The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Lee Newman said:
I just don’t even understand what it is for. Just buy an EVO or a hifi rose or a m66 or the eversolo. I also find the whole, I need to have something displayed over there on my stereo rack when I am controlling everything on my phone mentality confusing anyhow.
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We are people of a certain age.
 
Ghost said:
I think it’s just a design piece for a music lover. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s for people who love Dieter Rams and people like that. Mainly just to look at and be like “oooo, pretty and kinda functional”.

As the kids (myself) say, “it’s for the vibes”
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Dieter Rams - “Less but better.”
 
Ghost said:
I think it’s just a design piece for a music lover. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s for people who love Dieter Rams and people like that. Mainly just to look at and be like “oooo, pretty and kinda functional”.

As the kids (myself) say, “it’s for the vibes”
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The kids? Naw, man, "we got the vibes".

 
I wrote up a full on comparison review of my current Eversolo DMP-A6 and a kindly lent HiFi Rose RS150b, both as single box solutions, and with the Eversolo connected to my Denafrips Iris DDC and Pontus II 12-1 DAC. The review had inside jokes about cables for @Mather and @Angsty. Gut busting laughs, tear inducing poetry, technical detail to delight, and a plainly spoken conclusion after some shocking twist and turns. Alas, my phone froze up as I tried to post it and it was lost. The world weeps.

So, you all get the 5 cent version. The Rose is pretty, and as a one box solution soundly trounced the Eversolo in sound quality and overall “wow” factor. It’s really pretty and sounds quite good. The Eversolo software is at least a full generation beyond the Rose’s though, has a better WiFi implementation, less (no) bugs, and is more intuitive. Using Roon, they both are solid options, though the Rose shows what more you get for an additional $4,100 outlay. If you’re on a budget the Eversolo is hard to beat. If you have the funds, it can be beat.

Hooking the Eversolo up to my Denafrips combo, the three box stack sounding notably more full, natural and less fatiguing. They cost about the same, sans cables, and the Rose needs a lot less real estate, but I found the Eversolo/Denafrips combo more musical and enjoyable, to me, in my room and system. Though if you like house/trance/hiphop the Rose may be preferable to you as it had cleaner transients and harder hitting bass. The midbass through mids (fuller, more relaxed, more natural sounding) and treble (less spotty and less sibilant) were better with the Eversolo/Denafrips combo. As I listen to a lot of jazz, folk, blues and classic rock, my tastes tracked with the combos strengths.

So I’m scratching the one box idea until I have funds to try something like the Mola Mola Tambaqui or Grimm MU2. (Read: probably never).

I am still looking at a different option though. I ordered a Lumin U2 Mini from The Music Room and hope to see how that works with just the Pontus II. If it works well I can stack the Lumin on the Pontus II and have a Pseudo-one-box solution.
 
SnowmaNick said:
I wrote up a full on comparison review of my current Eversolo DMP-A6 and a kindly lent HiFi Rose RS150b, both as single box solutions, and with the Eversolo connected to my Denafrips Iris DDC and Pontus II 12-1 DAC. The review had inside jokes about cables for @Mather and @Angsty. Gut busting laughs, tear inducing poetry, technical detail to delight, and a plainly spoken conclusion after some shocking twist and turns. Alas, my phone froze up as I tried to post it and it was lost. The world weeps.

So, you all get the 5 cent version. The Rose is pretty, and as a one box solution soundly trounced the Eversolo in sound quality and overall “wow” factor. It’s really pretty and sounds quite good. The Eversolo software is at least a full generation beyond the Rose’s though, has a better WiFi implementation, less (no) bugs, and is more intuitive. Using Roon, they both are solid options, though the Rose shows what more you get for an additional $4,100 outlay. If you’re on a budget the Eversolo is hard to beat. If you have the funds, it can be beat.

Hooking the Eversolo up to my Denafrips combo, the three box stack sounding notably more full, natural and less fatiguing. They cost about the same, sans cables, and the Rose needs a lot less real estate, but I found the Eversolo/Denafrips combo more musical and enjoyable, to me, in my room and system. Though if you like house/trance/hiphop the Rose may be preferable to you as it had cleaner transients and harder hitting bass. The midbass through mids (fuller, more relaxed, more natural sounding) and treble (less spotty and less sibilant) were better with the Eversolo/Denafrips combo. As I listen to a lot of jazz, folk, blues and classic rock, my tastes tracked with the combos strengths.

