Terminator 3 Blu Ray Review
Brandy Nauman
I have been on a mission for many months, or at least it seems that way. I have been enjoying hearing and evaluating many different digital to analog converters, or the DAC, within my reference system. Not only to review them, which is why they are sent to me, but for my own personal curiosities.
In fact, it may just be sitting at the very top when it comes to the desirable things such as extreme musicality, detail and an enveloping wide and very holographic soundstage. It is smooth and silky yet incredibly detailed even matching the $10k Chord DAVE in its spatial presentation.
The PLUS is an R2R Ladder DAC, and therefore will sound a little different from run of the mill DACs that just use off the shelf DAC chips. Even so it is all about implementation and the analog section of the DAC that matters. This one has hand picked premium parts for the best overall performance and that is pretty cool.
What I will do here is tell you what the T+ sounded like in my system which today is comprised of Fleetwood Deville SQ speakers, an Enleum AMP 23-R integrated and Cardas Clear Reflection Cables. The system changes often.
My speakers are very musical, very detailed, very holographic and have some meat on the bones as well when they are driven properly. They lean ever so slightly warm and are extremely musical. They also show the differences between almost everything. If I change an interconnect, I can easily hear the differences. A DAC? I hear massive differences. So the Devilles are resolving enough to do this with ease.
The T+ will bring a smooth and see through transparency, detail, solid and VERY detailed bass along with beautiful holographic imaging like you may have never heard before. Yes, a DAC can do all of this and create magic with your system if it synergies with it.
As you know I reviewed the DAC that sits under the PLUS a little while ago, the Terminator II. Much of what I said in that Terminator II review can be transferred here except for the sound quality, which is a bit different. Looks, build, parts, tech are very close.
In my system the Terminator II was smooth, a bit laid back and very expansive in the soundstage and details. The flagship Terminator PLUS is not as laid back yet retains the smooth quality and may have even more body than the II.
I spent several weeks with the T+ hooked up to my Lumin U1 Mini and even Hifi Rose 150b used as a streamer. It never left me wanting and if I can be honest here it did outperform my reference $9k Weiss 501 DAC in overall performance and refinement. I did like it better than almost any DAC I have had in my system. This is a DAC that will never offend you, never be in your face, and never leave you wanting for better imaging, soundstage or realism.
Truth be told, overall it did better in my system than my nearly $10k reference in areas of soundstage size, imaging and that holographic 3D presentation. It offered up a smoother and airier sound that was more 3D and spatial than the Weiss 501. The 501 has its own special qualities that others do not but if you want wide open, smooth and holographic the Denafrips Terminator PLUS is one to check out. I have not heard better in these areas from ANY DAC.
If you are looking for a DAC that you can install and forget about knowing you have one of the nicest sounding music machines available then you must hear the Denafrips Terminator PLUS.
The DAVE was such a huge jump up in performance from any DAC I have ever heard in my life that I actually went against my thinking brain ($$$) and purchased an open box unit from a dealer with a decent discount. It brought life, energy, clarity, and much more depth and details to my listening sessions. It brought instrument separation like I never heard, but with body, grunt, sparkle, clarity and sweetness.
Then right after my credit card busting DAVE purchase (and after my 15 day return period was up) a box from Fed Ex arrived. It was a Terminator II DAC from Denafrips, in for review. The near top of the line from Denafrips with a $4500 USD price point, or less than half of the cost of the open box DAVE.
The TII feels like a tank and comes in at a whopping 41lbs. It has spiked feet and a big beefy linear power supply that is housed inside of its own box with a solid Steele plate that separates it from the other parts inside. A box within a box design if you will. That is how Denafrips describes it.
I use my DAC purely for streaming Tidal, Spotify and Qobuz and have discovered a while ago just how important the front end of your system is, or the source. The DAC is a very important piece when assembling a HiFi system. I would always suggest to spend the most on speakers, then the source/DAC, then the amplification and then cables.
