[shafat777]

I think I would characterize the sound of both the Iris and the Hermes similarly. What I heard was... nothing. I am not the greatest at sound description. What these DDC's did for my ears was create a very "dark," "BLACK," quiet, silent background. This allowed "space" between the notes, the instruments. Everything seemed just a wee bit cleaner and clearer, more distinct and "airier." I don't want to overstate it, that you'll be blown away!! But the sound will seem more real, bigger, and clearer if you are listening INTO the music.
Now, did I hear a difference between the Iris and the Hermes? I cannot say that I did, or that I am capable of hearing a difference. That being said, I was, and still am, more than willing to pay more for the Hermes for all those additional inputs.
I have a few good DACs and I liked what both of these pieces added to my listening enjoyment.

For an extra few hundred bucks, the Hermes in definitely worth it over the Iris. I used to own both, but back then, the Iris was feeding my topping D90s, but once i upgraded to the pontus 2 and the Yggy, I had to get the Hermes because of the aforementioned digital output.

 

[timhd]

The Iris owner's manual does not have any guide for configuring the HDMI pinout like the Hermes/Gaia owner's manual does.
Therefore, if Iris has any issue on I2S of Sonnet DAC, it may not be possible to fix.

Bought an Iris (new 12th version) and a RJ45 cable with custom pinout for using I2S of Sonnet Morpheus.
For better matching compatibility, I also remove the four jumpers on the I2S module of the Morpheus.
Test result is Iris works perfectly with Morpheus using I2S.

 

[ChJL]

According to the Denafrips Gaia manual, the pinouts need to be set to Mode 5: 1-0-1 on the Gaia LEDs. This sets the first pins of the DATA, BCK, and LRCK to + and the second pins for each to -.

Alright, thanks.

You mean DATA 1&3, BCLK 4&6, LRCK 7&9... 1,4,7 to + and 3,6,9 to -?
So 2,5,8 are GND "automatically"

And the left over pins? ESPECIALLY the next trio: MCLK 10,11,12? (1-0-1 would be logical here also, therfore fitting...)
13,14,16,18 NC assumingly means not connected, right?
The rest 15 MODE, 17 GND, 19 GND?

No/unsufficient answer from Vinshine! Like they dont care, buy, try and ship back if it doesn't work type of thing...

 

[S-S-MR]

You mean DATA 1&3, BCLK 4&6, LRCK 7&9... 1,4,7 to + and 3,6,9 to -?

Yes, you are correct. I don't know about the other pins, though. I use a specialized I2S cable from Pink Faun that removes the unneeded conductors. Hopefully, there GND pins between the Gaia and your X26 are the same.

 

[sajunky]

You mean DATA 1&3, BCLK 4&6, LRCK 7&9... 1,4,7 to + and 3,6,9 to -?
So 2,5,8 are GND "automatically"

A grounding point when twisted pairs each use their own individual shielding.

 

[cantresister]

hi guys
im in a bit of a pickle and need help if you guys wish to oblige, im having trouble trying to understand
how to configure the i2s on the cyan to work with the denafrips iris ddc , all im getting is static noise and I'm told
i have to configure the i2s on the cyan but there is no info in the manual how to physically do this could anyone please help
was trying for hours but still can not get it to work .

regards

nick

 

[cantresister]

hi guys
im in a bit of a pickle and need help if you guys wish to oblige, im having trouble trying to understand
how to configure the i2s on the cyan to work with the denafrips iris ddc , all im getting is static noise and I'm told
i have to configure the i2s on the cyan but there is no info in the manual how to physically do this could anyone please help
was trying for hours but still can not get it to work .

regards

nick

 

[Nicholasheadfi2]

I recently purchased a ddc from denafrips which made a big difference to my system,
i thought i would try a streamer to see how it will compare against the ddc and to
my ears streaming sounds so much better streamer to dac , dac to amp combo.
my question is has buying a streamer made my ddc redundant? can the ddc be added to
the chain somehow .
cheers guys .

 

[CAJames]

...i thought i would try a streamer to see how it will compare against the ddc and to
my ears streaming sounds so much better streamer to dac , dac to amp combo.
my question is has buying a streamer made my ddc redundant? can the ddc be added to
the chain somehow .
cheers guys .

I'm confused, what was your system before the streamer? And are you saying you tried the streamer into the DDC but it sounds better straight into the DAC?

I don't stream but pretty much everyone I know who does says a DDC improves the sound, but if it doesn't work for you I guess it is in fact redundant. You've got to trust your ears.

 

[lwr]

The quality of the cables you use to connect your DDC to DAC can easily make or break the benefits of using the DAC. Use the shortest possible length of the very best SPDIF over HDMI and clock cables you can get. Revaluation Audio will make them for you and you will be amazed at the SQ they deliver.

I certainly agree that there can be little or no benefit (or worse) from using the DDC if your connections to the DAC are made with 1 meter long HDMI and clock cables that are not built for DDC use.

If you have to use off the shelf cables,

 

[lwr]

use the shortest and highest quality ones you can find. Try a number of HDMI and clock cables and you will find that some are definitely better than others for DDC SQ

 

[lwr]

There’s a typo in the first line of my above post. Where it says “The quality of the cables you use to connect your DDC to DAC can easily make or break the benefits of using the DAC”, it should have said “The quality of the cables you use to connect your DDC to DAC can easily make or break the benefits of using the DDC.”

I have found the above statement to be the case with both the Singxer DDC and the Denafrips DDC I have used.

Of course, YMMV

 

[Nicholasheadfi2]

I'm confused, what was your system before the streamer? And are you saying you tried the streamer into the DDC but it sounds better straight into the DAC?

I don't stream but pretty much everyone I know who does says a DDC improves the sound, but if it doesn't work for you I guess i

 

[Nicholasheadfi2]

The quality of the cables you use to connect your DDC to DAC can easily make or break the benefits of using the DAC. Use the shortest possible length of the very best SPDIF over HDMI and clock cables you can get. Revaluation Audio will make them for you and you will be amazed at the SQ they deliver.

I certainly agree that there can be little or no benefit (or worse) from using the DDC if your connections to the DAC are made with 1 meter long HDMI and clock cables that are not built for DDC use.

If you have to use off the shelf cables,

I own the denafrips iris but unfortunately was unable to connect via hdmi i2s due to the fact that my
holo audio cyan dac/amp was not compatible , I was using a coax connection from ddc to dac instead.
I recently purchased a eversolo dmp a6 streamer which i connect directly into my dac with better results
rather than using my mac into the ddc maybe the fact that I was using coax instead of i2s
so which makes the ddc redundant in my system .
what source do you guys use and what yields the best results in your opinions
ddc or streamer ?

 

[CAJames]

...what source do you guys use and what yields the best results in your opinions
ddc or streamer ?

DDC and streamer shouldn't be either/or. What happens if you connect the streamer to the DDC? That may be the best of all.