Home Audition with a Denafrips Ares II

[ajitmoses]

Tested the Ares II in two setups over a period of 5 days.

 

1) Ultrarendu USB to Ares II RCA to Mcintosh MA8900 to Kef Ref 1 

 

In the above setup the goal was to compare the Ares II against the internal DAC of the MA8900. Straight out of the box, the setup sounded quite flat and warm but in about 4 hours of the DAC being turned on, the first thing that was noticed was the sound stage. It just was going much outside of the speakers. We played multiple tracks and when we close our eyes and try to point where a particular sound came and each time it was outside the realm of the speakers. When the Ares was removed from the chain, the soundstage from the internal dac became much smaller. 

 

However we noticed that when playing fast complex tracks with a lot going on, the Ares just could not keep up. Felt like the instruments were falling into each other like a collision. The bass was also not as impactful as the internal DAC. A quick message to Alvin and he advised that the Ares needs to be on for about 24 hours before it settles down. Let the unit on for a about 48 hours before we sat back again for a session of critical listening. This time we started of with Metallica’s Master of Puppets where the Ares struggled on Day 1. We noticed that the Ares 2 was a completely different beast than what it was on day 1. Leaving the Ares on for 48 hours seems to have given it a shot of audio voodoo and it managed to play the fast heavy metal songs much better. However there were instances when it still lost steam even compared to the internal Sabre dac. The internal dac managed to hold the song better together with clearer details but sounded digital. I will not recommend the Ares II if your music has too much going on with too many instruments. For all other genres, it is amazingly good for the money. 

 

So my friend who has the Mcintosh feels that maybe moving up the chain will address the faster tracks. I think in all other areas, the ares was simply better and it made us rethink the idea of buying any integrated amplifier with an internal dac. The MA8900 costed him close to 14 times the cost of the Ares so it was quite a bit of a shock when we saw how the Ares bettered the internal quad balanced dac. I most certainly did not expect a 1k dac to add this much improvements to a high end integrated amp. 

 

2) Elac Discovery Optical to Ares II RCA to Line Magnetic LM88IA to Elac Adante AF61

 

In this setup, the impact of the sound stage with the Ares was not as much as in the first setup. The sound stage did not expand as it did in the first setup and I think the reason being this setup had a pretty wide sound stage in the first place which I think is the nature of the Tubes or it could be that my setup is not as capable of extracting the most of the Ares. I don’t know so I will not speculate further.

 

I use my wife’s ears when auditioning any gear because high frequencies irritate her more than mine. So made her sit down and just told her to listen to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac with and without the Ares. I did not tell her what was what and just referred option 1 and 2. This was as close to a blind test as possible. 

 

Her observation was that option 1 was easier on her ears. She could follow every instrument clearly. She could hear the background vocals clearly. Option 2 was good by itself but if compared with Option 1, she would definitely prefer option 1 and that was a big win for...

 

Option 1 was Ares acting as a Dac for the Discovery

Option 2 was just Disco as a streamer and dac. 

 

My feeling after the trying the Ares 2 in different setups is that, it surely is an upgrade over the internal dac of your integrated amplifier or budget streamers (the discovery was bought for 1.8k sgd so it is not really budget but you should get the idea..). I am keen to hear the other Denafrips DACs especially the Pontus which at around 2.5k is more price appropriate to the rest of my gear. 

 

Big thanks to @alvin1118 for giving us the chance to try out this DAC in our homes. I wish more manufacturers offered in home auditions at least for smaller components like dacs/streamers so that it takes the guess work out of how a gear would perform with rest of your system. 

[mamangrock]

So Rock and Metal does not work well with Ares ii?

[ajitmoses]

On 1/10/2021 at 9:13 PM, mamangrock said:

So Rock and Metal does not work well with Ares ii?

Fast drumming by Metallica didn’t work well with the Mcintosh. 
 

But you should be the judge of it and in your system. Ares II home audition is available so just contact. Alvin @ Vinshine audio. 

Edited January 12, 2021 by ajitmoses

[mamangrock]

thnks