Article: Review | DenaFrips Pontus DAC

[Gavin1977]

Hi George - good to see your review finally made the light of day!

 

Now,  in my system and to my ears the Yggdrasil is a clear step ahead of the Hugo 2, even the Chord DAVE that I presently have in.  This is the Unison, latest version.  So my impression may differ from yours.  I think many of the older reviews that place the Yggy behind the Hugo 2 etc... are based on the first iteration.

 

I am yet to test, but I think this may well be down to my source as well (JCAT USB XE among other things).

 

Can you please detail your source and associated test equipment in the review?

 

Also Denafrips is reported to be more laid back than the Schitt’s - can you comment?

 

My system setup is listed in my profile.

 

I would add that so far I have found the Stereophile ‘Recommended’ listings accurate, but no so with the latest iteration of the Yggy.

[Gavin1977]

43 minutes ago, matthias said:

 

+1

May I suppose you listened with Macbook Pro/Audirvana via USB?

I also think that a comparison vs Yggdrasil WITHOUT Unison does not make any sense.

 

Matt

 

Seems that George used to have the older version, but then he tested out the Unison version here: https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/review-schiit’s-latest-yggdrasil-incarnation-r956/ - so his comparisions where based on the latest itteration.

 

However, I still don't think this review has much weight to it.  I'm not saying the the conclusions are wrong, just that the ranking of the different DAC's is a little flaky without knowing the full playback chain.  If I were describing the Yggy based on my particular playback chain, then I would have declared it as having the same qualities as George describes for the preferred denafrips dac.  The review is just too subjective at present, yet I hope we can get a good reference point from it if the source is revealed by George.

 

If the basis of the review is a Macbook Pro/Audirvana via USB (which like many I have used in the past) then I can confidently say that my custom server (based on learnings from this website) makes DAC's sound significantly better...

 

This, of course, also brings forward a discussion of which of the DAC's George reviewed actually scale the best with quality of source.  So I don't think a winner should be declared without further time spent on each DAC and perhaps the review should have been held back until this was determined.

 

I'd also still appreciate an answer on the house style of the pontus, with denafrips being stated as being more laid back than Schitt DACs.  Quite important to me as comparatively laid back DAC's just don't work in my system.