Denafrips have a reputation in the Audiophile community of producing really good value for money products. The Venus II sells for 3,998 Singapore dollars which equates to around £2200 or $3000. I wanted to gauge in my Film Appraisal of the Venus II, how this DAC stacks up against the competition, such as the Chord Hugo TT2? My current DAC Index is here
Denafrips, like firms such as Buchardt Audio (Speakers), offer a direct consumer selling model. It strikes me that this is one of the best selling models for HiFi, if not the best. There are numerous reasons, but how about the issue of getting hold of stock at dealers in any event, difficulties home trialing with full deposits needed anyway and dealers margins eating into the value of HiFi.
The online community nowadays knows so much too, so we are all little ‘shops’ offering advice which erodes the traditional shop model. But by far one of the biggest reasons, is a direct connection between consumers and the manufacturers with obvious advantages in service and no split loyalties between dealers and manufacturers on one hand, and dealers and audiophile consumers on the other. The ability to compete much better on price has to be the principle reason.
So no clues, you’ll have to watch the video to find out what I think of the Venus II but what I can give away, which is probably obvious already, is that it is very well made…
NO PAID ENDORSEMENTS – CREATIVITY AND MY TRUE OPINION:-
Specifications
- True balanced 26BIT R2R + 6BIT DSD (32 steps FIR Filters)
- Native DSD decoding with 0.005% precision resistors
- Oversampling / Non Oversampling modes
- Amanero USB Interface (windows drivers needed only)
- Digital Inputs : 1 x Coax, 1 x BNC (75Ω connection), 1x Toslink/Optical, 2x AES/EBU, 1 x USB2, 1 x I²S via HDMI
- Analogue Outputs : RCA at 2.2Vrms, 625Ω, XLR at 4.4Vrms, 1250Ω
- Sample Rates (DSD) : 2.8224MHz(DSD1X) on all inputs, 5.6448MHz(DSD2X), 11.288MHz(DSD4X) on USB & I²S inputs only
- Sample Rates (PCM) : 24bits / 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192KHz on all inputs, 24bits / 352.8, 384kHz on USB & I²S Input Only
- Frequency Response : 20-70KHz -3dB
- THD + N : 0.0020%
- S/N Ratio : 120dB
- Dimensions : 320 x 330 x 80 mm
- Weight : 8.5kg
- Colour : Silver/Black
- Warranty : 3 years
Manufacturer
Website : here
Venus II page : here
Video Configuration guides : here