So I’m scratching the one box idea until I have funds to try something like the Mola Mola Tambaqui or Grimm MU2. (Read: probably never).

I am still looking at a different option though. I ordered a Lumin U2 Mini from The Music Room and hope to see how that works with just the Pontus II. If it works well I can stack the Lumin on the Pontus II and have a Pseudo-one-box solution.
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Somewhat related, but how do you like the Pontus? And do you notice much of a difference with the iris? I really like my Ares II and have debated upgrading to the Pontus on my main system. I’ve been a bit unsure of how much a jump it is from the Ares to the Pontus but I do have a second system that I could move my Ares to, or sell the Ares…

My second system has a Singxer SDA-2 which is nice because it has a headphone amp built in and I use headphones there quite a lot. Don’t really have room there to have a separate headphone amp…
 
MikeH said:
Somewhat related, but how do you like the Pontus? And do you notice much of a difference with the iris? I really like my Ares II and have debated upgrading to the Pontus on my main system. I’ve been a bit unsure of how much a jump it is from the Ares to the Pontus but I do have a second system that I could move my Ares to, or sell the Ares…

My second system has a Singxer SDA-2 which is nice because it has a headphone amp built in and I use headphones there quite a lot. Don’t really have room there to have a separate headphone amp…
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I really like my Pontus II. Comparing the ESS chips in the Rose and Eversolo to the Pontus II drove that home for me. It’s a nice, somewhat lush but still natural sound that I can and do listen to for hours at a time. It’s also very well built and is easy on the eyes. I haven’t compared it to an Aries, so I’m not much help there. I haven’t tried the Pontus II without the Iris yet, I bought them together and when comparing the Rose and Eversolo, that was already a lot of balls in the air. I didn’t want another variable there. I will be testing the Lumin with and without the Iris though. So I should be able to give an opinion in a couple weeks.
 
MikeH said:
Somewhat related, but how do you like the Pontus? And do you notice much of a difference with the iris? I really like my Ares II and have debated upgrading to the Pontus on my main system. I’ve been a bit unsure of how much a jump it is from the Ares to the Pontus but I do have a second system that I could move my Ares to, or sell the Ares…

My second system has a Singxer SDA-2 which is nice because it has a headphone amp built in and I use headphones there quite a lot. Don’t really have room there to have a separate headphone amp…
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Alvin Chee from Vinshine Audio has a comparison video of the Ares II and the Pontus II.

Alvin also states the DDC makes more of a difference with streamers like Ifi and Raspberry Pi’s, as well as computers. But with something like a Lumin he doesn’t feel it’s necessary (paraphrasing here). He comments are in his Lumin U2 discussion.
 
I have had so many issues with this PS Audio Stellar Gain that I just decided to go back to my Topping D10s. I have it connected to my old ADcom GTP-400, which is also the only way I can play vinyl since the Analog pods on the Stellar Gain malfunctioned and don't play correctly. PS Audio said they could fix it for $500 but I have to be honest, the audio just sounds so much more lively and full through the Adcom. Even the Topping sounds great through the Adcom and the annoying ear and possibly speaker splitting pops are gone. It also plays DSD over DOP. I feel a bit like I wasted good money on this used Stellar Gain. Live and learn I guess.
 
mdmost said:
I have had so many issues with this PS Audio Stellar Gain that I just decided to go back to my Topping D10s. I have it connected to my old ADcom GTP-400, which is also the only way I can play vinyl since the Analog pods on the Stellar Gain malfunctioned and don't play correctly. PS Audio said they could fix it for $500 but I have to be honest, the audio just sounds so much more lively and full through the Adcom. Even the Topping sounds great through the Adcom and the annoying ear and possibly speaker splitting pops are gone. It also plays DSD over DOP. I feel a bit like I wasted good money on this used Stellar Gain. Live and learn I guess.
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Hopefully you can recoup it in a sale unless it's beyond hope without their repair. Sorry to hear either way.
 
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