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Denafrips ARES 12th/II R-2R DAC clock upgrade KIT
Denafrips ARES 12th/II R-2R DAC clock upgrade KIT
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Artical: Denafrips ARES 12th/II R-2R DAC clock upgrade beat Spring3
#86A: Clock upgrade KIT only
#86B: FemtoMck45/49 + #86A
#86C: #80A + #80B + #86A
#86D: #86C and upgrading service. Need to ship your Ares to us
Denafrips ARES 12th/II is a decent R-2R DAC at a very good price. One of the biggest differences between Ares and higher grade DACs is the clock. For example, Puntus uses TCXO and Terminator uses OCXO.
By default, the sound quality was good, typical R-2R sound signature, but just didn't impress me much.The middle range was pretty beautiful. But the high range sounds like behind a layer of fog.The 3D image was also not that solid. So I believe there will be a big potential to improve ARES sound quality if use better clocks. Because Denafrips DAC's clocks can not be disabled, the only way would be to replace the internal clocks.
ARES 12th uses 45.1584/49.1520MHz low phase noise clocks as default. I performed a real phase noise measurement on them. The actual testing result was OK but still a bit far from the higher grade clocks. SC-Pure clock is 14dBc/Hz better at 10Hz offset and 17dBc/Hz better at 1kHz offset. So are the rest of the offset frequencies. That's the reason I designed this ARES clock upgrade KIT. After upgrading with two 45/49 SC-Pure clocks and keeping break-in for two weeks, I was surprised to find that the sound quality got a big improvement and the soundstage suddenly opened clearly. And the high range becomes really beautiful feels like there is a golden edge surround the 3D image. That's pretty impressed. It was upgraded at least by two levels, which makes ARES capable of challenging 5K or higher price high-end DACs.
Hello everybody. Today arrive this upgrade kit to me. Iam from Europe. Possible to order here in Europe too. All TAX and costums included. I go this way.
Kit looks perfect. Especialy this SC pure clocks. Installation are not easy. But possible to do without any problem. I use normal soldering station, heat up XO small clocks and take it out. Please use flux. Its much better. When you use hot air gun, plese use kepton tape to protect all parts around this clocks. And this is hardes part of exchange. Rest is only solder wires to Ares 12th board to correct position. Iam old man and possible to do with glasses. :) No any problem. After I measure all conection by multimeter. Be sure for correct position of SC pure clocks. And thats all.
My Ares 12th now running more than 6 hours. And i must say, this is totaly difference DAC. Right now is sound much bigger. Soundstage, detail and even at bass tones resolution. This is amazing. This upgraded Ares 12th is now better than my main Solnote D-2. More than 8000 USD DAC. And Ian write to me, sound will be improoved more.
So if you have this Ares 12th DAC, i highly recommend to upgrade it.
Thanks Ian for all info and for possibility to do this upgrade. Worth all the money.
I sent my two-year-old Ares 12th to Ian in Canada, who upgraded it to SC PURE and then reinstalled it in my system. Because the clock needs a certain amount of time to Running-in, so I used NAS to play automatically for two weeks.
I used to think that the clock was not that important, until I upgraded to SC PURE, which completely changed my previous concept. After two weeks, I heard on the stereo system exceeded my expectations. Although the upgrade cost more than half of the entire machine, it was still worth it overall.
ocxoは良いもんですね
When I finished the Re-clock job, first listen sounds improvement, but like a new team member join, after Three days They matching
Sounds Great
I like it.
Matchy Ma
Not the most easy thing to install. (very tiny soldering points) But the patience is rewarded with an instant wow feeling!