It sounds excellent especially for the sound of acoustic instruments and voices. This is a list of DACs and network music players that I've heard in the past several years: Audioquest Dragonfly Red Naim DAC Rega DAC Denafrips Ares II Simaudio Moon 280D Chord Qutest Naim NDX 2 Denafrips Pontus II Chord Hugo TT / MScaler Schiit Yggdrasil dCS Bartok dCS Rossini Linn Organik DAC
I really like the Pontus II but it only shines in a good to excellent system, after the amp-speakers combination is sorted out. My point is, in some system combinations a more affordable dac (like the Aries) can be as effective. Currently my Pontus II is turned off for more than a month now, as I am using the Parasound D/AC 1100HD, the Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 MkII and the Rega Saturn CD player… and feel that I need nothing else. Some vintage dacs are still on the top op their game! On the other hand, there are some new interesting dacs coming on the market: Laiv Harmony dac Holo Audio Cyan II I must admit that the Denafrips firmware updates complexity process, and perhaps the lack of a remote control cold a little bit my enthusiasm about the Pontus II, but more importantly I don’t know if the new 12th edition changed any the wonderful qualities I am familiar with. I hope this helps.
12 year-old design, extremely musical. For CDs, though, I now use the Exposure CD player as is (with SPDIF jumper removed).
To make a long story short, the Pontus II is an amazing deal for the acoustic and vocal music that I prefer. I have it connected to a Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra. I had listened to the dCS Bartok in the summer of 2022 thinking that I wanted to see how much better sound quality could be if I spent more money (lots more money). At a price over 5x that of the Pontus + Pro-ject streamer, you would think that the dCS Bartok would sound better than the Pontus. Amazingly, my perception is that the Pontus actually sounds slightly better to my ears than the Bartok for the music I prefer. The Schiit Yggdrasil also sounds good. These are some comparison of the Pontus vs the Yggy: The Pontus communicates more tonal color. The Pontus is better at presenting all parts of the music with balance. The Pontus also presents with more reverb. The Yggy is more emphatic in how it conveys pace. The Pontus seems more realistic in its pace. The Pontus sounds more relaxed and laid back in its presentation, but has a greater range than the Yggy in being able to convey more or less pace or vary its presentation in line with the emotional intensity of the music being played It was difficult to find objective reasons to fault the dCS Rossini, but there was something missing from the quality of its sound from an emotional engagement standpoint. Perhaps it sounded a bit less organic and a bit more synthetic in its sound than I would have preferred. I listen to a lot of live music so that is a reference point for me from a sound quality perspective. I tend to judge audio equipment holistically based on whether I feel engaged and drawn in my the music that I am hearing. Though clearly not bad sounding, neither the dCS Rossini or Bartok grabbed my attention in that way. The Linn Organik DAC is just straight up awesome in both how it sounds and also in how the music it produces feels insightful and engaging. In addition to conveying excellent resolution and pace, the sound it produces sounds real and feels similar in its impact to live music.
1. Linn Organik DAC 2. Denafrips Pontus II 3. Schiit Yggdrasil At its price point 4. Denafrips Ares II What I wouldn't turn down if it was offered to me for free, but I wouldn't buy it either 5. dCS Rossini
Also, to get the most out of the Pontus II DAC, I found that a Supra LoRad power cord produced the best sound out of the Pontus II DAC for me. These were the other power cords that I tried on the Pontus: Tripp-Lite Heavy Duty: $15 Audiophile AC Power Cable - WAudio 10AWG HiFi Power Cord 3.3FT : $35.99 Pangea AC-14: $44.95 Pangea AC-14 SE MkII: $79.95 Supra LoRad: $91 Shunyata Venom V14: $135 Audience F3 Forte: $150 AV Options Cryo TibiaPlus12 Power Cord: $249 Synergistic Research UEF Blue: $499 Shunyata Research Venom V10 NR: $600 Shunyata Research Delta XC: $1400 - intended for power conditioners not DAC, but my Pontus DAC doesn't seem to do well with power cords with built in noise reduction.
I was using a Schitt Modi multibit but recently upgraded an OG Bifrost to multibit and Unison USB. Huge jump in sonics from the OG version one DAC board. Really love the sound with the Nitsch Magni Piety headphone amp.
I wasn’t interested in a Display WiFi Bluetooth Volume Control Headphone Jack Large Case DAC only So I ended up with the Wattson Audio Emerson Analog DAC/Streamer with an upgraded power supply.
