First day with the Denafrips Venus II

Peguinpower

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Jul 22, 2021
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I received a used Denafrips Venus II today. It was to replace a new Gustard R26. Both are R2R ladder DACs. I warmed it and the system up for 4 hours.

Sat on the listening couch around 8pm. Played songs from The Police, David Bowie, Drake, etc... Oh, yeah! This thing is glorious. Its the sonic DAC equivalent of my old Audio Research VT100 100 wpc 6550 tube amp. It is robust yet crisp. Tubey on the low end and sparkly on top. It sounds just right. I love this thing.

Ask me anything.


 
I also have a Venus II. Depending on how long it's already been used for, be prepared for its sonic performance to vary quite wildly over a couple of weeks, and to not entirely 'come on song' for up to 3 months. There may be times when you wonder what's gone wrong, but that's just the bumpy ride of 'burn-in'. After that, it's pretty magical. If you're lucky, the previous owner already did all the running-in for you!
 
I’m looking into the Venus ii as a DAC for my first headphone streaming station. Along with the Denafrips Gaia D2D.

How much burn-in time is on it? I have read that 300+ is kind of the minimum recommended…
 
My Denafrips Venus 2 DAC arrived today. Wow, straight out of the box it sounds amazing. The tone is wonderfully rich, detailed, and realistic. I know it's odd to refer to a digital device as sounding "analog," but it does! Or rather, closer to real music than most traditional chip-based DACS. Denafrips claims it needs about 300 hours of burn-in to reach its peak performance. It's hard to imagine it will sound any better, but I guess I'll find out!
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I received a used Denafrips Venus II today. It was to replace a new Gustard R26. Both are R2R ladder DACs. I warmed it and the system up for 4 hours.

Sat on the listening couch around 8pm. Played songs from The Police, David Bowie, Drake, etc... Oh, yeah! This thing is glorious. Its the sonic DAC equivalent of my old Audio Research VT100 100 wpc 6550 tube amp. It is robust yet crisp. Tubey on the low end and sparkly on top. It sounds just right. I love this thing.

Ask me anything.


But did it replace the R26 in the end?
 
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