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Article: Denafrips Terminator II Review and Comparison


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I have a T2 and have found that setting it to NOS and upsampling everything to DSD128 in Roon gives a really nice increase in SQ. I would set it higher but my older "CAPS-like" server has a i3 processor which is now getting very hot with the increased calculating. I have a Hermes DDC on the way so I will report back on that. Currently I send USB to a Mutec USB and then AES out to the T2. My Mutec USB is clocked by a Mutec REF10. It will be interesting to see if the Hermes slaved to the T2 sounds better.


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On 8/4/2021 at 1:01 AM, BrownMagic said:

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. 

 

 

Good data point. I do wonder if the impressions would have been different if the comparison had been made with the more current Terminator 2 and the new Hermes DDC. These units have clock out and clock in respectively.

 

I am interesting in the claim regarding NOS "upsampling". Can you provide a reference or link?

 

Thanks!


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On 9/3/2021 at 8:27 PM, mourip said:

 

I am interesting in the claim regarding NOS "upsampling". Can you provide a reference or link?

 

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2612:denafrips-terminator-plus-digital-to-analog-converter-measurements&catid=434&Itemid=577

 

You can see in the above measurements that NOS is not really NOS. This was also called out by GoldenSound in his review. 

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1 hour ago, BrownMagic said:

 

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2612:denafrips-terminator-plus-digital-to-analog-converter-measurements&catid=434&Itemid=577

 

You can see in the above measurements that NOS is not really NOS. This was also called out by GoldenSound in his review. 

I believe it depends on what sample rate is being sent to the DAC. If one sends 1,536 kHz, it’s NOS. 

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3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I believe it depends on what sample rate is being sent to the DAC. If one sends 1,536 kHz, it’s NOS. 

 

I do not how know it works at 1.536. I am of the understanding that if you were to feed your Qobuz/Tidal which say is 16/44 to 24/192 into any denafrips dac and the mode selected is NOS, then the DAC applies DSP and upsamples it to 768k by default. Where as a NOS dac in NOS mode should allow 16/44 to be processed as 16/44. Maybe @GoldenOne you can explain in lay man's terms why denafrips dacs are not really NOS in their NOS mode compared to other NOS dacs. Thanks

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4 hours ago, BrownMagic said:

 

I do not how know it works at 1.536. I am of the understanding that if you were to feed your Qobuz/Tidal which say is 16/44 to 24/192 into any denafrips dac and the mode selected is NOS, then the DAC applies DSP and upsamples it to 768k by default. Where as a NOS dac in NOS mode should allow 16/44 to be processed as 16/44. Maybe @GoldenOne you can explain in lay man's terms why denafrips dacs are not really NOS in their NOS mode compared to other NOS dacs. Thanks

Cause the 'NOS' mode still applies an oversampling filter, therefore it is not 'non-oversampling'. Simple as that really.

It might not do so when feeding it 768khz or 1.536mhz, but then you'd need to be doing oversampling with HQPlayer or another external OS tool anyway. Meaning you're still oversampling.

It cannot play standard PCM content at 44.1khz without oversampling.

 

https://youtube.com/goldensound

Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara

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I have a terminator plus coming in for review and I'll do a bit more extensive testing once it arrives. If anyone has anything in particular they'd like me to look at please let me know.

Rockna Wavedream signature review is up on patreon and will be up on youtube at the end of the week. 

https://youtube.com/goldensound

Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara

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35 minutes ago, GoldenOne said:

Cause the 'NOS' mode still applies an oversampling filter, therefore it is not 'non-oversampling'. Simple as that really.

It might not do so when feeding it 768khz or 1.536mhz, but then you'd need to be doing oversampling with HQPlayer or another external OS tool anyway. Meaning you're still oversampling.

It cannot play standard PCM content at 44.1khz without oversampling.

 

Which begs the question, do people really listen to NOS mode with content that isn’t externally upsampled?

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35 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Which begs the question, do people really listen to NOS mode with content that isn’t externally upsampled?

Quite a lot of people do. 

Whether that's better/worse than os will likely forever be debated. 

 

Personally I listen to nos and os in mostly equal amounts. They provide different sounds and I like using one or the other depending on mood and track. 

 

But quality of different reconstruction approaches can be debated on the merits of those.

The reason I don't like denafrips calling the DACs NOS isn't because I think they 'should' have NOS, it's because I don't think any manufacturer should advertise features or behaviours that the device does not actually have.

https://youtube.com/goldensound

Roon -> HQPlayer -> SMS200 Ultra/SPS500 -> Holo Audio May (Wildism Edition) -> Holo Audio Serene (Wildism Edition) -> Benchmark AHB2 -> Hifiman Susvara

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