“This Denafrips DAC is very good. And really well built. Like, really well built.” It was Tuesday, and SoundStage! publisher Doug Schneider was telling me about the company’s flagship Terminator-Plus DAC over the phone while, as so often happens, I was trying to attend to my corporate day job. “Uh-huh,” I murmured, kinda, sorta listening. I knew Denafrips as the manufacturer of some relatively affordable digital gear that had made a splash amongst YouTube reviewers in recent times, and being a reviewer myself here at SoundStage! Ultra, I was completely unprepared for what Doug said next. “What if you reviewed their Venus II for SoundStage! Ultra?” My attention was immediately wrenched from my work email, and I bemusedly blurted, “Uh, what? Why?” I knew the Terminator-Plus—which like all Denafrips products is sold in Singapore dollars (SGD)—retailed for less than $6500 in the United States based on then-current conversion rates, and that the Venus II retailed for less than $3000. No matter how good the Venus II was, in my head, its pricing automatically ruled it out as an Ultra product. But Doug, my stubborn, combustible friend from the Great White North, encouraged me to be open-minded. I’m glad I was, because the times, they are a-changin’.
