First post in this thread/forum. I have read most of this thread because I recently purchased the, Denafrips Ares II. I had heard so much praise for this dac, and I wanted to experience all of the good things I had heard/read about it.
After a week and a half, I can say that I am quite disappointed. I have A/B compared it with the onboard dac of my Peachtree Nova150, which is a, Reference 9018K2M SABRE32 DAC. My system is very basic. Peachtree Nova150; Bluesound Node 2i; Denafrips Ares II; Tekton Electron speakers.
My unscientific comparison was done in this method: Node 2i optical out to Nova150 optical in; AND, Node 2i coax out to Ares II, thence Ares II analog out to Nova150 Aux in. Also connected to the Node 2i is an SSD with lossless music files stored there. So, I can either stream from Amazon Music HD, or Radio Paradise in lossless format, or I can play lossless (FLAK & AIFF) files off the SSD.
I set the volume on the Nova150 to half of its volume. I then adjust the listening volume via the Bluesound app on a Macbook Air. This allows me to hear the same volume level while switching back and forth (via the Peachtree remote), on the Nova150, from optical (the Nova150's onboard dac), and Aux-in, which plays music through the Ares II.
I played mainly files with vocals, then a couple of instrumentals. My wife also helped me in this endeavor. She had no idea which dac she was listening to, and she would tell me when to switch from one to the other. When switching from optical (nova150's Sabre dac) to Aux-in (Ares II) there was no hint/digital click the switch had been made, though there was an imperceptible difference that something had changed, but it was so unbelievably tiny, that it really wasn't describable. When switching from Aux-in to Optical, there was a digital/audible "click", but still, no real noticeable difference in the audio output. My wife doesn't know the difference between a dac and a candle, but her hearing is very good. When she said which sound she liked better, it was always the sound coming through the Sabre dac on the Nova150.
Again, nothing scientific, but I was surprised in the end. I will probably put the Ares II up for sale as I really can't justify its cost versus performance. I'm sure it's a good dac, but so is the Sabre32. Probably use the funds to buy more music.