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RE: Dare I start a new thread on Denefrips Preamps?

Posted by regismc@wispertel.net on June 4, 2022 at 19:31:56:
All of the Denafrips components are voiced in a manner that can be considered more musical than analytical. 1 o'clock warm, with excellent drive and channel separation. They commit to the musical message, the individual notes in a smooth and coherant manner. They have a flow, a gestalt, that is unhurried but purposeful. The entire product line offers substantial build quality and in todays market, represents excellent value. Is it the 'end sound' you r after, really depends on your satisfaction and contentment level. Their design and engineering ethos does seem unique and as a hobbiest, that in itself can be worth exploring. I believe the 6Moons ended with the comparison of the amps as mirroring a type of EL34 musical Bobby note. Having a couple tube amps, Prologue II, and a Mystere PA11, and having done lots of tube rolling, I guess I can see that. The sound profile is easy to live with thru any number of speakers I've tried. The only time I've noticed a lack of gain, is thru a turntable, running a low output mc, at minimal gain on the Eat GloPetite, and fixing such, is a simple bump in the phono pre's gain stage itself. Otherwise both the Hestia and Athena I own easily drive my Hyperion, the Mystere, and the amp out of my Yamaha A-S2000. The difference between the two, like most extended product lines, is simply 'more'. More detail, more separation, more soundstage, more precise imaging. Otherwise voicing is the same. Hestia is just more 'in the box'. Athena can run 3 sets of amp outs, which is pretty cool, though I'm only running two, as I run the rca out to my Yamaha and an older set of ADS 880's. My understanding is that all three sets of outputs can be run concurrently over long runs. Athena has four sets of balanced inputs and only a single rca. Same with all the preamps, only a single rca input. One of the four, bypasses the input selection controls and is a little 'cleaner', not by much, but you can hear it. I only turn on my phono preamp feeding the rca input when I play lp's, otherwise my understanding is you may get some interference. For me, it's been no big deal, and the Petite fed by a Bob's Sky, VPI Traveler, and a Dynavector 20xL is very good. Your mileage may vary. Athena seems very transparent to cable inputs and downstream amp changes. I've a pr. of ProAc 1sc and completely solid state, with Hyperion and Athena is totally livable, enjoyable. Dropping in the Mystere can be startling. How can such a small mini monitor do that? I do run a single Rel T9i. The solid state setup is so smooth and musical I have on occasion thought of giving up the tubes as the normal blah, blah, blah, ...-. but drop that amp, driven by some WE6CA7 and some nice 6sn7 on front, is why this hobby is so fun. If you haven't heard the intoxicating, liquid, sedeuction, well, keep at it. What else? I really like the footprint of the smaller units, I'm over 'big rigs'. Athena is big. I've bypassed it several times, going dac direct, but I love my vinyl still and keep coming back to the Athena. Unity gain are kinda odd devices though, they don't use much power, and because they aren't additive they are kinda boring, perhaps in a good way, that's up to you. I did hear someone say they, their woofers, wanted more grip, more attack and control, than Athena offered thru it's unity gain architecture. The remotes are good, but most of the buttons are useless. The display can be dimmed, and personally I love the relays 'clicks' as it all feels solid. There is no pass thru, bypass or any such, just the basics. I've not heard the Hades, nor the larger amps. I don't own a tube preamp currently, but that would also require balanced outputs to drive any of the Denafrips amps. My current dacs are SMSL VMV D2 w/Gustard U18 DDC & a Benchmark Dac3. No R2R experience. CD player is the Rotel Tribute. I've some Zu DW's, Elac DFR, hot rodded Daedalus, Castle Conway III, Kef ls50, & the ADS. They all play well with the Denafrips gear. Music has 'body' in a relaxed but authoritative way, voices are very good.
In direct comparison, running the D2 direct into my PA11, with some great 6CA7 tubes, into the 1SC ProAcs sounds more 'alive', that setup breathes air, creates a cloud of its own special magic, snappy inner resolutions, attacks & decay, very SET like, but that's on that on small mini monitors w/only 40wpc, so limitations exist & I still can't play vinyl, so Athena stays...