminator-dac-best-offer/

 

[blakcloud]

Just noticed there's a used one that just popped up on CAM http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649439394-denafrips-terminator-dac-best-offer/

Yes, and I just bought it. Going to pick it up tomorrow morning. I am pretty excited. It is going to replace my Metrum Octave Mk. II DAC.

 

[Rhamnetin]

What a beast. Wonder how it compares to TotalDACs.

 

[natemact]

Yes, and I just bought it. Going to pick it up tomorrow morning. I am pretty excited. It is going to replace my Metrum Octave Mk. II DAC.

Nice!!! Enjoy!!!

 

[bmichels]

I can see 2 Ethernet input on the back of this DAC ! So... can it be used as a streaming DAC, connected to the network through Ethernet, and playing the music files stored on a NAS, or can it act as a roon end-point ? In not, then what are those 2 Ethernet input for ?

 

[rafabro]

This is NOT ethernet port. This are RJ45 sockets for I2S connection!

 

[alvin1118]

Thanks @rafabro.

Yes, DENAFRIPS HDMI and RJ45 connections are for i2s LVCMOS/LVDS. They are not typical HDMI for multimedia or RJ45 for Ethernet.

Hope it helps!

 

[Rhamnetin]

Does anyone know which "Mode" should be used if using I2S from a Singxer SU-1?

 

[bmichels]

A strong competitor to the Terminator will of course be the TotalDAC, also R2R. Has someone heard the new TotalDAC D1-Direct which do not have any output stage: direct connection to the R2R lader... for maximum transparency

 

[jusbe]

A strong competitor to the Terminator will of course be the TotalDAC, also R2R. Has someone heard the new TotalDAC D1-Direct which do not have any output stage: direct connection to the R2R lader... for maximum transparency

Isn't that six times the price of the Terminator?