I was involved in audio as a salesperson in the 1970's and 1980's. I grew up on analog and two channel. Back in those days it was all about turntables and records. Then in the early 1980's as a salesperson I sold the second ever Sony CD player in the United States !! I have had the opportunity to personally experience audio over many decades and have had a love of music since I was a kid. I have also been a drummer and percussionist and taught music lessons for more than fifty years.
A few weeks ago, I started on another journey, the journey to feel the music again, the way the artist intended it to be heard, to experience human emotion as part of the listening process. Over my many years in audio I found that the human emotion part of reproducing home audio was a real hit and miss adventure at best ,that was until I discovered Denafrips, and their DAC Pontus and Alvin.
I read the forums and blogs and the YouTube videos and started to look for a real R2R DAC. I quickly started to see a pattern emerge by a company called Denafrips and a DAC called Pontus. I must be honest in saying at first I was a little scared to put my hard earned money into a company halfway around the world from where I live. So, I started to talk with Alvin and ask questions, and my doubts quickly faded away. Alvin was so responsive to my questions and always treated me with respect and wonderful truthful answers.
So, I ordered the Pontus and within a week it was at my front door from halfway around the world !!! I was shocked in a very, very good way. The product was well packaged, the craftsmanship was first class and the sound, well, the sound literally made my eyes tear up and I got goosebumps all at the same time. Can a piece of electronics elicit human emotion ? In this case , YES. How can that be? because for one of the first times in my more than 50 years of selling, buying and listening to audio this piece of electronics truly let the artist come through, NOT the electronics, that's how. The Pontus is so natural that it passes the emotions of the original artist's voice and hands on musical instruments through it and to your ears and heart.
I was listening to a live album from 1972 !! I have heard that album more than 100 times in my life, or , did I just hear it for the first time, coming through the time machine called Pontus ? I heard people in the front row of that concert ( talking, clearly) from 1972 this night in 2020 for the first time !!! CRAZY !! The walls of my music room literally melted away and there I was sitting at THAT concert on THAT night in 1972 in the front row. The Pontus gives such a stunning picture of the music I could smell the evening air, hear the conversations all around me and for a moment in time in my mind's eye, I WAS THERE !!!!!!!
So, my fellow listeners , If you are like me and are looking for a machine to take you back to the studio or live concert to that moment in time with the artist then a DAC from a company called Denafrips and a human emotion transporter called Pontus is your magic ticket to the place where the music lives !!
Credit: Stephen G
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