??? Denafrips Pontus 15th vs Ares 15th.???

@soix Well eBay has been charging State sales tax on every purchase,including out of country purchases for years now,most all internet purchases nowdays charge State sales tax & the import tax I paid was equal to my State sales tax so I see it as a wash.

Ah, I thought the import tax was on top of the sales tax — surprised you didn’t get hit for both.  Yeah that’s not bad at all. 

@freediver and other contributors to this thread - thank you so much for the information.  I picked up an Ares II, to be delivered today but have been super curious regarding the Pontus 15.  Your sharing of your experiences has been incredibly insightful and great for thought.  

So I’ve had the Pontus 15th.in my system for 2 weeks now,the new Audio Art balanced cable 5 days..
Compared to the SABRE DAC built into my Pathos Classic Remix Mk.II,sound stage is definitely wider & images seem to be bigger,more realistic..I would say depth is about the same..
 Where there is a HUGE difference is naturalness..Voices have highly noticeable increase of texture.For instance,the closely mic’d performance of Diana Krall "Live in Paris"projects much more "throat",not only can you clearly hear her wet her lips as they part but you can hear deeper into the sound of her swallowing.A singer like Suzanne Vega,whose voice has always come over as nice and smooth on the SABRE,now has a very slight roughness to it,more human than mechanical..
 Instruments like closely mic’d cello clearly differentiate between the sound of the bow & the string,with body resonance more noticeable.Something that again comes out as smoother or glossed over from the SABRE...
 These changes are something that can be easily overlooked if you aren’t paying attention..