Highly recommended!

A Blissful Sound from Denafrips Hermes DDC + Pontus II

I have to admit that a setup under the desk is not the most appealing look. I do not have a big room to show off the audiophile gadgets to those who admire the beauty but what we hear is more important than it looks, right? I have not dipped my toe into speaker setups (a whole another world) but dig enough into the headphone’s world. It has been quite a journey to find the perfect DAC and headphone amplifier for me and I have finally arrived at a destination at least for now – Denafrips Hermes DDC with Pontus 2.

The first R2R DAC I purchased was Ares II. It presented airy, spacious, and organic life-like sound whatever music I threw into. Then a question arose, what about a next step-up, Pontus? And what about DDC? Would it make the sound better? To find an answer, I purchased an Iris DDC before I committed to a bigger brother Hermes. I didn’t notice that much difference at first once the Iris was added into a chain of my system but I could definitely tell the difference later when Iris was not present in the chain. Iris DDC presents the music step forward giving a more intimate feeling, especially in vocals and broadening the sound stage even with closed-back headphones.

Pontus II is a totally different league. A little bit of roll-over feeling of high notes from Ares II is not there in Pontus (I am not saying that a roll-over is bad but it is present in Ares II). Adding Hermes makes the bass beefier, high notes clearer. My analogy of using Hermes is like tasting stronger carbonated sparkling water than a generic brand sparkling water.

It has been a blissful experience so far. Highly recommended!

Credit: Enosh K

PRODUCT INFO:

https://www.denafrips.com/dac

https://www.denafrips.com/ddc

WHERE TO BUY?

https://www.vinshineaudio.com/shop