Article: Denafrips Terminator II Review and Comparison

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[Blake]

Nice job Chris, I enjoyed your review.  I had the original Terminator and then moved to the Terminator Plus.  I'd echo your comments regarding the sonic differences as I found the same differences/improvements. 

 

Did Alvin send you a Denafrips DDC?  If so, I think it would be beneficial to consumers to have you comment on sonic changes when using the clock out feature of the Terminator 2.   To me, I find very nice further improvement with the clock-out engaged and that is a big selling point of the Terminator 2 over the original.

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

20 minutes ago, Blake said:

Nice job Chris, I enjoyed your review.  I had the original Terminator and then moved to the Terminator Plus.  I'd echo your comments regarding the sonic differences as I found the same differences/improvements. 

 

Did Alvin send you a Denafrips DDC?  If so, I think it would be beneficial to consumers to have you comment on sonic changes when using the clock out feature of the Terminator 2.   To me, I find very nice further improvement with the clock-out engaged and that is a big selling point of the Terminator 2 over the original.

 

 

Thanks Blake. Alvin offered a Denafrips DDC but I wasn't sure I could get to it in a reasonable amount of time, so I passed for now. I agree, it would be nice to give it a try.

[PeterG]

When you include your Berkeley Alpha Reference in the photo, you're begging me to ask--how does the Terminator II compare to it, or even to the more similarly priced Yggdrasil?

[giordy60]

wonderful article Chris 😎👍
I read it all in one breath
( it's a way of saying )

[John A]

Great review.  I have had the Terminator II since the beginning of June.  It replaced the Denafrips Venus.  Huge upgrade that has been taken up another notch with the addition of the Gaia DDC.  When you get a chance you should mate the TII with a Gaia and use the clock output of the TII to sync the clock on the Gaia.  Truly amazing.  

[Martin Herløv Andersen]

Please, please (: consider writing a review of the Holo Audio May DAC.

 

The terminator and the may dac is on everybody lips this days but I haven't found a good comparison of the two

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, Martin Herløv Andersen said:

Please, please (: consider writing a review of the Holo Audio May DAC.

 

The terminator and the may dac is on everybody lips this days but I haven't found a good comparison of the two

I reached out to get one but never heard back. 

[Martin Herløv Andersen]

19 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I reached out to get one but never heard back. 

That's a shame. But you tried

[Fourlegs]

52 minutes ago, Martin Herløv Andersen said:

Please, please (: consider writing a review of the Holo Audio May DAC.

 

The terminator and the may dac is on everybody lips this days but I haven't found a good comparison of the two

 I am interested to hear a Terminator II but I will have to make do with hearing a Terminator + which is what my friend has ordered and is on the way to him. 🤣 These are indeed game changing DACs according to what people are saying. 

As to the Holo May, I owned a L2 one for three weeks and just couldn’t like it no matter how hard I tried. But then I was comparing it to a Dave powered by a Sean Jacobs DC4 LPS. I had hoped that the Holo May would shine when playing PGGB 16FS or even 32FS files in NOS mode but it was not to be.

[Martin Herløv Andersen]

3 minutes ago, Fourlegs said:

As to the Holo May, I owned a L2 one for three weeks and just couldn’t like it no matter how hard I tried.

So you have the Dave now? Let me know how it compares to the Terminator+

[mikicasellas]

I just SOLD my Regular Terminator and was ready to pull the trigger on a T+ to later add a GAIA, but HOLO MAY appeared in my radar and then the Bricasti M1-SE ( one year used ), around $6,000, and around that price range there is the TOTALDAC d1-single-mk2 DAC or d1-Core, but now with this review considering the T-II being less than 4,500 usd delivered, makes me think even more.

 

Any suggestions ?

 

 

[Martin Herløv Andersen]

19 minutes ago, mikicasellas said:

than 4,500 usd delivered,

Compared to the May KTE version the Terminator 2 is 25% less delivered to Denmark.

[BrownMagic]

We did a Doge 8 vs Terminator Plus w/ DDC vs Holo May KTE shoot out and the audience voted for the Holo May as the overall winner in this setup. YMMV. 

Also as per @GoldenOne's findings, the terminator upsamples content to 768k even in NOS mode. So for those of you who want to compare the Terminator with other dacs, you might want to use HQP to upsample the other dacs as well. 

[giordy60]

15 hours ago, John A said:

Huge upgrade that has been taken up another notch with the addition of the Gaia DDC.

John 

doesn't adding Gaia DDC limit the sampling that can be sent to the dac? 

[Rcanoe]

Thanks for the review.   Always great to see new products that improve the experience.   Had me reading the review in my head with Arnold's accent LOL.

