For a more fair comparison, the Denafrips Venus , with similar price and precision resistors.

🤗THANKS TERRY …ALL YOUR HARD WORK 😅 AND ATTENTION TO DETAILS…DEFINITELY GIVES YOU AN EDGE TO BE MORE DETAILED IN YOUR REVIEWS 🧐 AND THIS IS THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF REVIEWS 🤗😍😍😍

thank you, for your honest review, after bryston bda-1 DAC & BUC-1 USB CONVERTER.i got AQUARIUS DAC.i was happy with BRYSTON DAC, my magneplan 1.7 with upgraded crossovers sounds fantastic with Bryston DACbut when i Connected AQUARIUS in my system,i was in the center of notes and sound and music, my maggies become 2 tunnels from the center of this planet, pouring everything from that center,bass, mids, high freq they all come so close and in ritham around me, it is unbelievable what i missed all these years, Thank to MUSICIAN AUDIO ENGINEERS & LOVERS OF THE MUSIC.IT IS THE BEST PROJECT WHAT THEY HAVE DONE FOR AUDIOPHILES AROUND THE WORLD. & PLEASE KEEP THE PRICE DOWN DO NOT GO IN TO TRAP AS MOST AUDIO COMPANIES DO, PUMPING THEIR PRODUCT PRICE 200 TIMES OF THEIR VALUES!! IN THE END, ONLY A FEW PEOPLE CAN AFFORD IT.

Ditto what Gary said, the new room (and amazing gear) look great!

That new listening space looks FANTASTIC! All I need are a pair of good quality plants, and I will be there too (O: Thanks for the review!

Enjoyed this review, looking forwards to the Pontus 2. Grateful if you can bring in the Qutest for comparison also if possible, just a good benchmark. Cheers Terry and keep them coming 👍

Thanks Terry for your impressions of the Aquarius dac. I'm 'very much looking forward to your Ex-M1+ review, with an accompaning sound demo. Your excellent sound quality demos distinguish your channel from the plethora of other talking heads reviewers. The position of the TADs and future speakers, in your new setup, should deliver fantastic sounds in your demos. Thanks again.

I loved the Pontus 2 when I had it at home. Paired it with a Lumin U1 Mini streamer back then. Sounded absolute beautiful. The Musician DACs look really interesting.

Man you are superb with your advice!

Looking sharp in black Terry. Matches all the hifi gear. 😄

Hi from Chifi group. Yeah its not the same dac as pontus. This has slight more accurate transistors in landder. 0.005% as pontus and ares has 0.01%. I think that gives the slightly better detail retrieval :D

Great Terry, Interesting that they sound so different, being clearly from the same manufacturer. Lean upper bass/lower mids is exactly what I don’t like about the Ares II (along with some sharpness on especially vocals). Looking forward to your comparison with the Pontus! 😊

OK Terry…very thorough review… this DAC sounds out of my sound preference, I like full and powerful…Plus… there is some serious variation in reviews of this company's support and quality control….so…with all the solid choices out there in DAC-Land this is a pass for me. I am in the market for an R2R DAC to best the output from the Burr-Brown chip DAC in my Marantz SACD player, which is my current source. I am leaning heavily toward a Denafrips Pontus II, so I can't wait to hear your take on that unit! Keep up the good work!👍🏼

I had the Pegasus and liked it, but I swapped it out for the Holo audio May KTE and the sound really opened up.

I wonder how BOTH the Pontus and the Aquarius compare to the Holo Spring line of DAC?

Great review Terry I'm in the market for a DAC probably a little ways up the food chain. It's about time I moved on my luxman da-06 to a new home. Oh but what to buy its actually making my head hurt. Once again mate the room looks awesome.🎧👍😁

How would you rate the previously reviewed Metrum Onyx against Aquarius and Pontus II?

I would like to know how the Aquarius DAC compares to the HOLO Audio. Spring 3 KTE DAC…selling for about the same price.

Excellent review Terry. BTW, what did you do with all those LS50's you had around the room?

Yes, a great listening room! Have to say your old one was pretty good but you've obviously improved. Love those speakers in particular. Do they really need the twin subs? This could be the subject of another review?!

Looks like it suffers the same problem as the Pegasus: soft bass with lack of punch. Cool product though but a little bit on the pricey side.

I don’t mean to be one of” those people” but I would be remiss if I failed to mention the obvious choice sonically and it isn’t the Musicians audio Aquarius,That of course is the Yggdrasil from schiit audio. Don’t get me wrong I I’m sure the Aquarius is a fine product and I thoroughly enjoyed your review and your take and description as a whole. Now with the schiit of course in my opinion it doesn’t portray that clarity and transparency you mention as being an integral part of the musicians audio but what it does do is make music musical and it really highlights the beauty and timbre and textural variation inherent in whatever you’re listening to. So sorry again but for that money……

Hugo TT 2 DAC & Headphone Amplifier Vs Musician Aquarius R2R DAC + Aries Headphone Amplifier and Preamp

It’s weird but Sandu at sound news said this unit had the best bass and dynamics that he had heard in all his reviews. BUT! Only after 300 hours of burning. Please check this out and let us know. Night and day difference he said.

Great review, great new room! What speaker and power cables are you using? Thanks in advance.

Great review and please I've want to know if Wilson Audio TuneTot speakers work well with REL G2 or S series subwoofer?

Wonderful! Let's stay in touch.

These two Dacs look physically so similar, it would seem they share the same parent company.

Hope you could get your hands on the Audio Mirror Tubadour iii se dac

Any chance you review the Venus II ? I own one and I'm curious how it stacks up against the Aquarius.

I'd be interested in comparing this $3199 DAC against a couple of hundred quids worth of Topping with a linear power supply. So far I've struggled to tell the difference between the digital sources that I've compared. Wheras with speakers there are often large and obivous differences in how they sound. Especially when you compare speakers with fundamentally different design approaches.

Since its not like the pegasus would you say its a more refined Draco?

$XXXX with cheap samha capacitors inside?

Is this a joke? A Topping DX3 Pro+ blows this thing out of the water! Instead of just looking at the fancy resistors, try actually testing the output (where it matters)! First of all, this Aquarius can only handle sample rates up to 192 kHz (what is this 2005?!) so you can't even play your higher-resolution files! The Topping can go up to 768 kHz! The Aquarius "boasts" .005% THD while the Topping is .000014%. The Topping is in another class! Oh, and did I mention that the Topping costs $200, which is160x less than this?! When people have more money than sense...