Like the Pontus II it has a NOS (non over sampling) mode and an also an upsampling mode. Unlike the Pontus II I much prefer the TII in oversample mode within my system. The NOS mode sounded a tad dull in my system but the oversampling mode was incredible and 90% of the DAVE sound (but with a little more warmth in the mids and a teeny little bit of a more recessed midrange). If you have speakers that lean more toward the treble side, the NOS mode may do wonders for you. If you have a warm set of speakers, the normal mode should do the trick.
I placed this DAC in my system as is, without any fancy reclockers or accessories (I prefer to see what a device can do on its own, as that is what we pay for). I tested USB and COAX and after many back and forth comparisons I can say that the COAX sounded more detailed, livelier and had a much bigger soundstage and 3D depth. The USB by comparison sounded a little dry and flatter.
When I placed in the TII I let it run in for a few days first before I sat down for a serious late night listening session. When I initially heard what was coming out of my Fleetwood Deville Speakers and Pass Labs amplification I was a bit disappointed though not in the way you think.
The TII is a bit more subdued in the way it brings forth details, yet is just as transparent and 3 dimensional as the DAVE. A touch warmer (and I mean a touch) but with just as wide of a holographic soundstage.
Sure, the DAVE has the headphone amp built in. It has a digital pre-amp as well. It has a remote. The Terminator II has none of these features. It has one job and focuses on that one job. To decode those digital bits and deliver them to your ears through the rest of your system.
With that said there are times that the DAVE can be a little bit too much of a good thing. The Denafrips is smooth, detailed. big, deep and has reference quality written all over it. The bass does best what the DAVE is doing within my system as well, by a hair.
HiFi from China is approaching some serious levels these days, and from what I have seen and heard from Denafrips (and brands such as Line Magnetic, Holo, Kinki Studios) I have been very impressed. You get much more for your $$ but the cons come with no USA dealer network for those of us in the USA. Even so, buying direct works well and saves us money.
Then we have brands like Denafrips and Kinki Studios that bring an awful lot of that high end (in sound and build) to us for so much less. While the TII is still expensive it easily competes with the big guns in the DAC world.
Read the reviews from users and the pros, mostly all say the same thing. That this is one incredible powerhouse DAC. During my time with it I had no issues or problems. Pairing it with the Kinki Studios EX-M1 was a fantastic synergistic match. I will post my review of the EX-M1 soon, and that is another powerhouse product from the east. Stay tuned.
For kicks I put in a Cambridge DAC MAGIC ($500) which is my low end DAC reference. Compared to the TII I lost the depth, 3 dimensionality and the sound went from big, full, transparent and fluid to flatter, harder, brighter and not as pleasant with a hing of grain present.
In April 2021 I wrote about the Denafrips Terminator and getting the most from this lauded digital to analog converter, including using ultra high PCM sample rates of 1,411 kHz and 1,536 kHz (link). At the time of my review, Denafrips was in the middle of a soft launch of the Terminator II. Worldwide Denafrips distributor Alvin Chee and I both thought it was only appropriate for me to get the new Terminator II, while I still had the original Terminator. This way I could easily write about how the two units are similar and dissimilar. Talk about a tough job. Only kidding. It has been a pleasure to listen to the Terminator I and II in the same system, and run all my favorite music through both components.
As a fan of the original Terminator and a consumer myself, I want to know the important things. In addition, I'm sure there are many Terminator I users wondering if an upgrade is something they should consider. Let's get right to it.
Astute readers identified that this is very similar to the flagship Terminator Plus. They are correct, the II is the product of trickle down technology from the Plus. The major differences between the II and the Plus are the following.
As a hardcore audiophile I've listened to products with only one or two of the above improvements and thought the sonic differences worthwhile. The Terminator II's vast array of upgrades have certainly set the product up for success.
This list of upgrades looks great on paper and checks all the boxes, but what really matters is how the terminator II sounds. Are the upgrades super or superfluous? Cutting to the chase, I believe the II upgrades are absolutely wonderful and worth it. I should also surround that sentence with some supporting information. I listened to the original Terminator extensively as a daily driver of sorts for months. Ever since the Terminator II arrived, I've doe the same thing with it. I've listened more through these two DACs that anything in my ridiculously large "collection." It's this familiarity with both DACs that enables me to confidently compare and contrast the two.
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