Any Input Appreciated - Your Thoughts On The Best $1500.00 (street price) DAC

[GregWormald]

I did LOTS of reading recently and ended up listening extensively to a Denafrips Ares II and enjoyed it very much and found 5+ hours listening completely non-fatiguing. I bought its bigger brother, the Pontus. It is still in delivery mode so I have no actual experience of this model.

[GregWormald]

8 hours ago, pas said:

What types of files did you listen to, 16/44. hi-res, DSD?

16/44 and some hi-res. I really didn't pay attention to that for two reasons.

 

One, the Ares II isn't the DAC in which I was interested, and the Pontus has always been reviewed as more "detailed" and just generally "higher quality sound".

 

Two, my beef with digital (I have a large collection of LPs that I have collected over more than 60 years, and I still prefer the LP to the digital where I have both copies) is that all the digital I have heard leaves me fatigued after hours of listening and over time I find myself listening less and at lower than optimal volumes. I'm a member of a stereo club here in Australia and I have listened to a fair few medium and high-end systems.

 

Additionally, digital seems to exacerbate my mild tinnitus. So I was listening for the lack of digital's negatives for me.