Measurements of Musician Pegasus R2R DAC

[MBL'er]

Musician Aquarius DAC's price is ab. $2800, no thanks.

Agree, crazy out of the world price.

 

[Harmonie]

Musician Aquarius DAC's price is ab. $2800, no thanks.

For that sort of price you get 2 already expensive X26pro.
Why not have 3 pieces of D90se instead ?

 

[DHT 845]

For that sort of price you get 2 already expensive X26pro.
Why not have 3 pieces of D90se instead ?

Or 4 pieces of d70s, which in terms of midrange density is close to best R2R.
I think that new chi-fi companies envy success of denafrips terminator and crave for high margins. The trick is also nice looking interior with lots of parts, rows of resistors, caps etc. It inspires respect.

 

[MBL'er]

Or 4 pieces of d70s, which in terms of midrange density is close to best R2R.
I think that new chi-fi companies envy success of denafrips terminator and crave for high margins. The trick is also nice looking interior with lots of parts, rows of resistors, caps etc. It inspires respect.

I fully agree on the D70S, which I extensively tested vs Pegasus and Pontus I: former nearly made it, latter had too much no man’s land to recoup.

In hi fi I see a clear trend towards the “luxury end”: higher profits per unit built and sold, more money to channel into the system (bloggers, magazines) to fuel brand positioning and - sadly - a lot of “audiophiles” who strictly correlate price to sound quality.

M

 

[drfornax]

After nearly one month of use and comparisons, I am about to - regrettably - return the Pegasus: it sounds great but does not have a margin above the Topping D70S.

The Pegasus sometimes has a more "pleasant" (rolled off ?) lower treble and, on some music, a smoother presentation (less impactful transients ?). But, with music requiring a more energetic and / or detaliled presentation, compared to the D70S the Pegasus can sound "boxed".

I cannot explain why, the Pegasus shows issues with some female voices in the 400 - 800 Hz region, which sound a little bit "disembodied" and "colored". I can't rule out faults in some of the myriad components inside my unit. But the Denafrips Pontus I behaved quite similarly (Patricia Barber most affected).

But, other than that, quite a relaxing listening. Sometimes too much relaxed, though.

If I had landed the Pegasus before the D70S, I would probably have settled with that - for some weeks ...

Even though the nominal unbalanced output voltage difference betweem the two dacs is 0,195V (1,99V vs 1,795V), for some reasons the Pegasus sounds 3 db's quieter than the D70S. That made comparisons fussy and stressful.

I hope not having hurt anybody with the above comments.

M

Test made on my system, comprising a MacBook Pro with Audirvana, MBL pre + power, Dynaudio Special Forty speakers.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Denafrips Pontus and Musician Pegasus. Your story resonated with me; I really enjoy my Topping Dx7 Pro and it's the best DAC I have used in my system. I use a Bluesound node 2i as the streamer, the Topping Dx7 Pro as DAC(streamer), the Moon 340i X, and a pair of Contour 20i. The soundstage of the system is amazing and you feel like being transported to the stage.

I was planning to buy an R2R DAC and move my Topping DAC to the desktop system. The Denafrips's reviews are so amazing, and I was very tempted to buy the Pontus. What do you think? Should I stick with the Topping Dx7? Should I look for a used D70s and take advantage of its MQA decoding capabilities?

 

[MBL'er]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Denafrips Pontus and Musician Pegasus. Your story resonated with me; I really enjoy my Topping Dx7 Pro and it's the best DAC I have used in my system. I use a Bluesound node 2i as the streamer, the Topping Dx7 Pro as DAC(streamer), the Moon 340i X, and a pair of Contour 20i. The soundstage of the system is amazing and you feel like being transported to the stage.

I was planning to buy an R2R DAC and move my Topping DAC to the desktop system. The Denafrips's reviews are so amazing, and I was very tempted to buy the Pontus. What do you think? Should I stick with the Topping Dx7? Should I look for a used D70s and take advantage of its MQA decoding capabilities?

I never listened to the DX7, so I really cannot make any comment about that.

When I tested the Pontus I vs my Topping D70S (level matched, both blind and sighted), the Pontus made a very poor show in every department: recessed and "cavernous" voices, weak bass, lack of details and engagement, stereo image bunched "behind" the speakers. Maybe someone would call that effect "laid back sound".

