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The Digital To Analog Decoder for music lovers

To commemorate DENAFRIPS’s 12 years of digital audio excellence, the most popular best selling Pontus II 12th Anniversary Edition features several performance enhancements at components level that might not be visible by the naked eyes but certainly audible for the seasoned and trained audiophiles' ears. 

The original Pontus II DAC shattered the expectations of what a R-2R Ladder DAC could be. Pontus II 12th superior sound quality enhancement took it to another level.

SOPHISTICATED DESIGN

FPGA DSP Module
- FIFO & Reclocking
Galvanic Isolatation
- Optocoupler

Tuned Capacitor Bank
- Electrolytic + Film Caps [ERO/WIMA] 

R-2R Ladder Network
- True Balanced R-2R
- Hand-picked tight tolerance resistors

Gold Plated Screws 
- Enhanced gold-plated screws for PSU Power

The PONTUS II 12th is a true balanced, dual mono R-2R Ladder Network Arrays DAC. Each channel is equipped with independent high-speed FPGA to facilitate the digital signal decoding by means of 4 sets of 0.01% R-2R network. The choice of such design yield very small linearity error, high decoding speed, low digital noise, not only to ensure that the audio signal is of very low distortion, but also to ensure a very low background music noise; allow listener to enjoy the true music with dark background. 

All digital input are FIFO buffered and reclocked by the on board FEMTO crystal oscillators. The excellent rejection of word-clock jitter makes DENAFRIPS DAC less reliance to the source equipment clock quality. PONTUS can transform your consumer grade computer, CDPlayer to high-end sound quality.

Non-Oversampling R-2R DAC /Signal fed to the DAC remain in its native sampling rate without additional processing. Pontus II 12th is a true NOS DAC. 

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Enhanced PSU & Conductors

  • Gold-plated copper screws and conductors for power transfer from PSU to DAC mainboard

  • Fine Tuning of the PSU at components level to further enhanced the AC/DC rectifiers and DC regulators

ENCAPSULATED
LINEAR POWER SUPPLY
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Clean power equates to the foundation of good sound. A dedicated linear power supply unit, designed and encased in a 1.5mm thick metal alloy enclosure, can be found underneath the DAC motherboard.

 

The box-within-box design, not only does it eliminates the inherited problems of dual box solution, it presents the details and attentions DENAFRIPS put into the premium DAC design.

 

Beefy dual O-Core Transformers for Digital and Analog sections, Ultra-Low ESR, Long Endurance Reservoir Capacitors, and multi-stages super linear power supply, ensuring ultra precision, low ripple power supply charging up DAC.

PREMIUM DAC
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The Pontus II 12th is ideal DAC for music lover who value details, soundstage, imaging, and slight warm for musicality. Pontus II 12th a high quality DAC - probably one of the most critical components for High-Fidelity systems.

 

FEATURED REVIEWS

End Game DAC?

Sound wise, the Pontus II is spectacular. Denafrips kind of expanded my expectation of what a DAC could do.

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Cheap Audio Man

A Serious Bang for Buck Award

"To conclude, the Pontus II is a fine HiFi DAC offering at its price point, which will undoubtedly make a lot of audiophiles extremely happy with its bold, engaging, lively, warm sound with a fantastic build quality."

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Terry Ellis, Editor of Pursuit Perfect System

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This is a true bargain in the realm of high end DAC’s. If it were $5k I would give it a positive review and say it was priced right. As it is, the cost is $1700 and that my friends is remarkable. This could be an end game dac for many out there, no matter the cost of your system. That in itself is remarkable.

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Steve Huff

An Expressway to Your Skull

With a combined price of roughly $2200, I know of no other digital to analog converter solution that comes anywhere near the IRIS II / PONTUS II combo in terms of conveying music with all of its attendant power and beauty in tact.

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Michael Lavorgna @ Twittering Machines

The finest sounding DAC that I've heard

The Denafrips Pontus II DAC is the new and updated model for 2021, with improvements to the power supply, DSP board and circuit tweaks. I take a look and see how much extra performance you get over the Ares II

Credit: 

A British Audiophile

Highly recommended!

Denafrips Pontus is an excellent DAC that moves digital sound forward and does not have the usual bevy of digital warts. It breaks some of the long-standing digital barriers that have kept me from fully engaging with digital music. It is at a reasonable price point (by audio standards) and, based on construction and parts alone, represents a tremendous value. Now throw in the sound quality that I experienced, and I can’t think of a better value in a DAC today.

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Ken Redmond @ The Audio Beatnik

It's natural, relaxed, expressive and musical.

After reviewing the Ares II that offers amazing sound quality for the money, I was very curious what the Pontus would bring, costing slightly over 2 times as much. So let’s dive right in.

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The Hans Beekhuyzen Channel

Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2020

In my DAC rating scheme, the Pontus is number one with a bullet. It's price of $2298 in Singapore dollars, puts it at about $1700 USD and I'm confident that nothing under $2000 will come close, they won't even make it into the same neighborhood. I told Alvin that its the high-end analog turntable of DACS, no, it's the tubuliscious tube amp of DACS, no... it's both. No kidding.

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Stu McCreary @ PF

The Best DAC This Reviewer Has Ever Heard; Bar None!

This DAC is transparent in ways that you won’t believe a piece of electronics could be transparent. The soundstage is holographic, the bass is punchy and deep, the midrange is unbelievably creamy and rich yet incredibly detailed at the same time. When playing music, the electronics simply disappear letting all the music out into the room. I rate this DAC an 11 out of 10 and I can’t recommend it highly enough. In fact, I’m going to buy the review sample!

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George Graves @ audiophilestyle

Audiophilia Star Component Award

The most impressive aspect for me is the huge image it renders, putting the musicians in a deep and natural space, and making my small listening room open up into something much, much larger. This DAC is an easy recommendation for almost any listener looking to move up the food chain, but at $1700 it is a no-brainer, and could easily hold its own in 5-figure systems. My strongest recommendation.

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MICHAEL JOHNSON @ Audiophilia

The Best DACs Buyers Guide Summer 2021

A Chinese-built DAC sold directly through a Singapore source, the Pontus sounds like a risky purchase. We got one, tested it, and discovered that it featured a “lot of cutting-edge DAC tech” and that “the price is certainly right.” “It sounded so good we’re curious about how much better the higher level Denafrips DACs are,” we concluded.

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part-time audiophile

6moons - Blue Moon Award

The effect is quite striking. Envision a picture that had some low-level details obscured. Suddenly a light from within reveals those missing details. It doesn't make tone colors paler. There's no bleaching, no undue sharpness or glare. It's indeed the same picture, just with more information. With Pontus you hear bigger space, room echoes that lack with Ares II, musicians breathing. You gain a more organic impression because real life has many of those little parasitic sounds that only are noticed when stripped out but which contribute to the live feel.

Credit: 

Frederic Beudot @ 6moons

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