Over the last decade ladder converters have
drastically gained in popularity, especially
in the higher price ranges.
This Denafrips Ares II only costs about € 780
but still has a linear power supply, balanced
outputs and even does PCM 1,536 kHz and DSD1024.
Let’s start by looking at how it is meant
to be used.
As with all digital to analog converters,
the analog outputs are connected to an amplifier
that drives a set of speakers or headphones.
As a source you can connect your computer,
laptop of smartphone over USB to the DAC,
although for smartphones you need a special
cable, a so called OTG cable for Android and
a Lightning to USB cable for iPhones.
If you don’t want the computer in the listening
room, you can place it elsewhere in the house
and use either a network player or network
bridge.
It is connected to the computer over the network
and to the DAC over SPDIF, TOSlink or USB.
Remote control is usually done over a tablet
or smartphone.
Since the Denafrips has five inputs, you can
connect other gear too, like a TV or game
console over TOSlink, a CD player over SPDIF
and so on.
The very sturdy black housing measures 215
x 230 x 45 mm and weighs 3.5 kg.
On the front we see a standby button, six
smaller buttons for input selection, a button
called ‘phase’ that changes the polarity
of the output signal and a Mute button.
Below that you see a row of tiny LED’s that
indicate the sample rate of the input signal
in a special way.
If 44.1K and 1x are lit, the sample rate is
44.1 kHz.
When 44.1K and 2 x are lit, the sampling rate
is 88.4 kHz.
And of course 4x and 8x stand for 176.4 and
352.8 kHz.
Since the Ares II also does 705.6 and 1,411.2
kHz, you will see 44.1, 2x and 8x lit for
the first and 4 x and 8x for the latter.
The same principle goes for 48 kHz based sample
frequencies and DSD.
DSD512 is indicated by DSD and 8x lit and
DSD1024 by DSD, 4x and 8x.
The LEDs are very tiny and at daytime poorly
visible from a distance.
Which I prefer over disco lights telling me
it should sound great given the sample rate.
On the rear we see the IEC mains inlet with
fuse holder and power switch integrated.
The USB B connector is for connecting to a
USB output on a computer.
It is according USB Audio Class 2 and thus
doesn’t need drivers for MacOS or Linux.
To facilitate very high resolution files on
a Windows computer, a Thesycon driver can
be downloaded from the Denafrips website.
The next inputs are two TOSlink optical digital
inputs with above them two SPDIF digital inputs.
Both TOSlink and SPDIF inputs accept PCM signals
up to 24 bit 192 kHz plus DSD64.
Higher sampling rates can - as always - only
be played using the USB input.
On the analog output side there are both single
ended 2.2 volts outputs on RCA and balanced
4.4 volts outputs on XLR.
When we open the Ares II, we see directly
behind the mains entrance the mains filtering,
followed by the O type transformer.
This has a round core in contrast to metal
bands rolled to a core as in toroidal transformers.
The sharp edges of that core pack cause a
less constant magnetic stray field.
The O type transformer has a more even magnetic
stray field.
Then we see the power supply electronics that
uses banks of capacitors as buffer.
Denafrips did not use an off the shelf chip
as USB receiver but programmed this STM32F446
ARM processor to take care of USB interfacing.
System control is taken care of by an Altera
Cyclone IV processor.
Where many DAC’s use an of-the-shelf chip
to do the actual digital to analog conversion,
R2R ladder converters use banks of precision
resistors with switching elements.
On their website Denafrips claims to measure
each and every resistor, even partly by hand,
to achieve the highest precision.
Let’s recall how a ladder converter works.
A ladder converter is a circuit that holds
a series of resistors.
A 16 bit converter holds - in theory - 16
resistors, each one feeding half the voltage
of the previous resistor to the summing line.
If all switches are on, this - according to
the Red Book standard - results in 2 volts
output.
By the way, you can’t measure audio signals
with a multimeter, but I liked the graphics
this way.
If all switches are off, there is 0 volts
output.