 

R-2R DACs ....  how do they rank among other DAC types?   

 

Cheers!

[bbosler]

23 hours ago, John A said:

 When you get a chance you should mate the TII with a Gaia and use the clock output of the TII to sync the clock on the Gaia.  Truly amazing.

 

When I  bought my T+ Alvin recommended the Hermes DDC instead of the Gaia,. Except for the pretty case he said it was equivalent in this application and what he uses.

 

 

8 hours ago, giordy60 said:

John 

doesn't adding Gaia DDC limit the sampling that can be sent to the dac? 

 

Yes, The Gaia and other DDCs are only capable of 1/2 the max rate of the DAC. When I aske Alvin if there were plans for an upgrade he said no, he prefers native rate over upsampling.

 

 

 

 

[Cakes]

I was looking at the May KTE but the price to the UK was simply beyond my budget at that time.

 

So I spoke to Alvin and Vinshine - always an excellent experience - about the T+ and the newly arriving TII and he helped convince me to go with the TII. I knew about the long burn in process but right away I could see how much it exceeded what my VEGA G1 could ever do. Right away the whole musical experience felt that much more engaging, less fatiguing, and in the balance of changes everything that arrived was positive, and all the 'deductions; in the sonics felt equally as important too. It was only then - once I'd got to terms with the absence of some sonic traits - that I realised how much more natural the R2R sound from Denafrips was compared to the Auralic.

 

A few weeks later I managed to get hold of a Hermes DDC, and adding TII clock out was another real enabler to bring my front-end nearer to what the TII could deliver. Hugely worthwhile upgrade, and now my Aries G1 streamer with Hoer-Wege PSU upgrade and fantastic cables sounds equally as good through streaming as I could ever get via ripped FLACS.

 

TII was a great step up for me - adding the Hermes DDC and adding excellent USB, i2S and clock cabling has shown me just how good this DAC is.

 

Can't imagine needing to upgrade for a long time - one happy customer here

[Egill23]

Did you compare the Terminator + Hermes with or without clocking Cakes? If so what did the clocking bring?

I have the 2020 Terminator and Hermes and don't have a clock out on my dac.

[Cakes]

Sorry. No @Egill23 - never had the chance to hear a TI - read enough about them, but when I was ready to spend that much on a DAC my timing just nudged me into the TII incarnation. Also only bought the Hermes some weeks after the TII arrived, enough time for the unit to burn in. The DDC was 100% worth it, I'd never go back (haven't even done an A-B after time as it was very noticeable from the start. The Hermes looks possibly like the sweet spot for the slightly budget conscious as the better clocks of the much more expensive Gaia are seemingly negated with the TII Precision OXCO clock out. TII and Hermes is a great combination - not sure how it compares with T+ alone, but it's certainly cheaper...

 

I'm sure there will be more reviews forthcoming that compare the two Terminators, but for now we have Chris' write up above which does seem like a very positive summary for the new model. So much of the T+ tech is put into in the much later released TII that my thinking is it's again the sweet spot for the slightly budget minded.

 

Surely a T+ mk II beckons soon to make a bit more daylight between the models again...but for now I think the TII and Hermes is giving me a musical experience that I cannot imagine growing tired of. More a case of trying to bring the rest of the components up to scratch...

 

Hard to not be curious about what the TII brings, but I bet your 2020 TI is outstanding too. With the resale hassle and import duties it could be a lot of money which might be better spent elsewhere. All the best,

 

John

[TubeLover]

Excellent and insightful review, Chris. I think you did just about everything possible to clarify the difference between the original and the new version. Not an easy task with products of both high performance, and value, as these are. Well done.

 

JC

[mikicasellas]

Hopefully Chris would review the HOLO MAY Level 2 or 3 and comment how they compare 

 

 

[Vincent des Champs]

And what about the recently released  Magician Aquarius? So many HQ DACS these days 🎉

[Martin Herløv Andersen]

On 8/4/2021 at 7:01 AM, BrownMagic said:

upsamples content to 768k

Hi this is not true for the terminator. 
the terminator also have a very high output impedance of 1250 ohm so if your pre amplifier has a low input impedance then it’s not going to sound right 

 

tube amps have a high input impedance around 100K so that’s a good match

[John A]

On 8/4/2021 at 2:21 AM, giordy60 said:

John 

doesn't adding Gaia DDC limit the sampling that can be sent to the dac? 

Yes but the only files that get cut out are DSD1024.  I don't have any of those and I don't think many exist so with that as a limiting factor I feel pretty good about the limitation.