Janehamble aptly suggests that I should specify the music, file quality and equipment I used with a possible word about my “music listening skills.”
Music [all on redbook CD]:
· Large ensemble jazz: Eberhard Weber,
“The Colours of Chloe,” ECM.
· Piano jazz: Jean Beaudet, “Seul au Piano, Elephant Records.
· Large ensemble classical: B. Bartok. “Concerto for Orchestra,” Charles Dutoit, EMI.
· Small ensemble classical: B. Bartok, String Quartet #6, Emerson Q, DG.
· Pop/jazz vocals: Billy Childs, “Map to the Treasure: Reimaging Laura Nyro,” Sony Masterworks.
Equipment… First Test:
· Transport: Nuprime CDT-8 [one test NOS, another OS @ 96Hz].
· DACs to be compared: Denafrips Pontus, OPPO Sonica.
· Preamp: PS Audio PCA-2 with HCPS power supply--- For the RCA inputs comparison
· Cables: PS Audio
· Amps: Anthem MCA 20
· Speakers--- one test: Emerald Physics EP 2.8, another test: Magnepan 1.7.
Music listening skills:
· It’s not for me to say, is it?
Equipment…Second Test:
Everything the same, except for---
· Preamp: Wyred4Sound STP SE--- For XLR inputs comparison.
georgehifi wants to know if I limited the test to PCM redbook CD.
Yes, in the test described in the OP… But later I did a test involving 2 different DACs fed by Spotify/USB. I’ll describe that later.
junzhang10 maintains that one’s budget should be allocated
60% on speakers, 30% on amplification and 10% on CD players, DACs.
I am starting to agree with this.
falconquest insists that the Pontus is way overpriced and generously offers to take it off my hands.
I shall have to think about this. Thanks, falconquest.
ethan_bennettstresses the importance of “extremely sensitive instrumentation” to detect “the extraordinarily subtle” differences between DACs.
I do not doubt the importance of using good equipment with any DAC. However, I am starting to doubt that those “extraordinarily subtle differences” really exist. Thus the OP.
musichead speculates that my preamp may be “imposing the same character on both [DACs].”
Perhaps he would like to explain how a preamp can perform that sonic feat; and, even more, how such uniformity can be imposed by two different preamps [the PS Audio and the Wyred4Sound] in two different tests. Interesating.
anwar has beat me to the punch already by conducting a comparison of his Denafrips Terminator [lucky man] and his OPPO 205. He opines that my comparisons would be more valid only after the Pontus has had a chance to break in for a few months.
Re test: What were the results of your comparison, Sir?
Re break in: One does not want to awaken needless controversy, but the whole idea that electronic equipment requires break in time seems to be…. Well, open to doubt. But I have no axe to grind; anwar may be correct.
gosta and roberjerman find the reported results of my tests plausible.
That encourages me to think that I am not going crazy.
simna needs only 10 seconds to hear palpable differences between two of his DACs.
It would be interesting to learn more about the test conditions and the nature of the dramatic differences.
A bit more of FWIW--- another comparison, this time with Spotify Plus as the source, via USB.
Music:
· Essentially the same as above.
Equipment… Third Test:
· DACs to be compared: Denafrips Ares, Audioengine D2 [BB PCM 1792A- DAC].
· Preamp: PS Audio PCA-2 --- For the RCA inputs comparison
· Cables: PS Audio
· Amp: Talk Electronics Toronado 2.2.
· Speakers--- Martin Logan Spires.
Result of comparison--- The same damn thing: Two differently configured DACS [R-2R vs delta-sigma] sound exactly the same from a streamer via USB.