This device, this incredible DAC, is probably my favorite buy in a long time. I am astonished at how good it is. I know on YouTube and elsewhere, people are singing praises about this DAC, and I am supposed to chime in with some unique view and opinion.
I can just try to assure you that through another prism, and with my test… this DAC showed up incredibly.
Benefits of External DACs
And the philosophy of separates can continue on to infinity and back in the HiFi world, but the fact is that audiophile sound is a reluctant misanthrope; it loves to be separated from the group but also to be close to others to fully bloom. As they work better that way, individual engineering can spend all its effort creating that specific segment of audiophile sound better than if it is just part of a bigger picture, e.g., an integrated amp. The benefits are far more clean sound, as it is far easier to isolate capacitors and power supplies when it is an external box rather than in a box where you have an amp, preamp, and DAC, so as little as possible noise interference will go that way.
And the fact is, unless your integrated amp is around 4-5 thousand euros onward, you will not match this DAC in quality. So your sound will benefit greatly from this device. Your CD player and your music streamer are going to reach new heights this way. They will climb up more on this never-ending audiophile mountain of perfect sound.
And yeah, that minimalist in your heart that loves less clutter and enjoys all-in-one experience will be damn impressed when he hears how your music now sounds more open, clear, and present.
Keywords to describe this DAC
Let's take a few keywords here that need to be highlighted. Like a quote on the back of a product packaging box, it should say: Denafrips will make your music become real in front of you. They will remove every obstacle, unveil all the fog, and allow musicians to freely extend their talents on the grand stage it creates.
Does it justifies its price? / Audiophile Journey
And I think the 1000 euros is a great price range. Now listen to me. I don’t think it is cheap, and I certainly don’t think this is the best value DAC on the market. But there is a value in what Denafrips offers, and that is a value of audiophile experience which cannot be experienced for cheap. It is supposed to be a DAC you strive for, a destination device, maybe for some even an endgame DAC.
And this DAC is superbly versatile and capable. With 32bit, DSD up to a maximum of 1024, an MQA decoder, Coaxial, Optical, and USB out, it truly can satisfy even the most seasoned audiophile.
And that value could have easily been in a device costing around 500 euros more, as what Denafrips does is amazing in this price range, and therefore it is a well-priced DAC.
We will often talk about value here on this channel, and it should not be a taboo. No matter how good the device is, it should be filtered through market propositions, how well it fits with the asking price of other devices.
A device can be a super expensive one, it could be out of my reach… which, to be honest, many are… but as long as I see value in it, and that is even taking into consideration the creeping value of diminishing returns, I am fine with it. I can only envy people who can afford them, but to me, these are destinations, and the journey is young in front of me.
And the journey can be different; this could easily be an endgame DAC for some, for others it might be Chord Qutest, for others high-end PS Audio or Benchmark DACs. On that journey, I will grow up as a human and audiophile, and I will learn to appreciate small things, cheap things, expensive things, hard efforts, and honest work.
We just must be happy that we live in a world where creative people are creating magic that we can only dream of, making our love for audiophiles even stronger.
Initial Experience / Happiness
Okay, enough with daydreaming; you probably want the reality of this sound described as little of verbatim from my side and concise as possible. I will try, but I cannot guarantee.
And this one is really good. I am in love with this DAC.
You know the first thing you hear when music starts playing through your speakers is how suddenly the soundstage gets wider in every single direction, both vertically and horizontally. If you have talented speakers that can throw that dispersion, they are going to be pushed to the maximum to throw a bigger reach.
One great point of DAC is how much it cuts noise and interference, and keeps distortion at bay, at reasonable volume. And when switching between DAC from Arcam A15 and Audiolab 9000A, it is very telling of unveiling new empty spaces these instruments are playing in. The background is getting black and clear, so this DAC does a good job.
And it not only helps with the clarity of background, it helps with the separation of instruments, and when instruments have enough room, they can also expand further on a dynamic scale. They can be richer. I think this is also about synergy with the amp that you pair it with that will allow the richness of dynamics to shine. But it truly helps.
It does what every good DAC should do but better
It helps by doing the sole purpose of DAC fantastically, and that is organization and declutter. You can say in a HiFi system DAC is like an accountant in a company, helping with all the incoming rules, papyrology, money, and managing it so it can be organized and sent to other teams to be used, organized, and processed neatly. And it just does that, by superbly using instruments that are in treble, mids, and bass and finding a great place for them, and using those bits of information to highlight and enhance them. So it is your source that extracts information and sends it to DAC, maybe already superbly packed, sometimes rudimentarily, but it is DAC that takes that information and repacks it, so it sends it to amp to make it bigger and speakers to reproduce it the best it can.
Sonic Character / Vocals
And you think now well, it is in the middle of this chain, it must color the sound on its path. And like every great DAC, it is neutral and balanced. Which is a great thing, I want my DAC to remain as neutral as it can, I let my speakers and amp color the sound. Same thing with how I like sources to work. It does not allow anything to peak, no treble, no bass. It just does what it is supposed to do.
And with such clarity and separation, you get vocal to be more visible, and same like with every instrument, visibility. It helps with the listening session of more acoustic music to be clean, present, and lush. There is a lot of information like resonance, reverberations, and timbre in vocals that make this a great listening experience …. it truly brings realism to vocals.
And the truth is its neutrality is great, there is no roll-off into treble or bass territory. Which is a great thing considering this should work as a bridge, in the chain of synergy, to organize, shape, and enhance your music and to color it as least as possible. Some might call the sound dry in that regard, but I don’t metaphor it that way. To me, it does what it should do great without infusing its character into the overall mix. It lets the big boys parade their character and strengths.
