Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC

[Stereophilus]

I have recently had an opportunity to trial a T-plus in my system.  I use Mola Mola gear (Makua + Kalugas) into Rockport Cygnus speakers, fed from Roon on an Antipodes CX.  I used a LightSpeed USB for the comparison.  The T-plus was connected via balanced ICs into the Makua and is 3dB quieter than the Makua DAC input, so any comparisons required volume adjustment through the Makua.

 

The T-plus takes at least 15mins to warm up before it sounds any good.  Set to NOS mode and warmed up it is hyper-detailed and very focussed.   Instruments and vocals have ultra-fast attack and decay, which sounds natural and easy on the ear.  There is no ringing or overhang at all with this DAC and the space in between notes is as black as it gets.  You hear everything.

 

There is, unfortunately, a price to pay for such brilliant resolution.  Rhythm.  A quick change back to the Makua DAC highlights how such a focussed presentation can sound staccato.  The Makua DAC, by comparison, does not give as sharp a focus, and misses some very fine details that pop out of the blackness with T-plus.  But the space around instruments and in-between notes contains a more natural and “live” feel to it with the Makua DAC.  Music flows and contains rhythmic energy when presented this way, and the illusion of 3-Dimensional space from good recordings was also much more convincing.

 

It would seem the fundamental differences in architecture behind each DAC govern this outcome.  But there is a trick the T-plus has.  Its sound can can be tweaked with upsampling.  I learned this through playing MQA tracks via Roon.  These are (partially) unfolded to higher sample rates within Roon.  These tracks played through the T-plus lacked nothing in detail, but were much more rhythmically satisfying than redbook 16/44, even if not quite as spacious as through the Makua DAC.  Could OS mode on the T-plus replicate what MQA was doing? In short, no.  OS mode on the T-plus makes the sound more vague and flat without any real benefit.

 

Enter Roon DSP.  Upsampling 44 and 88 material to 176, and upsampling 48 and 96 to 192 in Roon DSP transforms the T-plus from a un-engaging detail driven monster, to a real contender for the Makua DAC.  The upsampling brings much needed life to the T-plus, without loss of detail or focus.  Even switching between the different upsampling filters gives very different sound signatures.  In comparison, the Makua DAC is mostly ambivalent to software upsampling, the exception being when it is fed music upsampled to DSD, which sounds very marginally worse than the original.  The Makua DAC still retains a certain “live” and spacious quality that the upsample-fed T-plus can’t quite match, but T-plus counters with its greater detail and image focus.  To pick between them would have to be a matter of personal preference.  
 

Caveats:

1) USB is probably not the best input for either DAC.  I only used this to keep the comparison simple and fair.

2) The T-plus could almost certainly be further improved upon with HQ-player upsampling, instead of Roon DSP.  I did not try this.

3) The Gaia DDC reportedly adds to the T-plus performance as well.  I did not try this.

4) The Makua DAC has a built in streamer which sounds more detailed and focussed sound than the USB input.  I did not use this in the comparison.

 

[Stereophilus]

On 4/20/2021 at 6:30 PM, Ben-M said:

If you get a chance, you should try Roon upsampling on the TP again to DSD512. It's not as resource/component intensive as HQPlayer at all, but it's still quite nice. The regular Terminator has gotten a decent amount of feedback about being a great performer on DSD512 since the gen 2 DSP upgrade last year. 

 

That was a wonderful review. Thanks for taking the time to put it together for everyone.

Glad you enjoyed my take on it.  I see Chris has taken up where my review left off and has gone into even greater depths with his official review (of the Terminator).  If I ran a system based around HQplayer, I think the T-plus would have to be the perfect dance partner.  You could tweak the sound almost infinitely.  Unfortunately my time trialling the the T-plus was limited to 5 days.  I did return it, but I remain intrigued by it.