I have bought a Denafrips Arce streamer. A perfect addition to already owned Denafrips products like Athena Preamp and Terminator + 12th Dac as a next logical step to take advantage of a clock link with the dac.
I have been using the Arce for about 2 months now, mostly with Roon. My current setup is dedicated roon server -> Arce -> Terminator + 12th -> Denafrips Athena -> Purifi 1et400a or Denafrips Apollo -> Avalon Acoustics Opus Ceramique . I am really happy with the outcome.
I ideally wanted a pure streamer without a dac (since i own a very good one already) and no distracting screen with a design that match my other equipment ;), so it came down to a choice between Denafrips Arce and the HoloAudio Red, but since i already owned aTerminator + 12th dac it made my decision a lot easier. The Arce has the external clock inputs that you won't find anywhere besides expensive Aurender / DCS / Esoteric devices. It seems to be a match made in heaven with the high end Denafrips DACs sporting fancy OCXO clocks. So I have it connected to my Terminator II via i2s and two bnc cables and I can rest assured that I am getting the best performance out of it, and no money was wasted on extraneous unnecessary features
It is important to remember that Arce it's meant to be mainly a Roon bridge. I tried to hold off on getting a Roon subscription because of the extra expense, but the functionality is so good - especially searching for files on the local nas server that I could not resist any longer. As hqplayer is far from ergonomic and a denafips app is not yet that polished - my recommendation is to stick to using Roon or be prepared to pay for Roon if you're not in the ecosystem.
The device is stable with the latest firmware and the sound is just awesome and much better than it was with dedicated audio PC with hd-plex linear power supply, and it was already really good then. I am using the I2S hdmi cable between the dac and Arce and 2 BNC cables for the clock sync from dac to Arce. As a Roon bridge it improved the sound from the PC considerably .The sound is more open, and detailed while remaining very musical and a little on the warm side which is good for my speakers. The PC could feel less analytical and dry with some recordings.
I am very glad I bought the Arce. It works very well with the rest of the equipment I own.
Credit: Boleslaw Z. @ Poland
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