Musician pegasus DAC or Denafrips Aries 2

I don’t know, but from what I’ve read the Pegasus looks to be more on the level of the Pontus than the Aries in terms of build and sound quality.  I think the Aries would be more comparable to the Musician Draco, but these are all just semi-informed guesses.  Frankly, I think you’ll be happy with any of the above.  Hope this helps, and best of luck. 

I had read that Musician was an OEM supplier for Denafrips and decided to launch their own line of DACs. 

As for the Pegasus being on the level of the Pontus, I don’t know what @soix is smoking. There seems to be a lot of smoke regarding this brand.

Ok @melm, fair enough. I can just tell you that my Pegasus works fine, sounds excellent, and is built like a brick sh*thouse. Perhaps you can explain to us — specifically — what build quality and sonic characteristics make the Pontus superior? Have you even heard the Pegasus? Read the review on Soundnews.net and others. Either they’re all smoking something or they’ve trashed they’re credibility. As a reviewer myself, I know reputation is everything and that’s not worth ANY free product (and yeah, I got some free stuff but wouldn’t give a positive review for it), but you may not understand that. What reviews have you written/published? Know of what you speak before you try to trash a manufacturer or reviewer. Come on. Pony up. What’s your basis for any of your assertions? Writing crap online with no justification is one thing, but when you have real accountability as most professional reviewers have, well, it’s a bit more involved. So please, regale us with your evidence and/or actual listening experience to support what you’re asserting.  Otherwise, your post is worthless. 

Well @melm, I’ll give you the power supply, but the Pegasus benefits from using the same resistor ladder that’s found in the considerably more expensive Venus and Terminator DACs. Oh yeah, and the Pegasus is $700 cheaper than the Pontus ll. I can’t speak to the YouTuber’s experience, but if you read the feedback from people who actually bought the DAC and needed service, Aoshida (the importer) has been very responsive and has received very high marks.

As far as the Soundnews.net review, as far as I see he never called the Gustard the world’s best DAC nor is it the highest rated DAC he’s reviewed, so you’re just misstating facts here. “The one to beat” was only used in the tag line, and if you read the review that pertains more to oversampling delta-sigma DACs at the price and not DACs overall. Regardless, trying to discredit his reviews on this one minor point is just silly and indicative of you not knowing a rigorous and useful review when you read one. You obviously have never written a professional review, so I wouldn’t expect that you’d know a good one when you read it. Plus, the OP is looking for people who’ve actually heard/used the products in question. Have you?

As far as paid reviews, that’s non-existent as far as I know. Having written reviews for over 15 years for the Soundstage Network I’ve never heard of such a thing. If I ever got a review product for free I didn’t know about it until after the review. I’m not thrilled that Musician offered those Youtube yahoos a free sample (I’ve seen their reviews, and if you buy anything based on their so-called “reviews” you deserve what you get), but the fact is that a reviewer’s hard-earned reputation is paramount, and I highly doubt many would sacrifice that for a “free” product. That’s the bottom-line reality of it. Those who think product reviews are largely corrupt are, in my experience, sorely mistaken. We do it because we love listening to fun gear and writing hopefully useful reviews, not to get free samples.

Well, @melm as a long-time reviewer I’ve long since learned to not wrestle in the mud with a pig, because the pig likes it. So, I’ll start with this from Soundnews.net with the assertion of the resistor ladder architecture...

This is exactly where Musician didn’t spare a dime and put the highest grade 0.005% precision resistors, the same ones you will find in the flagship Denafrips Terminator (~$4500) and Venus DACs (~$3000) and also in the uber-high-end Rockna Wavedream ($6600).

Now, I’ll plead mea culpa for not doing the primary research on whether this is true or not, but if I’m a betting man I’ll put my $ on him versus you. Why? Because he’s a legit reviewer who has his rep on the line with everything he says, as opposed to you, who brings no primary research to the party and just spews out whatever he thinks with no accountability. Where’s your proof? And, as per the power supply, it’s not always how much you throw at it but how it’s implemented, so I’m taking that away as a deficiency. Even the Musician Aquarius and other much more expensive competitors use one toroid as a power supply. It’s more about total implementation than the number of toroids included in a power supply.

Now, as to your assertion that reviewers are compromised, the Youtube yahoos that were apparently given a “free” sample actually called them out on it and didn’t hide it. So, to me, that actually shows the credibility of the audio reviewer community. And if you think reviewers are all compromised, why don’t you get off your ass and start writing reviews that are “superior” to everything else out there. Oh wait, lemme guess, because it’s SO much easier to sit back and be an armchair quarterback and criticize everything else out there.  But, that aside, I encourage you to even try to become an actual reviewer at an accredited site.  Go ahead.  My bet, they wouldn’t even consider you given your proclivity to ignore objectivity.  And, oh yeah, have you even heard one of these devices?  Yet you have such strong opinions.  Not what the OP was looking for here — bottom line. 

+1 @arafiq I’d keep DAC and streamer separate. Find the DAC that works best for you then upgrade the streamer when you can — the Node’s not an awful streamer so with a good DAC you should still enjoy some pretty good overall performance. That’s what I’d do anyway.

My Pontus II was better than every DAC up to $6,000 that I tested or heard.....including the more expensive Venus II. 

@vthokie83  Yeah, I recognize there are some superior parts/design advantages of the Pontus ll over the Pegasus (not to mention resale value) and would have preferred it, but alas it just wasn’t in the budget so I had to compromise.  I think running a Pontus ll with their DDC and using the i2s input would be absolutely sublime.

@vthokie83 Please do update.  I’d be very interested, and frankly I’d be surprised if this doesn’t produce a relatively large improvement that results in near end-game performance.  But that’s just a guess. 

How’s the Iris? Worth the five bills?  Have been considering a Pontus II but only if it doesn't "need" a DDC

@steven5737 I wouldn’t look at it like that.  If you read reviews the Pontus ll is more than capable of standing on its own as is my Pegasus and I’m very happy as is.  I just look at i2S as a future and meaningful potential upgrade for not all that much $$$, at least in audiophile world.  Just my $0.02 FWIW. 

@vthokie83 Well done and very interesting and useful insights.  I’m on the verge of finally getting my system back up and running with the Iris feeding my Pegasus and will report back here if any interest. 

@jerrybj I contacted them about compatible pin connections for an i2S connection and they were very responsive and helpful.  Just my experience FWIW.