[uncola]

Great pics in this thread.. did anyone on Russian forum figure out what. The two brown clay looking rings are?

 

[XVampireX]

Pontus sounds like a word that fits the PitBul very much

 

[alvin1118]

Great pics in this thread.. did anyone on Russian forum figure out what. The two brown clay looking rings are?

they are balance transformers for AES EBU

 

[PitBul34]

Pontus returned back to the base today I'll make a final video review after the next week.

 

[rudra]

can someone who owns the pontus, can you please advise what filters are in the dac. I can't seem to find any information in the manual.

 

[bennyhaha812]

So in your opinion the Denafrips Pontus ($1600) shipped is equal to or better than Holo Spring Level 3 Kitsune ($2600)? This is what you are implying with your deuce statement correct? This is very encouraging to hear from someone else who has listened to these dacs. I posted on my thread asking about the Denafrips line and was going to purchase a Holo Spring Level 3 but was discouraged from it when I tried to contact Kitsune to ask questions about a week ago and they never replied. I tried again without effect. Made me question what the customer service would be like if I had an issue after dropping $2600 on one of their units plus a Singxer? Not worth the risk in my opinion if they can't even have the decency to answer question about hardware they sell to a perspective buyer. So I contact Vinshineaudio to inquire about their Denafrips dac line and get an immediate response to all my questions from Alvin Chee. I explained to him the dacs that I am considering and he states that (in his opinion so taken with a grain of salt) the Denafrips Pontus is equal to or greater than the Holo Spring Level 3 dac and the Venus is steps above. To read confirmation from someone outside of the company that makes and sells the units that this is their experience with said dac is very encouraging! Then the level of customer service I have received and read about from Alvin thus far makes this purchase decision easier. It looks like I will be purchasing the Pontus or the Venus!

 

[uncola]

Nothing but good service from alvin for my old(now hehe) soekris dac-r2r-ref

 

[3ggerhappy]

Anyone had the chance to compare the Pontus and the Schiit Yggy? Please advise!

 

[robm321]

.

 

[bodhidharma]

Anyone had the chance to compare the Pontus and the Schiit Yggy? Please advise!

Hi, I had Yggy for a year and a half, then bought the Pontus and compared it to Yggy and, with my great surprise, I found that Pontus is superior to yggy in many parameters: treble More sophisticated and less graceful, drastically better percussion, deeper and more extensive soundstage, much more musical, in short, less than 1000 euros, the Pontus surpasses the Yggy, which is simply extraordinary. I have a very high resolution Hi-End audio system and I know what I say!

 

[HoloSpice]

Hi, I had Yggy for a year and a half, then bought the Pontus and compared it to Yggy and, with my great surprise, I found that Pontus is superior to yggy in many parameters: treble More sophisticated and less graceful, drastically better percussion, deeper and more extensive soundstage, much more musical, in short, less than 1000 euros, the Pontus surpasses the Yggy, which is simply extraordinary. I have a very high resolution Hi-End audio system and I know what I say!

Impossibru!

 

[norbert2nd]

Hi, I had Yggy for a year and a half, then bought the Pontus and compared it to Yggy and, with my great surprise, I found that Pontus is superior to yggy in many parameters: treble More sophisticated and less graceful, drastically better percussion, deeper and more extensive soundstage, much more musical, in short, less than 1000 euros, the Pontus surpasses the Yggy, which is simply extraordinary. I have a very high resolution Hi-End audio system and I know what I say!

I can confirm everything you have written about the Yggy comparison. The Pontus is only bettered by my MHDT Orchid DAC (TDA1541A) but only when using ECC86 tubes!
Anyway, the Yggy will be up for sale soon, Pontus and Orchid will stay!

