Denafrips R2R DAC (plays 512 DSD) reviewed as giant killer

[alvin1118]

47 minutes ago, niner93 said:

Oh No!  I'm in US and I have one coming.  Hopefully it goes through the custom okay.

 

Don't worry guys.

 

I've taken Luis suggestion, the shipping label was revised with better description so not to confuse the custom officer who might mistaken Terminator as a killing machine. Lol? 

 

"DENAFRIPS DAC - Digital Music Audio Decoder" should just sound fine.

 

As for DSD512, let me put this up to DENAFRIPS again. I shall keep you guys posted.

 

Many thanks. 

 

Rgds,

Alvin @ Vinshine Audio 

 

[alvin1118]

On 6/7/2018 at 7:08 AM, coach65 said:

Mine all work, however when I first set it up it sounded really dull and lifeless. The NOS/OS toggle was set to NOS. Once I set it to OS everything opened up to my ears. For a music lover it's really additive.

   

 

Coincidentally, a customer was impressed with NOS. After a couple of weeks of getting used to the NOS sound, he switched to OS.

 

He was pleasantly surprised by the open sound with well extended treble and wider soundstage of OS mode. His comment was DENAFRIPS OS is better than roon upsampling.

[alvin1118]

I posted in another forum but I thought I should post here too to keep US customers informed.

 

Quote

Hello guys,

We have had someone in mind for months now but wanted to make sure that person was up to our standard of service. After a couple of repairs were done very well, we are happy to announce the US service center in Atlanta GA, Mike Powell Audio, a 15 year veteran in the Hifi industry with the background in modification and repair as well as design and manufacturing.

Henceforth, for US customers, you do not need to ship the faulty unit back to us. Mike offers 'white glove' courier service. All you need to do is to pack the unit back in its original packaging, tape it, and wait for the courier to pick up from your doorstep. 

The turn around time is approx 1-2 weeks. Once fixed, the unit will be returned to you, door to door delivery. 

More details here: USServiceCenter

Many thanks.

Sincerely,
Alvin @ Vinshine Audio

 

[alvin1118]

On 6/30/2018 at 5:47 PM, rothosand said:

The OS/NOS button is used to toggle between the NOS mode (non oversampling) and the OS mode (oversampling).

When the corresponding LED is lit, the Terminator is in NOS mode.

 

That's right & well explained. Thanks @rothosand .

 

On 6/30/2018 at 6:05 PM, rothosand said:

To play DSD on the Terminator with JRiver, you mustn't use the DoP mode (DSD over PCM), but the Native DSD mode (DSD data directly passed to the DAC, without being packed in a PCM container). Otherwise, DSD256 won't play on the Terminator.

 

My only issue with the Terminator and JRiver (I didn't try another soft) is when I switch from a PCM signal that is a multiple of 48kHz (24/48, 24/96 or 24/192) to a DXD signal (PCM 24/352.8) : I hear a hissing noise instead of the music. No issue however when I switch to a lower res 44.1 kHz multiple (24/44, 24/88 or 24/176).

 

Amanero firmware_1099c supports DSD256 native playback in Windows PC. DoP mode shall be disabled. For the DXD, did you try on roon/other software? 

 

On 6/30/2018 at 10:51 PM, luisma said:

Just posted on the Allo Bridge discussion

The DAC is working as expected, connected to Roon directly works with no issues, the Allo Bridge is getting overloaded or something as it seems is failing with upsampling from Roon, still have to find out what's happening. Maybe I can find the right settings as the sound with the bridge is different than directly USB connected and I would like to do an A/B comparison and provide feedback. 

 

@luisma, my limited experience with allo usbridge was, it disappears from the network intermittently (once/twice a week). I can't be sure if it's my network issue or the usbridge overloaded. However, SOtM sms-200/ultra works well. I tried to upsample DSD256 from roon, it was fine too.

 

Hope it helps!

 

Many thanks.