I am still waiting for the opportunity to audition the Pontus II. But, having also owned the Pegasus which shares some kind of "house design", I am not 100% confident that Pontus II can overtake - in my system - the D70S.

On MQA I am a bit cold. I had both Qobuz and Tidal subscriptions active for some months, and in the end found, on average, MQA tracks less "bodied" and sometimes fatiguing due to some (perceived) ringing effect in the treble area (but I have a damaged eardrum which cannot stand some frequencies). As of Semptember 2021 I have only Qobuz.

In my opinion, a used D70S would be tremendous value. Difficult to source, though.

Best regards,

M

 

[mccririck]

iiWi Reviews has just given this DAC a great review:

 

[Leporello]

iiWi Reviews has just given this DAC a great review:

Why is this new dac needed? Which problem does it solve that previous dacs could not? The video did not reveal this at all. Standard subjectivist audiophile fare with unsubstantiated claims.

 

[mccririck]

Why is this new dac needed? Which problem does it solve that previous dacs could not? The video did not reveal this at all. Standard subjectivist audiophile fare with unsubstantiated claims.

Do you ask this every time Amir tests a new DAC? No you don't. So why ask it now?

 

[Leporello]

Do you ask this every time Amir tests a new DAC? No you don't. So why ask it now?

Because the video you linked is completely void of meaningful substance.

 

[mccririck]

Because the video you linked is completely void of meaningful substance.

To you, maybe.

However that is not a reason to only ask that question when you did. Why didn't you ask the question earlier in this thread? Did Amir's test find meaningful substance that gave this DAC a right to exist? No it didn't. So you're just being trashy.

 

[chocomamey]

Too bad to hear about that fault. With non-returnable items, in that case usually a Pandora's vase opens up. Sending back to China for service seems not a viable option.

Out of the box, my sample had a nasty distortion with higher piano octaves (track 4 of Oscar Peterson's We Get Requests was a mess), so that I was about to immediately put the Pegasus back in the box and call the courier. But it was thursday, I already felt in weekend mood and gave the thing a night to "adapt". Next morning the distortion was gone, but the (intentional ?) response dip in the lower midrange, which gave a colored timbre to some female voices, stayed there.

Once I got a nasty crackle through Sp-dif with a specific cable, but chose to ignore that.

Back to the D70S, I get a more "contoured" presentation, think "painting" (Pegasus) vs bas-relief (D70S).

Too bad now I focus on a sort of artificial, glassy resonance in D70S' lower treble, like in piano notes decay. But in a few days the sonic memory of the Pegasus' "positives" will fade away and my ears will be back to business. Pegasus' "negatives" sent it back to its box, though.

The D70S won again its place in my system (as vs Yggdrasil, Pontus I, SGD1, PS NuWave, D90 and others), but with a setup different from mine, the Pegasus could be an excellent proposition for classical and acoustic music. Rock - forget about it.

Best,

M

Thank U .. Before selling one of my lungs to get PEGASUS (joke) I listen Heavy metal for most And I use a cheap Topping e50 with no regrets (dynamic,punchy)..but Im considering jumping to a denafrips maybe or another dac with more punch and a little bit above this level ...I dont need IIS and another functions.

 

[Curvature]

To you, maybe.

However that is not a reason to only ask that question when you did. Why didn't you ask the question earlier in this thread? Did Amir's test find meaningful substance that gave this DAC a right to exist? No it didn't. So you're just being trashy.

With testing and data you can slot it into a niche, although that niche is unlikely to be special. Without testing it's a fetish object.

 

[0mega0]

I have had this DAC for a little over a year. It has performed great for me. I have a couple of questions about it.

What precision resistors are used in the R2R ladders? I have seen multiple reviews that state the resistors are 0.005% accurate, but I don’t see that stated on the Musician website. It does state this for the Aquarius DAC though.

Am I understanding it correctly that in order for the DAC to output 24 bit depth to the XLR that the voltage steps would be about 30 microvolts and out the RCA about 19 microvolts?

XLR: 3.55 Vrms / (2^24)

RCA: 2.2 Vrms / (2^24)