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Denafrips Pontus DAC, Hestia Preamp and Hyperion Power Amp


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Early impressions only.

Well made and excellent construction quality.

So far the sound quality is excellent, performance way above its price point.

Rich and warm yet with plenty of detail and transparency.

Stav at Dacman Audio has been great to deal with.

We need to get over our anti Chinese biases.

If one of the big Euro or US brands sold these they would be twice or more the cost.

Having come off Vitus CD Player and Integrated amp I am pleasantly surprised how good these are.

Using Cambridge Audio CD transport and Xavian Perla Exclusiva Speakers.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, padre_power said:

We need to get over our anti Chinese biases.

Not sure how you came to this conclusion?   There are many people here who own Chinese products.  This poll that I ran had the Chinese coming fifth, behind the Americans, British, Japanese and Australian for stereo gear.  Chinese products are newer and the lack of  brand awareness and limited local distributors restrict their ability to sell more.  However, the Chinese are ahead of the Germans, Canadians, Danish etc.. who have more established brands and products.

 

The poll did not ask about quality, costs but I suspect that there are Chinese products across the spectrum of quality and costs for those people who own them.

 

High end products like the Denafrips Terminator which had incredible reviews (including a number of reviewers buying it) highlight how good and how fast the Chinese products are coming along.  Toping is well regarded for their excellent value for money products.  If anything, there are now a whole lot more people looking for Chinese products than say, even five years ago. 

 

We are biased because it is Chinese Hifi?  Don't think so....

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On 24/06/2019 at 11:39 PM, Snoopy8 said:

We are biased because it is Chinese Hifi?  Don't think so....

 

On 24/06/2019 at 11:02 PM, padre_power said:

We need to get over our anti Chinese biases.

I think a 5+ years ago there was a little bit of bias towards Chinese made gear on a few other forums. I never saw it on stereoNet but then I've only been here since 2015. 
 

My only issue is purchasing something from China and not being able to service anything if there is a fault but then again I purchased my Chinese Made DAC in 2016 and never had an issue.

 

I have purchased asia made UK design DAC in 2014 and have it die on me twice in 2 years.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi thanks for this post.  Actually I am planning to get a used Vitus Integrated in a couple of week from now but after getting my ARES I and II from Stav at DACMAN Audio, I can hear how good some of the Chinese stuffs are.  

 

I am now considering Kinki EX-M1+ or this combo of Hestia/Hyperion.  :)  Need to audition it from Stav later.

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7 minutes ago, padre_power said:

Can only confirm my positive impressions of these Denafrips units.

As a previous owner of a Vitus Integrated I can say that I am not unhappy with my Hestia/Hyperion combo.

There is now a YouTube review of them.

 

How is the Hestia remote? It looks like a nice piece of work that the youtube review skipped over entirely. When I home demo'd the Denafrips Terminator a while back the only holding me back from getting it was the 3 months ~ backlog between order to delivery.  I really do like Denafrips brute force approach to hifi. This combo is really tempting especially with the option of home demo with the help of Stav at DACMAN audio.

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  • 2 months later...

I've no bias against Chinese gear and have found the higher end stuff to be incredible for the money paid. It's resale value where it falls down..... Anti Chinese sentiment is real.

 

Where all my systems used to use predominantly Chinese components that has changed in recent years with my owning more US made gear, all Australian interconnects and a sprinkling of Taiwanese, Japanese and British components.... There's still the odd bit of Chi-Fi equipment too.

 

Easily the best recent purchase for me has been Lii Audio speaker drivers (FAST-10S and W-15). Just spectacular performance. They're not cheap though they are a excellent value for the given level of performance.

 

I simply buy the best sounding equipment I can afford. I don't much care where it's made. Worrying about such things is for suckers with more money than I have.  ;)

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  • 9 months later...


Have recently installed the new DSP board in the DAC.

A wonderful improvement with greater resolution and even more musicality.

Still happy with the whole stack but am kind of tossing up to get the bigger Denafrips power amp just to get a bit more drive.

 

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  • 4 months later...

Dan sadly audio memory is rather short. The Denafrips has a warmer sound but there is no don't the Vitus had more detail, depth and drive. But given the price difference I reckon the Denafrips are great value.

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

I was really for Chifi products and own a number of Denafrips products.

One thing that made me think that maybe the quality isnt the best after i was was watch two reviews on the Denafrips Hestia as i am very interested in purchasing and one thing that was pointed out was that speaker wire was used for the IEC inlet ? This make me think shortcuts are being made and a lack of quality control...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw1K76Ki69A&t=329s

5:34

 

As we can see in this review there is no speaker cable used.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IELfuZe75o&t=783s

6:45

 

Its kind of scared me in purchasing the Hestia..

denfrips.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

A couple of months ago I fell in lust with @Essence's photos of his Denafrips Hyperion power amp listed in the classifieds. That self-same amp now graces my hifi credenza and I thought I'd share some thoughts on it as, even though it’s a few years old, I had a hell of a time finding any plain-English reviews of Denafrips' maiden amplification offering and none featuring just the power amp on it's own, distinct from the matching Hestia pre. I'm confident I have the measure of it now, after living with it for several (spoilers!) happy weeks and I'd like to leave something useful for the next intrepid googler who follows in my wake.

