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

[luisma]

9 minutes ago, alvin1118 said:

i discussed briefly with DENAFRIPS. DSD will not be upsampled

Thank you Alvin, PCM neither or it will be upsampled?

[luisma]

9 minutes ago, alvin1118 said:

Can you try that too?

No, I wish I could but not with the filters / modulators I'm using, I am waiting on Allo @Audio_Allo but thought you / Denafrips with your resources could have a driver for Dietpi 

[luisma]

Hi Alvin @alvin1118

Followed the upgrade procedure, after the upgrade turning off the Terminator and ALL of my equipment digital and analog, first song played have a horrible ringing (see video)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a1ayiw7nl9tgsv/TERMINATOR-AFTERUPG.mp4?dl=0

 

After switching to another song it started playing properly, I can confirm without doubt as I noticed before reading these further posts that there is an improvement in clarity.

 

When I installed and received the new board I missed the Amanero board, the sound clarity and articulation on the amanero PCM 384 sounded to me better than the new board with PCM 1024, the conversion and switching between DSD and PCM were mostly gone, I say mostly because maybe once I experienced the glitch with the new board but possibly related to change in the source content as well. I never said anything about the Amanero board sounding better because it is my own opinion and most reviewers and users here reported otherwise.

 

Now with the new firmware update I just heard 3 songs, right now and I can say it is indeed an improvement (I'm not a subjective person as you can tell by the amanero board sounding better story above) maybe other users experienced the same and did not mention it neither.

 

Maybe Denafrips would like to investigate why the ringing after the upgrade or confirm it is a known issue, it might be helpful to them.

 

 

[luisma]

5th song Skyfall with violinist Caroline Campbell, which I use for evaluating my system as I know it very well, detailed as I it was before, sounds little better than the Amanero board before but I just turned on my amps and pre amp and the 42 triodes have to warm up a little more  and I expect the sound to further improve.

Great awesome update, as I type I hear more and more improvement.

 

I was going crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with my system of a few months ago

 

I would say anyone reading this with the initial iteration of the new DSP board if you are sure your board is from before Sept 15 go ahead and upgrade, if you want you can listen to a few songs before and after for ABing

 

Thanks again Alvin

 

[luisma]

13 minutes ago, alvin1118 said:

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!

Hi Alvin, yes it could be, it was only ONCE, it hasn't happened again, just the 1st time, I don't think it is important to me but reported it because it might be worth it for Denafrips

 

BTW all my comparisons etc are done using PCM, I listen to PCM 90% of the time, so these changes on firmware Alvin maybe you could confirm if were supposed to affect only PCM or only DSD or both.... maybe I'm hearing placebo 🙂

 

[luisma]

Anyone using the new chip with the Allo Bridge? I haven't been able to get it to work on DietPi, Allo says the DAC manufacturer is supposed to provide the drivers, anyone using it with the new Allo Signature?

[luisma]

11 hours ago, craighartley said:

Am I right in thinking that if I’m using the bootable HQP image, the system doesn’t actually need a hard disk to function as a HQPlayer server?

You are correct

[luisma]

6 hours ago, bodiebill said:

Thanks. I will try for myself soon -- placed an order today for the Terminator... 🙂

Be sure to test PCM as well, most people who know what they are doing are using DSD like @StreamFidelity

but I have found in my system PCM brings it to another level of detail

I read somewhere (might be mistaken and if someone else could comment on this @Miska) that the R2R DA reconstruction happens when you feed PCM to the DAC, when you use DSD / SDM you go through a different conversion process inside the DAC using a different logic.

 

 

[luisma]

11 hours ago, bodiebill said:

is that I prefer my Lampi's DSD circuit to its PCM one.

Exactly that's my point,

[luisma]

Does anyone knows if the Allo Sig plays along with the new board?

 

 

[luisma]

20 hours ago, bodiebill said:

@StreamFidelity  Thanks, will try! NOS makes sense if HQPlayer is doing the OS. To better judge the difference I will ask someone to push the (N)OS button a few times 🙂

Congrats, be sure to try PCM and compare vs DSD

Try PCM with LNS15 and sinc-M,

and the poly long lp like @StreamFidelity recommended

[luisma]

4 hours ago, bodiebill said:

I could not find LNS15

That's on the last release, be sure you have it updated

 

4 hours ago, bodiebill said:

but that does not mean one is better than the other

I respect your comment, if you have a good computer capable of doing DSD at least 256 with EC modulators then DSD might be comparable or even better, but for lower end PCs, NUCs etc. PCM provides a clear advantage (and yes IMHO) over DSD, in the case of this specific DAC

[luisma]

On 3/10/2020 at 6:15 AM, bodiebill said:

And indeed it is a loud and broad overwhelming hiss.

Super annoying hiss to start with but again, to me, it never happened with the new board, my last firmware was the one at the end of Nov 2019, you received your terminator recently, it should come with the new firmware, but I would check just in case

 

[luisma]

On 3/11/2020 at 11:55 AM, Ivanaudio said:

Terminator is still a great DAC, but to make money Mike has to sell stuff at 2-3 times the Terminators price, which might explain his need to rant.

or maybe he wasn't getting enough discounts on his prices from Vinshine, true is Vinshine appointed him as Denafrips official service center, I understand that in the long run commercially maybe it wasn't attractive to him, no need to bash the product you have been selling for that reason, and yes I followed his videos and he was praising always the Terminator (like others do) for a good reason, it is an excellent DAC.

I understand you could get upset at the ways things works in China (I can certainly relate) but no need to be unprofessional and take it on the product to discredit the reseller which IMO is a great guy.

Honestly I am surprised by Mike's reaction, I had a better "professional" impression of him.

[luisma]

On 3/14/2020 at 5:24 PM, Teresa said:

I'm curious how is a €3,632 (US$4,047.68) DAC a giant killer? For me any DAC priced over US$1,000 is very expensive and is itself a giant. IMHO a great sounding DAC priced less than $500 would be a giant killer.

I guess it is matter of semantics with the title?

[luisma]

To me the Terminator provides several things, the important ones are:

 

The power supply have excellent quality and it is isolated at the bottom of the chassis, you don't need to spend any extra on an expensive LPS

The final analog stage is very good

The quality reproduction of native hires content is better (subjectively of course) than other DAC's, even more expensive ones.

The initial stage digital filters are very good, of course many of us are using HQP to upsample but for those who don't use HQP at all the DAC can do all the functions with no issues