DAC Choices - Denafrips vs. Schitt

MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum

Help Support MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
N

Northy

Well-known member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Messages
299
Reaction score
68
Location
Canada
Hey folks,

I hope everyone's summer is going well. I am coming for advice from my dear "Loganites" regarding DACs. Now that my Pass Labs XP-22 is burned in, I am in awe of its resolving power and overall refinement along with XA30.8 amp. So the next upgrade is a DAC. I have read a lot of good professional and owner reviews about the Denafrips Teminator. I also have researched the Schitt Yggdrasi. I know the former is roughly twice as expensive as the latter.

In the context of Martin Logan speakers (Theos for me) and ideally electronics like Pass Labs, if any of you have this combo, do you also own any of these DACS? I just want to know if these DACs really match well with the aforementioned gear. Alternatively, I am open to other brands if you have had a good experience.

I really appreciate all your inputs.
 
I would not hesitate to recommend you go to Audio Science Review (ASR) and look at the info they have on DACS. I criticize them for too many DACs tested and such, but for a buyer like you it will answer MANY questions. Lots of high end product failures and lots of high end good stuff reviewed. It will give you LOTS of reading. Enjoy!
 
Hey Northy have you seen John Darko's review of both of those DAC's on his YouTube channel? If not check it out because it is a great review in my opinion. Link below.

Denafrips Terminator DAC review

He does a really good job on this review and it changed my mind on buying both of those DAC's before I ended up going with the PS Audio DirectStream. I was even considering the La Scala which is also in the video review. Currently I am Demoing the dCS Bartok and comparing it against the PS Audio setup. Using both as Streaming DAC's. And I have to say the two are very close and in my opinion the dCS is not worth the extra $10k in price. But I have it all week and possibly next week to decide and keep comparing.

Oh and I'm not using the gear you have so take what I say with a grain of salt. My current gear setup is shown below with the 15A's. But if it were me I'd reach out to PS Audio by phone and talk with them. You could get the DirectStream w/ Bridge II for a great deal right now because the MKII version is about to be released. And you get a 30 day return policy with no questions asked if you don't like the product. Just my two cents.

IMG_5555.JPG
 
Northy said:
Hey folks,

I hope everyone's summer is going well. I am coming for advice from my dear "Loganites" regarding DACs. Now that my Pass Labs XP-22 is burned in, I am in awe of its resolving power and overall refinement along with XA30.8 amp. So the next upgrade is a DAC. I have read a lot of good professional and owner reviews about the Denafrips Teminator. I also have researched the Schitt Yggdrasi. I know the former is roughly twice as expensive as the latter.

In the context of Martin Logan speakers (Theos for me) and ideally electronics like Pass Labs, if any of you have this combo, do you also own any of these DACS? I just want to know if these DACs really match well with the aforementioned gear. Alternatively, I am open to other brands if you have had a good experience.

I really appreciate all your inputs.
Click to expand...


Thanks to all the replies. I have seen John Darko's review but his electronics were different. I want to keep my budget around $5k. I will check out Audio Science Review.
 
Agree w jlasher. The directstream is great. No reason to pay sticker for it. Ask for a deal by calling them.
 
Guys, I just bought the Holo May Kte, and my system never sounds as good as it is right now. You don't need to oversampling this incredible R2R Dac. Stereophile claims that this is the BEST measuring dac in the test bench so far. And for DSD files, the unit has another 1bit dac.

Here is a review of it:


Happy listening!
 
I love my KTE May as well. It replaced a KTE Spring V2. The improvement is real. But do not use the on-board upsampling, it makes things worse.
 
Yes, I do not use the upsampling mode. As Ron said in his review, all what you need in this DAC is 44.1KHz/16bits. Of course Hi Res files works beautiful, but do not up-sampling. The DSD files are played by another 1bit built in chip dac. So, PCM is R2R dac and DSD is 1 bit. This is on the Holo May Kte only, I think. I could be wrong about this.

Happy listening!
 
Last edited:
Chord makes some really nice DAC's. They make their own chips and sound quality is unbelievable. I am currently running a Chord Hugo with my Montis and McIntosh MC400 amp. The best sound combo I've had on this system. My next upgrade would be to replace the Mojo with Chord Hugo TT 2.

I've tried Schitt (forget the exact model) and did not like it. It had more of a house sound signature.
 
Toppgunn said:
Chord makes some really nice DAC's. They make their own chips and sound quality is unbelievable. I am currently running a Chord Hugo with my Montis and McIntosh MC400 amp. The best sound combo I've had on this system. My next upgrade would be to replace the Mojo with Chord Hugo TT 2.

I've tried Schitt (forget the exact model) and did not like it. It had more of a house sound signature.
Click to expand...
Yes, The Chord Hugo TT 2 is a great dac...a little bit fat at the lower bass, but very good stage and timbre, very good choice.

Happy listening.
 
Give the Bricasti M3 a try. It is excellent
 
JLasher22443 said:
@Northy So did you ever choose a DAC? If so what did you end up going with and how does it sound?
Click to expand...
JLasher22443 said:
@Northy So did you ever choose a DAC? If so what did you end up going with and how does it sound?
Click to expand...
JLasher22443 said:
@Northy So did you ever choose a DAC? If so what did you end up going with and how does it sound?
Click to expand...
@JLasher22443, no not yet...some of us have to save up slowly before dropping many grands on this silly habbit. Seriously, not yet. My research is not done yet and I am not financially ready either. As a matter of fact, I just started a thread for Holo May Dac....
 
roberto said:
Guys, I just bought the Holo May Kte, and my system never sounds as good as it is right now. You don't need to oversampling this incredible R2R Dac. Stereophile claims that this is the BEST measuring dac in the test bench so far. And for DSD files, the unit has another 1bit dac.

Here is a review of it:


Happy listening!
Click to expand...


@roberto Hola Roberto, ?que tal? Oh my....You are the guy I have to talk too. First of all, congrats on purchasing the unit. It oozes quality. I have heard a lot of good things about this. Please do enlighten us about the detailed performance especially its synergy with ML. Coincidentally, I just have started a new post regarding this very DAC. I am looking forward to your comments.
 
Northy said:
@JLasher22443, no not yet...some of us have to save up slowly before dropping many grands on this silly habbit. Seriously, not yet. My research is not done yet and I am not financially ready either. As a matter of fact, I just started a thread for Holo May Dac....
Click to expand...

Sorry if I offended you but I was just curious since I'm still demoing units myself and hadn't heard either of those brands yet. I'm interested in their sound for my rig as well since I still have not yet purchased a permanent digital source yet.

As for your comment; "some of us have to save up slowly before dropping many grands on this silly habbit", for me this isn't a silly habit its a love and a passionate hobby I have. And trust me I save and have to wait months or years before purchasing big items, so I understand. In fact I got rid of another hobby(My Jeep) just to purchase my last bit of gear. I had too many hobby's sucking up dollars and one had to go.

Hope you find happiness in whatever DAC choice you make.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

N
Holo May Dac
Replies
0
Views
502
Northy
N
S
Ruminations on new analog & digital sources (VPI, Dynavector, Ayre vs. Berkeley DAC)
2
Replies
32
Views
13K
twich54
twich54

Latest posts

Back
Top