 

[norbert2nd]

I do own the Yggy for quite some time. Dropped it for some time due to experiments with Sabre based DACs (Gustard, LKS) but kept it.
In the meantime my Daphile server evolved and trying "abandoned" hardware from time to time I re-discovered Yggy again.
Yggy stayed in my system for some month until I tried the Denafrips DACs. Ares first and later Pontus. Ares is almost on par with Yggy. Very, very close. Pontus surpassed it clearly. Pontus has more details over the whole frequency range. Better soundstage. All comparisons I have done with the same cables (usb, power and interconnects) are via speakers first and later confirmed with my headphone setup.

 

[PitBul34]

So in your opinion the Denafrips Pontus ($1600) shipped is equal to or better than Holo Spring Level 3 Kitsune ($2600)?

Maked some tests last day. All samples of Pontus DAC are recorded live and lossless in pcm 24-96 .wav format in living room (sorry for outdoor noise) by Tascam DR-05 stereo linear recorder:

System description:

Hendcrafted tube power amp - all tubes, caps, transformers are Russian or old USSR made:

Hendcrafted tube pre-amp - all caps, transformers and rectifier tube are Russian or old USSR made, driver tubes are good old USA-made triodes:

About source.

Soundaware D200 as digital file transport ('digital turntable') connected to Pontus DAC via coaxial interface:

Teac VRDS 10 Gold Edition as digital CD transport connected to Pontus DAC via coaxial interface:

Denafrips Pontus DAC as a testing device:

All cables are hendcrafted, made by me of the old 1950s Western Electric single core copper wire:

AC is RUARK PALADIN

All samples of Pontus DAC are live recorded lossless wav files (24bit 96kHz, 150-300 mb each), you can download and listen all of them from my cloud:


https://yadi.sk/d/3uv4cZ963MRryr - Yuri Honing Jazz test

https://yadi.sk/d/DmARcSPn3MRryv - Oriental Jazz test

https://yadi.sk/d/40N_5sS33MRryc - Blues test

https://yadi.sk/d/JByfCjmp3MRry2 - Heavy metal test #1

https://yadi.sk/d/Pmf6scK-3MRry8 - Heavy metal test #2

https://yadi.sk/d/C-3gwpnA3MRrxw - Cassic music test

https://yadi.sk/d/tCz2FbvH3MRrxb - Female vocal test

https://yadi.sk/d/tdvyERbf3MRrxK - Male vocal test

Enjoy!

 

[PitBul34]

Some USB tests. All samples of Pontus DAC are recorded live and lossless in pcm 24-96 .wav format in my living room by Tascam DR-05 stereo linear recorder.

System description:

Hendcrafted tube power amp - pre-war Philco type 45 output triodes in Globe shape, USA made; Telefunken REN 1004 triodes as drivers, Telefunken RGN 1064 as rectifiers, Hammond Canada Single Ended output tranransformers:

Hendcrafted tube pre-amp - 2x british Tungsram P215 2 volt triodes and Telefunken RGN 1064 as rectifier:

Denafrips Pontus DAC as a testing device and ASUS EEE PC 901 + Foobar player + Amanero ASIO driver as digital USB transport:

All cables are hendcrafted, made by me of the old 1950s Western Electric single core copper wire (see photos in my previous post).

AC - handcafted fullrange paper cone 10'' 97db driver in multiple layered Oak cabinets:

All samples of Pontus DAC are live recorded lossless wav files (24bit 96kHz, 100-200 mb each), you can download and listen all of them from my cloud:

Sample #1 - Black Hole Sun, in memory of Chris Cornell - https://yadi.sk/d/KqOuY9jN3MTdYC

Sample #2 https://yadi.sk/d/xYnbi4G73MTdXs

Sample #3 https://yadi.sk/d/9BlY9Yrq3MTdXv

Sample #4 https://yadi.sk/d/cdz7fLDe3MTdXy

Sample #5 https://yadi.sk/d/F7zCyIIj3MTdY6

Sample #6 https://yadi.sk/d/FRO7Npyr3MTdYL

Enjoy!