 

For context, my speakers are Amphion Argon 2 Anniversary. They are not, on their own, a bright speaker but they are unromantic and fairly unforgiving of 2nd-rate amplification. They are a 2-way with an uncommonly low crossover point (1200Hz from memory) which gives them a very open sound but makes them particularly sensitive to colouration further up the chain. They're rated at 86dB and nominally 8R, dropping only to 7R so, not efficient but also not hard to drive. They will likely go with me to my grave. 

 

My source, as of about a couple of months ago, is an Auralic Altair G1 streaming DAC. It's my first digital front end of its calibre so I'm probably not qualified to make useful comparisons to competing products but suffice to say, it's generally held to have a very neutral (some would say to a fault) presentation, which I don’t dispute and I am 100% happy with its performance.

 

The amplifier the Hyperion replaced was a Kinki Studio EX-M1 integrated amplifier. I very much enjoyed my time with the Kinki. It had effortless power and precision, the sort of performance I would expect from an amplifier twice its cost. But not long after I purchased it I realised that, logistically, it didn’t really suit me and I had misallocated my finite budget in ways that would be boring to get into here and I would be better served by a power amp.

 

I've had the Amphions for well over a decade and in that time driven them with everything from English 40 wpc integrated amps to multi-hundred watt American muscle amps. It's fair to say I know what they're capable of and the Kinki drove them better than anything else I've owned, by a long way. The challenge was to spend significantly less on the power amp but not drop too far from the overall enjoyment benchmark set by the Kinki.

 

My first instinct was a diy option. I borrowed one of Hugh Dean's modular Naksa80 amps from the astonishingly benevolent @andyr and was extremely impressed. The power was plenty for my needs and the magic harmonic sauce Hugh sprinkles on them is very moreish. I even went and met with Hugh and heard his own Saksa85 amp at his house and was equally impressed. 

 

It was while I was putting the funds together for the Saksa85 build that the Hyperion caught my eye. Even though it was "only" 80 watts, having Andy's Naksa80 at home had cured me of any lingering concerns about running out of power and the Hyperion looked great, much better than I could've come up with for a diy case for the naksa or even a commercial diy case. Max (@essence) very kindly provided me with a home trial (what was the old Amex ad? Membership has its privileges?) so I could confirm that it would be a good match with my speakers. I suspect he knew that when I had a chance to listen to it, I would have trouble giving it back. Well played, Max :)

 

The Hyperion is an aggressively balanced design - indeed, only provides balanced inputs - so I decided to drive it via XLR cables direct from my Altair G1 (I say decided. I don't have a preamp so it's not like I had other options). The only XLRs I had to hand were some home-made Canare star quad which were fine to get started with but were soon replaced by a pair of Bill's WE XLRs which were a little sweeter and gave a lot more depth to the soundstage (I've expounded at length on them elsewhere on this forum). The binding posts look like they are very good quality but the carbon fibre barrel looks a little chintzy to me. It's not a problem, more an observation and a matter of personal taste for the owner. Overall, the fit and finish is excellent. Having worked in the industry through the aughts, I've seen a lot of kit and there is no shortage of products costing many multiples of the price of the Hyperion that are not as well-built or well-finished. I also like the smaller footprint (320mm wide x 380mm deep). There's no reason for hifi gear to be 450mm wide when it doesn't need to be. It's infuriating. 

 

So, what does it sound like? Well, it doesn't sound like tubes. I'm not convinced that that's necessarily the standard to aim for but I know for some people it's a guiding light. It definitely doesn't sound like the Kinki. It's not ruthlessly precise but it is very clean and open sounding. It's a little to the warmer side of neutral but not in a soft way. I don’t feel like it lacks power unless I crank it above normal listening levels with the wrong recording, when it does start to sound a little constrained. Above-normal listening levels are, by definition, not normal so this won’t be a problem for me but as they say in the classics, your mileage may vary. I am very impressed with the sound at low volumes. I do a lot of my sit-down listening at night when my kids are asleep so this is a big deal for me. Even at very low volumes I don’t feel as though I'm losing anything. At any volume, stereo imaging is spectacular. I give a lot of credit for that to my streamer/DAC but the amp doesn't introduce any smear or muddiness (compared with headphones direct from the DAC). Bass is taut and articulate without being dry. Mids have body and depth and definition without being overemphasised. Overall it's a very open, clear sound and I really like it. 

 

My guiding light for my system has been something approaching tonally neutral. Of course, my idea of neutral has no objective benchmark and could be as different to your idea of neutral as my idea of perfect weather is to yours (23 degrees C with clear skies and a slight breeze. Fight me). With the addition of the Hyperion to my system I'm near enough to the sound I'm looking for that, at least for now, I'm not looking anymore. I'm just enjoying the music. 

 

Oh, one other thing. The top plate gets gorgeously, life-affirmingly warm. Warm like a sleeping cat's belly or a nice cup of tea on a cold day. Sometimes when I'm listening I get up just to rest my hand on the top plate for a moment. It's a small bonus but these days we take comfort where we can get it :)

 

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@RankStranger - Beautifully written. Thanks for sharing. 

 

The Denafrips line of products more than intrigue me. I'm hopeful they release a set of mono amplifiers soon.

 

Having said that, the earlier post about speaker wire being used in the Hestia is disappointing, as I always considered Denafrips a no compromise brand by way of build quality.

Edited by Galactic Soap
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