Mola Mola Tambaqui

@kw6

pontus has a slightly warmer tone than ares and also better clarity - it is the warmest of the dena dacs in midrange and midbass that i have tried (ares, term, pontus - i have not yet tried a venus) the terminator provides more deep bass and a forward but still refined treble, the ares has the least clean treble, a problematic sibilance no matter what mode and what filter is used, and a somewhat ill-defined bass compared to the better ones - thus i have kept the pontus which is my favorite among the dena dacs

one other thing to note is that the pontus dacs received running changes over cy 2020 and 2021 before they officially marketed it as a version ii unit in spring 2021 ... thus many that are not marked as pontus ii on the faceplate have the ’version 2’ upgrades -- wima caps in power supply, new dsp board, tripod feet denote the pontus 2 essentials

Ok thanks for clarifying jjss49! Seems Pontus II is next logical step for me without spending too much. Cheers!☺️

Hi again jjss49!

I am narrowing it down to Pontus II and AN 0.1x or SW1x dac 1 special. Both those dacs use the Phillips TDA 1543 chip with a tube inside. My question is can those units sound as full and resolute as the Pontus?

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@kw6

I am narrowing it down to Pontus II and AN 0.1x or SW1x dac 1 special. Both those dacs use the Phillips TDA 1543 chip with a tube inside. My question is can those units sound as full and resolute as the Pontus?

sorry i can’t help you there, as i have heard neither the baby a-n dac nor the sw...

my advice in general on dac selection is don’t make too much out of the specific dac chip or topology... what matters is how it all comes together, there is so much more to how a dac sounds than the d-a engine

for example the weiss dac 501 is one of the best dacs in the world regardless of price, daniel weiss uses ess sabre dac chips in it... he has worldwide acclaim, won grammy awards for his recording and sonic excellence, he knows how to make the whole package sound truly wonderful