🔷 Denafrips Ares II

Resistors and other components change values with temperature.
With R2R DAC’s in particular you really want them to reach some form of thermal equilibrium before you evaluate them, how long that takes we can debate. There are people who claim their Schiit Yggdrasil’s take weeks to reach that point.
Generally I leave MOST SS stuff on, I wouldn’t do it for power amps, or very powerful headphone amps.
My DAC’s have been on since I bought them.

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My Ares ii has been on since I got it last year, I never power it off. My amps I turn off for the night, but my tube amp is on if I am home.

Will you recommend the Ares II for a AEON RT Closed headphone? I bought the headphone (because of customs I don’t have it yet) but no DAC or Amp yet, will this pair well with the Topping A50s? will be connecting the Aeons with a SE cable for now

If not, what headphone amp will you recommend with the Ares II?

This will be my all around DAC, for now I have some Klipsch RP 600M and a Pioneer SX 680 for my desktop listening rig, was thinking about upgrading the Pioneer for a Cambridge Evo in the future (maybe the 150, not sure) will the Ares II pair well with a Class D amp?

Cheers!

The synergy of the full chain is important, and in the chain you’ve indicated, the A50s is likely the bottleneck. For the Ares II, something like a G111 would likely provide a higher performing chain depending on what sound you’re going for. As far as pairing with a Class D amp, the amp topology doesn’t really matter so much as how the output impedance of the DAC matches with the input impedance of the amp, and how each respective tuning complements each other according to your preferences.

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I really like the Ares II+G111 pairing, only reservation is whether the G111 has enough current for the Aeon RT (I know the Aeon 2 is pretty hard to drive, not sure about the 1st gen)

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Original (based on Aeon Open X) also likes current, so you could be right. I thought it still sounded decent on the RNHP, which is my reference point to relate to the G111, the latter of which I think may have a little more to give to demanding planars to open them up.

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Gotcha, if it sounds good on the RNHP it’ll probably sound even better on the G111. Alternatively I might suggest BF2 + MLP (or, Jot 2, Singxer SA1, Gilmore Lite Mk 2, Rebelamp, Flux) but I have never heard a Dan Clark so I don’t know how the synergy is between the Aeon RT and MLP.

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That is probably a better amp for the Aeon

AFAIK the Aeon RT Closed need around 677 mW to get to a decent SPL level (94 dB) as Amir tested in ASR

Will the G111 be better than the Topping A90? the A90 has more than enough power to move the Aeon RT with ease (and the G111 looks like too, 1200 mW at 32 ohms and the Aeons are 13 ohms)

About the speaker amp, I was asking about Class D because supposedly Class D are not as warm as Class AB, but the small footprint bought me

thanks!

Remember that’s also a very high listening level that most people would not be able to bear listening at.

Oh, oh :bangbang:

Be careful, otherwise even a Beyerdynamic-like tonal interpretation won’t help you in older age to still perceive things clearly.

That is far too loud to feel permanently “listening pleasure”, ***

If this Amir actually sets this volume level as standard, one cannot take his reviews really seriously, then he would be at least partially deaf.***

And frequency measurements alone, say about the actual sound quality, are only partially true.

There are a few other factors that count as well :+1:

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OSHA sets 90dB for 8 hours per day as absolute maximum.
https://www.osha.gov/noise


Germanys equivalent sets 80dB for 8 hours per day as absolute maximum
https://www.baua.de/EN/Topics/Work-design/Physical-agents-and-work-environment/Noise/Regulations.html

It takes one “oops” to permanently and irreversibly damage your hearing!

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Wow, 10dB is actually a big difference in intensity. I’m suprised the two standards are that divergent.

For the general audience, sound intensity measurements use a logarithmic scale, so an increase of 10dB is actually a doubling in sound intensity. So 90dB sounds twice as loud as 80dB. An untrained human ear usually needs a 3dB difference in intensity before it becomes perceptible. A person trained in various forms of listening can detect closer to 1dB changes.

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I’m pretty sure there’s an exception to this rule if the song is “really good”.

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Haha, no problem, I’m just taking that power needed just as an idea if certain headphone amp will be able to move those planars

And not taking just measurements as a reason to buy stuff, otherwise I would just got an L30 (it has the power after all) and call it a day because it measures almost perfectly

too bad the discount code doesn’t work anymore

There’s been some interesting discussions as to the differences between the OS and NOS mode on the Ares II and which are better, so I thought I’d move some threads here.

Both @JeffreyJhons and @mynameistoolongforth prefer the OS mode, so does the reviewer linked. It might be helpful if you could elaborate a bit more what you like better about the OS for anyone considering the Ares II?

For my part, I have stated elsewhere that I have preferred the NOS and felt it is a better implementation. I didn’t post anything here as I largely agree with the finding of M0N and WaveTheory (their reviews/impressions can be found in this thread). What I personally like the most about the NOS mode is, to my ears, it has greater depth and better placement and a more natural/organic timbre, but also with a more fun, warmer tuning which I understand may not be for everyone.

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Is OS for over sample and NOS for non over sample?

Yep over-sampling and non over-sampling. Strictly speaking, the Ares II does not have a true NOS mode, but from an enjoyment perspective it shouldn’t matter too much.