Greatest Strength
But as I mentioned earlier, what this DAC does to soundstage is amazing. Its clarity and rich dynamics open the sound in such a way you will be in awe. Certainly, the strongest point of this amazing DAC. When you hear sound compactualize like that, that you can, when you close your eyes, imagine in your head where every instrument is coming from, and you can pick instruments on the far left and on the far right, with such clarity and precision, you know you have a special one in your home.
Some Problems and Issues
Equally impressive is how much I don’t have bad things to say, which troubled me honestly. Usually, I have a few words here or there, sometimes just a few words, sometimes many sentences to speak about cons of a device.
Here for this price, I only have problems with interfacing and features. And they might be highly subjective at that. Firstly, those small red light dots, at certain angles, are almost invisible, and I don’t know if the DAC is on or off. It happened to me more than once that I forgot to put it in standby mode, as I did not see if it was on or off, especially when you stand.
Secondly, filters. So, Denafrips have three filters: one non-oversampling, and two oversampling with slow and sharp roll-off. In my opinion, there is one king there, and it is oversampling with slow roll-off. It just made the sound most pleasing to my ears.
Why make this DAC a bit warmer with non-sampling or artificial with sharp filtering? But that is not a problem. Everybody should have the ability to choose filters and to set sound to their liking. The problem is, unless you have a manual with you, there is no way for you to know how to access them, even that they exist. Even if you know, until it becomes muscle memory, you will always have to refer to the manual on how to activate it. And when products force you to use the manual to do something often, it is a bad design. And it should not be the case in this price range. The filters are accessed when your DAC is in mute mode, and then by choosing option 1 or 2, you can switch between filters. That is such insanity to me that I have no words. Otherwise, construction seems sturdy enough, and buttons are okay, not ideal but I can live with them.
One thing I did not mind but could be a problem for some people is that it does not push and kick in any direction specifically. If someone has a very balanced and neutral system, they might be disappointed with the lack of verve and the upper dynamic scale. They might miss a little bit of passion, as it will not give them a big thump in bass or live and forward highs. Someone might miss a bit more character to the sound. I don’t, but I can see that being a problem for some.
Alternatives
I would like to compare this to two devices I know, which fall into two categories. One is the best value DAC with Chord Mojo 2 and direct competitor in Topping D90 Saber.
Chord Mojo 2
Chord Mojo 2 is maybe the most famous DAC on the planet. And for a good reason, it gave tremendous value in its price range. Now the main question here is, is the additional 400 euros well spent with Denafrips? And the answer is… yes! At least for me. Now the difference is that Chord Mojo 2 is portable, can work without power as it has its own power bank, it has a headphone output, and more precise equalizing. So in reality, Mojo 2 is a more versatile device, and if you want to use this as a DAC and preamplifier for your headphones, then of course Mojo 2 is a more logical choice. One thing more to add for Mojo 2 is that its natural state without EQ-ing is a bit more treble rich, as it has on a dynamic scale bit rolled-off treble. So it gives a little bit more lively presentation. But beside that, Ares the Second is more rich in its resolving, it has a bunch more details that your speakers can resolve, it throws a bigger soundstage, it more tackles transients, and you can feel that separation is better, including placing instruments on stage. It is not that Mojo 2 is bad at all those; on the contrary, it does all this great also, but Ares II is just a better DAC in every criterion. But then again, for 400-500 euros less, you get 75 to 80% of the sonic qualities of Ares the Second. If you are interested in my full review of Chord Mojo 2, please look in the description of this video.
Topping D90 III Saber
The second is Topping, the mighty Topping flagship device D90 III Saber. And the question of which one is better should be only decided by the listener's needs. Topping is quite a quick DAC, its transients are fast, it quickly disperses and connects to the next sound. It is really neat in that regard, and it gives a clearer picture and blacker background than Denafrips. It has great separation among instruments and rounds them incredibly so that you can hear all the information appearing very neutral… almost rounding up the edges of the instrument that you feel vividly sparkling details. But Denafrips does something I like more personally; it creates a deeper soundstage. It just organizes information on that stage so that every instrument has its lane and passage, and with that creates a bigger dispersion. Topping has just a little bit more extension, just a little bit more in bass and treble, even though I felt dynamics to be a little bit richer in Denafrips. Not something dramatic and not something you could not have heard if not side by side. But in the end, if you like clinical listening to your music, and you care a lot about separation, transparency, and precision, I think Topping is more your friend. But if you care more about a bigger soundstage, more dynamics, and a bit more detail retrieval, then Denafrips is your friend.
Conclusion
Yes, I can say with confidence that I think you cannot buy a better DAC than this in this price range. It will become the heart of your system, it will highlight every sound, every note, and make it bigger and richer. Every other gear in your system will sound better in the process, and it will breathe new life into them. Honestly, with just one gear, you update your entire system. So it brings even more value that way. While I can appreciate integrated amps, and even all-in-one systems, maybe just consider having a separate DAC. It brings new life to everything and makes the sound much better, and even if you buy a far cheaper DAC than this, it will transform your system into a whole new beast. As DAC is usually the weakest point of every integrated system.
I love this DAC, and I think certainly you will too. I don’t see me changing this DAC for a long time, and I can even say that this is my favorite buy in a long time. I am that much happy, and it will be part of my sonic arsenal for a long time on my journey.
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Keep daydreaming and see you in the next video.
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