 

Rgds,

Alvin @ Vinshine Audio

 

[alvin1118]

On 7/2/2018 at 12:26 PM, luisma said:

Thank you Alvin, folks at Allo are trying to help me out troubleshooting, this has nothing to do with the Terminator DAC, it is an issue upsampling from Roon to Allo and there are many things that can be tweaked.

 

 

Glad to hear @luisma . I hope Allo team could get it sorted out.

 

On 7/2/2018 at 3:36 PM, rothosand said:

Hello Alvin,

 

To play music, I only use JRiver, and I didn't try another soft.

I should add that my problem is only from 24/48, 24/96 or 24/192 to the highest 24/352.8, but no problem when going from 24/192 to 24/176.4, for example.

 

So, when I want to play 24/352.8, and I am currently playing a 48kHz-multiple PCM track, I just have to previously switch to a 44.1kHz-multiple PCM track (44.1, 88.2 ou 176.4). No big deal, obviously, especially since I have very few DXD albums...

 

Anyway, if you could look into this and correct that problem with a firmware upgrade, that would be great !

Alright, let me test and get back to you.

 

 

[alvin1118]

Hello guys, 

 

Let me briefly explain the differences in NOS and OS.

 

NOS:

Non-oversampling. The DAC decode the native input data stream without altering it.

 

OS:

Oversampling. The DAC oversampling the PCM and DSD to its max sampling rate, i.e. PCM384 and DSD256 respectively, prior the decoding process.  If the input data stream is already at the max rate (PCM384/DSD256), the DAC pass through the signal.

 

This applies to DENAFRIPS Pontus, Venus and Terminator DAC.

 

Hope it helps!

 

Best,

Alvin @ Vinshine Audio

[alvin1118]

Hello guys, there is no firm date yet. But I'm positive that it will be released by end of this year

[alvin1118]

On 8/18/2018 at 1:02 AM, giordy60 said:

Hi Alvin
a question
but how does the terminator treat the dsd signal?
do you convert it to pcm before the exit stages?
thank you

 

Hi @giordy60, 

 

DENAFRIPS DAC decodes DSD in its native format. There is no PCM conversion or whatsoever.

Some swear by the DSD decoding sound quality of DENAFRIPS DAC. In their opinion, DSD sounds better than PCM. 

 

To each his own, of course

 

Hope it helps!

 

Rgds,

Alvin

[alvin1118]

3 hours ago, giordy60 said:

all the denafrips also the ares? 

 

Bingo. Yes, all DENAFRIPS DAC does native DSD decoding, including the Ares  

[alvin1118]

Hello guys,

 

My apologies for the delay. I may have good news soon. (hint?)

 

Alvin w/ ♥️

[alvin1118]

Hello guys,

 

We're getting closer, slowly but surely. 

Keep our finger crossed to have some good news after the Chinese New Year! 

 

Many thanks.

 

Best,

Alvin

Vinshie Audio

 

 

[alvin1118]

Hello guys, 

 

DENAFRIPS engineers are full-force testing the new DSP as I type. We ask for extra time to ensure the best-stability and best-sonic DSP update to our customers. 

 

I'll definitely keep you guys updated here once it's ready. It's happening 👍

 

Many thanks.

 

Alvin @ Vinshine Audio

[alvin1118]

Guys,

 

Yep, it's user-upgradeable. Simply lift the top cover open, carefully unplug the old DSP board, plug in the new DSP board. It's simpler than installing PCI card in the computer.

 

I'll stay up to reply inquiry here.

 

Cheers,

Alvin

Vinshine Audio

[alvin1118]

Hello guys,

 

I'm overwhelmed. Trying my best to keep my head above water 😎

 

1. Yes, the new DSP board come with Proprietary USB Audio Solution via STM32F446 Advanced AMR Based MCU. It comes with licensed Thesycon Windows USB Audio Driver

 

2. Pops/Clicks while changing the sampling rate is gone. It's solved.

 

3. Endurance time of the capacitors is usually 15yrs approximately, depending on usage. Thanks, @Miska of your excellence answers pertaining to this question. 

