Epicurean digital
THIS ISSUE: Herb listens to music performed on the guqin, an ancient Chinese zither, and auditions R-2R DACs from Denafrips and HoloAudio.
The week before Christmas, I invited my artist friend Joe to visit my studio to see my 2021 paintings. To spice the invitation, I told Joe that while he was looking he could audition the newest flagship DAC from Denafrips, the Terminator Plus.
Joe is an all-in Denafrips guy who currently uses an Ares II in his bedroom system and a Terminator in his big studio system, to which he listens while he works, typically for 10 hours per day. He paints his car, dog, and horse pictures while listening through a pair of dusty, paint-spattered Klipsch La Scala horns sitting on cement blocks. He told me he was curious whether the T-Plus was worth the extra money.
After listening to only three tracks, Joe declared that he preferred his Terminator, the one without the Plus, which he bought after reading my review in GD40,1 to the new “curvy-faced” model. He thought the Terminator Plus was “a little on the Stoic side of neutral,” that it “emphasized detail and high-focus clarity over sensuality and emotional engagement.”
“What, are you kidding me!?” I squealed. “That’s not what I just heard.” Joe was right: The Plus is super-clear and detailed, but to my ears it is also super-sensuous and blatantly hypnotic. Which is what I told him. Joe responded, in a low voice, “Herb, you’re more of a resolution guy than I am.”
“No, I’m not,” I muttered defensively. “I am an Epicurean, same as you.”
Joe was right, though, about the high-focus detail part: During my several months of Terminator Plus auditions, it presented an extraordinarily clear view of copious, precisely focused, beautifully lit recorded information. It presented images and soundfields that were big, wide, colorsaturated, natural in contrast—and mesmerizing like 70mm movie film.
That vibrant, big-screen, analog character is
