Article: Review | DenaFrips Pontus DAC

[Rexp]

9 hours ago, ted_b said:

Unique review perspective.  I wonder if he also test drives a Ferrari in rush hour traffic.  I mean, rush hour may be the typical environment but if you test drive a Ferrari I would find some open country roads to let it out. 

 

I get that he normally uses AES/EBU and SPDIF, but in a public review shouldn't he test the limits for us?   Maybe it's just me.  I'm an upsampling fan and believe that PCM at 1.5Mhz and DSD at very high rates (i.e 1024) should have real benefits sq-wise, especially when upsampled properly.  I'd like to hear this feedback from someone putting a dac through it's paces.  YMMV. 

DAC's should not be tested with external upsampling in the same way sports cars should not be tested using racing tyres. 

[ted_b]

1 hour ago, Rexp said:

DAC's should not be tested with external upsampling in the same way sports cars should not be tested using racing tyres. 

I don't understand.  Are you feeding this dac native 705 or 768K PCM recordings?  How about 1.5Mhz PCM recordings?  Throw on some DSD1024 stuff while you are at it.   Good luck.

 

Denafrips went to some major bother to equip these dacs with those capabilities; why not test????  If one is spending competitive dollars on a telescope that can discern the different Cassini gaps in Saturn, why tell me about how well it does looking at the neighbor's window?  Buy a cheap one that easily does that and let me gaze at what this thing can really do.

 

The NOS button was put there for a reason.  Some of us would like to know how it sounds in NOS mode.......at PCM 1.5mhz. 

[LLee]

I have the Pontus I and tested with its upsampling to JRiver upsampling. I switch between JRiver 44.1 output (upsampling by Pontus to 1411K) and 705.1K output (JRiver upsampling) (I assume Pontus will upsample to 1411K) and find the JRiver upsampling was slightly more refined on cymbal strikes and decay. I listened to NOS and OS modes but was difficult to judge as switching modes is manual and takes time and my memory retention is short.  

[feelingears]

On 12/10/2020 at 8:01 AM, barrows said:

The Denafrips DACs appear to have no output stage to drive the output, hence their slightly high output impedance (see specifications).  Considering that, and the somewhat low output level with DSD at half that of the PCM outputs, I do not see these DACs as good choices for driving amplifiers directly.  For driving amplifiers directly I like to see an output impedance around 100 ohms or less.

It appears Denafrips would need to add an active output stage and an analog attenuator to really do a good job at making them highly capable of driving amplifiers directly, this would add considerably to the price.

Additionally, this lack of an active output stage may have something to do with the lack of "drive" which some people seem to find in the sound of these DACs.  One might consider Holo Audio as an alternative, they use similar conversion technology, but with the addition of a fairly serious active output stage.

 

I am loving my Bricasti M3, using only its discrete converter stage (at DSD 256) and driving my amplifiers directly.  It has a quite good analog volume control as well, making it highly suitable for this approach.

 

Interesting - I've read this about DACs not sounding as good as with a preamp in the chain, so I think this explains at least some/most of it. Thanks @barrows.

 

Well, just to throw a little fuel on the fire, I heard the Pontus II (2) head to head against a Hugo TT/MScaler playing track 4 of Nojima Plays Liszt, a long time RR reference of mine. It was my first time hearing both DACs, and immediately within seconds of hearing the second one, I knew which one I would buy if I weren't happy with my Yggy. It was obvious, and a friend who was with me agreed.

 

As Barrows once said (if I remember the second cable correctly), you can buy the Lush USB cable for a lush sound, or you can buy the In-akustik USB for the, let's call it "neutral," sound. Same here with these DACs. Pontus is the Lush, Hugo TT/MScaler is the in-akustik. Give 'em a listen. You might be surprised.

 

 

[mourip]

On 12/12/2020 at 8:07 PM, gmgraves said:

I listened to both OS and NOS. The two modes sound different, and I prefer the OS mode.
The Pontus has no control (that I know of and the manual certainly doesn’t mention it) allowing the listener to change the filters. Perhaps this is a feature of higher-priced DACs such as the Venus or the Terminator/Terminator Plus. Never having used any of these, I wouldn’t know.

 

I recently purchased and received a Pontus based upon multiple detailed personal accounts like yours. In other reviews people seemed to think that the filter choice which is available with the Pontus II made a noticeable difference in their enjoyment. Perhaps you could now do an add-on piece commenting on what you now hear when trying the two different filters?

 

Thanks.

[hytechrednek]

I've owned or auditioned dozens of prominent IC based DACs. IMO discrete resistor ladders DAC's simply outperform them in ever way. I first bought the Denafrips Ares II and was so impressed that I sold it and bought the Pontus II, which was a huge step up.  Would love to hear the rest of the Denafrips product line. Can't imagine the improvements would be as big a jump as the Ares to Pontus, but who knows? 

[Top]

I've had a Pontus I, and didn't know how quickly I had to get rid of it. Usb was unstable weird kind of noise, starting out of blue during playing. I know 3 other people who have experienced the same with the Pontus II. Streamers such as the 'Node 2', Linux systems or Android cannot be properly synchronized with the clock of the dac. The sound quality was also quite disappointing, a bit compressed.

[Boniccie]

11 hours ago, Top said:

I've had a Pontus I, and didn't know how quickly I had to get rid of it. Usb was unstable weird kind of noise, starting out of blue during playing. I know 3 other people who have experienced the same with the Pontus II. Streamers such as the 'Node 2', Linux systems or Android cannot be properly synchronized with the clock of the dac. The sound quality was also quite disappointing, a bit compressed.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with the Denafrips. I still love the sound of my Pontus II check my videos on YTube under boniccie. Maybe your unit is defective or you have an issue with the Phase. Please check with Alvin @Vinshine he is very knowledgeable and will definitely can help.

[Top]

40 minutes ago, Boniccie said:

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with the Denafrips. I still love the sound of my Pontus II check my videos on YTube under boniccie. Maybe your unit is defective or you have an issue with the Phase. Please check with Alvin @Vinshine he is very knowledgeable and will definitely can help.

Emphasizing I HAD a Pontus I. I feel no further need to add myself to the Denafrips Church. Sometimes it is also important to highlight another side.