 

4. PCM playback in OS mode upsampled internally to highest sampling rate, i.e. 1.536MHz.

 

5. DSP board for Pontus & Venus forthcoming. We're planning by Q4 this year. 

 

Now, here's the interesting part. Screenshots of Audio Precision measurement of PCM1536, DSD1024, upsampled via HQPlayer:

 

PCM1536

 

 

DSD1024 (48kHz x1024 = 49,152‬MHz)

 

 

Enjoy the music!

 

Cheers,

Alvin

Vinshine Audio

 

 

[alvin1118]

Alvin is working very hard to get the DSP board shipped. Hang on 😎

[alvin1118]

Hello guys,

 

Thank you for your patience. Shipment has started but at a moderate speed.

Each DSP board goes through a 24hrs of burn in time as part of the QC procedure before it's certified as good-to-ship. 

 

Please be sure that you will be receiving yours soon!

 

Many thanks.

 

Best,

Alvin @ Vinshine Audio

[alvin1118]

15 hours ago, 4est said:

Does anyone have a pic or a link to the new board?

 

Hi @4est,

 

6moons reviewed the DSP board, some nice pics Srajan took while he install the board:

Old board out, New board in

 

PCM1411.2 playback

 

Cheers,

Alvin Chee @ Vinshine Audio

[alvin1118]

Hi @rothosand,

 

Here you go, the changes log:

https://www.thesycon.de/usbaudio/TUSBAudio_history.txt

 

@butifull01, awesome setup you have there!

 

@StreamFidelity, impressive reports, much appreciated! Thank you for loving the Terminator DAC!

 

Enjoy the music!

 

Cheers,

Alvin

[alvin1118]

@rothosand, it's fine to keep the Amanero driver. I did that and it works even when both co-exists. 

 

@matthias, i'm waiting for DENAFRIPS to confirm

[alvin1118]

@matthias, i discussed briefly with DENAFRIPS. DSD will not be upsampled. 

 

@luisma, a customer reported similar issue. He has a Allo Bridge running dietpi roon, music playback was 2x the usual speed. The only way he can get it played back correctly is to use roon to upsample to DSD512. Can you try that too?

 

I use RPI dietpi (not allobridge), it works well with the new DSP. Could it be the Allo Bridge driver issue?

[alvin1118]

Thanks @cordobaman. Appreciate it. 

 

Yep, the new firmware was released to fix some bugs. Ares II / Terminator shipped after 15th Sept already come with the new firmware.

 

Firmware guide can be found here: https://www.denafrips.com/firmware-update

 

Hope this helps!

 

Many thanks.

 

Yours sincerely,

Alvin

www.vinshineaudio.com

[alvin1118]

Thank you, guys. @mikicasellas @StreamFidelity  @luisma

 

Hope the capability to allow you to upgrade the FPGA firmware is a good feature that come along with the new dsp board upgrade. We kept it in the sleeve for awhile for good 

 

@luisma, could it be first handshake of the Linux player with the Terminator? I will do some tests with my SOtM and Sonore later to confirm again. Hope you like the sound of the new firmware!

 

Many thanks. 

 

Yours sincerely, 

Alvin

www.vinshineaudio.com 

[alvin1118]

Thank you @ericuco, perfecto answers. Much appreciated!

[alvin1118]

Hello guys,

 

Thank you for the support! Happy holiday season!

Enjoy the music

 

Best,

Alvin

www.vinshineaudio.com

[alvin1118]

Happy New Year, guys! 

 

The USB cable needs to supply the 5VDC as a logic trigger, along with USB input selection via the front panel, the AND logic will 'wake up' the Terminator USB receiver.  The USB receiver will be powered up by the internal Linear Power Supply.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Yours sincerely,

Alvin Chee

www.vinshineaudio.com