Speaking of sound quality, I put the Denafrips into my system with the T+ fed by my Audionote CD4T and a Melco feeding a dCS Bridge. The Denafrips was initially connected to my Vitus RI101Mk2 and then my ARC Ref 5 and a REF 110. Topping off the system was a pair of Audionote Es silvers with external crossovers. And cables galore of which more later and a bonus extra review.
I played my music test lists through the dCS.
WOW……this DAC is no slouch and has a great mix of details and naturalness. I find that some DACs can have enormous amounts of detail, but they tend to fire it at you. For me, this tends to be more a characteristic of Bitstream DACs, especially the earlier ESS converters. Later ones were better. At the other extreme of the spectrum are the less detailed, but more natural-sounding DACs. Invariably they are ladder DACs and have valve preamplifiers or discrete SS outputs in them. The reason I liked the Chord Qutest is it is one of the few DACs that has the detail and the naturalness of real music. It also has a great 3D soundstage but does not quite have the organic nature of an Audionote DAC. But the Denafrips was a great mix of both. Detail and naturalness with great 3D.
I was not expecting that.
Credit: George Sallit
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