If the digital output signal is a 1 - we call
that the most significant bit - followed by
15 zero’s the output will be half the total
output voltage, 1 volt.
If the digital signal is 01 followed by 14
zero’s, the second significant bit activates
the second switch that is designed to produce
half the voltage of the MSB switch, so 0.5
volts.
The third significant bit brings .25 volts
and so on.
The MSB stands for 1 volt while the sum of
all other switches stand for the other 1 volt.
By combining a number of switches any voltage
between 0 volt and 2 volts can be output in
65,536 steps.
If we go to 20 bit resolution, the LSB should
add 1.91 µV.
Thermal noise and the precision of resistors
makes it virtually impossible to stretch the
resolution to more than 20 bits.
DAC’s that I have measured over the years
never achieved a real world resolution of
21 bits and that was up till now and including
low bit DAC’s that use pulse density converter.The
only reason we have 24 bit DAC’s is because
processors like to think in groups of 8 bits.
But the lower four bits have absolutely no
relevance in distribution media.
Not that this is a problem.
If a DAC is well built, a 20 bit resolution
sounds extremely good.
And as I have described in my video “What
defines the quality of a DAC?”
I don’t consider linearity, especially in
the lowest regions, of great importance to
the sound quality.
By the way, the Ares II outputs 2.2 volts
on the single ended outputs and double on
the balanced outputs.
With two SPDIF inputs, two TOSlink inputs
and a USB Audio Class 2 input The Ares II
offers probably more inputs than most of us
need.
Having both true balanced outputs and single
ended outputs would have been of little importance
15 years ago, today more and more amps offer
balanced inputs as well.
In many cases these might be converted to
single ended directly inside the amp but especially
class D amps often are fully balanced and
then there is a real benefit in using balanced
interlinks.
Using the standby button on the front makes
sure that the DAC sound optimal after switching
on.
Using the real power switch on the rear does
cut the power completely making that it will
need some time to sound optimally again after
switching on.
The input selection is a matter of pushing
the corresponding button on the front.
The same goes for phase and mute.
Switching between oversampling and non-oversampling
is a bit hidden: You have to press the mute
button and then shortly the input select button
for the optical 1 input, called OPT1.
If the OPT1 LED is on, it’s in non-oversampling
mode and when on in oversampling mode.
After five seconds it gets back to operational
mode.
About the same procedure is used for selecting
between a slow and a sharp reconstruction
filter in oversampling mode, but this time
using the OPT2 button.
There is no remote control nor a volume control.
It’s the first time I reviewed a ladder
converter under € 1,000.
And I’m impressed, really impressed.
Not that it sound spectacular, it rather has
a flow, a musicality I haven’t heard in
this price range before.
The stereo image is spacious, localisation
is focussed, showing the size of the instruments
very well.
Dynamic behaviour is remarkably realistic,
attacks are fine and only sibilance is an
indication of its price.
The rest is absolute of a higher class.
I rate this DAC at the lower end of my setup
1.
It’s really that good.
By the way, I like the oversampling mode with
the slow filter best.
In a way the Ares II is a bit old school:
ladder converter, no remote control, modestly
small LEDs and a basic way of changing settings..
But the build quality and the sound quality
are very good in relation to its price.
A no frills design at a no frills price resulting
in a very musical DAC.
So there’s no catch.
Well, perhaps one.
It’s only available from Vinshine Audio
PTE LTD from Singapore.
Warranty is 3 years where for the first month
two way transport is free.
The first year you only pay for one way shipping
and after that you pay shipment cost in both
directions but the repair within warranty
is, of course, free.
The only thing to realise is that the pricing
on the site is in Singapore Dollars and that
you will have to pay tax and handling cost
when it enters the country.
To give you an impression, I had to pay a
total of € 145 for handling, import tax
and VAT.
In total I would have had to pay about € 780
including VAT and that’s the price I referenced
the DAC to.
I always like my work but with these kinds
of products I like it even more.
So within a few weeks I will review its bigger
brother, the Pontus.
If you don’t want to miss that, subscribe
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I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching
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And whatever you do, enjoy the music.
